Must read if you are thinking of buying Samsung!!!!

I bought a Samsung HLT5687S from Amazon on the 18th of May (Storefront was HiDef Lifestyle). I had done my research and found this TV to have all the features that I wanted, the picture was beautiful, and it was a good price. TV was delivered on <b>the 25th of May</b> without incident. Unfortunately the Remote Control wouldn’t work. I called Samsung support. They apologized and were going to send me a new remote. Later that day, a technician from Disk Network installed a new High Def receiver. He couldn’t get his remote to work with the TV either. That is when I wondered if it was the remote. I looked through the codes and found one for my VCR. I entered the code into the remote and sure enough, the VCR powered on and off. This was the 27th of May. I called back on the 28th of May and spoke to support about my findings. They agreed that the problem was with the TV and not the remote. They put in a Service Call and said I would be contacted by the Service Center. Two days later after not getting a phone call, I called back, that was the 30th of May. They tried to get in touch with there service center, a company called Audio/Visual Experts located in Brunswick, GA (I live in St. Marys, GA about 25 minutes away). They couldn’t get in touch with this company, so they were going to assign to someone else, or so they said. The next day, the 1st of June, I get a call from William at Audio/ Visual Experts. He said he could come on Saturday. That sounded great to me and I said I would be home all day. William didn’t show and didn’t even call. I left messages with no response. Starting on the 4th of June, I called Samsung three times, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The Executive Customer Relations support kept on saying that they would email somebody or call somebody and get back to me. Nobody did. On Monday, the 11th of June I called and the support rep said she was going to send me a remote. I said “Are you kidding me, I have already established that it isn’t the remote, it is the TV” (Today, I took the remote to a friends house who has the same model, and guess what, the remote worked). The support rep said she would email the service center and get back to me. After telling me for weeks that there wasn’t another service center close to me(by the way, I live 20 minutes from Jacksonville, FL which has over a million people) I get a call from a company in Kingsland, this was the 15th of June. A man named Terry said that Samsung had faxed him information about the TV repair Job. Then over the next week and a half, Samsung made his life miserable by not giving him access to there website, with paperwork, throwing up roadblock after roadblock. I think the only reason he did the job was because he felt sorry for me. Finally, on the <b>26th of June</b> he got the part, came over the next day and fixed the TV. He did a great job and I appreciated his help with my problem. I also want to say that HiDef Lifestyle was very helpful as well. They wanted me to get the TV fixed, but assured me that if Samsung didn’t follow through, they would send me a new TV.(I believe they were the ones that put pressure on Samsung to do something, anything!!!!) Now for Samsung, I must say, it was the worst support that I have encountered in a long time. I am the senior IT Tech for a computer company in Brunswick, GA and I have dealt with some bad support. It is sad to because I had a lot of respect for the Samsung brand. I have already instructed my company (Network Monkeys) to stop buying Samsung products. I would hope somebody reads this and thinks twice before buying a Samsung product. Thank You Samsung, for ruining my first HDTV Experience! :x

Sincerely,
Brad Meyer

I too had several terrible experiences with Samsung’s customer service department. I was denied access to supervisors, promised call backs that never came and placed on hold for almost on hour on more than one occasion. However, I did write down the names and direct line phone numbers of everyone I spoke with and now I would like to share them to ensure that others receive prompt service instead of being given the runaround like I was.

I had first thought that my experience with them was an anomaly but then I reviewed the BBB of NJ website and found that Samsung had an F rating and their poor customer service seemed to be company practice and not an isolated incident.

1-888-522-7341

This is the direct phone number to Executive Customer Service. They are the second tier of customer service and from what I can tell can’t do very much. They will offer to extend your warranty and refer you to case management – but case management has never returned a phone call of mine.

973-601-6104

This is the phone number for Executive Customer Service. I recommend asking to be connected directly to a manager from Executive Customer Service.- it helps if you know that name of one. Marvell was the manager when I called. They may tell you that no one is available but I found it useful at this point to insist that I had been promised a call and that the matter was time sensitive.

888-685-1358

This is the direct phone number to case management. They are the third and final tier of customer service. These people seem to actually have the power to compensate you, arrange an exchange, upgrade your product or expedite an order. They also have perks to give out like Best Buy Gift Certificates. If you call this number ask for the name and direct line of the case management officer you speak with so you can follow up if anything goes wrong.

In general I have found that the phone numbers work in the following way: all begin with 973-601-61xx and the last two digits are usually direct phone numbers for individual offices. For instance, my case management person had the phone number 973-601-6113. I suspect that all numbers from 6104 –through – 6120 will put you in touch with the upper levels of the customer service department.

It might also be useful to contact Daniel Lantowski dlantowski@mww.com. He does PR for Samsung and so may be willing to assist if you are thinking about logging your experience with Samsung and taking it to the consumer affairs editor of your local TV station or newspaper.

Good luck out there!