2007 Samsung LED Owner's Thread (HLT XX87/89S) - Page 476

Hi,

I have been having the 10 minute power on issue since October. I had a power board replaced but the problem never went away. After reading some of the newer comments since October, I went ahead and called again Samsung to see what they can do.

They sent out another tech, and as some of you mentioned, I recieved a call from the tech saying the power boards are on back order.

I checked my service # yesterday and it said "An exchange has been requested for your unit"
I was thinking, this is great and I will be recieving the EnR email in a few days with my exchange options.

Well, that bubble popped this morning. I recieved a call from a Samsung # in New Jersey. 201-727-5606.
They basically told me that the parts are not coming in and my TV is under the cap settlement and no exchanges are being offered. (Which is sort of bogus since I see some are getting offers)'

The person in NJ recommended I call back the cap settlement # to recieve a new service # and they will offer you a settlement.

I checked my service # before calling the cap #, and the "An exchange has been requested for your unit" went to "Our records indicate that your exchange has been canceled."

I then called the cap #, and they gave me a new service # telling me someone else from Samsung will get back to me regarding a settlement. Possibly around $300.

Sort of bummed after missing the exchange offer boat. I was hoping I would have been offered the exchange with a up charge of $600-800 for a new set.

Unfortunately, Samsung put out a product which I will eventually never be able to repair which is disappointing.
Sort of like a ticking time bomb.

I guess I can put the funds towards a new TV or wait until my 61 inch dies and just live with the 10 minute power up wait time like I have since October.

The saga continues.
Edited by sciulan - 2/26/13 at 1:36pm

well you got me worried so I called to get the scoop as well.

same offer. they said previous exchange ticket was cancelled and there would be a $300 gift card under a new service ticket pending clearance from the legal department (guess its still being worked out)... BUT they will haul away the old set. i said its an absolute crap deal and id rather have:
1.) a working TV
2.) a partly working TV + cash
3.) a realistic offer to somehow replace the TV
4.) any of the above more than a $300 gift card and no TV.

so ill be reading the settlement and am totally prepared to fight with them. the cost of the repair is from $300-450 and people get a working set. it's clearly a play by samsung to cheap out on the settlement. ill be reading the settlement today and would entertain contacting the court if they can't come up with a more appealing offer. my problems aren't that bad, but there are plenty of people who do have issues & it's principle at this point.

interesting portion of the notice:
I plan on trying to escalate my claim tomorrow & will let them know I'd be happy to dispute that way. Really, I have nothing to lose, since I'm not selling my half-broken TV to Samsung for $300.

Wow guys,that totally sucks! Sounds like there was only a 2 week window before samsung changed there tune.Samsung offereing to take your tv and only offer 300 is absurd..@yudkib,It's up to you but,I dont think its worth the aggrevation,but if you can get to keep the TV and get the 300, spend 150 to get a new DMD chip and you'll be good to go..@sciulan sounds like you and I had the same problem,its your main board,which so happens to cost around 300.So likwise, if you get to keep the tv and get 300,take the money and replace your board yourself.I took mine apart a bunch of times, it isnt hard.They still are really nice TVs once they are working as they should.

that's some shady stuff from samsung

you could sell the parts for way more than they're offering

totally, totally agreed. heres what samsung gets:
-- dont have to pay for the service call ($300-450)
-- dont have to warranty the repair. given that they offered $150 to people who had the caps replaced and $300 to people who had bad caps but junked the set, that puts the value of the warranty at about $150
-- a nice cache of parts to sell to techs as "refurbished"
-- a consumer who has to go shop for a new TV

heres what the consumer gets:
-- $300 gift card
-- no TV as repaired by samsung, no partly working TV, no replacement TV, no TV period.
-- the finger from samsung.

so even if you just consider the warranty, samsung is saving at least $150 on the transaction. include everything else, and i'd say it's a safe bet that they're actually turning a profit.

i'm pretty disgusted by all of this. if samsung views settling a CLA as a way to make money, then I'm not sure i'll be doing business with them again.
in the meantime, i've decided that i will:
1. escalate the claim, try to shake them down a little.
2. talk to the claims administrator. let them know my thoughts & tell them i am totally prepared to go to alternate dispute resolution which samsung can pay for. tell them i think the court & NJ AG would be interested to know about this bush deal and that instead of leaving the consumer with a working TV, they want to leave them with a larger bill than if the TV was never in the CLA.
3. talk to this guy
4. take it to ADR.

what i don't get is why they want to piss customers off?

why are they suddenly stopping the exchange program? it's not like they are loosing money, and you make the customer happy

sell a new samsung tv at cost to the customer = break even

take old tv and part it out = make money

so they are making money....are they really that greedy?

they took the old one on the EnR program, but at least you cane away with SOMETHING.

made a little progress.

called back today, spoke with a claims agent. after some yelling, they transferred me to a "conference station" which apparently is a step below the claims supervisor. What they told me -- subject to my interpretation -- is that no one in the cap settlement hotline has the authorization to do anything other than what theyre cleared to do by the legal department, which at present is offer $300 to take the TV. ANY other request (including keeping the set) has to be handled by ECR. Previous exchange requests had to go through ECR before being sent to EnR (apparently anyways). I said make a note in my file because I'll be calling back and would love to give them a piece of my mind. She said she did.

Will provide an update after talking with them.

ECR was totally useless. They told me there was nothing they could do which is bunk. They didn't seem deterred that I was willing to speak with class council, which I am. They gave me the information for the office of the president at SEA, and told me to take it up with them. Which I will.

@yudkib I see that you have been posting a lot but I don't see why you are having an issue and others are not, what exactly is your issue, what are you wanting?

Completely painless; except for the $100. Dust buildup was actually not that bad, just vacuumed alittle. Heat sink is bigger for the red LED. I watched the you tube video a couple times but didn't need it during the actual repair.

I put the little wire on the LED module first, then mounted the LED on to the aligment pins. Like the video I put the past on the heatsink then reinstalled and then replaced the large cable to the LED.

I bought mine on Amazon; got the thermal paste along with it. Just search red LED samsung.

this story has several chapters, the current one being "samsung is offering me something outside of the agreement in a settled lawsuit, and I don't like it." As much as anything, this has become about principal, and as I'm one of the first people who has to either take the deal or go pound sand (according to Samsung), I intend to change their mind even if its through the court.

I want an offer I like, such as the exchange program.
[edit: all the other people aside from sciulan got either a free repair to their set, or a very good trade in offer. i don't get either.]

I'm in the same boat as you yudkib.

I'm going to be stuck with a TV that will take longer than 10 minutes to turn on or never turn on at some point.
Samsung sold a product that they knew was defective and now no longer has the parts to completely repair my system.
You would think for the money we spent, the TV's would of lasted more than 5 years.

I would of been more than satisfied if Samsung offered me a exchange with some cost out of pocket like others received.
Sad to say, but at this point when my 61in TV dies, I will not be purchasing a future samsung TV as they don't stand behind there products.

I'm still optimistic that this will somehow work out.

I attempted to contact Sean Finnerty this morning but his email bounced back. I just tried to generic "Office of the President" email I was given by ECR. Will post an update after I hear from them.

If this does not resolve itself soon, I plan to contact class council. Before the end of the week. As this is essentially an extension of an expressed warranty, if Samsung is unable to correct the problem due to lack of parts, the resolution should be a replacement television as stipulated in the expressed warranty when i purchased the TV. That is exactly what I will tell council should be amended to the settlement. I'd be willing to settle to a $300 payment and I keep the set, or $600 trade representing $300 to fix the set and $300 residual value for a working TV.

Bear in mind, the court still has authority over the administration of the settlement, so it is possible they will force Samsung to honor the agreement or face a worse fate.

Also, sciulan, you do have rights to an alternate dispute resolution by filing with the court and state of NJ, but you only have 30 days to do so from the "date of first rejection" (when they made the $300 offer). Keep an eye on your calendar -- make sure it doesn't pass.

Still waiting for a call back from Samsung.
I actually recieved a call from the tech today, since he replaced one of the power boards, but not the main board which is out of stock.
He tells me since its not working, he has to take it back and put back my old part. I called the samsung cap hotline, and they told me since the other part is out of stock he has to take the part back that he put in my TV. Unbelievable.

Anyway, when I get the call about the $300 offer and to take my TV which would leave me with nothing I'm going to tell them forget it as it's not enough (or atleast half) to replace my 61in. They could sell the parts and make a bunch of money. A lose, lose for the customer.

just notified class council.

Totally sucks that you have to go this route.

August 14, 2012 my 5 year old HLT5689S showed its first white dot. I ordered a new Samsung/Mitsubishi/Toshiba 4719-001997 DLP Chip online and put it away until things got worse. Second dot did not appear until February. Yesterday there were about 60 dots and several new ones were appearing every day. My wife decided it was time for the chip replacement. Followed the chip installation and Light Engine cleaning instructions at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBz3TanJv0Q and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsSnQnKsKWs

Two notes:

1) Placed soft cloth over top lens as soon as Light Engine removed, to protect lens from accidental damage and dust from cleaning.

2) Did not have to remove lens cover step. Instead I removed LED heat sinks cover for cleaning and left off during chip replacement steps.

Result was beautiful dot free picture.

My set is in the group with bad capacitors and the power up is taking a long time now. Tech has ordered power board but I have not heard from Samsung. Turning in my HLT5689S for $300 is not an option that I will consider.

Has anyone tried replacing the capacitors on the power board themself or paying to have it done by a professional?

I have a HLT5089SX/XAA with the white pixel issues. It's been going on for a month or two now, and is up to about 25 white pixels now. I tried contacting Samsung customer support, they say that my model is not one of the ones covered by the extended warranty free repair. I tried asking which models specifically were covered, and could not get an answer. The customer support people can only enter the model number in to the database to see if it is covered or not, they don't have access to a list of which models are covered and which are not. So, looks like I will be ordering the part and doing the work myself. Amazon (through ShopJimmy) has the part for $160, with free shipping.

Before I order the part, I want to make sure that it is the correct one... Do I understand correctly that basically all models use the "Samsung/Mitsubishi/Toshiba 4719-001997" part?? That is the only part I see mentioned in the thread, just wanted to make sure it applies to my model TV as well.

Thanks for all the help! The knowledge gained in this thread is unbelievable!!

This is the first issue that my 5.5 year old set has had so far... I am hoping to get another 3-5 years out of it, and hopefully by then the OLED 4K sets will be affordable!

Thanks again for the help.
-Derron

i would say that it will work on your set, the only difference between yours and the previous post is size (56" to 50")

as previously noted, i got in touch with class counsel and they take the issue seriously as well. there are multiple lawyers involved at this point and things seem to be making headway. i would encourage everyone to sit tight until the dust settles on this & of course will provide updates as needed.

Yesterday, I got a call from Samsung regarding my HLT5689S' capacitor problem. She offering me $300 in exchange my set. I said that I did not consider that a fair offer, expecially since some had gotten replacement offers. The woman who I spoke to said that no one has ever received an exchange under the agreement and that they have only provided what was in the settlement agreement.

Is that true?

Kinda. They were offering a replacement with an up charge so they never did an outright free exchange.Read the last few pages to get an idea of the deal that samsung offered some of us.

you all that have received exchanges should provide documentation to class counsel through yudkib to refute the assertion made by samsung that no exchanges have been made

it is absolutely, positively, 100% true. the key word is under the agreement. any exchanges were way outside the agreement, but it worked to the benefit of the customer (debatable). this is outside the agreement too, but it screws the customer. and if you think that samsung gives two shits what the guy before you in line got, you would be very mistaken. i actually had a verbal replacement offer, then two days later they left a VM saying it was cancelled. after i call back, they said if i don't have an offer in writing, i don't have one. and they can modify the agreement until it is in writing.

FYI, the people at the cap settlement hotline are useless, they have instructions from legal and while they know the settlement they absolutely are not authorized to do anything else. that's ECR under the best scenario, and they defer to the cap hotline people. the office of the president could probably fix it, but they didn't return my emails and ECR doesn't have their phone number. believe me, i took it to the top before going the legal route.

JR -- could call them back and tell them you want their BS $300 offer in writing so you can consider it properly? i don't have it in writing -- and while I know i could get it i've already invested more than my share of time in this.

the people who got exchanges, i'll take anything in writing, but really it's pretty immaterial since it's not in the settlement anyways.

My 5+ year old TV has 1 white dot and 1 black dot. It's been like this for a few weeks now. As it is currently, it doesn't bother me. My set has 10,000+ hours on it, and I'm debating whether to bother replacing the DLP chip when it eventually gets worse. I figure it's only a matter of time before the red LED goes and the caps explode too. I love the set and would like to keep it, but putting money into it might not be worth it at this point.

justlou,

The reason for both LED and capacitor failure is heat. The fan that you added in 2011 http://www.avsforum.com/t/827799/lightbox/post/22167617/id/35113 should have protected your sub power board's capacitors from excess heat. Only my sub power board had swollen capacitors. I suspect that the boards position does not allow adequate cooling in our TVs. The sub power board can be inspected and removed from the access panel in the back lower right of the set without taking off the back. Unplug set before taking off back or opening access panel. Voltages can be present in capacitors even when set is unplugged.

Cleaning the LEDs radiators will improve LED cooling and extend their life.The videos that I mentioned in my post 3 day ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBz3TanJv0Q and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsSnQnKsKWs show how to access the power board and sub power board to inspect the capacitors and the second video shows how to clean the LED radiators.
Edited by JRWalker - 3/15/13 at 7:12am

Hmm... Yeah, the fan sure doesn't hurt. I clean the dust out once a year too, and don't have any signs of anything else failing yet. The white dot is a disappointment. I guess gambling and replacing the chip might be worth it when the time comes. Do you think there's any chance it doesn't get worse? I doubt it since I haven't anyone claim they got 1 dot and never got any more. :/

justlou,

I did some reading about DLP chips a long time ago. It is close to a miracle that they work at all. In fact it, was considered a crazy idea when DARPA funded the DLP research by TI. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Light_Processing. Somewhere I remember reading that when a single mirror fails there is debris that causes other mirrors to fail, resulting in a chain reaction. I had only one stuck mirror from August 2012 to February 2013. Then a second appeared and the time between failues decreased rapidly until more were appearing every day
Edited by JRWalker - 3/15/13 at 7:51am