Samsung Customer Service Won't Exchange Three-Month-Old Broken Monitor
George's Samsung monitor got the three-month itch and went kaput. When he started dealing with the customer's service, he found that the monitor wasn't the only thing that was broken.
His bitter tale:
I wanted to share a Samsung horror story with Consumerist that I was hoping you could post. My Samsung T220HD monitor stopped turning on after just 3 months of service. I contacted Samsung for what seemed like an easy exchange. The replacement I received was scratched all over the front panel, more importantly it stopped turning on after 2 days. I called Samsung Support and they promised a callback within 48 hours to order a replacement. 5 business days passed and I received no callback. I called Executive support at 800-522-7341 and spoke to Pat(Premiere Agent 51), who once again promised a 48-hour callback. I called Executive CS the third time and this time I spoke to Mary who promised to put in a new exchange request for an A stock monitor. ... A week passed and I received nothing from Samsung. I called Samsung support and they said my order was cancelled due to no stock availability. I called Executive CS for the fourth time on (7/21/09) and spoke to Mary who promised to look into sending me a comparable monitor and calling me back, within 48 hours. I received no callbacks. I persevered and called Executive Customer Service one more time. I spoke to Barbara who said she didn't see any stock availability, so the best she could was send an email to her supervisor. She promised her supervisor would call back within 15 minutes. It's been 3 hours. With every passing minute I come to realize I'm probably going to be stuck with my brick of a Samsung monitor forever.
George sent a follow-up saying supervisor Tiffany would call him back "right after she was done with her call," but no call came. Then he was told to wait 48 hours, which George believes is code for "never."
Some calls to Samsung's Escalated Customer Service seem to be in order. What else should George try?
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Comments:
It's probably too late at this stage, but did you try to return it to where you bought it? I guess I'd be asking either the retailer or Samsung for a full refund at this point since they keep claiming there's no stock, and go get a different brand.
It wouldn't be time for an EECB yet, would it? How far would this sort of thing have to progress?
Indeed.
I decided on my monitor based on price, and so an Acer was my choice as well, but if I were given this level of support I'd be on the horn/email to their upper eschelons.
I had all kinds of problems with my Samsung TV when it went out. The customer service was DREADFUL. Much like you're experiencing.
@Face Imploder: If only to let them know how broken their customer service seems to be, I think it would indeed be time.
I'm currently in the throes of trying to get my Samsung TV fixed. The customer service experience has been awful - I actually have a draft email to the Consumerist asking for advice. How many times does Samsung have to send a broken part before I call escalated customer service or send an EECB?
Persistence. Documentation. Recording.
I worked for an IT company, and once had a back-light go out on a Samsung monitor. Called for replacement, and was assured that it would be the same size and color (the monitor was part of an array, needed to be exactly the same). They sent me a replacement for which they did not have a picture of on their website. I got a beige replacement... Called them up and said the replacement was unacceptable. They stated that I should have known that it would have been different! No picture on their website and I took their word for it.
We eventually got another monitor because they did not have one exactly like the one that broke. The 2nd replacement was black widescreen. We ended up replacing the whole array with Acers and putting the Samsungs at workstations replacing older CRTs.
The credit card company might help you out. Kinda strange they have a system that will acknowledge there is no stock, but will cancel warranty order instead of give you to someone who can assign a different model to it. It's a warranty order, it shouldn't be able to just be canceled.
Could this be a small claims suit? In the form of not honoring warranty. It should at least get the to properly address the situation.
Never ever EVER take an agent's word when they say you'll get a call back! Nine times out of ten it's just a trick to get you off the phone because your call is driving up their average handle time (AHT). I saw it all the time at this call center and this site is full of stories to support this claim.
REFUSE to be put on hold and demand a manager, supervisor or whatever. The unethical agents will hang up on you, the ethical ones won't (since policy dictates they cannot). If you get hung up on call back until you get someone on the line who can do something.
NEVER RELY ON A CALL BACK!
@Adhominem: I agree, either this or a chargeback on the credit card. Except I'd say the monitor doesn't work and get ALL the money back.
I had a Samsung DVD player that ceased to be able to read DVDs after only a short time...Since this was before I started reading Consumerist in order to resolve these disputes amicably, I resolved the problem by vowing to NEVER again purchase a Samsung product...
@banderlin: This is really strange.
I just had an amazing experience with Samsung.
I bought a 40" LCDTV in April of last year, and about a week ago, it stopped turning on. I went online and diagnosed the issue, then opened an online service request, but was out of warranty by about 3 months. I called CITI (the CC I used to purchase the TV), and the rep stated that I had an extra year of extended warranty, and to call Samsung, and they would know how to file the claim.
So, I called Samsung, and instead of using the extended warranty, the Customer Service agent said she could extend the warranty by three months on Samsung with no cost to me, which would cover the issue with the TV. Great! I'll get a call to schedule service within 48 hours.
I opened the case on Saturday, received a call on Monday morning, scheduled the tech for Wednesday, and he arrived within his window of 10 - 12, spent 20 minutes replacing the control board, and it was done.
I give Samsung a huge A+ for their support.
@Face Imploder: I was thinking EECB as soon as I read this article. Generally, once you've worked your way up the phone call hierarchy and haven't gotten anywhere, it's time to drop a bomb on those suckers.
A while back I had a Samsung 20" CRT monitor that crapped out on me, I brought it to a Samsung service facility and received a replacement within a couple weeks (flat screen upgrade too!). It's sad to see a company like this go downhill so fast.
@gqcarrick: Overall their product is very high quality but this isn't the first time I've read of customer service failures.. Very odd that they don't keep up the back end of the purchase!
@pecan 3.14159265: Nor does it hold Samsung to their obligations regarding the warranty. That's absolutely awful consumer behavior.
BAD ADHOMINEM, VERY BAD BOY.
They're on twitter as @SamsungTweets and they just tweeted back after showing them this article:
@citking We're happy to help. I can have someone contact you to discuss the problem if you can send me the contact info.
Might want to go that route George. Good luck!
Just pray you never need a firmware update from Samsung... I had to find screenshots of Samsungs own firmware deployment system (from Google) to get the flunky on the phone with me to even be able to find the firmware I needed.
@dreamsneverend: I don't get that either. You would think they would want excellent customer service so no one hesitates about recommending them to other people and that the original purchaser buys them time after time.
I've worked with Samsung on replacements and repairs for years on my LCD monitors (computer monitors and televisions). I've never had an issue and they have gone above and beyond a few times for me. In fact just recently I had a quirky issue with my new TV, a phone call to Samsung, they overnighted me a replacement piece. I am going to attribute this article as one of the issues that falls between the cracks - it's unfortunate (and a pain for the OP), but these things happen.
I would've been a bit more persistent on resolving the issue now than waiting for a call back. I try to never let a company say, "We'll call you back." No, thanks, I need this taken care of now, thank you. I mean, my luck, they will call and I will be in the shower and then I need to start over.
This is very strange that someone on Twitter can help while talking to several real people on the phone just leads to frustration. We've seen it with Comcast Twitter on Consumerist articles. What the heck is wrong with the company that they can't give their regular people the right tools?
@gqcarrick: I can say when I was shopping for a true 24-bit S-IPS monitor I couldn't find any of these specs on the Samsung website. I used the form on the site to submit an email and I got back "all the specs are on the page." Um, no, they aren't, that's why I'm ASKING YOU. Considering the high price such a monitor would be and how much I'm basically advertising to them I'm willing to drop they'd be more eager to drop an email to an engineer to spend the 45 seconds to dig up the technical specs.
First and foremost, IF you used a credit card to pay for something, YOU ARE NOT STUCK WITH ANYTHING. Once you've made the effort to get the defection unit replaced, just call your credit card company and ask them how they'd like for you to proceed. They may send you a form to complete documenting your failed efforts (ie: who you spoke to, when, and what the outcomes were). They will tell you what to do with the defective merchandise (ie: return it or keep it), and may issue a chargeback on your credit card (so you'll at least get your money back). But the key here is to establish contact with your credit card company and LET THEM DECIDE how to proceed. Again, remember, if you use a credit card, YOU CAN USUALLY CONTROL THE OUTCOME. Good luck!
I went through the same thing with Samsung last year with a 20" that had the backlight flickering. It ended up taking about a month to get a replacement. After getting the run around because of course it was out of stock a rep told me to contact Exec. Services. They ended up replacing it with a 22" that so far has been great. Not bad for a monitor that originally vost $29.00 from Dell due to a pricing mistake.
I am a sys admin. and buy roughly 15 to 20 monitors a year and they are all Samsungs. My 20" is the only one I have ever had problem with.
@ColoradoShark: They know the ppl on Twitter are the same that send in articles to sites like this... ;-)
@Verucalise- 39w on Friday: I had to buy a new power cord for my computer, and I decided to buy an open box one because it was a lot cheaper. Well, thanks to the jerk who bought it and returned it, it didn't work. I fixed the problem on my own, but it's people who know their stuff is broken, act like they're returning it to a store, and get a brand new thing for free that bug the crap out of me.
It's dishonest. Your stuff broke, buy new stuff to replace it. Don't leave the next person to clean up the mess.
@Adhominem: Its behavior like this that makes life more difficult on the rest of us when trying to make returns. Why should Best Buy pick up the cost of your warranty issue? This is outright fraud.
@BZMedia: After this much incompetence/stonewalling, I would consider taking Samsung to small claims court (providing he couldn't get a refund from the store).
HP did that too; canceling my warranty parts order because it was out of stock. Morons. Just because you don't have any right now doesn't mean I no longer need it.
@meske: Wow, that's really despicable. Poor shlubs who follow the normal customer support get shafted. The knowledgeable people who know how to attract attention get taken care of before their problems go viral. Nice! Many days I think I'm too cynical but I wasn't cynical enough to figure that one out.
Yeah, Samsung is pretty bad about this stuff. Friend of mine had a similar issue with a DLP TV, then the people he took the TV to, to be fixed, had a similar problem when ordering parts. He couldn't get it repaired even when prepared to pay out of pocket. Bleh.
One of my users had a 30" Samsung monitor that died. I went through the usual warranty channels with no success after a few months. Finally I was told that they couldn't send me a replacement monitor because they were out of stock on refurbs in that model and it wasn't their policy to send out a new monitor. So I asked for a refund and after a few more weeks of faxing sales receipts all over the place and unreturned phone calls, I finally got instructions on where to ship my monitor and, after I did that, got a check a few weeks later.
Don't ask for an exchange. Ask for a refund.
Maybe if someone like Granny Hammer in Virginia went and smashed Mary's, Barbara's and Tiffany's monitors, they would start "taking him seriously".
Why should they have any monitors if the paying consumers can't?
@WhoAsked You: Sorry - that was Granny Hammer who attacked Comcast (you go, Granny), for the complete reference:
We will now just call them SAM-Sucks!
@ToddMU03: Same here with one of their laser printers. The agents went out of their way to cause delays and inaction, over a reasonably simple problem (defective drum).
Chargeback? Unless you put it on a Newegg preferred account (not sure what their rules are on that). Shame the their monitor return policy is just 30 days.
A few people here seem a little to quick to jump to the small claims court solution. If your primary interest is getting a successful resolution to your problem with minimal expenditure of time and effort on your part, small claims is not the way to go.
If you live in a jurisdiction that is with the times you can download the filing forms, otherwise you have to go to the courthouse and get them. Either way, you then have to fill out the forms, take or mail them to the court, and pay the filing fee. The fee is not negligible; where I live it's $70. Say that your filing gets Samsung's (or whomever's) attention and they solve your problem. You probably won't get that $70 reimbursed. I actually shopped for 20" LCD monitors recently and $70 would go a long way to buying a new one.
If Samsung doesn't settle your complaint, you will have to take it to the hearing. It often takes awhile, like 6 weeks or more, to get a hearing. You will likely have to take time off from work during the day to appear in court. The judge probably won't rule on the spot, so you will wait for a ruling…maybe another 2 or 3 weeks. Then, if you win, you will wait some more for Samsung to pay the judgment. If they are very timely you get a check in a week or two. If they take their time, it could be a month or two.
So, in the best case scenario, you are out $70, time spent filling out forms and going to court, and three months or more of waiting around…and then you get your monitor replaced.
See why small claims court is a last resort?
@Face Imploder: i had a long epic battle with Samsung customer service myself.
Their email addresses are incredibly well shielded. i was never able to find even the format for an internal address to fire an EECB.
@Corporate_guy:
I was thinking credit card, also. If you got this much runaround already, get Visa to help "unpay" Samsung. A charge back, then get a monitor from someone else.
@banderlin:
[samsungsmagicact.wordpress.com]
here, this was the blog from my own ordeal with samsung.
there are some good phone numbers and such.
don't expect a call back. hound them constantly.
@MacMasterShane: I had my Samsung 40" LCD go out right after the one year warranty expired, it was taking forever to power on then finally just quit entirely. Apparently Samsung chooses the cheapest capacitors they can to save a few cents per TV and hopes it lasts longer than a year.
Long story short, I bought $5 worth of capacitors and soldered them in myself, and now my TV works great again. You would hope they wouldn't cheap out on what was a more than $1K TV, but obviously Samsung just wants to milk their brand name for all it's worth now, instead of making quality products like they used to.
@Adhominem: You must be new around here.
What you're suggesting is irresponsible, fraudulent, and anti-consumer. What happens when the next person to buy an open box items gets screwed because they got YOUR broken monitor, and Best Buy won't let them return it?
@ColoradoShark: It's because with Twitter, it's entirely public. At any given moment, thousands, if not millions, of people will see a tweet, and the company wouldn't be able to shuffle it under the rug. With phone calls, it's "he said/they said" and there's no evidence in the open unless the call is recorded.
Never underestimate the power of the internet hate machine.
That sucks. Samsung is supposed to have some good monitors too. I am glad I went with my Acer Monitor instead of the Samsung.