I bought a £2,000 8K TV from Richer Sounds in August last year but just short of its first birthday the screen stopped working. I reported it to Richer Sounds immediately who said it has to be dealt with by Samsung as it had happened within the first year, despite the store offering a six-year warranty.
I went through a long stream of emails and phone calls back and forth as Samsung tried to troubleshoot the problem. It insisted I supply a video of the TV not working, which I did. After many, many back and forths it agreed to send out an engineer, but the contractor told me I had to pay a £100 callout charge as the TV was now out of warranty.
Samsung, eventually, agreed to waive the fee but said it had to wait for a part the engineer needed, even though it hadn’t seen it. When I asked whether it will be bringing a new TV for when it inevitably could not repair mine, it said no. The case supervisor informed me they cannot as the TV is out of warranty, at which point I nearly screamed. It feels like the company is using endless delaying tactics to avoid sorting this out.
RG, London
There has been a noticeable jump recently in complaints like this about Samsung’s customer care, although the company does sell a lot of products in the UK. However, we get almost no complaints about Richer Sounds – which last week was voted the Which? retailer of the year. It would also be my first and only port of call to buy a TV.
I asked Richer Sounds to intervene, and within two days it had delivered you a new TV. In your shoes I would have been straight on to the store rather than waiting while the manufacturer messed about – particularly after the first year had passed and you were relying on the Richer Sounds warranty. It’s important to remember that when you make a purchase the contract is between the consumer and retailer – not the manufacturer of the item.
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