Samsung Electronics Customer Support: Good or Great?

Should Samsung Customer Support take this long to replace their busted devices?  I say no.  If you want to read through what I personally experienced, read the article below. It’s pretty long (to me that is).

Last year I bought a 40 inch Samsung 3D LED TV at Abeonson Glorietta 1.  In spite of what I read about 3D TV technology being dead and all, it didn’t stop me from purchasing one.  I love watching 3D movies and I loved the idea of bringing that visual experience in my home.  I bought one on  February 2014 and everything worked great.  It came bundled with a pair of 3D glasses and my kids and I love it. I purchased another pair just so all of us can watch it (there’s four of us in our family).

Everything was going well until last month when my Samsung 3D TV  stopped switching on. I tried a  number of things first like removing the power cable, turning on the TV manually, replugging it, moving it to another outlet; nothing worked. So I called the store where I got it from and the first thing they told me was contact Samsung first.  They told me that they could take care of it but they asked me to call Samsung first.  It was an odd thing to tell me but I thought to myself, why not?  So when I got home, I called up Samsung Electronics Customer Support. It was pretty straightforward. They asked for a bunch of details and they told me that they’ve scheduled a support team to help me fix or diagnose the problem with my TV. They told me the team would arrive in 3-5 business days.  That’s okay, I told myself.  So I waited and then the Support Team arrived which was not from Samsung but from Chronicle Electronics, a third party repair company/department they partnered with.  The team went on to work on my TV and within 20 minutes they told me that my TV’s panel display needed to be replaced.  Wow.  That’s basically the whole TV.

The support team told me that it would take 5-7 business days to order the unit. I told myself, sure thing. I could still wait.  Seven business days later, no one called or e-mailed me any updates.  It was nearing Christmas and I was beginning to worry that the repair/replacement might not happen anytime soon since we were too near the holidays. I called up Samsung Support again and they told me that they have received the order for the panel display but they had to order it from Korea.   That only meant one thing:   It would probably take months for it to arrive.  Luckily they told me that my request was forwarded to another department so they could decide on what to do. They told me to wait for another 3-5 business days again but since it was near the Holidays,  it could probably take longer.  At this point, I was getting impatient.  But I waited and waited. It was the holidays so I told myself, it could be forgiven.  Finally the call did arrive and they told me that it was going to be replaced or refunded.   That was December 31.  The person over the line told me that they would process my replacement/refund request after the New Year holidays.  This was close to 3 weeks already without a TV to use.

After that I never got the call from them until  January 5.  I asked them for an update again. I was getting flustered already. I was told that I had to wait until they got the replacement order from their head.

On January 9, I finally got the text from Samsung that I could get my TV replaced and I had to coordinate with the shop that I ordered it from.

Geez. So I called up Abenson by phone and told me that they would work on it the moment they received the order. I I decided to e-mail the shop and within the day they replied and asked me for a scan of the receipt of my purchase there. I sent them the information and it still took them 4 days to tell me that the replacement order was approved. Unfortunately I had to bring my 40inch TV (slim but still not a lightweight) to their store.

So I brought it to them and had my TV replaced.  It was working and of course the Abenson people didn’t even bother to help me bring my TV to the parking lot.

The TV is working but the problems never stop. Now my 3D glasses won’t pair. Again I’ve tried everything but nothing worked.  This time I e-mailed their support. I was told in the e-mail that they would work with me to get my 3D glasses paired up properly. I just had to call. And call I did, but it was clear they didn’t want me calling. I was told that if I can’t make my glasses work on my TV, I had to go to another Samsung 3D TV to see if it still pairs. Only if it didn’t work that they would “act” on my request.

Seriously, getting support and getting things replaced shouldn’t take thing long.  Or be this complicated.

I’ll post another update on this when I have news from my 3D glasses replacement.  Stay tuned.