On 8/6/03 I thought I'd be the cool kid on the block and buy in to the completely immature HDTV market. I bought (then) completely state of the art Samsung HLN437W DLP TV capable of doing 720p (ooOOooOoO!!!!) along with a huge sound system and "premium" DVD player. Along with all this, I purchased a five year warranty.

Since then, it's been laughable how terrible the service I've received has been. The original problem I had with the TV involved the light engine crashing on startup, at which point the TV would be completely locked up and display nothing but black with random white pixels. To fix this, I had to unplug the TV and wait 30 seconds. The first time I called about this was 7/28/06. Since then, the TV repair dude came out a couple times, always with the wrong parts, and the light engine wasn't replaced until 11/19/07... after calling about it AGAIN on 10/22/07.

Everything seemed OK, until later that night a weather advisory scrolled across the bottom of the screen and I noticed exactly how terribly the TV was adjusted-

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2293/2076810644_e5ac8e2ac6.jpg

Yes, I was watching Montel. Shut up, there is nothing on TV anymore with the writer's strike in full swing. :(

Anyway, when I noticed this I started looking harder at the picture. Not only was I getting close to 2 inches of overscan on both the top and the bottom of the screen, it was also skewed about -5 degrees on to the right. Normally this would be fine if I had a modern TV which had more than two adjustments for screen geometry. My TV is so first-gen, the only picture adjustments I have are up, down, left, right, along with setting the picture to 4:3 or 16:9. This includes adjustment in the service menu of the TV which you get to using a secret key combo. (1-8-2-Mute-Power)

I called again, and the same repair dude came out this morning. According to him, my TV has no adjustments for picture size. The only adjustments that can be made with the DLP innards of my TV is skew, vertical, and horizontal alignment. His solution? He wants me to call the service center and schedule a time for them to come get my TV to take it in to the shop. Turnaround time? 2-3 weeks.

I really don't mean to be an ass about this, or scam Tweeter... but this is just getting out of control. After waiting over a year for the correct part for my TV, I'm very, very reluctant to just let them take my set with a 2-3 week guesstimate of when I'll have it back. Not only that, but as of today the repair guy has been dispatched five times. Picking up my TV will be six and returning it will be seven. How is this even worth it to them at this point? A 42" DLP set can be had for under $1000. How much more are they going to spend attempting to repair my TV?

Assuming the light engine can't be adjusted and itself needs to be replaced again they will have spent $800 on parts alone for my TV... not including all the man hours that have been wasted.

The biggest annoyance to me is that every time they come I need to take a day off work. For the amount of work I've missed over the last year or more ****ing with this TV I could have just thrown this set in the dumpster and bought a new one. Now they want to take my TV for a month? Over Christmas when I'm going to have family staying with me?

The most depressing part about this is the sheer amount of business I've given Tweeter... not only by myself, but in all the family and friends who I've been standing by their side pointing out what to buy there and hooking it up for them. :(

What do you guys think I should do?

I thought there was some sort of lemon policy, and if a tech has to come out x-many times they generally replace the set? Maybe I'm wrong ...

That's what I'm wondering. I figured some of the techs who post here would know some specifics so when I call to complain I could have some more ammo aside from "Come on, this sucks. :( "

Sucks that it took so long to get it done. But these are way minor adjustments we are talking about here. Just let em come adjust it correctly.

That all sucks....and I just bought a tv from them.

I'm sorry to hear of your experience with Tweeter...but what about making the overscan adjustments yourself? They should be in the service menu. Read a 'tweak' or 'adjustments' thread for your particular set and go at it. Forget the technicians....they cause more trouble then they're worth most of the time.

I'd love to do that, but the only adjustments my TV has are to move the picture up and down or side to side. There isn't any tweak or setting which can scale the picture down to make it fit within the frame.

I'd call em back out.