Best Buy Service Plan for Samsung DLP HDTV - Advice needed

Somewhere around Mon, 25 Oct 2004 13:33:53 -0500, while reading
alt.tv.tech.hdtv, I think I thought I saw this post from HDTV-slingr
:

On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 13:10:56 -0400, "Leonard Caillouet"
wrote:

. . .
In your other post, you said the Sears techs are most likely to just
swap out a board and go on their way. As a consumer, I'm trying to
understand why that is a bad thing. I bought my Sony from Sears and
it's still under warranty. If the thing fails, I call Sears service,
a service tech comes out, takes the back off the TV, swaps out a board
in 10 minutes, puts it back together and it works.... then I'm a happy
camper! Why would I have a problem with that?

If rebuilding a diode takes 3 hours and swapping out a board takes 10
minutes, again, as a consumer, I'm just fine with that and in fact
would be happier with the latter.

I used to repair stereos, back when they were much simpler. We did replace
components. But these days, I think it's better to replace boards in most
cases. Labor is expensive, parts not as much so as they used to be. When
you replace a part, you run the risk of causing problems with soldering,
replacing parts that are bad but maybe missing the part that caused them to
go bad, etc. If it's a warranty job, I would not be happy at all to see the
tech soldering parts onto the board.

--
Marty - mjf at leftcoast-usa.com
"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...
well, I have others." - Groucho Marx

"Marty" wrote in message
...

I used to repair stereos, back when they were much simpler. We did
replace
components. But these days, I think it's better to replace boards in most
cases. Labor is expensive, parts not as much so as they used to be. When
you replace a part, you run the risk of causing problems with soldering,
replacing parts that are bad but maybe missing the part that caused them
to
go bad, etc. If it's a warranty job, I would not be happy at all to see
the
tech soldering parts onto the board.

For warranty repairs we don't want to do component level work on most units
because the labor rates are not realistic. Also, there may be dozens or
hundreds of alignment parameters lost if the board contains the memory.
Techs who do mostly board swapping are also the ones who likely are either
too lazy to restore the alignment completely or may simply be incapable of
doing so. I have seen many sets that got repaired under warranty and never
got set up correctly after the repair. On OOW repairs, some things make
sense to do at the board level and some at the component level. The
decision needs to be made based on the specific instance and the relative
cost of the board, parts, and labor that may be involved. If you make
blanket assumptions about the cost or efficacy of board swapping vs
component level repair you would be making a foolish mistake in many cases.

Virtually all stereo repair is still done at the component level. Most
stereo amplifiers and receivers have lots of discrete components, other than
the high density LSI areas such as DSP circuits. This makes component level
repair more practical. If you try to repair everything at the board level
you will be disposing of virtually everything except the most expensive
products. This IS becoming the case in many product categories. On the
most expensive products, swapping boards often increases the cost of repair
by hundreds of dollars. If it doesn't, and you don't lose important data,
then it makes sense to repair at the board level.

Don't assume.

Leonard

It just steams me to be sitting at home and see these absolutely
kick-assed commercials from my main competitors (CC & BB) and then our
commercials come on and there are women sniffing linens and candles
and crap like that with no mention of our obvious advantages over our
competitors when it comes to appliances and high end electronics.
People think dresses and tools when they think of Sears... and I see
STUNNED people daily taking that long escalator up to our department.
People who've shopped at Sears for years are shocked to know that we
have a huge selection of electronics. Again, somebody needs to be
fired for this, Lola, and it starts at the top.

Well, I'm glad you got that off your chest...
And I'm glad to know about all this stuff from Sears.
I have been a loyal customer for a long time, and I am glad you are
spreading the word. You've helped me decide where to get my next TV!

On 29 Oct 2004 12:48:58 -0700, (Lola) wrote:

Well, I'm glad you got that off your chest...
And I'm glad to know about all this stuff from Sears.
I have been a loyal customer for a long time, and I am glad you are
spreading the word. You've helped me decide where to get my next TV!

Thanks, Lola, I appreciate it. I really didn't come here to "spread
the word", I came here to lurk and learn but I've held most of this in
for a long time and it really does feel good to express my thoughts
finally, both positive and negative. Thanks for your patronage and
please spread the word :-)

To the other regular posters in this NG, please forgive me if I've
come off like an infomercial for Sears. It wasn't my intent at
all.... it's not a bad place to shop and I'm happy I sell HDTV sets
for them overall.

The only thing I would buy from Sears is craftsmen tools.

Since you are new to this thread, could you please give a little more
of an explaination to that?

If you had read the previous posts, you could see that Sears sells
some great stuff across the boards.

My advice would be to either go to the store, or check out the
website, and see what kind of deals and service they have.
Just this weekend, that had a ton of sales, including this awesome
Samsung HDTV:
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...seBVCookie=Yes

And free shipping too!

(Lola) wrote in
om:

The only thing I would buy from Sears is craftsmen tools.

Since you are new to this thread, could you please give a little more
of an explaination to that?

If you had read the previous posts, you could see that Sears sells
some great stuff across the boards.

My advice would be to either go to the store, or check out the
website, and see what kind of deals and service they have.
Just this weekend, that had a ton of sales, including this awesome
Samsung HDTV:
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...ical=ELEC&pid=
05754014000
&adCell=P3&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

And free shipping too!


Fifty years of living. I don't trust Sears. They have been caught and
sued many times for running scams through several of their services.
Their car repair business was a running criminal operation, their
insurance sales are scams. In the last few years they have changed there
approach to be more WalMart like. Many people don't know they used to
sell their own brand of televisions. They were crap. But I do like their
tools. Just my opinion, if you like them go for it, I won't.

"manager" wrote

Fifty years of living. I don't trust Sears. They have been caught and
sued many times for running scams through several of their services.
Their car repair business was a running criminal operation, their
insurance sales are scams. In the last few years they have changed there
approach to be more WalMart like. Many people don't know they used to
sell their own brand of televisions. They were crap. But I do like their
tools. Just my opinion, if you like them go for it, I won't.

Sixty years of living and I don't trust any stores. But if I only bought
from stores I trusted I would never buy anything. I just do the best I can
on a case by case basis.

True, Sears car service operation got caught scamming customers, although
that is hardly rare in that business. It is more remarkable that Sears
cleaned up that scandal than that they got caught doing it. Sears, Wards
and other retail operations have and do sell "store-brands" of televisions,
appliances and other products. Sears' sells store brands such as Kenmore
and Craftsman, both well-known for excellent quality. No retail department
store chain actually makes its own store-brand products. They are always
made by a large manufacturer. Kenmore appliances are made by many
companies, depending on the appliance, like Whirlpool, Frigidaire, GE,
Electrolux, etc. If the Sears TV's were "crap" (which I don't doubt) it is
because they were cheap models made in Asia for the lower-end trade. Ward's
also had a cheap house-brand TV which was also crap.

But Sears today provides their own service for the TV's they sell and
warranty and have an excellent reputation for quality of service, which they
also farm out for other retail stores. Their TV departments vary greatly
from store to store but, in the larger stores, they usually have lots of
choices on display. They will dicker on price and match competitor's prices
+ 10% of the difference. If they are late in delivering, they will knock
more money off. If you don't like your TV, you can take it back in 60 days
for a full refund, for any reason or no reason. If you buy their extended
warranty, they provide in-home service from day one and fix anything that
goes wrong, even if the problem is just cosmetic.

mack
austin

"Mack McKinnon" wrote in
message ...

"manager" wrote

Fifty years of living. I don't trust Sears. They have been caught and
sued many times for running scams through several of their services.
Their car repair business was a running criminal operation, their
insurance sales are scams. In the last few years they have changed there
approach to be more WalMart like. Many people don't know they used to
sell their own brand of televisions. They were crap. But I do like their
tools. Just my opinion, if you like them go for it, I won't.

Sixty years of living and I don't trust any stores. But if I only bought
from stores I trusted I would never buy anything. I just do the best I
can
on a case by case basis.

True, Sears car service operation got caught scamming customers, although
that is hardly rare in that business. It is more remarkable that Sears
cleaned up that scandal than that they got caught doing it. Sears, Wards
and other retail operations have and do sell "store-brands" of
televisions,
appliances and other products. Sears' sells store brands such as Kenmore
and Craftsman, both well-known for excellent quality. No retail
department
store chain actually makes its own store-brand products. They are always
made by a large manufacturer. Kenmore appliances are made by many
companies, depending on the appliance, like Whirlpool, Frigidaire, GE,
Electrolux, etc. If the Sears TV's were "crap" (which I don't doubt) it
is
because they were cheap models made in Asia for the lower-end trade.
Ward's
also had a cheap house-brand TV which was also crap.

But Sears today provides their own service for the TV's they sell and
warranty and have an excellent reputation for quality of service, which
they
also farm out for other retail stores. Their TV departments vary greatly
from store to store but, in the larger stores, they usually have lots of
choices on display. They will dicker on price and match competitor's
prices
+ 10% of the difference. If they are late in delivering, they will knock
more money off. If you don't like your TV, you can take it back in 60
days
for a full refund, for any reason or no reason. If you buy their extended
warranty, they provide in-home service from day one and fix anything that
goes wrong, even if the problem is just cosmetic.

mack
austin



Sears marketed their electronic equipment from the 1920s through the 70s
using the Silvertone
brand name. They weren't all bad. Here is a link for some general info.
http://www.searsarchives.com/brands/silvertone.htm.

ed

But Sears today provides their own service for the TV's they sell and
warranty and have an excellent reputation for quality of service,
which they
also farm out for other retail stores. Their TV departments vary
greatly
from store to store but, in the larger stores, they usually have lots
of
choices on display. They will dicker on price and match competitor's
prices
+ 10% of the difference. If they are late in delivering, they will
knock
more money off. If you don't like your TV, you can take it back in
60 days
for a full refund, for any reason or no reason. If you buy their
extended
warranty, they provide in-home service from day one and fix anything
that
goes wrong, even if the problem is just cosmetic.



As I am coming to find out, some people hold a grudge way longer than
they should. Every store, if they are open long enough, will face
problems, and certain bad publicity.
All told, Sears is still around, and there is a reason for that.
Thankfully, some reasonable people have stepped forward and spoken the
truth that Sears does a pretty good job, especially in their
electronics department.
I encourage those people who had a bad experience back in 1973 to give
them another chance, and then let all of us know what you thought.

Lola wrote:


As I am coming to find out, some people hold a grudge way longer than
they should. Every store, if they are open long enough, will face
problems, and certain bad publicity.
All told, Sears is still around, and there is a reason for that.
Thankfully, some reasonable people have stepped forward and spoken the
truth that Sears does a pretty good job, especially in their
electronics department.
I encourage those people who had a bad experience back in 1973 to give
them another chance, and then let all of us know what you thought.

After years of going to Sears to buy flyer items only to find that they
were "sold out" when the doors opened on the first day of the sale I
stopped buying anything from Sears. Last summer I bought a GE double
wall oven from Sears via the internet (best price, lowest deliver cost).
My credit card company called to see if it was fraud.

Matthew (happy with the purchase from Sears)

--
Thermodynamics and/or Golf for dummies: There is a game
You can't win
You can't break even
You can't get out of the game