Black line - 4K TV

[tomholmes94]

Under 4 years ago I purchased a 55 inch 4k UHD Samsung TV for $900. I chose your brand because I thought it was reputable, of good quality and made to last.

For most of it's life I have not had any issues. It has been a great TV and I have been really happy with my purchase.

On the 18th of February 2023 I noticed a dark line in the left hand side of the TV. After speaking with your customer service team I was advised you (Samsung) were not prepared to cover any cost of the repair because it is not within the 12 months manufacturers warranty.

It is now April and my TV is still under 4 years old. I contacted your authorised service repairer in Grafton NSW and was told the issue is with the LED backlight strip. The cost of repair would be about 90% of the TVs price and I'm better off buying a new one.

Yesterday I called and spoke with a 'Voice of Customer (VOC) Case Manager'. I was again told that Samsung were not prepared to cover any cost of the repair. I was however offered a 30% discount on select TVs or a 15% discount on any Samsung TV.

For three reasons this is unacceptable. Firstly, why should I be expected to spend more money on a product that should last longer than 3 years. It's not like I bought a cheap TV from a lesser known brand. I spent $900 on a Samsung 4K TV. When I asked the Case Manager "how long do your TVs last for" he said "3-4 years". Is that a joke? I'm astounded if this is true. Is this information advertised to the consumer before they purchase your products?

Secondly, how can I have the confidence that the new TV I purchase won't encounter similar issues? You only offer a 12 months manufacturers warranty and then any issue after that you make the consumer pay for. I don't want to spend a significant amount of money on a product that I will have to repair or replace in 3 years.

Thirdly, this issue is not a unique to me. A quick google search reveals numerous posts by consumers on your online forums detailing this black band or line on your TVs. Some of these posts date back to 2019. Clearly this issue is systemic and instead of taking responsibility for poor hardware, you make your consumers front the cost.

My only other option as consumer now is to make a a formal complaint to NSW fair trading.

From top to bottom:

1. This image was taken today, 06/04/2023. The black band has significantly increased in size and now the TV is completely unusable as a majority of the image is obscured. 

2. This image was taken on 01/04/2023. The black band moved from the left to the centre of the TV. 

3. This image was taken on 18/02/2023 when I first noticed the black band. 

4. This image was taken on the 09/02/2023 before the black band appeared

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[Diaboyos · Accepted solution]

This is a user forum. You're not talking to Samsung here.

If the TV is out of warranty you're lucky they offered anything at all. If you want another Samsung I'd take the offer. I do agree with them that the cost to repair would be better spent towards a new TV.

[userONOSGYvrXr]

The same happened to my Samsung NU7100. Your second picture is where the dark spot is currently on mine. That happened last year around this time. After a few weeks, it went away, only to reappear on the far left side later in the fall. Then at the beginning of the year while I was watching it, the dark spot suddenly flipped back to where it was originally at. Why that happened, I don't know. All I know is that there are two strips of LEDs at the bottom of the screen for the backlighting, each on a dedicated lead from the LED driver board.

There are many complaints with backlighting when it comes to Samsung HDTVs.  For being almost a 5 year old TV and almost 4 years when the dark spot occurred, this is totally unacceptable. Samsung must use low quality LEDs for the backlighting, as even the Samsung H5203 that I had before it only lasted 3 1/2 years before the backlighting completely failed on it. I mean, jut one LED burned out and took out all the other LEDs along with it as well. With my NU7100, I purposely set the backlighting at a low level right out of the box to help increase the life of the LEDs, but I guess that didn't help much at all. Maybe it did? I don't know... Perhaps the backlighting would have failed right after the warranty expired if I had the backlighting set to 100%. I have old CCFL backlit monitors and TVs that are still in use today, and at the most, only a few of them needed new capacitors on the power supply to get them operational again.

Personally, Samsung should offer a 5 year warranty on their TVs, or at least to cover the backlighting problems that have occurred on many of their models that failed within that time frame. I shouldn't have to buy a new TV every 3-4 years, when I should expect at least 10 years out of it. I could buy replacement LED strips for around $35, but that would require removing the LCD and the defuser panels/sheets in order to gain access, something that I'm not comfortable doing as I would surely damage the panel upon removing/reinstalling it. I ended up replacing my NU7100 with a AU8000, which I'm somewhat disappointed with because it came with the inferior IPS panel, even though it was advertised with a VA panel. The VA panel offers better contrast, where dark/low lit scenes look hazy and washed out with the IPS panel. Other than that, it's a step up feature wise from the NU7100.