Comments on: Samsung LNT5271F – Rows of Dead Pixels… Twice

By: JR

JR — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:42:49 +0000

Well the row/column of dead pixels is not limited to older models it would seem. My 7 month old LN55A950 just recently started to display a red vertical stripe towards the middle of the screen. It affects all sources. Sometimes it fades and comes back, sometimes it goes away completely. This particular set has a build date of Dec ‘08, I believe. I know there have been other build dates in Jan & Feb of this year so it is possible that the defect has been eliminated for the 2009 builds. Samsung has this problem noted in their FAQs so when I called it in for repair, the rep knew right away that the panel must be replaced. He insisted that the new panel is not a refurb and the problem should not return. I really hope this is the case. My warranty is good until Nov 2010 but I’m wondering if I should purchase an extension as this is going to be the last TV I buy for a looooong time.

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:37:21 +0000

Jon,

I’ve only seen a handful of folks get lucky with Samsung, but it’s always worth a try.

By: Jon

Jon — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:27:39 +0000

I am just wondering if anyone has gotten Samsung to help them after the warranty has expired. My LNT5271F is also experiencing delamination and Samsung will not even answer a single email about the issue. Very interested to see if Samsung has budged on helping out customers that are over the warranty time. My TV is about 19 months old now. Was hoping Samsung would at least help in the repair, or offer a discount on a new TV…..

By: Jerry

Jerry — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:14:47 +0000

I have a LN-T4061F. I won it in a sweepstakes, but it is just over 18 months old. After getting a tech out to look at it, he said it was delamination and a manufacture defect. Wife tried to get Samsung to replace. At first they were considering, but then got a rep that wouldn’t budge. So I’m stuck with lines for now. Not too happy. Oh well, what do you want for nothing?
Jerry

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:38:22 +0000

I have an LN-T5271F 52″ and I am experiencing the same dead pixel issues. The TV is about 1.5 yrs old and the problem started a few months ago. I am in the process of trying to get Samsung to repair the problem, so far just a bunch of run-around.

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:33:40 +0000

I have a 42 inch Samsung that I bought in October 2007. It is 1 year and 5 months old model HLS4266w/zaa. It started with a white dot on the tv which they tell me is a dead Pixel. I called Samsung and they told me they would not do anything because it was out of warranty. I told them that I will contact every business newspaper and whatever I had to do. I called the store the next day where I purchaed it and was told it would cost $900 to repair.I told them they were crazy the tv was $1075. He said it might repair itself. I had one dot and now I have 6. they keep coming up. Samsung should not be allowed to take advantage of people they know there is something wrong with 2007 tv’s. I have contacted the BBB also.

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:39:19 +0000

Brian, thanks for the clarification — I agree, 18 months of age on a TV just to have it die is a crime especially with no cost-sensitive alternative from the manufacturer besides “buy another one”… a brand new LN52A850 costs about $2300, the fact that they are quoting you 2200 on a new panel is highway robbery.

You didn’t happen to purchase the TV from Costco did you? Becuase they will extend the warranty to 2 years — I’m not sure if Sam’s Club does the same.

By: brian brooks

brian brooks — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:30:14 +0000

im sorry . i meant the tv is 18 months old and the repair ticket is from dec. 22 08 the warranty has expired . but i dont understand after 18mo of service with no physical damage to the set . that they cant see that ther is a problem with these sets , 5 or 6 years i might understand . but not 18 months it is well taken car of . and i expect get what i pay for . not a song and dance .
i did my research on samsung corp . and thats why i bought ther brand but it seems to be all hype !!! from what i see now. if they do nothing its a crime they should prorate the set , the screen or somthing . if not i will buy jap. or anything but samsung or third party samsung thanks for any help on the this matter

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:43:13 +0000

Brian,

If the timestamp for the repair ticket was filed before the warranty expired, Samsung needs to repair that TV for you. I have a hard time believing that you got a repair ticket with Samsung filed almost a year ago and never got them to come out or do anything though… why such a long gap of time?

By: brian brooks

brian brooks — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:25:55 +0000

i have a LNS5296D samsung tv with dead pixels from delamination . i have a repair ticket with samsung and it is 18 months old and samsung says ther is nothing they can do but put in a new screen for 2200 do i have any options , who makes the decides if it is a manufacturers defect .

By: wayne

wayne — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:43:05 +0000

Hello everyone…i also have a pixally challenged 5271f. i baught it december24 07, panel went bad 3 months later, i took it to local repair shop (you dont have to have in home service ya know). Anyway they replaced panal all was good untill december 5 08…now i have a new problem! when i turn it on the blue screen is red, and the picture is like looking through a thermal imaging device, ya know what i mean? some of the picture is normal but the majority is solid red. like peaples faces, and much of the background turns red. The kicker is…this tv is not even used that much, i bet ive only watched 10 movies on it, and maybe 15 hours of normal programming per week! It has never even had a video game connected to it! Anyway…the first time i had it repaired samsung did not ask for my reciet. This time they are requesting my receit otherwise they will cancel the repair order! do you think circuit city will be able to provide me with a proof of purchase after all this time? I only have till the 24th before my warranty expires…

By: Editor

Editor — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:51:46 +0000

Heidi,
Damn glad you found us. Unfortunately with the possibility of a class action lawsuit for a faulty product (like we saw with Sony) companies tend to take the “play dumb until the customer wides up to us” route.

Keep us posted with how the repair goes and how Samsung treats you, we’d be interested to know.

By: Heidi

Heidi — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:28:20 +0000

HI there & THANK YOU for all these informing posts! I have this Samsung TV & model with the same problems. It started yesterday. The TV is 5 months old & I thought there was ink or my toddler somehow got green ink splashed on our tv(Which is next to impossible up high on the wall). I was in our kitchen and thought what in the world is on the tv? As I got closer I could see it was in the tv screen. I got pretty upset not knowing what was happening. I called my husband at work & he suggested turning it off/on & call Samsung. The on/off didn’t work & I said it looks like the screen is running like a run in nylons? Okay, I called Samsung & same like others, not much help! They gave me a authorized dealer number who when I called said they were too far to help me. I called Samsung back & they said they’d get back to me in a day or two??? I’ve been trying to even find out what this is called or what it is & then found this Blog. Thank GOONESS!!! I have some information on how to proceed with this matter. I will also inform others of my experience. So it is “Dead Pixels”. My Tv started with a long vertical green line with two other green lines spreading with semi yellow circles & dots in them?! $3k and only 5 months old…so upsetting!!!! Thank you, ALL of YOU for your HELP!!! H

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:52:23 +0000

Bill,

I really appreciate you circling back with us and letting us know how things went. More folks are running into this and the ones that do it *really* helps them to see the whole processes, who to contact and what the company offers so you guys can all compare notes and walk in well-informed when dealing with the co.

Are the dead pixels in the TV pretty big now? If it was easy to grab, could you send us a picture of it and I’ll add it to this story? (contact@breakitdownblog.com if you can).

If it’s a pain, don’t worry about it, just keep us posted on how nice the new panel looks

By: Bill Cease

Bill Cease — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:52:11 +0000

Well Everyone, Soory for the delay on the updates for my tv but I have spent most of my time on the phone with Samsung and the repair place. From the earlier update on July 7, Samsung did assign my call to a closer service center. They called and wanted a decription of the problem which I provided. They then called me back and asked me to send digital pictures of the issue. I immediately emailed them and then did not hear anything for 2 days. To shorten this up, It is now August 2, 2008 and Samsung called yesterday and said that they are going to try replacing the panel before the replace the TV. They assured me that the new panel that is not being built by a 3rd party will not have the issues and that it is being shipped to the repair shop from California. So far a little over 2 months and I am still watching the line grom in the center of my TV…Guess we will see when the panel is replaced what happens. Samsung assured me that if the issue starts again, they will replace the TV or refund my money…Lets hope this does not have to happen….

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:32:26 +0000

Kurt,

I’m glad to hear that the tech co and Samsung are being fair with you.

Does the replacement panel come with any significant warranty on it’s own? (like 9 months) so that you don’t have to purchase your own?

If it doesn’t, see if the new warranty will cover the replaced panel incase it goes south again and how much is it? If it’s $100-150 or in that ballpark, I’d say grab it for the piece of mind, but grab it through Samsung as they are the ones that will warranty the replacement or not.

If it’s more than that, find out more about what Samsung promised you (with regards to replacing the TV… does it have to fail again within 60 days or something for them to do that? Or do you just need to have an active warranty with them?)

By: Kurt Roth

Kurt Roth — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:46:07 +0000

Unfortunately, I purchased the TV through Amazon. After reading this blog I called the TV tech company and they agreed to changed out the panel to the new and improved 2008 version that is not being used in the A650. If this panel fails, Samsung agreed to replaced the entire product or offer a full refund. I am debating as to purchase an extended warranty because my warranty is up in November. What do you think?

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:41:49 +0000

Kurt,
Did you get a warranty through the store you bought the TV? If you did, you can try dealing with *them* first and seeing if they will swap it out with a different set first before falling back to Samsung.

Although it’s usually the case that your store will tell you to deal with the vendor, and your vendor will tell you to deal with your store… so it just depends who is nicer when you call them.

By: Kurt Roth

Kurt Roth — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:24:28 +0000

I too am having an issue now with this TV. I purchased it in November of 2007 and I only recently began to get the lines on the screen. I have two lines that are growing in length in the middle of the screen and they are connected by a squiggly line. I called Samsung and they are sending someone to fix the problem. Now that I have read that other people are dealing with the same issue, I am going to demand more information about what they plan to do about the problem. The other annoying issue I have is that their TV services they are affiliated with will not remove my TV from the wall. This becomes a pain in the ass for me because if this is going to be an ongoing issue my TV will be sitting on the floor for quite some time. I wish I could ask for a refund even before the tech guys come out.

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:46:42 +0000

Lon,
Glad to hear the set is still looking smokin-hot. It is definitely a pretty panel when it’s working.

Let us know if you run into any issues though and we’ll try and help out. As noted it did take Chris a few months to burn through his replacement set… but having lightning strike twice worries me.

By: Lon Kruger

Lon Kruger — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:40:11 +0000

I have a LNT5271F that I purchased at Circuit City with a Mfg date of Dec 2007 and it works great to this day. I have the auto motion problem but if you set it on low there are no problems. Everyone that sees this TV can’t believe how real it is.

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:02:35 +0000

Hah, good for you for hanging in there Bill. I’m really glad to hear that you found a closer place with nicer people to take care of you.

Fingers crossed for you!

By: Bill Cease

Bill Cease — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:57:33 +0000

And the saga continues…..Amazingly, I went back to Samsungs website and put in several neighboring zip codes to mine in there service center section. Up pops up a local shop which is 30 minutes from my house not an hour and a half. I check this company out for reviews and they seem reputable. I then call the first company that they have assigned me and the nasty person on the phone tells me that they will call me when they are ready to work on my tv and I do not need to call them as they are busy. I call the company that is much closer to me and the girl tells me that they do in home service in my area and that they do handle Samsung warranty work. She tells me to call Samsung and give them the info and they can arrange a appointment this week….Great, things are finally moving forward until I call Samsung. I get first level who tells me that they cannot change anything with that and they transfer me to the service scheduling. I get this person on the phone and they tell me that they have no record of the company that I am talking about being in my area and that she will have to sent the request to the out of service area team and they will get back to me in roughly 48 hours to let me know. I have to tell the girl to please go back to the ticket and put in the neighboring zip code and she will see it. She then does this and says, “Oh they show up as much closer that the other one. She transfers my service call eventually to this new company who has already called me back.

The amazing thing is that in todays computer world they cannot search areas only by specific zip codes. My TV has been broken for some 3 going on 4 weeks and I, the customer who paid them thousands of dollars, has had to make all of the calls to get my TV looked at…

I will forward the pics as soon as I get them…Thanks for letting me vent….

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:46:48 +0000

Bill,
Do you have a digital camera that you could snag some shots with? If so, and you want to email them to us we can host them for you and add them to the story as resources that other readers might find handy for comparison sake.

The really disturbing issues that I see developing here isn’t just a fundamental design problem, but the customer service failure of Samsung’s… this trend is exactly how the “Sony green blob” saga started, developed and ended with regards to the XBR sets and the eventual class-action lawsuit.

Bill please keep us posted, we have been getting quite a few hits on this story and I think you guys are in a growing group of folks that are starting to run into these problems and they will want to go someplace to discuss it/strategies/Samsung/etc.

Thanks again.