Talked to Samsung today ...

[moviefan]

I spoke with Samsung today at:
Executive Customer Relations
800-522-7341
Spoke to Jose'
He was very pleasant, as was I, and told me they have had several calls about the BDP1200. He said that there would be firmware update soon. When pressed, he said "the end of February or early March". Groan!.
I suggested he go to Blu-ray.com and look up the Samsung BDP1200 thread, and suggested his boss do so.
I also told him that the Samsung brand was off my shopping list for anything electronic until this is resolved.
If we all call, they might get the message!
To write, send to:
Office of the President
Samsung Group
400 Valley Road, Suite 201
Mount Arlington, NJ 07856

[slaizer2000]

won't do much good. They are very thick headed over there at Samsung. Had an issue with the new LED DLP's. Tokk them almost 10 months to fix the issue. All the while tech support kept saying they had never heard of the problem before and wasn't an issue. Yet on forums it seemed many owners were returning the TV's multiple times to get one that was fine or having to go through numberous service calls where tech would radomly replace parts to no avail. Up till the day they actually had a fix the hotline support was denying they had ever heard of the issue.

[redlikefire02]

New Update Is Out Today People I Just Got It!!

[McBain]

Firmware version 2.1

build date : 2008-02-05 Firmware

<BD-P1200 Firmware Ver2.1 >
date : Feb 05, 2008

This Firmware update provides the following benefits:

1. Improves playback compatibility in some movies

[Blu-Style]

They´ve read some threads over here, and booooom a new firmware...

[Sonny]

were talking about Sammy so.........dont hold your breath

[MankindRam]

Yeah now they need to make it so ALL movies play on this player

[PeteS]

But it looks like Samsung will do the right thing in the end.

You know, in business if I recommend something to a customer and it turns into a worthless paperweight in six months, it pays me many times over to make it right (or not do that in the first place), merely from a customer relations standpoint. Which is why I can't understand Toshiba's stance with their 'fire sale'. If they get rid of an inventory of 100,000 players over the next few months - doesn't that just make 100,000 unhappy customers for them in the long run? That's got to be foolish.

[Luis_A51]

Originally Posted by PeteS

But it looks like Samsung will do the right thing in the end.

You know, in business if I recommend something to a customer and it turns into a worthless paperweight in six months, it pays me many times over to make it right (or not do that in the first place), merely from a customer relations standpoint. Which is why I can't understand Toshiba's stance with their 'fire sale'. If they get rid of an inventory of 100,000 players over the next few months - doesn't that just make 100,000 unhappy customers for them in the long run? That's got to be foolish.

Good point

[DealsR4theDevil]

Originally Posted by slaizer2000

won't do much good. They are very thick headed over there at Samsung. Had an issue with the new LED DLP's. Tokk them almost 10 months to fix the issue. All the while tech support kept saying they had never heard of the problem before and wasn't an issue. Yet on forums it seemed many owners were returning the TV's multiple times to get one that was fine or having to go through numberous service calls where tech would radomly replace parts to no avail. Up till the day they actually had a fix the hotline support was denying they had ever heard of the issue.

It's like that with many companies. Apple is one of my favorite companies and they even screwed me over. You guys remember the brief Cingular+Apple partnership that resulted in the SLVR having iTunes. It was a clearly just Apple testing the waters to see if ppl wanted an iPod and phone all-in-one before they began plans for the iPhone.

Anyway, once this "market research" was completed, Apple no longer cared for anyone who purchased the phone. When iTunes 7 came out it rendered the SLVR iTunes feature useless. Apple's solution was to downgrade back to iTunes 6 and just use that until the problem was resolved. Well I did that for a few months but then iTunes required that I use iTunes 7 if I wanna download anything. Now upgrading and downgrading back and forth wasnt really an option for me for two reasons:
1) It was tedious
2) Any songs downloaded with iTunes 7 wouldnt play when you downgraded to iTunes 6.

Numerous calls to both Apple and Cingular led nowhere. Apple said it was Cingulars problem, "call Cingular," and Cingular said it was Apple's fault, "call Apple." Back and forth calls to each company only led me to realize that neither company cared that the phone I just bought from them less than 3 months ago no longer worked. I knew when I bought it that it wouldnt last forever, but 3 months was waaaaaay to short of a timespan. Internet forums were full of people complaining about this.

Alas, there were more SLVR users who would download songs illegally and put them on iTunes 6 than there were honest shlumps like me that tried to pay for their music. This prolly wasnt a big issue for Apple or Cingular for that reason. Most people just didnt need to upgrade to iTunes 7 because they stole their music and shoved it on iTunes. I was surprised though that apple didnt care about the minority who was actually paying them. All it took in the end was an update to iTunes 7 (I believe it was iTunes 7.2) for my SLVR to work, but it took 6 months for it to update.

[moviefan]

Originally Posted by Luis_A51

Good point

You're right ... but take it a step further:
What about all the BBs, CCs etc. that sell these players without advising the customer what is happening? What is their liability?
How will they handle it when these customers come back upset?

[Living Near Shamu]

The firmware update is out. See the news thread https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=931

[shoe465]

I work at a BB and I completely inform the customers about the situation with the blu-ray players when they are thinking of making the purchase. I understand where your coming from though.

[PeterTHX]

Folks:

I was at the Samsung roundtable at CES. The BD engineers from Korea were present.

They read this forum. They are aware of the problems. Sometimes they'll get a title only a few days before it ships to consumers here. They are programming new firmwares as fast as possible, but it takes time. Not only must they make sure they work, but that it doesn't break anything that was fine before.

So, they do read this forum. They care. I'm willing to cut them a little slack on these things.

[RUR]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

...They read this forum. They are aware of the problems. Sometimes they'll get a title only a few days before it ships to consumers here. They are programming new firmwares as fast as possible, but it takes time. Not only must they make sure they work, but that it doesn't break anything that was fine before..

Peter,

With respect, these issues face all player manufacturers, yet Samsung owners, and particularly BD-P1200 owners, are forced to wait weeks or months for firmware updates which enable certain titles to play, whereas owners of other players obtain them in real time. Something more appears to be in play beyond the universal difficulties inherent in the process.

So, they do read this forum. They care.

Caring is good. Timely resolution of player issues would be far, far better.

I'm willing to cut them a little slack on these things.

Waiting a couple of weeks for firmware updates so that we're able to watch a big title would be a little slack. Waiting two months is asking a bit much.

Trust me: I'm one of the calmer BD-P1200 owners.

[x64Man]

these issues face all player manufacturers

Except the good old Sony PS3, it will eat anything you can throw at it.

[Mastrodisastro]

Originally Posted by x64Man

Except the good old Sony PS3, it will eat anything you can throw at it.

Yes, all movies are tested with PS3

[Tools30]

PeterTHX,

I appreciated your comments. As irate customers (or at least very frustrated ones) we need to hear the factual information you posted here. It is reassuring that the Samsung folks, especially the engineers, are reading this forum and similar ones, and taking them to heart.

I really am trying to cut some slack. I sent a fax two days ago, just before the latest 2.1 update, to a number posted in another Samsung BD-P1200 thread in this forum (201 area code). This was my third try to contact Samsung, other than the customer / tech service 800 number. I was very professional, and not ugly. Today I received a phone call from what must have been a Samsung engineer - at least he was pretty technical with a very heavy oriental accent (almost could not communicate with him). But he was diligent to want to know if I had acquired the latest 2.1 release, and wanted my comments. He stuck it out to get through our communication issues, and get my information. This does go along way with me (some will call me a chump I know), but as long it does not take two months to resolve every issue that comes along, I can try and be somewhat patient.

Here is my biggest beef. Just be honest and communicate with the customer base. Just communicate the facts. I understood on December 21st, that a resolution was underway (posted by Samsung on December 13th) for issues with certain titles. Why not keep their customer service people (all of them) updated with the current status of the fix. Why not post exactly the titles with issues (that they verify of course), so that the forum posters are not the only ones passing this information along. Every time I called tech / customer service, I got a different story. If on January 13th or 14th, when the 30 days was up, Samsung had posted that the fix was taking more time than first hoped, we are aware of these title issues XXX XXX XXX etc., and we will keep you posted, that would have gone a long way, at least with me. They could have updated this status information every week (not that time consuming). Sure, I would not have been happy with the delay, and sure others with at an even higher frustration level would still have lashed out at this bad news, but, at least all (ALL) would have known where we stood and that someone really did care and was trying to resolve the problem and was not afraid to communicate the truth. With a lack of communication, the rumors, the bashing, etc., just hits a higher level and starts to spin out of control. This rampet bashing, and mis-information, feeds ill-will across the board. It is bad for the customers, bad for Samsung, and bad for the Blu-ray group as a whole.

One final comment, you mentioned that sometimes titles get to Samsung's hands about the same time they are ready to ship. Wow, this seems like very bad business. The Blu-ray group should work closer together than this. Am I missing something here, why the disc manufacturers would allow this to happen? Wouldn't this hurt their potential market share growth as well, when titles get pegged as not playable in certain machines, and the machine manufactures start pointing the finger at the disc manufacturers over their tech service network? Then again, this si how my simple little business brain works.

Again, I appreciate your comments, and if you sit in a room with Samsung management / enginneers again, please ask them to comminicate better. Let customer service have the status, and don't be afraid to post better communication on their website, even if a solid answer / resolution is not yet available, just tell it like it is. I have had to give very bad news to customers in my career on several occasions, and can honestly say, I never lost a customer over just communicating bad news, as long as it was the truth, and I was sincerely about making it right as soon as possible (call me a chump, but that is a fact). I think we all know by now, you can not over communicate.

(Oh yeah, and also let Samsung know they can't take two months to resolve every issue that comes along, especially weeks and months longer than their competiton - I had to throw that in, for those that are going to call me a soft-hearted chump).

Thanks

[Blu boy]

Originally Posted by Mastrodisastro

Yes, all movies are tested with PS3

yea but not all games. lots of new games you have to install before you can play and some take like a half hour. the ps3 is turning into a pc. thats one reason i prefer consoles because theres no installing. but its the best player on the market hands down.
ps i think a firmware update should be coming soon because its been a while. in game xbm! and profile 2.0

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Tools30

PeterTHX,

I appreciated your comments. As irate customers (or at least very frustrated ones) we need to hear the factual information you posted here. It is reassuring that the Samsung folks, especially the engineers, are reading this forum and similar ones, and taking them to heart.

I really am trying to cut some slack. I sent a fax two days ago, just before the latest 2.1 update, to a number posted in another Samsung BD-P1200 thread in this forum (201 area code). This was my third try to contact Samsung, other than the customer / tech service 800 number. I was very professional, and not ugly. Today I received a phone call from what must have been a Samsung engineer - at least he was pretty technical with a very heavy oriental accent (almost could not communicate with him). But he was diligent to want to know if I had acquired the latest 2.1 release, and wanted my comments. He stuck it out to get through our communication issues, and get my information. This does go along way with me (some will call me a chump I know), but as long it does not take two months to resolve every issue that comes along, I can try and be somewhat patient.

Here is my biggest beef. Just be honest and communicate with the customer base. Just communicate the facts. I understood on December 21st, that a resolution was underway (posted by Samsung on December 13th) for issues with certain titles. Why not keep their customer service people (all of them) updated with the current status of the fix. Why not post exactly the titles with issues (that they verify of course), so that the forum posters are not the only ones passing this information along. Every time I called tech / customer service, I got a different story. If on January 13th or 14th, when the 30 days was up, Samsung had posted that the fix was taking more time than first hoped, we are aware of these title issues XXX XXX XXX etc., and we will keep you posted, that would have gone a long way, at least with me. They could have updated this status information every week (not that time consuming). Sure, I would not have been happy with the delay, and sure others with at an even higher frustration level would still have lashed out at this bad news, but, at least all (ALL) would have known where we stood and that someone really did care and was trying to resolve the problem and was not afraid to communicate the truth. With a lack of communication, the rumors, the bashing, etc., just hits a higher level and starts to spin out of control. This rampet bashing, and mis-information, feeds ill-will across the board. It is bad for the customers, bad for Samsung, and bad for the Blu-ray group as a whole.

One final comment, you mentioned that sometimes titles get to Samsung's hands about the same time they are ready to ship. Wow, this seems like very bad business. The Blu-ray group should work closer together than this. Am I missing something here, why the disc manufacturers would allow this to happen? Wouldn't this hurt their potential market share growth as well, when titles get pegged as not playable in certain machines, and the machine manufactures start pointing the finger at the disc manufacturers over their tech service network? Then again, this si how my simple little business brain works.

Again, I appreciate your comments, and if you sit in a room with Samsung management / enginneers again, please ask them to comminicate better. Let customer service have the status, and don't be afraid to post better communication on their website, even if a solid answer / resolution is not yet available, just tell it like it is. I have had to give very bad news to customers in my career on several occasions, and can honestly say, I never lost a customer over just communicating bad news, as long as it was the truth, and I was sincerely about making it right as soon as possible (call me a chump, but that is a fact). I think we all know by now, you can not over communicate.

(Oh yeah, and also let Samsung know they can't take two months to resolve every issue that comes along, especially weeks and months longer than their competiton - I had to throw that in, for those that are going to call me a soft-hearted chump).

Thanks

When I asked questions at the forum, the engineer perked up and gave me a thumbs up "Ah, blu-ray.com, good!".

Later he told me that our site in the beginning was the only one he could go to to get feedback on how their players were performing in the real world, and he appreciated the folks here.

He also talked about trying to get the firmware updates on a monthly schedule. Remember all BD hardware isn't the same, one player from another manufacturer can have a problem easily resolved where it might be longer (or even impossible) to resolve on another. Plus the engineers not only have to fix these, but develop the next generation players as well.

Right now, the studios are still learning the tools to create BD discs. Deadlines must be met. As long as they work on the PS3 (by far the majority BD player out there) it's pretty much considered good to go.

Like I said, Samsung is aware of the frustrations, let us keep it polite. They are doing what they can.