Samsung LN52A650 problems. Need Some Help...

[snsguy]

Okay. There's a lot to tell but I'm going to keep it as short as I can. I'm going to write a quick timeline so you know what I've been through first.

August 2008 Bought 46A650 from Best Buy

October Samung under warranty sends tech to fix tv due to excessive flashlighting in upper let hand corner and board failing

A couple weeks later they come out replace board and panel. New panel is worse than the old. Tech orders new panel.

A week or two later tech comes back to replace panel again. This time it's even worse than the first two. He recommends to Samsung to issue a replacement. Tech claims that the flashlighting would not be casued by him drilling the screw to tight with an electric drill even though when he connected the panels and turned them on there was no flashlighting and after he drilled all the screws in and connecting everything to panel there was.

Samsung issues an exchange through Best Buy. Exchange is made. New tv has same problem taken back that day. Best Buy agrees to let us upgrade to a 52 in. for $200 more because there was a bad batch of 46 in. This is all done by march 3rd of this year. Yes it took that long.

So now to what's going on in the present day. The bezel glue is bubbling and the bezel basically looks like it being scratched off. Call Samsung and they say they know of the issue and to make sure it's two inches away from the wall because heat is causing it. Tech guy they have given me says that it just wears down over time and it's not heat. Also flashlighting in upper left hand corner and left side is like spotlights after about 30 min. to an hour after the tv has been turned on. To even make it bearable the backlight can't be any brighter than 3. After that it's really noticable. Tech guys says to take a picture of it with it in Standard mode because that's what most people use, , then he will submit the picture to Samsung to get it aproved if the flashlighting is acceptable to them they won't fix it. Now mind you this is after Samsung tried to tell me that the last tv's warranty ran over to our new tv's warranty which would have expired but they would as a cossesion to me, fix it under warranty. I called them back and said, no we paid more foe this TV so it is covered under a new warranty. They agreed after getting off the phone twice to look into it for me. This is Executive Customer Service by the way. So my question is what do I do. They said they would replace the bezel but there trying to screw me with the flashlighting which is downright bad. I'm afraid of the tech's touching it and screwing it up again but I also want what we paid for. We can't buy another tv for a while and I'm just fed up with the crap. The only way to minimize the flashlighting and be able to see anything during dark scenes is to turn dynamic on low. I don't love it but I could deal with it. Any suggestions on what to do? I can't take pictures of the flashlighting to send because our camera won't pick the tv up in pitch black. You can see it through the lens but when the picture is taken there isn't anything but darkness. Any suggestions of what to do would be greatly appreciated.

SNSGUY

[snsguy]

Does no one have any suggestions?

[xmonkeywarriorx]

WOW JUST WOW !!! sorry man wish i can help i have a 40" inc version and got it around the same time u did and so far no problem at all.

[snsguy]

Originally Posted by xmonkeywarriorx

WOW JUST WOW !!! sorry man wish i can help i have a 40" inc version and got it around the same time u did and so far no problem at all.

Thanks. My wife said she's going to handle it from here on. I'm just so over stressed and pissed at how dumb they make you feel for calling in a problem that has happened with their product. I'm just glad she's willing to deal with them. I've had to so much over the past year and i'm just worn. Were gonna get the bezel replaced. Were going to make sure he sees how much flashlighting already there so if he screws it up when replacing the bezel we have something to go back on. i got some suggestions on how to take a picture of it so I'm going to try some of those and see if it works out otherwise they'll just have to deal with coming out and looking at it. Thast's what has aggrivated me so much is they are not wanting to come out an look at it they want pictures. It's ridiculous.

SNSGUY

[snsguy]

Okay so after screwing around with my wife's camera I was able to get a picture of it. Sorry about a little motion blur. My wife's tripod is in the closet with my Christmas Presents. She's at work and I need to get these sent in so I did the best I could. I put on lighting in our dining room when I took the picture. You can see the reflection of our couch, chair on the right and our coffee table in the middle. Flash lighting is in left hand corner. It's pretty obvious. Can anyone tell me that this is acceptable? Next Pick is of the glue melting. Again sorry for the motion blur. I couldn't get a clear shot of where the red bezel looks like it's been scraped off. Let me know what you guys think.

SNSGUY

[snsguy]

Tech called today and they are sending a tech with the new panel and the bezel out tomorrow. I'm hoping everything will go well for once but I'm not planning on it. The wife has told me to leave the house while they do it, that way I don't kill anyone if they screw it up. I agree. Maybe if i don't have any involvement in it it will actually go well. I'll be back tomorrow with an update of the procedure.

SNSGUY

[martymagicman]

I


I worked at Best Buy over the Holidays last year. And I sold a lot of those TV's. Why? Because they were priced below Sonys and they had a great picture. It's heart breaking to hear about these problems. You by far, aren't the only one. (Google your model # with the word problems) If I were you I would go to the Best Buy store manger and state your case that you have been sold a defective product TWICE. It sounds like you have made every attempt necessary, to satisfy their return policy and you need to ask for a new TV, preferably a Sony. Best Buy is responsible to sell you a product that Works. Be nice but be firm that you will not rest until you leave a satified customer. Ask to speak with the District manager as a last resort. Hopefully Best Buy will convey to Samsung that they need to take care of this problem which has become their problem. Good luck.

[snsguy]

Originally Posted by martymagicman

I


I worked at Best Buy over the Holidays last year. And I sold a lot of those TV's. Why? Because they were priced below Sonys and they had a great picture. It's heart breaking to hear about these problems. You by far, aren't the only one. (Google your model # with the word problems) If I were you I would go to the Best Buy store manger and state your case that you have been sold a defective product TWICE. It sounds like you have made every attempt necessary, to satisfy their return policy and you need to ask for a new TV, preferably a Sony. Best Buy is responsible to sell you a product that Works. Be nice but be firm that you will not rest until you leave a satified customer. Ask to speak with the District manager as a last resort. Hopefully Best Buy will convey to Samsung that they need to take care of this problem which has become their problem. Good luck.

Thanks for the info martymagicman. It doesn't look like I'll have to do that after all!!!

Time for an update. I can happily report that after two days I think I believe we have a functioning tv with very minimal flashlighting and a new non melting bezel. If I stare into the corners after a few hours of it being on you can see a hint of flashlighting in the upper left and right corners but very minimal compared to the last one which showed up after 30 minutes and was a spotlight. So far this looks normal. I'm getting superb black levels, which we never got before, and I can use Bill Mitchell's settings, thanks Bill, exactly as they are with the backlight at 4 and the panel looks uniformed. So far I am a very happy man and wife is also thrilled. I did leave the house when the tech came and my wife worked with him. He did everything she asked and he even did screen tests to look for flashlighting, clouding, and dead pixels. There was only once my wife saw flashlighting and that was after he went into the service menu and returned to a movie and everything had been reset to dynamic. I about had a cow until I figured out that the settings had all been changed too dynamic. Once I turned the settings back to mine and shut the tv off, then turned it on later for a few hours everything looked good. I'm hoping everything keeps looking good. One thing the tech did say was that, especially with the 52 in, they tend to get hot and eventually, most likely the bezel glue will melt again. I'm hoping not and he said that Samsung had remedied the problem. So our fingers are crossed. I do now understand why everyone loves this tv so much. I'm just praying it stays that way and we have no more problems. Now for your enjoyment, How I have felt in order of events That is how I have felt for the last year. Hopefully it is over!!!!!

SNSGUY

[Fors*]

Congrats dude.....I know you have been keeping us informed and you seemed to do everything the right way and with a lot of patience......better than I would have been, that's for sure! Enjoy!!!!!

[aramis109]

Wow. I would've already killed someone.

Glad you got it fixed to your satisfaction. I can't believe the bezel glue was melting and their advice was to keep it a foot or more off the wall. Uhm, what about those folks who wall-mount?

Anyway, just keep in mind that nearly all LCD's have some flashlighting- it's not very unusual to not have a completely uniform panel. Just needs to be within your tolerances.

[snsguy]

Originally Posted by forsberg21

Congrats dude.....I know you have been keeping us informed and you seemed to do everything the right way and with a lot of patience......better than I would have been, that's for sure! Enjoy!!!!!

Thanks forsberg! I don't know about the patience, I was getting really stressed out. At the beginning my wife was about to pull her hair out because I kept talking about it. This time I said very little and let her do a lot of the talking. She's been great especially this last time. We will enjoy it, finally!!!!!

Originally Posted by aramis109

Wow. I would've already killed someone.

Glad you got it fixed to your satisfaction. I can't believe the bezel glue was melting and their advice was to keep it a foot or more off the wall. Uhm, what about those folks who wall-mount?

Anyway, just keep in mind that nearly all LCD's have some flashlighting- it's not very unusual to not have a completely uniform panel. Just needs to be within your tolerances.

Believe me I wanted to. I left the house this last time because I thought I might strangle the tech.

That was actually my exact thought when they said that.

Ya I know that. That's why I'm extremely happy the way it is now. It was really ticking me off when we would watch something like the dark knight and there was a spotlight shining down from the left corner. You can deffinetly see it in the picture I posted. That was even with an over head fan lights on in the background that's producing 160 watts of power! Now it's next to nothing. That I can except and I can actually watch it with the backlight above three. Then it was always way to dark too watch pretty much anything unless you were in complete darkness and even then it was still to dark most of the time. It seems to be all good though.

SNSGUY

[shaves1303]

Originally Posted by snsguy

Tech claims that the flashlighting would not be casued by him drilling the screw to tight with an electric drill even though when he connected the panels and turned them on there was no flashlighting and after he drilled all the screws in and connecting everything to panel there was.

snsguy, I also have a LN52A650. I haven't noticed any problems with the display, but since the summer, I have noticed the issue you mention with the bezel glue melting.. though I never knew that's what was causing it, or whether it was within my rights to complain about and have services I'm well within my manufacture warranty, so I called Samsung today, and they're sending out someone to look at it. Question is.. in an earlier post, you mentioned the possibility of flashlighting being caused by tightening a screw too much..? If the tech comes and decides to replace the bezel, could I have just opened a can of worms if he doesn't do it properly?

[snsguy]

Originally Posted by shaves1303

snsguy, I also have a LN52A650. I haven't noticed any problems with the display, but since the summer, I have noticed the issue you mention with the bezel glue melting.. though I never knew that's what was causing it, or whether it was within my rights to complain about and have services I'm well within my manufacture warranty, so I called Samsung today, and they're sending out someone to look at it. Question is.. in an earlier post, you mentioned the possibility of flashlighting being caused by tightening a screw too much..? If the tech comes and decides to replace the bezel, could I have just opened a can of worms if he doesn't do it properly?

Yes. All the techs that I have dealt with don't usually care what you say to them such as "please don't screw the screws in too tight because I have read that that can cause flashlighting." They'll come back with "that's a myth" reply and screw them in tight regardless. Getting the bezle replaced is important and should be done because it will get worse. I suggest being extra nice to the tech let him or her know your concern and ask if they could be extra careful when srewing and unscrewing things as they replace it. Even pressure on the display can cause flashlighting. Ask them to use them lowest setting on the drill so that it will stop once it feels any friction. My wife did that with the last tech and he did a great job. He was very nice too. The only problem for us now is the picture, somehow is not even close to as sharp as it was with losts of artifacts and blurry. It has completely lost the fluid or 3d effect, or pop as they say. I'm trying different things to figure it out. What's weird is when I moved the AC cord on the tv it fixed it for a few hours then came back. So I'm not sure if there is interference or a bad board. I tired switching HDMI cables around and switching them out but it had no effect. I just bought a power conditioner and I'm going to see if that makes a difference. If not my wife is already taking care of it. Not sure what the heck is going on with this streak of bad luck. Sometimes I wonder if were to picky but hey we paid for it. I just want the tv to be what it was like before they changed the screen minus the flashlighting. It always seems to be one or the other. Now were right back to what was wrong with the original tv. We had another round of "we have to replace everything in the tv before we do anything" speech but it seems like we may be getting a to a resolve finally. We'll have to wait and see.

SNSGUY

I forgot to mention that we also keep getting mode not supported messages and it's doing it with every source. There also is a lot of jolting or skipping around when there is any movement.

[shaves1303]

Thanks for the quick response! I'll definitely take your advice on being nice to the tech! Hopefully he's heard of it and can relate or something.. I'll try to let you know how it goes. Thanks again!

[snsguy]

Originally Posted by shaves1303

Thanks for the quick response! I'll definitely take your advice on being nice to the tech! Hopefully he's heard of it and can relate or something.. I'll try to let you know how it goes. Thanks again!

No problem. Yes, please keep me up to date! I hope it all goes well for you.

SNSGUY

[snsguy]

Well, it's been a long haul with Samsung. After a year and a half after we bought the first Samsung A650, 4 screens, 1 board, 3 televisions and dozens of phone calls going all the way to the executive vice presidents office, samsung has agreed to refund all but 10% of our total cost of the tv and are taking the tv off of our hands. I know that some have had great luck with Samsungs TV's but we have had nothing but bad. For us it will be a great day when they take this TV and hand us check to take our business elsewhere. Some have been helpful but most of the people we have dealt with have not. Everyone's answer has been "we have to replace everything before we take it to the next level." I don't know how many people we've talked to or how many technician orders have been put through or not put through. It came down to my wife, who's very good at this kind of stuff and she's a lot calmer then I am, writing Samsung an email about how much crap we've been through and not coming to any resolution. We then receiverd a call from the Executive Vice Presidents office appoligizing and saying they would check into it and that they would handle the matter from here on out. They also told us that no order for a tech to come out again had even been placed. The second time in the last month that has happened and twice for a tv we didn't even own. She then told us that we would get a call when she got back from Christmas vacation on the 28th. The 28th came and low and behold we actually got the call. She said that they would like to refund us our money minus 10% for the time that we have owned it. Even though it hasn't worked right since we got it both of us are sick of arguing. So will take the money and spend it elsewhere. So now we wait for them to come pick it up and give us our refund. So we're now looking for a new tv. We are seriously considering a Plasma. We don't want to deal with the hassle of LCD's anymore. Well, I just wanted to make an update to the thread. I'm not saying that Samsung is a terrible company, but they will not be getting our business anytime soon and I hope no one else goes through the hell that we have had to endure in the last year and a half.

SNSGUY

[Fors*]

Great news SNS!!! Looks like you owe your wife something shiny. I am just glad you got a resolution and you can finally move on!

[snsguy]

Originally Posted by forsberg21

Great news SNS!!! Looks like you owe your wife something shiny. I am just glad you got a resolution and you can finally move on!

Thanks forsberg. If I had the money she would be getting something shiny. Hopefully, and i am pretty hopeful we'll be moving on to a better tv.

SNSGUY

[potee]

Originally Posted by snsguy

Thanks forsberg. If I had the money she would be getting something shiny. Hopefully, and i am pretty hopeful we'll be moving on to a better tv.

SNSGUY

I know its been a grind but at least your not screwed. Some companys would just let you drown. Good Luck on your replacement. Hope it is great.

[steve1971]

Originally Posted by snsguy

Thanks forsberg. If I had the money she would be getting something shiny. Hopefully, and i am pretty hopeful we'll be moving on to a better tv.

SNSGUY

Wow! I seriously would have lost my mind with all you went through. I salute you for hanging in there and getting the issue resolved. One thing though it makes me glad I stuck with Sony and 2 about the flashlight effect you saw? From what I have read and was told all LCD's do have that problem some to a huge degree and others not so much. Mine has it very faint but its not a distraction, its something I can live with. I hope you find a Plasma or another LCD that you dont have any trouble with because you deserve better after what you have been through.