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Samsung purposely knives customer's TV to weasel out of repair (www.youtube.com)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by wildflower@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] Fapper_McFapper@lemmy.world 65 points 9 months ago (7 children)

This seems to be fake.

First, why is the guy recording? Second, it seems rather fortunate that the camera was placed at an angle that captured the offense. That’s lucky right there. Third, this isn’t Samsung’s technician this is an authorized repair person. He would make more money repairing the TV than attempting to deny service to the customer. Fourth, is the video proclaiming that Samsung is telling their authorized repair centers to damage customers tv sets? How many reputable repair centers do you think would have already contacted the media?

Or, maybe the internet has me too jaded. I dunno.

[–] wildflower@lemmy.world 57 points 9 months ago (3 children)

This seems to be fake.

First, why is the guy recording?

Found the original video made by he owner where he explains why he choose to record the technician: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLimCcnee9c

[–] Fapper_McFapper@lemmy.world 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The answer starts at the 10’07” mark of that video. Basically he admits that he believes the technician put the scratch on the TV. The problem is that the call to Samsung happened a week after the technician’s visit. You mean to tell me that this guy suspected that the tech made the scratch himself but this guy never bothers to review the footage before calling Samsung? But at the same time he’s paranoid enough to record the tech because they mounted one of his TVs wrong. Just not paranoid enough to review the footage after a scratch is found on the screen. Something doesn’t add up.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

The problem is that the call to Samsung happened a week after the technician’s visit.

You are so dishonest, the technicians said he would return, when that didn't happen within a week, he called Samsung again.

[–] YeetPics@mander.xyz 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I don't understand why anyone would fake this.. So a stranger could make a small annoyance to a massive corporation for 4 hours before it disappears into the 24h news cycle?

I wish they explained more in that comment.

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[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 44 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Without watching the video it reminds me of when a technician was sent to repair my TV a few years ago

Basically he was told to cut the screen after I was informed that they were sending me a new TV. That way they could ensure the TV was unfixable before telling me to dispose of the old one before delivering the new one.

I did pull all the usable parts out of it before I threw it away though

[–] UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works 22 points 9 months ago (3 children)

You're not making that up? That sounds, like... evil

[–] moody@lemmings.world 39 points 9 months ago (2 children)

If they don't want you to ship it back, it's pretty common for them to ask for some kind of proof of destruction. Back in the days of non-removable cords, they would have you cut the cord off your device or appliance before sending you a replacement.

[–] UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's so sad

[–] moody@lemmings.world 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Sort of. It kind of makes sense in that they don't want you to lie about having a TV that doesn't work to get a free second TV. If the issue is small enough that it can easily be ignored, it's not worth replacing. And if it's a big enough issue that it's unusable, it shouldn't bother you to destroy it.

What sucks is that stuff ends up in the landfill most of the time instead of being recycled.

[–] UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

What sucks is that stuff ends up in the landfill most of the time instead of being recycled.

Yeah that's the sad part. It's such a colossal waste.

it shouldn't bother you to destroy it.

I disagree. I think it should, and probably does, bother everyone involved. Why damage it further, when it could be sold or even just given to a refurb/repair outfit?

I mean I know why, it's because there's no immediate profit motive there. Maybe even the opposite. Which again, is sad.

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yes, but shipping it back to be destroyed instead would be more wasteful, with the same end result.

It would be better to repair, but where repairs cost more than replacement, the only way to force them to repair is with regulations, as otherwise they do what costs less.

I much prefer that they require you to break it and give a new one. From a consumer perspective it's a better outcome. From an environmental perspective, it's slightly better than ship back and destroy. The ideal is repair which has less waste and solves the problem for the consumer.

[–] UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

I wonder if the cost of shipping a defective item were higher if it would happen so frequently. Polluting on that scale is largely free, even though it costs us all dearly.

Like you said, we don't have many tools other than regulation

[–] Dultas@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

They just had me rip off the sticker with the model and serial number and mail it too them the last time I had something like that replaced.

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The best part IMO was the new TV ended up crapping out as well hell but it was under the Best Buy warranty not the manufacturer warranty.

And the TV I had was no longer being made (the exact model number that is) so they asked if I wanted a check or an equivalent model.

I took the check and fixed the TV that time using parts from the first TV.

10/10 would pay $200 for a 75inch 4k OLED TV again (how much the warranty cost because Best Buy cut me a $1500 check)

[–] UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Wow I would not haha that is a lot of trouble and waste, but I'm glad you got a good deal. I'm hoping to put off 4k for as long as I can, but it seems to be rapidly becoming the new standard

[–] PlantJam@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I got a 4k 65" LG for about $400 a few weeks ago. It isn't a fancy display but it looks great compared to the 55" Hisense it replaced.

[–] UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I was talking to a friend just yesterday about how a TV isn't really a big purchase anymore, but the houses/rents are crazy expensive. It's kinda fucked.

Anyway my tv was $0 (from brother), about a meter across, and has a permanent green bar on the right side that only guests notice. I'm oddly proud of my shitty TV, which probably isn't healthy, but by plan is to ride this thing until it's unusable lol

[–] Fapper_McFapper@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Hit me up if it ever loses power. There’s a few capacitors worth about .50 cents total that will blow up on the power board. I can send you a link for those and explain how to go about identifying bad ones and replacing them. I think there might be some you tube videos out about that now.

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

.50 cents

Verizon math? Or do you actually mean half a penny?

[–] histic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 months ago

a capacitor probably is about half a penny tbh just probably wouldn't be able to buy 1 at that rate

[–] Fapper_McFapper@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Some are even less than half a penny. But yeah. I screwed up the math. Thank you!

[–] UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Thanks, McFap, I'll try to remember that.

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[–] dai@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Company I worked for was the only importer of Corsair chairs into Australia, we were told by Corsair (on a chair by chair basis) to have end users destroy faulty chairs if no replacement parts were available.

Same thing with Lian Li, we had a batch of white cases with a paint defect, they were never sold onto end-users but our warehouse teams destroyed every case, sent images to Lian Li of the destruction and we were sent another shipment.

Cooler-master had some bad mITX PSUs, same deal, sent the boys out with a hammer and safety squints.

At the end of the day it's cheaper for everyone involved to not have a faulty product that is too costly to repair shipped across the ocean or to a local disty. Sucks for the environment, sucks for the end user having to dispose of a faulty product but it makes for some interesting emails sent out to customers :D

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[–] Bonehead@kbin.social 22 points 9 months ago

First, why is the guy recording?

Strange man enters the home of an elderly person? This is the least concerning part of the entire situation.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You are wrong on all counts, it wasn't luck, the camera was placed specifically because this repair guy had fucked up before. The repair guy was sent by Samsung and later fired by Samsung.
You are insinuating that the video is fake, when if that was the case, it would be removed immediately, and Samsung would release their lawyers on him.
You are effectively a shill for Samsung, and I'm saddened that so many agree with your wildly incorrect interpretation.
Watch this and see the REAL explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLimCcnee9c

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[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 13 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Samsung got Reddit to take down the post. Seems a little sus to me

[–] MiltownClowns@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Maybe they removed it for advertising dollars. Maybe they removed it because it was libel. 5 years ago I would have had a charitable opinion, but spez keeps telling us its money over everything so they no longer get the benefit of the doubt.

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[–] angrymouse@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Nope, it's probably not fake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLimCcnee9c

[–] Fapper_McFapper@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

That makes even less sense now. Listen closely to what you and OP just posted as proof that it isn’t fake. The man tells the Samsung operator 1 week after the visit that he never saw the scratch. And that he wonders if the technician put the scratch there themselves.

He had the footage! You mean to tell me that he already suspected that the technician put the scratch on the TV but he never reviews the footage before calling Samsung?

Again, the whole thing seems fake.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

He was promised a new screen and was told it would be fixed, so he thought he didn't need the footage.
Then when he calls because the technician never comes, the ticket is closed because of the scratch. What's so weird about that?
If this was false, Samsung would have closed his channel with a cease and desist, and having lawyers all over him.
There is no way this is fake!!! But you are a shill paid or not.

[–] YeetPics@mander.xyz 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't seem fake to me, seems like a lazy repair tech trying to get out of work early.

You saying it seems fake seems like you're trying to sow seeds of doubt in the story, which makes me believe it even more. This ("grassroots" comments on message boards) is often one way major corporations handle damage control when a shitty story like this breaks.

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[–] SayWhat7414@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I came across this site and noticed this conspiracy theory about my video, so I signed up to hopefully get you out of that rabbit hole and prevent any others from being lured in...ok lets see here:

First, why is the guy recording?

The Technician was at my house previously and made a mistake on repairing my TV. I set up the camera to catch him if he were to make a mistake again.

Second, the camera was placed at an angle that captured the offense. That’s lucky right there.

Very lucky, if it was off camera, I would have been out almost $3000 and stuck with a damaged TV screen.

Third, this isn’t Samsung’s technician this is an authorized repair person. He would make more money repairing the TV than attempting to deny service to the customer.

Dude is wearing Samsung logo on his clothes, and drives a Van with Samsung logo on it. I don't see a difference, but yeah, they are sub-contractors. As for money, I am told they are paid per job, not hour. Either way, Samsung is the one who says "OH, you found a small cut on the screen that has an obvious warranty defect? OK VOIDED"...that is a big problem because after the Director of Care Field Service Operations reviewed the technicians notes, he told me the tech was mad that a part was 1 hour away, and he would have to wait for it to arrive (he was already at my house)...so he used "Physical damage" as an excuse to end his work day an hour earlier by cutting my TV.

The man tells the Samsung operator 1 week after the visit that he never saw the scratch. And that he wonders if the technician put the scratch there themselves. He had the footage! You mean to tell me that he already suspected that the technician put the scratch on the TV but he never reviews the footage before calling Samsung?

You are confusing the timeline here, I did not suspect him until I was told that the cut voided the warranty. You can literally hear me the moment I start to realize it during the phone call in the video at 11:35. By the end of the call, I knew he cut the TV somehow, and that is when I pulled out the camera to look at the footage. If he had told me that the cut voided the warranty himself, while he was here, he knew I would figure it out, so he told me the a screen was coming in a few days, and he left it up to Customer Service tell me about the voided warranty when I called to check the status a week later.

Or, maybe the internet has me too jaded. I dunno.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

I get how some videos can be hard to tell if they are fake, and others are so obviously fake with 10 million views and people commenting on it like it was real...but I have so much evidence and proof in my video, I can't wrap my head around how you fell into this specific rabbit hole lol

[–] smotherlove@sh.itjust.works 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I haven't watched the video yet, I always save his videos for my morning routine.

Anyway, I'm replacing my company blacklist with a whitelist, there's just too many scumbag companies. The default assumption should be that any given company would leave me dead in a ditch for the chance to make a one dollar profit. They can earn my trust through tremendous effort if they want my money.

I thought the idea was that when we spend USD, we do so under the expectation that our government will protect us from malicious and deceptive companies. When did this change? Anyone remember a time when this was the case, or was it always a fantasy?

[–] anlumo@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago (4 children)

It changed when the Libertarians took over.

[–] ThePantser@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago

Damn book lending psychopaths.

[–] smotherlove@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Libertarians are a political minority, they control nothing in the US. This is the leftist equivalent of "it's the damn commies!"

[–] orclev@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

The actual party yes, but their policies have been very influential. In particular their rabid support for trickle down and laissez-faire economics as well as their own particularly pernicious flavor of free market economics have largely supplanted all of the GOPs economic policies. Republicans then use those same economic policies as justification for their war on government services in general.

[–] smotherlove@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 months ago

What they say and what they do are two different things. They say free market but they mean favoratism. They say small government but they mean –you guessed it– favoratism. It's like how lefties say communism but vote for gun control.

I strongly believe that libertarian ideology does not exist in US politics. We only have two different flavors of authoritarianism. The only libertarians in the US are gun enthusiasts (note: not actually allied with the right at all) and drug dealers.

[–] retrieval4558@mander.xyz 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I feel like this is typically referred to as neoliberalism? Eg the ideologies of Reagan and Thatcher

[–] orclev@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Those were the most influential voices but they've kind of all fed off and reinforced each other. I'm less familiar with the UK, so I can only speak to the US, but Reagan heavily pushed the debunked trickle down economics theory to justify cutting taxes on the rich, a core part of his economic policy (and all Republicans since then). Many who consider themselves Libertarian have since picked up and championed those same policies, but really just about everyone under the greater conservative umbrella embraces them because they justify their true economic goals which are to funnel as much money into the hands of the wealthy as possible.

From an economics standpoint the core lies of Republicans boil down to a) cutting taxes, especially on the rich, always improves the economy and makes everyone richer, and b) the private sector is always better in every way at providing goods and services than the government is.

They then use those two lies to justify removing government services (usually couched as eliminating wasteful spending) and giving the rich tax breaks and loopholes. They'll often claim to be providing tax cuts to everyone, which is true-ish in the most technical sense, but when you look at the way it actually plays out the rich end up getting massive cuts, while the poor see little if any actual tax cuts. Meanwhile they severely hurt the poor and middle class by removing government services they rely on and either not replacing them with anything, or replacing them with private sector services that are inferior and/or more expensive.

[–] NoIWontPickaName@kbin.social 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Everything changed when the fire nation attacked

[–] kometes@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

There is no war...

Fuck it.

We've always been at war with Eurasia.

[–] JTskulk@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

"What a slimey little weasel-ass BITCH does.." LMAO fucking gettem Ross!

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