My 40″ Samsung TV (LN40A550) of 2.25 years started having some power issues recently. It wouldn’t turn on using either the remote or power button…but would sometimes randomly turn on without pressing anything. Freaky.
When I purchased my TV from Future Shop, I also purchased 4 years of Product Service Plan for 329.99. The PSP…sort of extends the manufacturer’s warranty and other stuff.
I called Future Shop Thursday night at 1:30AM to discuss my issue. They told me someone would contact me in 2 days. The next morning, less than 12 hours after my call was placed, I got a call back to set up a time for a technician to come and see the TV. We set up a meeting for Sunday at noon. Today (Sunday), at around noon, the technician came by. He opened the TV up, switched out some faulty/blown capacitors, TV worked and he left. My internet research tells me Samsung uses some cheap capacitors, they last a little longer than usual warranties. Sneaky!
Anyways, regarding the PSP (Product Service Plan), I thought it was a good idea at the time, only to learn that it’s pretty much a scam…well, usually nothing will go wrong with your TV. It’s TV insurance that doesn’t usually get used. In this case tho….it certainly did come in handy. Well…paying about 83$/year for TV insurance isn’t great…but if I didn’t have that, I don’t know what I would have done. Taken the TV to get it repaired by…? Considering the hassle and cost of repairing it yourself, safely transporting a 40″ around….compared to sitting at home and waiting for this dude to come and fix it…well, it’s not bad. I still have 1.75 years of warranty left. I hope that nothing breaks after that 1.75 years…
I learned a lot when I purchased that TV. The $80 HDMI cable which I got at a discounted $34…is still overpaying because that cable is actually pretty cheap.
All in all…I wanted to post about this because people usually only post about these things when they’re angry or extremely happy. So when you try to find information, it’s either the guy that got scammed…well, the other guy that got scammed. People are rarely “extremely happy” with service from a big company. Well…everything went pretty smoothly on my end. I can’t fault Future Shop for Samsung’s product. Was the PSP worth it? Probably not…but would I have paid it knowing my TV was going to have issues in 2.25 years? Probably…I certainly stressed less knowing my TV was still covered.
/content with Future Shop’s Product Service Plan…happy my TV is fixed :D