Are Samsung 60k TV meant to last only till warranty lasts?

[amg]

60K Samsung TV stops working 13 months after purchase- exactly a month after warranty expires. Just like that- for no reason! The Samsung Engineer takes just a minute to declare that I have to pay to replace the main PCB. Why did this happen- Well it happens, he explained matter-of-factly!. Cost of part+ labor charges + taxes. (Even the government makes money).
Does Samsung deliberately make products this way?
Had a similar experience with S2 Smartphone. Smart it isn't, cause it hangs up, heats up and discharges, all unpredictably. Expensive it was, and not built to last more than two years! It sure was sleek- so sleek and delicate that you have to protect it with a case!
And how does Samsung react to a customer's frustration-
by letting him know- Sucker-you've already paid 60k of your hard earned money, now watch us torment your helpless soul with extortion. And hey, hey- you have nowhere to vent out your anger- our ads generate the maximum revenues for the Media world, so you'll never hear bad things about us on TV or papers!
LED TV Model UA40D5900VRMXL

 

[shanmune]

well here only Samsung is not to blame as tv sets from all the manufacturers are failing. I have seen multiple sets of Hitachi, Panasonic, Sony and Videocon fail with me.
it seems that the underlying technology is to blame which is miniaturizing boards. One Hitachi tech told me that in these sets one pcb board has 7 layers of pcb boards. Failure rates of these boards is higher due to dust or heat factor.

LCD and plasma TVs fail much sooner as manufacturers cut costs - The Denver Post

Read the comments also on the above link.

It is shame on all the flat panel manufacturers. Normally, I don't allow my emotions to take over, but when I see these sort of failures, I cannot stop myself in calling the so called branded companies (I am not singaling out a particular brand) as unethical. Why don't they invest more on PQ and Quality control ? Instead, they invest that for making panels look slimmer, smart features, bullshit, non-sense, etc, etc , etc .. What is the point in having all these garbage when the very purpose of the product that I buy doesn't do the actual job it is indended to do.

I have heard from my friends and relatives on how these sort of failures occur just after the warranty period ... The consumers are left stranded without any help and they are left with no other option other than buying a new set. Shame on all those companies to have a poor quality. Of course I will always appreciate any company/brand who makes great technologies, but there is a darker side of the same brand when it comes to QC. The consumers are made to look like fools. That is why I don't follow any brand loyalty these days. I am sorry to use some strong words, but I feel the pain of many people who loose their hard earned money.

 

[shanmune]

well here only Samsung is not to blame as tv sets from all the manufacturers are failing. I have seen multiple sets of Hitachi, Panasonic, Sony and Videocon fail with me.
it seems that the underlying technology is to blame which is miniaturizing boards. One Hitachi tech told me that in these sets one pcb board has 7 layers of pcb boards. Failure rates of these boards is higher due to dust or heat factor.

LCD and plasma TVs fail much sooner as manufacturers cut costs - The Denver Post

Read the comments also on the above link.

It is shame on all the flat panel manufacturers. Normally, I don't allow my emotions to take over, but when I see these sort of failures, I cannot stop myself in calling the so called branded companies (I am not pointing out at a particular brand) as unethical. Why don't they invest more on PQ and Quality control ? Instead, they invest that for making panels look slimmer, smart features, bullshit, non-sense, etc, etc , etc .. What is the point in having all these garbage when the very purpose of the product that I buy doesn't do the actual job it is indended to do.

I have heard from my friends and relatives on how these sort of failures occur just after the warranty period ... The consumers are left stranded without any help and they are left with no other option other than buying a new set. Shame on all those companies to have a poor quality. Of course I will always appreciate any company/brand who makes great technologies, but there is a darker side of the same brand when it comes to QC. The consumers are made to look like fools. That is why I don't follow any brand loyalty these days. I am sorry to use some strong words, but I feel the pain when the hard earned money goes away just like that for no fault of the consumer.

 

[Hari Iyer]

Looking at your comments, i now feel that i did a wise decision of not switching to flat panels at all. I am happy with my Philips 29" CRT HDTV which is now going strong since past 8 years now without a single issue. Also the PQ can put many flat panels to shame and wonder.

 

[Dhanan]

Extended warranty is so essential in which case. Normally very few recommend extended warranty as failure rates are supposed to be low.

 

[Dirac]

I am extremely sorry for your plight.

But in the real pcb or chip manufacturing processess, there is definitely a small probability of error. And considering the changes due to miniaturization it is highly probable. The manufacturers reduce the probability year on year.

I feel that samsung should not be blamed for this. Actually the same problem could have surfaced within one month or after 5 years. There is inherent uncertainty in the electronics of this nature.

But I think samsung should consider your case and replace it without charging anything. Afterall , thats the way to build consumer satisfaction.

I think this forum should start a thread to know which manufacturers are ready to go little extra to address such customer issues.

 

[Rupam]

Its always better to go for extended warranty, I saw that Toshiba and Panasonic are offering 3 Year warranty.
May be a good local technician can repair your TV within reasonable cost.

 

[drkavint]

lg offers 5 years xtended warranty at an xtra cost.. lg fails soon, so any lg takers kindly use the warranty..

 

[ishaan]

Any recommendations for using led tv with what precautions to delay such horrible event?

 

[akasmarty2003]

It is a harsh fact that flat panels tvs are highly prone to failure and the worst part is repairing is such a costly affair. when I had to scrap my broken panny 50vt20 I got in touch with many used stuff buyers and the money they offered was unbelievable they claim they get enormous numbers of failed flat tvs some just 2-3 months old and dont know what do with it. That why I always remind myself that buying CE is just like a trade.

 

[supercharger]

I came across an OLX ad which has failed display board too.

EDIT: You can search for the ad in OLX hyderabad "samsung plasma "

 

[hemantwaghe]

lg offers 5 years xtended warranty at an xtra cost.. lg fails soon, so any lg takers kindly use the warranty..

Can you give a stastical proof or it is just a rant ???

can you back your claim ?

 

[aashish351]

I have 2 panasonic plasmas and 1 LCD in 8th year of operation, 1 sony in 6th year, 1 hitachi in 5th year... all without a single service issue. maybe its the current manufacturing quality of products reducing in the face of stiff competition!

 

[rpanand25]

I have 2 panasonic plasmas and 1 LCD in 8th year of operation, 1 sony in 6th year, 1 hitachi in 5th year... all without a single service issue. maybe its the current manufacturing quality of products reducing in the face of stiff competition!

there are two issues here

1)crt versus lcd/led regarding frequency of failures or let me put it this way reliability factor.
2) reliability of earlier model lcd/led versus the latest ( upto 2 years old) led

regarding first point I totally agree with hari iyer that crt has the edge with reliability although I am not saying that all should go back to crt's. I have a Videocon 21 inch tv which failed after 19 years:clapping: ; no problem till then. the problem is due to power supply which I am trying to get it repaired by a local person. this had separate two way dual speakers which could be either attached to TV or separately kept for sound separation. all other functions are ok on this tv. the 2nd tv is also Videocon BAZOOMBA model which is 13 years old and going very strong and better than lcds of equal resolution. plus it has bass tube with dual subwoofers at the back and it is more than enough for a 15 by 10 room.:clapping: u cannot think of that level of sound quality in leds costing lakhs due to limitations on speaker dimensions in flat panel lcds. so this has spawned another business of sound bars. even the mechanic says that failure rate is very high in lcds

2)are the manufacture's giving equal attention to reliability as they are giving to features? to think one is sending upwards of 50k for a decent tv and is left holding a thin box with failed panel or pcb after a couple of years and out of warranty too. is it the miniaturisation or is it due to the fact that the sets are not tropicalized for our conditions including erratic power supply, properly? or the manufacturers are in a hurry to make a huger killing and build sets which fails often? or is it due to the fact that they import the sets from abroad without QC check on the vendors/OEMs

 

[shanmune]

there are two issues here

2)are the manufacture's giving equal attention to reliability as they are giving to features? to think one is sending upwards of 50k for a decent tv and is left holding a thin box with failed panel or pcb after a couple of years and out of warranty too. is it the miniaturisation or is it due to the fact that the sets are not tropicalized for our conditions including erratic power supply, properly? or the manufacturers are in a hurry to make a huger killing and build sets which fails often? or is it due to the fact that they import the sets from abroad without QC check on the vendors/OEMs

All the reasons you mentioned hold good. My few points and my very personal thoughts (few may not agree)
1) TV manufacturers should focus more on PQ and durability/reliability rather than spending too much on things/features which are least important.
2) Instead of releasing/changing models every year, make a very stable product whose name will be known for years.

I may be accused of being too old for this so called modern consumer market. Anyway, as long as we (as consumers) don't look like fools in this modern day consumer market, it's fine.

 

[Dirac]

It is good that people in this forum are bringing such issues to forefront.
Hope the manufacturers are watching these forums(which I am sure they do) and do their bit to save the consumers from such trauma.
I think how they do the analysis to save themselves is like this.
They plot a graph of all the complaints regarding their panel. Then they see after how many days on average the problems are arising. Say if the average value is high for 1.5 years, they give a guarentee for one year.
I think they do much of such statistical analysis to increase their margins.

 

[Rupam]

Samsung has been in trouble in 2012 for using poor quality capacitors.

Read Here > DailyTech - Samsung to Pay Millions to Settle Lawsuits Over Mass LCD TV Failures

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33199_7-57376508-221/samsung-power-defect-causes-some-tvs-to-fail-and-a-class-action-suit-follows/

A TV is supposed to be a primarily Video device but when the company tries to converge too many technology (Wifi, internet,games, social networking,) the complexity of the integrated interdependent chip based circuit itself becomes prone to minor stress (voltage, heat, physical movement, humidity, dust).

The life threshold of LCD TVs is now around 4-5 years. You are lucky to cross that timeframe and unlucky if your TV fails earlier.

 

[Dirac]

As far as I know adding games or internet which are asynchronous processing and purely software (only hardware is wifi chip) should not cause any issues.
If you compare the heat generated by processing intensive operations of digital signal processors which are used for displaying frames, the internet processing is nothing. That too it is implemented using a separate system on chip (soc).
I am not sure how this can really cause a problem.
We need to be careful not to throw mud at samsung alone just because the thread corresponds to an issue in samsung set.

 

[shanmune]

As far as I know adding games or internet which are asynchronous processing and purely software (only hardware is wifi chip) should not cause any issues.
If you compare the heat generated by processing intensive operations of digital signal processors which are used for displaying frames, the internet processing is nothing. That too it is implemented using a separate system on chip (soc).
I am not sure how this can really cause a problem.
We need to be careful not to throw mud at samsung alone just because the thread corresponds to an issue in samsung set.

I too agree to your point that we shouldn't blame just one brand. The entire consumer industry needs to be blamed for higher failure rates.
Having said that, I have a different perspective when you say that having other features shouldn't have any impact. The differing perspective I have is - Reduce your spending on those so called fancy features and put the saved money on improving the quality/reliability. Again, this is the reality of modern day consumer market.

 

[rpanand25]

I too agree to your point that we shouldn't blame just one brand. The entire consumer industry needs to be blamed for higher failure rates.
Having said that, I have a different perspective when you say that having other features shouldn't have any impact. The differing perspective I have is - Reduce your spending on those so called fancy features and put the saved money on improving the quality/reliability. Again, this is the reality of modern day consumer market.

while from the basic sets the tv companies earn their bread and butter, it is the so called additional and fancy features like edge LED, local dimmind, internet Tv, smart TV, 3Detc. where these companies earn malai(cream) and that is why these features are hyped up in their ad campaign so that the average consumers is forced to crave for these features at additional costs whether he needs it or not. for example u pay Rs.8-10000 over a basic set for internet and another such amount if u require 3D also. smart TVs have their own stratospheric price range. this trend is also visible in mobiles also.

i feel that reliability has taken a back seat and only dedicated consumer movement can force these companies to revisit their priorities.