Samsung: Shitty Products or Just Me?

Years ago, I bought a Samsung TV that just stopped working after a little over a year. Rather than bother with it, I just replaced it. No big deal; I was waiting for a reason to go HD anyway.\ \ Last year, I bought a Samsung Blu-Ray player for the HD in the living room. It died a month later. I returned it to Best Buy, where they apologized and said they see a lot of Blu-Ray players get returned. No problem; they swapped it out and all was fine.\ \ Today, for no reason, that Blu-Ray player died. \ \ Anyone else have issues with Samsung products or did I just get a couple of bad duds?

Samsung used to be Made in Korea and good quality. In the last few years, they have jumped on the Made in China bandwagon. 8 year old girls work cheaper, but they don''t have the same attention to detail, especially when you make them work 16 hour shifts without washroom breaks.\ \ The Japanese companies also use China, but for final assembly only. The complex parts are still made in Japan. \ \ Buy Japanese, Toshiba, Hitachi, Sony, Akai, Panasonic
FWIW, I''ve had both a Samsung TV and DVD player for 7 years with no problem. Maybe my experience is unusual.
I also had a really cheap Samsung TV which died early on, but jeez it had beautiful color. Samsung = LG, which seems to have an excellent reputation in the marketplace over a wide range of products.
My Samsung TV (a gift) died after only 8 months. When I did an internet search about it I found it was common for that make of TV. So yes they do suck.
My samsung Tv is 6 years old and still going strong, as is a samsung dvd player.
I''m surpised Best Buy allowed you to return it. They have the worse return policies. Usually, if it''s broken, Best Buy says too bad.
Samsung has great phones.
I have three Samsung flat screens and they''re the best tv''s I''ve ever owned. I also have a Samsung fridge and I have the same praise.
I have had problems with Panasonic TV''s - 2 of them died in under a year. Also a panny DVD player - dead in under 1 year of not over usage. Will never buy Panasonic again.
My brother had probems with his Panasonic LCD tv one years after he bought it. I never buy those warranties that Best Buy gives out but he did. After 5 years of having tv guys come and fix the damn thing, they totally replaced his tv with a brand new model for free.\ \ It''s funny how some say Samsung made better products years ago. Both my Samsung tvs are almost 10 years old and still going strong as well as my 15 year old Toshiba. I want to get a new LED tv simply because of the picture quality and was going to get a Samsung but reading the recent problems may have to consider.
Out of the 7 refrigerators I''ve had in the last 12 years, my current Samsung is the my favorite. \ \ My current tv is a Panasonic with a really good warranty, which I''ll probably use based on my crappy luck with all things electronic. \ \ The previous tv was a Toshiba which just barely outlasted the warranty. The picture will show, however that perhaps it''s not just evil electronic companies working against me.
http://twitpic.com/s69qz
I think the "Made in China" wave, lowered the quality and price of all manufactured goods worldwide, from kitchen knifes to TVs.\ \ Everything, clothes included, used to last a lot longer 10 years ago.\ \ The Corporations love it, we are buying 3 times as much stuff as we used to buy. (you have to forget about that massive debt most Americans have though)
No, Sammy makes shitty products, with their most crappy being their bluray players: They require constant firmware updates and most of those ''needed'' updates end up bricking the players into worthless pieces of shit.\ \ I bought an Oppo. Expensive, yes, but worth every penny and one of the best players on the market. If you want the best picture and sound, you can''t do much better for the price.
http://www.oppo.com
Moi
I have a 27 year old Hitachi tv with-yes-a dial you rotate to turn the channels. It''s so old I can''t sync my cable company remote with it, but the picture is still decent.
My friend has a Samsung Blu-Ray player that developed a problem right before it went out of warranty. Samsung fixed it. Three months later its doing the same thing. This time he has to pay (I think it was $129) to have it fixed (by Samsung) because by that time it is out of warranty. Two months later its having the same issues and Samsung wants another $129 to fix it. Samsung said it only had a 30-day warranty once they repair it. My friend refused. He''s got a houseful of Samsung products but says no more. Neither will I.
Even at their worst, Samsung is better than GE appliances.\ \ Avoid at all costs.\ \ Here''s how bad they are -- the appliance division of GE has been for sale for nearly two years and NO ONE WANTS TO BUY IT, not even the Chinese. No offers from LG, Whirlpool, Samsung, Haier, Electrolux, etc. NO ONE!\ \ In my opinion, Jack Welch took the much beloved and venerated appliance line that he inherited from former GE CEOs and allowed his accountants to utterly gut the quality and reliability right out of them ... presumably all for the sake of making the quarterly numbers for Wall Street and also to boost his annual bonuses.
A lot of the companies are doing away with quality control. They found it was cheaper to make us do it. If it breaks then they replace it. It was cheaper than paying someone $15 a hour to check every item they make. Guess they don''t care about their reputation.
Mykul
OP, check your outlet those devices are plugged into. I had a similar problem with two different brands of TVs and it turned out that the surge protecting powerstrip that I had them plugged into needed to be replaced. There''s only so many power surges that one of those can take before you need to replace the fuse.
Samsung cheats entire globe with cheap quality "Made in China" products marked as "Made in Korea" with same international licenses of certifications given to Samsung Electronics in Korea. And that is why they lack durability. Manufacturing of counterfeit components made at unknown destinations outside Korea as "Made in Korea" is global crime. And Samsung management is expert in breaking laws and passing counterfeits to consumers as original products. They are killing their brand by being greedy. Just place the two products side by side, and one will know the difference.
Koreans stealing Western technology and using underaged Chinese sweatshop girls to manufacture it....yeah guaranteed formula for shitty products!\ \ Korea is extremely anti-gay, so...... what is the problem? buy Japanese.
Love Samsung. They''re my new Sony. So over Sony.
R11.... you made me laugh. Excessive cat fur. Sounds like my house!!!
LG is Korean, too. Great LED TVs.
I love the the color on Samsungs HDTV's but don't count on them lasting you more than 4 years tops. I have owned 4 of them and they all have had issues, my first one was replaced by Samsung with a newer model because I called their corporate headquarters and wrote a letter to the CEO bitching about our 42' DLP that broke after 5 months of barely any use, Circuit city tried to repair it two times with no success. We got lucky that time that the tv was replaced since we didn't buy a warranty but seriously who expects a tv that is rarely watched to break in under 5 months? This happened 5 years ago, since then the replacement tv we recieved has broken down. We also have a 50' Plasma which has given us a few issues & a 32' LCD with no problems in the last 3 years. I don't think that I would buy another one until they get their quality under control. FYI: I notice a Lot of Samsung blu-ray players being returned at Sams club they end up being sold at a discounted rate. I have a Sony blu-ray home theater system and it's been ok so far.
Anonymous
My Samsung TV was awesome when I bought it. Two years later, the moment it was out of warantee, it started having issues... trouble turning on, and sometimes when it DID manage to turn itself on, there would be garbage all over the screen (tons of ''stuck'' pink pixels). Turning it off and on again woudl clear it, but it''s getting to be increasinly annoying.%0D\ %0D\ After spending that much money on a 46" HD TV a few years ago, I wasn''t expecting to have to replace it again so soon. I don''t know if this is something that can be repaired... or if it''s worth it even if it can be (why pay $800 to repair a TV?)%0D\ %0D
I'm on my second large SONY, I bought a 46" last May, so far, so good. I bought it at Costco, they add on three years free service to SONY's existing service contract. The other SONY was a 36" big boxy TV, it lasted 12 years. Then again, it probably would have lasted longer had I not had it on most of the day. I work from home, I leave the TV on as a presence in the room. I'm distracted by music while I'm working, but not by the TV. I have a 20" Panasonic in my bedroom, which I've had for 15 years and a small Toshiba in my spare room, which was working fine until the crappy converter conked out. I do my ironing in there, I'd put the TV on while doing that. Someone should recommend a good TV converter, the crappy ones being sold when the government offered those so-called $40 Rebates were total pieces of shit. Besides the converter I'd bought, my mom gave me hers because she bought a small HD TV for her bedroom, she no longer needed a converter, HD TVs have the comverters built it. Her converter conked out too! I even tried a few different antennas nothing has worked. I can't see adding on cable in room I'm barely in. btw, my dad has a 19" RCA for about 25 years! It's still working fine. Today, most electronics are built to breakdown much faster.
Inherited my mothers Made in the USA, Electrohome Color TV. She bought new in 1976. It is still working in the bedroom with the CD player. I have been through 5 new TVs in 10 years, all failed outside of warranty. The latest one, RCA, lasted 7 months and I am back to an old 27" tube TV I found at garage sale for $10, until I figure out what to do.\ \ I am not going to spend big money ever again, because no brand lasts anymore. So the first 42 inch TV, that comes down in price is my next TV.
Samsung is crap. My HDTV went out after two years and my bluray player lasted only 7 months before needing attention. Firmware updates and numerous calls to customer service later I am THROUGH with samsung.
That makes sense, R1. One of my tvs is a Samsung. It is 12 years old and still works well.\ \ I also recently bought a Galaxy tab. So far, so good.
R27, in 1976 all Electrohome TVs were manufactured in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. It was never a "made in the USA" company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrohome
Captain Canuck
Samsung makes plenty of extremely bad products. Just look through product reviews. Research before you buy.
Samsung is all garbage now. They sold out their name to the Made in China crap factory.
I agree with OP. We bought 8 27" monitors and they all died within two years. While the Viewsonic and Sony keep working. \ \ Getting them fixed under warranty is absolutely a pain. We finally decided we will never buy Samsung again.
The Nexus S phone is terrific. They now make two GSM models, one that works on AT&T as well as one for T-Mobile, and a CDMA model for Sprint. I think you have to buy the AT&T-compatible model unlocked, though, not subsidized through AT&T. \ \ All other Samsung phones and tablets are mystifyingly bad, but mostly because of the custom versions of Android they run, not because of Samsung''s hardware.
Samsung can samsuck it. I have their Exhibit phone for Tmobile. Most worthless piece of crap I ever bought.
When it comes to shoddy products, Toshiba is one of the market leaders.
Actually, I believe that Samsung manufactures most of Sony TVs these days. Strangely, I had some rather shitty experiences (kind of like OP0 with Sony products but not with Samsung.
All I know is that I bought a camera from Samsung a few years ago and it's a piece of garbage. Freezes up all the time for no reason whatsoever.
"I have a 27 year old Hitachi tv with-yes-a dial you rotate to turn the channels" I have a 32 y/o old 13" Hitachi -- still going strong, gorgeous color.
I've two Samsung big flatscreen tvs. One 32", the other 42". Both of them toast within two years. I plucked up courage to phone their head office in the UK and they listened to what happened and agreed to come out and look at the tellys free of charge. Apparently burnt out 'capacitors'(?sp)is a known fault on Samsung tvs and they repaired both in my house within an hour with NO CHARGE! Both televisions are fine now (although for how long who knows lol) and I'm happy with the after care service.
Anonymous
My LG flatscreen TV is going on 8 years now and now problems (knocking on wood). I never had a Panasonic product last more than a year or two - so I swore never again. Panasuckit.
My 55" Samsung HDTV is exquisite, and has been completely reliable.
i meant "NO" problems.
41%20with%20a%20shit%20apple%20keyboard
I honestly, honestly think most Samsung products are engineered to fail. My company bought a bunch of Samsung LCD monitors four years ago in different batches. Guess what, they have been dying in batches right after the warranty runs out. Now, most of them died. On the other hand HP, View Sonic, Sony purchased around the same time or earlier, are still going strong. We have adopted a no Samsung policy. Besides, most Samsung products have this very provincial look. It's like they are designed by peasants for peasants while imitating high class.
You know, a lot depends on how you use your TV -- city miles or highway miles. I put on city miles. I used to go through $250 VCRs in a year; friends had the same product for eight years. Same with me for old fashioned stereo equipment. I haven't yet bought a widecreen TV because (somehow) my 9 year old 27" Sony is still going.
Bad Korean design and bad Chinese manufacturing. The only stuff Korean companies make that works, is stuff made with stolen Western engineering - like Samsung stealing Apple innovations.
I worked at Samsung's HQ in Surrey, England for a while dealing with returns and credit notes. I have never knowingly bought a samsung product since. The sheer volume of products that had failed just outside of their warranty period was astonishing and led me to believe they have in-built obsolescence.
Look into the large class action suit for Samsung TVs and the known burn-tout capacitor problem. My 52' flat screen had all sorts of garbage that started appearing after owning it two years. Paid $150 for an authorized serviceman, who promptly told me that the entire screen was shot - THE most expensive part of the TV, natch, would have cost me around $1000 to replace. I called Samsung and went through a couple of levels of customer service (from initial answer to a manager) bitching and moaning about how the TV was2 years old, I had already paid almost $3000 for their product, and the screen should NOT be dying. They agreed with me relatively quickly (which leads me to believe I was far from the first person to have this complaint), and replaced the screen free of charge, so I was only out $150.00 for the initial service visit. So awhile I was happy that they rectified it and didn't cause me too much angst, I still get steamed over having to go through the bother of replacing the main component of what was supposed to be a great TV only 2 years after purchase. However, my Samsung Blu-Ray player also crapped out and stopped playing standard DVDs approximately 1 week after the warranty expired. I don't use it all that much so never had it fixed or complained, but I would certainly think twice about buying Samsung again.
Couch%20Potato%20Extraordinaire
Even if its made in korea, so what LOLOL? Since when has Korea been the benchmark of quality products. LG is the worst brand out there formally known as gold star which sold the types of tvs you get at aldi. Our office had a brand new dishwasher and its been repaired countless times and the trays often fall off. I will never buy anything LG or Samsung.
Sam
Whatever you do, DON'T buy an HP computer.
POS%20lasted%20less%20than%20a%20year
Samsung makes bad products. They are known to engineer electronics to break at around the 2 year mark.
The only thing I own made by Samsung is a little 5K BTU room air conditioner. It's four years old. No problems. Each fall I remove it from my bedroom window, remove the outer case, gently clean it out the AC's "guts" with my garden hose, and store it in my basement. I put it back in the window the following summer.
I have an Electrohome air conditioner and TV which I inherited. Both made in 1979. Both still working. I tossed the TV because it does not work on the digital signal. I still have and use the air conditioner. Just to remind people that things actually did used to last.
You wanna talk about shitty products? Try RCA. How that company is even still in business is beyond me. Nothing but SHIT.
I'm typing this as the cable guy is installing my new Samsung LED TV. No kidding. Damn.
Crossing%20Fingers
LOL r50! That's why I bought Asus. ROFL r55. Sorry. I have a 5-6 year old Samsung tv that is running most of the time in the background. While it hasn't broken down yet, I always hated the screen. Everybody looks like midgets on it and 30 pounds fatter (which is actually a nice thing, lol) but it also has these "stains" in a few places on the inside. I don't know if it's dead pixels or what. Next time no more Samsung.
Just you, OP. Samsung hates fags.
I've had good luck with televisions from LG and Vizio. Bought my Mom a Toshiba television for Mother's day a few years back and that one seems to work well too. I also like Toshiba laptops - I am pretty rough on laptops and am on my third Toshiba now.
I've got a 20 year old Sanyo color tv that is still going strong.
I miss 80s Japanese products.
Are the Samsung Galaxy phones bad, too?
I've known three people with samsung tvs that crapped out in a few years. That is enough evidence for me
What I don't understand is why Samsung thinks that people who bought their TVs and had them die after two years, will immediately go out and buy another Samsung, instead of being so pissed off at the waste of money and try something else. IDIOTS.
Are those cheap Vizio tvs any good?
So what's the consensus? Which companies provide the best products? LG and Sony?
I have an LG flatscreen, a monitor, dvd/vhs player/burner and a blu-ray player burner. They all work fine and I've had no problems in the 7 years since I've had the oldest product other than their software not being Mac compatible but this isn't rare.
R61 Loving my Samsung Galaxy Ace mobile!
Samsung was built on stolen technology and made in China quality, so yeah, their stuff breaks.
I had a Samsung A900 phone I got in early 2006 that still works. When I got a smartphone, I gave it to a friend who is still using it years later. It has a metal casing and is very durable. For people who only want a phone for making calls, the current offerings are scant and cheaply-made plastic models. But for anything else Samsung, I can't say. Sounds like their quality has deteriorated over the years.
http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/SPH-A900
For almost two months my Samsung Player BD-D6700 Blu Ray player has stopped working since Samsung did an update through the internet. I believe I'm not alone. Netflix streaming or any streaming and Blu Ray disks will not play. I have telephoned them many times unsuccessfully to have them fix the problem. The easiest solution would be for them to rollback the update but for some reason, they either can't or don't know how.
Samsung is western technology, stolen by Koreans and badly made in China.
Just about a day after going out of warranty, my Samsung TV started having problems. Never again.
Samsung actually engineers its products to break just outside of warranty.
I have both tv and bd player.And both have had problems First the bd stopped playing blue rays and was fully updated by Samsung.Still does'nt play Blue rays.Then the Tv decided it would break down. Power problem.bought a replaceable power unit on the cheap and now works.Have contacted Samsung on many occasions and my conclusion his they do not give a damn.I warn all my friends.colleagues.family not to touch them with a barge pole.And simply go elsewhere
Ian
The last Samsung product I bought was a VCR in the 1990s.I bought it because my current VCR didn't have stereo sound. It broke within 18 months and I went back to my 7 year old non stereo Panasonic VCR. Never have I bought Samsung since.
I have a Samsung NC10 netbook that I bought in 2009 and it's still going strong. I don't download a lot of stuff thought. My Samsung SyncMaster 2033 monitor that I bought for $100 at Best Buy in 2010 is also just fine. Guess I got lucky. Glad I bought a Sony Bravia 40" HDTV in 2007 though. It's as perfect as the day I bought it.
My Samsung Galaxy Ace is a complete dud. I took first one back after a few days and got given a new phone. Exactly the same; keeps going off for no reason and you have to take the battery out to get it to come on again. Goes completely haywire all the time in ways to numerous to mention here. I have a Samsung tv which works fine. They are happy to sell some cheap dud products though so they can screw money out of people I guess. I will never buy a Samsung product again after my experience with the phone. My Korean flatmate said it tallied with her experience of the company's products
Peter
Depends on what Samsung products you have. I have a Samsung CLP-315W which I love, and a Samsung SCH-R910 cell phone running Android. Both have been super reliable and indestructible. And both were made in Korea. Now as to televisions - I have an Element ELCHW402 - power supply died but I ordered a new one for under $100 and TV is now fixed. In fact on TV's and Blu-Ray players the biggest failure mode is power supply. It is because the components are mostly sourced out of China and cheap Chinese capacitors in power supplies cause massive problems. If you're handy with electronics just take out every Chinese electrolytic capacitor and replace them with quality caps and you're good to go.
LuciferTheLightBringer
As to the phones - I'll give everyone a nice little hint. It may not be the hardware per se, but the software. Even if it does say it's Android, the carriers modify the fuck out of the software often times crippling it. In addition - different manufacturers ALSO put their mark on the OS too.
LuciferTheLightBringer
Exactly, Lucifer. I had a Samsung Omnia i920 that was just beautiful, and it was Korean-made. I could deal with Windows Mobile, but Samsung and Verizon completely savaged it with their bloat and garbage. I may as well have been tapping on a deck of cards. I finally swapped it for a Motorola Droid that has been a joy to use. I like Samsung, mostly. Currently I own a a 22" flatscreen, and a monstrously heavy 27" hi-def CRT. I just sold my 5 yr. old 20" Sammy monitor to go widescreen (with ASUS, not Samsung). I had a Samsung Bluray player that was OK but I ended up swapping it for a WD TV Live, and a Philips upscaling DVD player I found on eBay for a song. I've owned a lot of electronics in my life, and even in the 70s & 80s, Sony products gave the most trouble. Pioneer was a close second. The national origin of the manufacturer means nothing anymore. Unless it's state-of-the-art unaffordable tech, it's all made in China.
You should definitely call about the problem, even if your TV is out of warranty. I've had mine for about five years. Shortly after the warranty expired, my screen turned all blue - you could see images clearly, but they were different shades of blue. I called, and they told me that if I registered, they would service the TV. I did, and the repairman basically replaced the entire TV except for the frame. A few years later, the TV just stopped turning on. After a few Internet searches, I discovered Samsung had used cheap capacitors on many TVs. I called, and they sent a repairman with the caveat that if it was not the capacitors, I'd have to pay for the repair visit. Obviously, they know their TVs suck. And obviously, despite their service, I would never replace my TV with another Samsung.
You, OP, are the shittiest Samsung product ever.
I'm R52. As a matter of fact today I removed my small Samsung 5K BTU AC from my bedroom window and hosed it out. Pretty filthy condensation pan; dusty evap coils on the inside. After I finished, I wiped the case down with WD-40 and put the AC back inside the box it came in. Box is now stored in my basement, ready for Spring. $77 on sale at Lowe's post-season six years ago. It's been a champ.
Hotlanta
And for those of you with broken Samsung TV's and monitors - here's a video to show you how to fix them. It's pretty easy to do if you have soldering skills and the gumption to tear apart your TV. I approach electronics with this in mind, they were assembled somehow which means they can be dis-assembled too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DXJTfdDTAQpo
LuciferTheLightBringer
My 20 month old Toshiba laptop abruptly died a short while ago. And I thought I had found a reliable brand, since it was my third. I have a Samsung Galaxy SIII that has been terrific, but, of course, it's quite new. I think it's just that all of these complex electronics remain too unreliable.
I've never had an issue with Samsung products.
Thank you for the video on fixing Samsung TVs, but ideally I would like to buy a brand of products which do not need fixing in the first place.
I have five (count 'em) Samsung TVs and two DVD players, ranging between 2 and 8-9 years old and have never had the least problem.
Anytime you have to ask is it me, well let me save you some time, it IS you.
I hope this doesn't jinx me but my Samsung products are all working great. And my TVis on pretty much 24:7 mostly for the dog when I'm out. I dumped the blue ray and just use streaming or Apple TV.
Samsung CS is a fucking nightmare- you would rather slit your wrists than deal with them, trust me!!! I have only had 3 samsung products. one of the first cell phone cams.. it was ok, no major problems. a monitor- not mine- my x's, they were good... and now a piece of junk printer. the problems I have had with dealing with samsung to return it for repair are unbelievable. I have just emailed the president- lets see if I get a response. These people are either completely inept or a bunch of crooks or both. They give you the run around over and over... and most of them don't speak english well enough to understand them. One of the american reps was HORRIBLE. A supervisor who said he would email me a return receipt never did... he started arguing with me right away and was pissed off at me I suppose. The american rep named Byron could have resolved it all, but instead chose NOT to and to tell me that I would have to do a firmware update which would have been useless.. this was after someone before him told me I would be sent a label to return it... Believe me this junky printer was not worth this aggravation- I will NEVER buy a Samsung product again. NEVER EVER!!!!!
I hope not OP as I just bought a Samsung bluray player on Boxing Day.
[quote]Even if it does say it's Android, the carriers modify the fuck out of the software often times crippling it. In addition - different manufacturers ALSO put their mark on the OS too. I have a T-Mobile S3, but I'm not big on TouchWiz (Samsung's Android "skin") or T-Mobile's crapware. I'm rooted and running CyanogenMod, an OS based on stock Android (AOSP) -- it rocks.