Samsung is the new Sony (and that's bad)

Introducing the story
The following is an account of how my favourite Brand shot me in the back. I imagine what I am feeling is akin to having your hero betray you, and rip away from you all that passion and love you had. What Samsung has done is turned me from a fiercely loyal customer and evangelist into an embittered and disappointed lost soul.

Imagine your favourite brand and how proud you are to own it's products and services. Now imagine that brand betraying you, and how you would feel, how foolish you would think you seemed for spending so much time promoting them to your friends and colleagues; think how you'd feel after spending the extra money to get their offerings over another company's. Think about how you would feel for not even considering an alternative product?

I'm sure we've all dealt with something similar, but it's not often that it's your favourite brand that kicks you in the nuts and tells you they don't care, so that's why I think this foray is only the beginning into my campaign for justice.

The following covers how I built up brand loyalty with Samsung, followed by how my recent interactions with the company brought me to this point. Samsung used social media to try and help me and ended up making things much worse than they already were. I started off having an issue with their products and their false advertising, but what was more troubling was their customer service and lack of care for their loyal customers. I've detailed each communication between myself and their company below for you to understand the hypocritical nature of their actions.



Quick preamble on how I got into Samsung
I used to love Sony, think they were the best and sexiest, they were the peak of cool and good quality electronics, well that is what I thought up until about 9 years ago. I scraped up all my hard earned money to buy a clie, quite an expensive yet nifty little tool that I thought was going to change my life! It would get me organized and moving at a faster pace to be more effective, and at such an early age! But nope, the second day I had it, it broke. In my pocket. With the cover on. While I was just sitting.

That caused the screen to have a giant crack in it, it stopped working right, and boy was I upset! I called out the deathknell to Sony, they would never ever ever have my business again. And for the most part they haven't, apart from a $20 pair of ear buds. Of course, Customer Support didn't help, after a maze of different call lines, and transfers, they said they could send me a box, and I can ship it to them to fix, but it would cost about $275, which was just under the price to replace the whole unit altogether! I told them that it broke with the case on in my pocket, how is that my fault, replace it for free, and they said "No, you probably dropped it and you won't tell us the truth, do you want the box or not".

I wish I could remember more of what happened, but it was long ago now, although I still probably have the letter somewhere that they sent me. I think it was along the lines of, if you don't want it fixed, you can pay us $110 and we'll dispose of it for you. Yes, it was that ridiculous.

Anyways, I don't want to pull up those old scars, but when I went to the tech fair at the University shop, I tore the Sony Booth's representative a new asshole, and my friends were just dying laughing.

Anyways, on to Samsung!
Ever since that day I looked for new cool brands and I found Samsung, had another sexy S name, good looking electronics, high quality and price; it seemed to be the brand to aspire to buy. If you had Samsung, you had the best high quality stuff.

My first flatscreen monitor was my first real Samsung purchase (I think my old cell was a nicel little Samsung flip, but I won it). It was a 19", great stats, more expensive than the rest, but it seemed worth it. I got that probably 5 years ago. I still have that monitor and up until yesterday it was my 2nd monitor. It served me well, although recently I've discovered a few dead pixels and it definitely has suffered some burn-in. I'm hoping that will go away as it is an LCD and I was hoping it shouldn't have that problem, I might have to try a program to try and flash it away or something.

Since then I've bought a Samsung laser printer. A sexy box that was under $100, less than ink cartridges, and it lasted so goddamn long on it's starter toner; I'm still amazed to this day! I just recently bought a replacement toner, which was still cheaper than ink which barely lasted 3 months. And I went through printing out every sample midterm and final (10-20 pages each) for most of my courses for at least SIX University terms! Plus all the other printing for reports and assignments I'd normally do. I'd usually run out of inkjet ink by end of one term after printing samples.

Since then I bought a 22" widescreen Samsung flatscreen, it was great, slim, and sexy; my first black coloured Samsung device. It worked great and I only replaced it this last Christmas when I found that the Samsung 2443BW was on sale and could pivot. My dream was a pivoting monitor so I could code or read long documents. Of course that's when it all started. We got my girlfriend's dad to buy it for us for Xmas, and it was cheap at Future Shop. I fucking HATE Future Shop, they sold me the clie in the first place and wouldn't take it back under the extended warranty crap they sold me. I try to shop there as little as possible, but that's more of another story.

Of course, we get the monitor for Christmas, I open it up and I'm happy, but I'm scared. The box seems too small. I've moved enough times to remember how big my other monitor boxes are, and this one didn't seem like it could hold a Height Adjustable Stand (HAS). We get home, I open it up, and bam, it has the shittiest little tilt stand and that's it!!! The internet told me there was a HAS so you can actually Pivot it, and where are the USB ports?? So I go deep into the Internets to find that there are actually 4 models!! You can only tell the difference by looking at the tiny product code and seeing the last 2 letters. Of course Future Shop sells the shittiest possible model, and Canada Computers just so happens to sell the best one. The other 2 models were one with HAS and USB and one without HAS and with USB. So I search around at other popular big computer stores like NCIX, etc. None of them carry the shitty model at all! It's so hard to find I realize that's why I didn't know it even existed! But leave it to Future Shop to sell you garbage! And then put that garbage back on sale the week after you buy it!

So we had to fork out an extra $100 bucks to cover the extra cost for the real model, which of course also wasn't even in stock for like 2 or 3 weeks. I get it home, set it up, and then later I try to do the pivot. There is when the fun really started.

I started to get dizzy, my eyes went googly, and I started getting a headache. Something was wrong. One side of the screen seemed lighter than the other, and it appears like I was looking at the monitor from the wrong angle, where it gets all dark and sheerish. I'm looking at it exactly straight on too. If I turn it on a huge angle, it appears a bit nicer, but still off, and why would I want it on a huge angle? I tried it for about 20 minutes, but I just felt too sick, I had a headache for the rest of the day, and boy was I pissed! I finally get a Pivoting monitor after 3 years of wanting one, and it doesn't work worth shit. The vertical viewing angle is so bad, that you cannot see the monitor properly looking straight on. I started reading more reviews and yes the bezel bleeds light like nuts, and you see these spots or lines where its just too bright. The monitor just doesn't seem that high quality. I expect quality from Samsung. I expect a product that WORKS.

The little apps were pretty sketchy too, not very updated, and not very well written. So I stick with just using the monitor normally width wise, with my mostly reliable, but now burned in 19" as second monitor.

Now we get to the newest chapter. My dream has been for awhile to have dual 24" monitors like Google has, It would be even greater if I could pivot both of them! I see a newer 24" Samsung from Canada Computers for $300! I was amazed at how they are getting so cheap now, so I think this is a lot newer of a model, it should be able to pivot fine, that's what I want for my second monitor, as they would both be really wide. I can't find many reviews of the monitor, but I wanted it so I just went out and bought it, how bad could it be? It's Samsung!

I take it home, unpack it, it almost seems like it was opened before, no cables in bags except for power cable. Very easy to pull out and setup. It's got a bit of an ugly built in speaker on the bottom, and what appears to be a thicker rim. I line them up and one was set a centimeter higher so I thought they are probably the same, just need to readjust the height. Then my girlfriend comes in and says, I think this monitor is a lot smaller, look at how the screens don't even line up! I look down to see that WTF, this monitor is like 1 inch shorter than my other 24". How the hell did I buy two 24" Samsung screens and get 2 different sized viewing areas? I thought they might put like 23.6 or something like other companies, but even on the websites in the detailed specs, it's hard to tell that the screen sizes are different the way it's worded. The different resolutions was the real giveaway I guess. This monitor is only 1920x1080, which I think is the same as new TVs, and it also has HDMI and 1080P, so I guess that makes sense, but my old 24" does 1920x1280. So great, now I have 2 different sized 24"ers. Oh well, I'm going to Pivot this one anyways!

So I try to install the drivers, and I put the CD in. My drive sounds like it's going to fall apart and crumble, WTF? Did I break it somehow? I pull out the cd, and it looks incredibly warped! WTF IS THAT? I ask my girlfriend to try it in her computer, same deal, horrible sounds. So now I can't install the drivers or apps, luckily I can go to the website to download them though! So I go to the site, and I can only get the drivers, but not the apps, nor could I find any mention or links to these apps! I can't even find a website explaining what MagicScreen is! The icon makes it look like MaxTo, which lets me define areas of the screen to maximize to, but I don't know for sure if that is what it is. I can find the other 3 classic apps by hard googling, or by right clicking on my old magicrotate install and saying open website.

I wonder if I can pivot both monitors using the one install, so I decide to open up the Nvidia control panel, and nicely enough for me, it asks which monitor I want to pivot, so I pick the second one and try to pivot it, but I get an error telling me I'm running a 3D game or program and can't rotate while doing this. So I close everything try again, same error, wtf! So I restart, then close all my startup items and try again...STILL get the error! Can't find the error on Google either! Wonderful!

So anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself, before I even try to rotate it using software, I tried physically Pivoting the monitor, as I want to see how it looks, I mean they must have fixed the problem!....FUCKING HELL! Of course it's EXACTLY THE SAME! Still a horrible view looking straight on, with one side dark. I have to rotate the screen like 45 degrees just to get a mostly clear view of the screen, but it still hurts by eyes and head. Just wonderful. Samsung is great at selling pivoting monitors that aren't actually viewable when pivoted. And I'm not some sort of troll with one side of my face sticking out more than the other, I have nearly perfect vision.

Anyways, I've just turned it normalwise and might try using it for a few days and seeing if I can take it back, but I doubt I can, as Canada Computers isn't too friendly with that sort of thing, but I could argue a warped cd or the pivot doesn't work, but they might try to replace or upgrade me, or just charge me 15% restocking fee. I guess we'll see soon enough.

Either way, I don't know what happened to Samsung, but they went from Sexy and something I would aspire to buy, to disappointing liers who hide information, part numbers, sizes, and don't actually work.

I wouldn't even consider buying any other brand of monitor until now, and I would tell all my friends "go Samsung!" Now those days are over and I need to find a new brand to look up to, or just lower my expectations on all brands.

I was also in the market for a new 50"+ TV, and I was considering Samsung, people even told me just yesterday that they make great LCD TVs. I don't think I agree anymore, and will definitely not be sinking several thousand dollars into them.

Samsung, you lost my loyalty, my recommendations to others, and my respect. Enjoy hanging with Sony and Future Shop in the Pit of Shit Brands.

FULL Update: I've received a response from the US Samsung Twitter account saying they'd like to help, so they will pass my contact info to Canada, but I haven't heard a peep yet from them, so lets see if they really give a shit about losing a very loyal customer.

Well I got a horribly confusing email from an Ahmed that seems to lack full comprehension of english and didn't really seem to sound too concerned. After posting this blog again I then got an email from Sahil, who seemed genuinely concerned and wanted me to call him. I did manage to finally get a hold of him at the end of last week and he agreed to give me 2 brand new better model monitors in exchange, and said he would have Ahmed call me on Monday with several new models I can research to pick out the ones I want. I was satisfied with this, and even a bit excited. I asked to know when Ahmed would call as I would be working and Sahil assured me that he would call between 830 and 1130 Monday morning. Unfortunately for me Sahil was on vacation the next week (which is now when I'm writing this). I clear my schedule, and of course no call comes in.

Naturally I get the call at 3pm while I'm in a meeting, which I found out after reading an email:

Hello Mr. Ivan,

Would you please send me the serial number of the below Monitor along with the bill of sale as soon as possible for the exchange process.

We need also your address.

Best Regards

Ahmed

So I reply saying where the hell was my call, and what information do you need? Also where are my new models so I can start researching??

Hello Ivan,

I did call you twice this afternoon @ (xxx)xxx.xxxx but couldn’t get hold of you.

The Models are:

- 2443BWHAS

- 2494HM

Per our warranty policy, it is mandatory to produce a proper evidence of purchase for any warranty claim.

Thank you

Ahmed

Now here is where I get really pissed off, because I was not only promised a call when I could take one, he fucking gives me the exact same models of monitors I already have! This isn't a goddamn warranty exchange, this is a call for satisfaction where promises were made, and I wish that Sahil would have left someone with a stronger sense of customer satisfaction in charge! I'm also not sure why Ahmed's email is at partner.samsung.com vs samsung.com, but that sounds to me that he isn't even in Samsung Proper and doesn't truly give a shit, which I think is obvious. At least his English is improving a bit in every email. The first email I got from his was horrible, and I honestly didn't know he was even connected with Sahil.

The other thing that seemed to be implied or at least not mentioned is the fact that they will want me to ship back both of my monitors, to leave me high and dry with no way of using my computer for what could be weeks, which would be completely unacceptable, causing me to lose time, money and my sanity.

I was calmed down for a bit and looking forward to rebuilding my loyalty thanks to Sahil, but this just pushed me back over the line. I'm more pissed than before!

Newest Update!
It's been 9 days since I've heard anything from Samsung. After my last angry email this is what I got back:

Dear Mr. Ivan,

We apologize for the inconvenience. Please send me the invoice of both monitors for further reviewing your claim.

You can send it by e-mail or by Fax to my attention @ 1.866.436.4617.

Best Regards

Ahmed

Of course I'm still not addressed in the standard Canadian format, I'm Mr. Ivan.

So I get a call this morning while walking between my car and work, it's Ahmed who rambles something along the lines of calling after horrible email, like it was a joke or something, I tell him I'm busy trying to go to work, he says he'll call back in 30 minutes, I said I might be busy I'm just going into work. I'm going to send you those receipts and in that email I'll tell you when you can call me. So I take a bit of time to check out monitors on their website, and let me tell you the Canadian website is unforunately a lot crappier than it's American counterpart, which has more models and lets you choose types, e.g. standard, professional, business. I found that the "profesionnal" models had the 245T, which seemed like a newer better 24" monitor. It had a much better viewing angle rating and also didn't have the mysterious CR > 10 next to vertical viewing angle, which has no definition. I asked both Ahmed and Sahil in the emails what that meant and got no response. Probably means that it doesn't actually work in vertical viewing mode or something to fake the numbers larger. I also give the option of trading both my monitors for a 30" if it was easier.

I told Ahmed and Sahil they could call me back between 1:30 and 5pm. I get the call at 3:30pm from Ahmed. Note that up to this point Sahil still hasn't said anything to me and I know he's been back from vacation for a week now and I know he's seen my nasty reply, and as he was so helpful on the phone I found it incredibly disappointing that he was not fixing the apparent issues.

At the 3:30pm call Ahmed says to me sorry, but we don't have any 245T's available and we have no other replacement units to give you. I'm thinking, What the Fuck buddy? You are goddamn Samsung head office of Canada, you have every friggin monitor, especially since you do warranty exchanges. He says the only thing he can offer me is the two monitors I already have! (Also my 2494HM isn't even on their website, so what the hell) Sahil said to me over the phone that he would get me a list of DIFFERENT monitors that I could choose from! So I tell this to Ahmed, inquisitively and tersely questioning him on all the facts and story, and he says that right before Sahil went on vacation he forwarded him the email and those two models I already own are the only things he can offer me, WTF? He insists that is what Sahil said to him, so what a fucking hypocrite!

Ahmed says the only other option they will offer me is a full refund. I ask him what that means. He says he'll pay me back the amount I paid on the receipt I spent hours searching for, plus taxes. I ask him if he sends me boxes to ship the monitors back in? He says "You don't have boxes??" I say yes, but I'm not paying $50 to ship my monitors back to Mississauga. He eventually says that he will send me labels and I can take to UPS to ship, so it's paid for.

I ask him how long it will take to get my money back, he says that after they receive the monitors they will start the refund process. No shit Sherlock, I ask him how long will it take to get my money back again, he says oh 3 to 5 weeks...worst case worst case, it shouldn't be that long. Yeah like I'm going to go 2 months with no monitors and possibly not even get my money back or have the monitors lost along the way. I'm very annoyed that I have to keep asking him every question over and over to get more details, it's like he can't actually answer any questions!

Now HERE is where it gets even more interesting! I ask him to send me an email with these details so I can think the deal over. He says "Send what?" like he honestly has no idea what I'm talking about. I say "The refund deal you just offered me, send me an email with the details in writing so I can think about it". He says, no I can't do that. I say "Why the hell not?" how am I to know about this if you won't send it to me, I want it in writing. So Ahmed says to me that he was advised by his legal team not to send any emails or anything in writing, verbal only. WTF?! Great legal team! Make sure nothing is documented so you can't get sued or in shit, and also so I can send back $750 worth of equipment and have no guarantee that I will get any money back in return and no record of this happening? This is just fucking wonderful. I say send me the labels and I'll think about using them, since you won't offer me anything else and have already lied to me. He tries to stutter out that he wants me to send him something, I tell him I'll send him my address, I obviously know he needs that. What a crock of fucking bullshit! He tries to tell me to have a very good weekend, I hang up on him.

Serious motherfucking bullshit. Straight out lied to over the phone by Sahil who for a moment made me feel better about Samsung, then he won't communicate back and I totally get screwed!

I send an email back with my address and this one line:

"I do not appreciate being lied to about what will be offered and having only a refund offered, but I will take your shipping stickers and consider your verbal-only offer."

And so later that night I finally hear a peep from Sahil, here is what he has to say, the nerve of him too:

Without Prejudice

Hello Ivan,

Thank you for your reply. We regret that our multiple attempts to rectify this issue have not been satisfactory. Unfortunately the replacement units offered do not fit you requirements and there are no other models available at this time. Therefore as a final attempt to satisfy this issue, we would like to offer a refund out of courtesy so that you may purchase something which suits your needs. Please note that we have gone above and beyond and warranty policies to help satisfy you up to and including our refund offer. We regret that you feel we would lie to you when we have diligently tried to help you. At this point in time our courtesy offer for refund will remain valid until July 17^th, 2009 after which will expire. As per the limited warranty statement, manufacturing defects are covered during the warranty period. If your unit does require service, standard warranty procedures will apply.

Regards,

Sahil Mistry

"Without Prejudice"? WTF is that supposed to mean? Multiple attempts my ass, you said you'd do something once, and then went back on it without telling me or replying to me. What replacement units? The ones you didn't offer? The ones I suggested? You were supposed to offer me several models to choose from, but you gave me the exact same ones back. Sorry I guess Samsung Canada only has 2 models of monitors in stock in their plant and head office and they won't suit my needs. My needs being something that isn't garbage and works as advertised. Above and beyond your warranty policies eh? They must be shit, because you didn't really try to help me, and not once did you tell me that this would be strictly going through the warranty process, if I wanted that I would have just sent them back and used the fucking website to figure it out, I'm not calling for a goddamn warranty, I'm calling so I can get what was advertised to work, I'm calling so I can get back my love for your now shitstained brand! Regret my ass about you believing that I think you lied to me, when you blatently did, but oh it was only over the phone so it didn't really happen. I kept asking all the time to get emails but I never did, I wondered why, but I guess that's the real reason. So now they decide to revoke their offer in a week, in which time I probably won't even get the lables in the mail yet, so they are just trying to screw me by stealing my monitors and giving nothing back. Enter final statement probably straight from website about warranty policy, blah blah we don't actually want to help you nor ever did, so this just proves it right here.

Well I almost had hope for returning to a semi-stable relationship with the brand I once so adored, but this is just insulting. Unfortunately their mission statement has nothing about being nice to customers in it, but they are supposed to be a trusted, responsible company, whatever the fuck that means!

False advertising and no service, that is what Samsung is. I probably would have spent another $25,000 -$50,000 on their products in my lifetime, not to mention buy their products for my businesses. They've lost a loyal and ravenous customer. It actually does hurt to have a brand you've loved so much be torn away from you like this, as I still see the logo everywhere, on TV, in live events, and I just think, "Ugh, I used to love these guys and be like YES, Samsung! Now it's just, well there is a fucking lying pile of shit brand parading around". It sucks that I have to find a replacement after I spent so much time not caring what others provided and not liking their brands. It seems to be a common theme amoung big companies, horrible service and not caring for their customers. Well actually that's a theme amoung most companies unfortunately.

I'm pissed that it's come to this, and even more pissed that I was fed false hope by hypocritical employees who don't really give a shit.

Don't buy Samsung, don't trust Samsung, and don't expect any true service, caring, or customer retention from Samsung.