After 6 weeks of haggling for a replacement or an upgrade( and I even offered to pay more) to their top of the line LCD:Samsung won't budge, and insisted that my unit is only for repair, thus, I finally gave in and had it repaired last Thursday, a little less than eight weeks,since, the Sincere Service center advised a panel defect and have it changed.
Samsung explained that they have to follow the repair policy,since, if they don't "everyone who buys a flat panel can always afford an upgrade" and thus, their "perstige service" will be "obstructed". Fine, with me, I have to respect the company policy,thus,the repair.
I can now see why I kept reading about Samsung being generous enough to upgrade CRT's and DLP's even after the warranty period.
You see, I was able to witness on hand, how easy and "affordable" it is to maintain the LCD.
There are only 4 parts involved in a LCD monitor.
1) LCD Panel
2) Motherboard
3) Power Supply
4) Frame
All are held together either by screws or a idiot proof wire connectors. The technician who came in with the sealed LCD panel,and sealed motherboard, even remarked "all you have to know is the model serial number of your LCD,and you can even repair this yourself".
Diagnostcs were as much easier:
1) No picture- Power supply,motherboard or connectors
2) Hazing/blurring picture-connector or motherboard
3) Lines/dead pixels-of course,what else=Panel
The hardest thing to do is to dismount/disconnect your LCD(of course,reconnect again after the repair),as well as unscrew the frame,after which, only about 15-20 minutes were needed to install the new panel, as well as the motherboard.
The Samsung rep that I talked to informed me that total cost of my repair amounted to 28K. I guess a year or so from now, a 32" panel might cheapen and hopefully cost around 5K(dreaming and hoping), and your local electronic repair shop might carry LCDs replacement from "Sharp, Samsung or even China generics", much like what I observed at the Gilmore IT center last Saturday,where they were changing 4 panels of 14" Laptops, each costing from "10K to 12K".
After reading much of the posts praising the Plasma, I ventured to TriNoMa and almost got to buy myself a 42" Plasma,since the price was very tempting,however, with the recent exposure I got from my LCD repair, I guess, I will stick to LCD despite the flaws and I can see that LCD is here to stay.
Now why wouldn't it.....when it can easily be managed within an hour or two.
Of course, unless you burned it...or trampled with it, then it becomes a throwaway much like a plasma or DLP.
BTW....despite my request for an upgrade being denied by Samsung, I still hold them in high esteem, they're very professional with their ways, and follow a fair logic in their policies. I only hope that when the time comes that I'll have to pay for my repairs, the LCD panel prices would have plummeted to affordable levels.
