O-Poker

........but Samsung customer service is awesome!

I purchased a 24" Samsung widescreen monitor from Circuit City last November. I didn't have any problems with the monitor until a couple of weeks ago. The picture just stopped coming up. The power light to the monitor would go on, but no picture. I tried plugging it in to another computer with no luck. A few days later I finally found my receipt from Circuit City.

Yesterday, I made what I thought would be a quick trip to Circuit City to get the monitor fixed. When I left store, I'm sure that I looked like a guy that just lost with AA vs KK all-in preflop on the first hand of the WSOP ME.

I walked into the Circuit City store where I made my purchase with the monitor in one hand and the receipt in another hand and headed to the customer service desk. There was no one in line and I set the monitor down on the customer service counter. The guy behind the desk was typing on the computer and then started talking to another person behind the counter. Neither of them acknowledged me for at least 2-3 minutes. Not a big deal, but I expected a "Hold on. We'll be with you in a second." at least.

When the guy behind the customer service counter finally got around to helping me he said, "Oh, you didn't purchase our (Circuit City) warranty. There is nothing we can do for you." He went to hand me the receipt back as if that was all there was to it.

My response was, "What do you mean? I just bought this monitor here like 3-4 months ago and it has at least a 1 year warranty included."

CS guy: "Well, you should have bought our warranty. You need to call Samsung. There isn't anything we can do for you. If you had bought our warranty then we could do something, but since you didn't there is nothing we can do. You should have bought our warranty."

Me (starting to get pissed): "Can I speak to a manager?" Obviously not getting anyway with CS guy.

CS guy: "Why? There isn't anything he can do because you didn't buy the warranty."

A manager came over a few minutes later. I explained the problem to him.

Manager: "Well, if you had bought our warranty then we could do something for you. Since you didn't there is nothing we can do."

Me: "The monitor has at least a 1 yr warranty."

Manager: "Well you need to ship it to Samsung yourself and talk to them. I can look up their phone number for you or you can use one of our computers to go to their website." He didn't even attempt to help by offering to call Samsung for me or even try to explain how the process would work with Samsung.

I walked over to the monitors that they have in the store and found the display for the monitor that I purchased. I pulled the price tag out of the laminate under the monitor. In small letters, it read 3 yr full parts/labor warranty. In much bigger letters was "Add 4 Year Circuit City Performance Plan - $79.99" I took the tag over to the manager and asked why I would purchase an additional warranty from Circuit City when their is already a 3 yr full warranty on the product.

Manager: "Then you wouldn't have to hassle with sending the monitor back yourself. If you purchased that warranty then we would ship it back to Samsung for you." Sounds like that is worth $80 to me. "There is nothing we can do for you since you didn't purchase the warranty."

Me: "I'm upset that you guys are just telling me I should have purchased your warranty, but haven't even plugged the monitor in to see if it is an easy fix and possibly give me an idea of what the problem is if you have seen it before."

Manager: "We don't have anyone in the store that can do that. I'll plug it in for you if you want me to, but no one here will be able to tell what is wrong with it."

Me (really pissed now and realizing they aren't going to do anything): "This is the 2nd time in the last few months that I have been unhappy with CC response to a problem. A couple of months ago, my big screen TV was having problems. I had a warranty through CC and it took over 2 weeks (during college bowl game season) for CC to finally send someone to repair a problem that took 5 minutes to fix."

Manager: "Well, they did fix it eventually, didn't they?" Obviously is well trained in how to treat the customer. He kept repeating that I need to ship it myself to Samsung and that they could send it themselves if I had only spent $80 on their warranty. So basically, the $80 would have bought a box and shipping costs if I happened to have a problem with the monitor.

I went back to my office and called Samsung. About 3 minutes later, they told me that they would send a new monitor to the closest UPS store to me. It should arrive in about a week. I simply take in the bad monitor and the UPS store will give me the new monitor and ship the bad one back to Samsumg. Very simple. Very easy. Great customer service. They definitely gave me a good feeling about Samsung and if I will lean towards purchasing Samsumg products in the future. On the other hand I don't see myself ever making another purchase from CC.

My experience with Samsung customer service made me even more pissed off at how CC handled my visit to their store. Basically the manager could have taken the time that he spent chastising me for not purchasing the CC warranty, called Samsung for me, and gotten the problem resolved right there. Instead he pissed me off and CC lost a long time customer due to his extremely pitiful level of customer service.

/End Rant