Nope... blame NEWCorp. They are most likely the administrator of the warranty contract. Good luck trying to talk to a human being to complain, they LOVE to play "push the number and wait" game.
Doug,
I'm a bit late on this, but that's not a typical warranty repair through Assurant/GE. Let me give you some background...
Assurant/GE has been your warranty company since before the CircuitCity melt down. They are just administering the contract differently. When CircuitCity was open, the option to take the unit to the store you purchased it from and get an exchange was there. Most repairs that went over 30 days were referred to the original store to get an exchange. Now that they've gone belly up, they will allow a repair to go to 90 days in hopes that the technician can find a source for a part if the manufacturer can't supply it. There are plenty of parts suppliers out there, and someone may have a part on a shelf somewhere that will fix the unit. If the original estimate is cost effective, they will play the waiting game until the unit is fixed (or the customer gets so irate they just give them a new tv/buy out the contract just to get them to shut up.)
There are some Samsung models that have a two year warranty. This would have been in the paper work in VERY small print. There are also some Samsung models that come straight from the factory with parts that, for lack of a better term, are under manufactured just because they want to go cheap on components.
Sometimes there are so many issues going on with a tv, one repair will NOT fix the problem permanently. From what you're saying, there is definitely a Power Supply issue with that unit, but that issue can also be cause by a bad display panel (among other things). Fixing the newer technology is NOT what tv repair used to be. It can take upwards of 30 technician hours just to diagnose a tv to the board that is causing the immediate problem (and again.. it might not just be one circuit - it could be you just got a lemon.)
I can understand your frustration about back ordered parts - they are the bane of the service man's existence. Nothing frustrates a technician more than not being able to get a part in a timely fashion because the manufacturer of the tv doesn't supply them in sufficient quantity in order to meet repair demand. Also, the newer revisions of the boards may not work the same as the older revisions in older sets. Samsungs are notorious for their revisions.
If anyone gets a set repaired under any extended warranty, you should ask one question when they set up the call - Is this company MANUFACTURER AUTHORIZED to work on the product. That can mean the difference between a 7 day repair and a 50 day repair.
Also, 90% of extended warranties do not cover removing a tv from a wall mounted position. The repair companies are told NOT to remove wall mounted units because the insurance required by the warranty company EXCLUDES accidental damage - and repair companies would be responsible if something happens while they're removing it.
I saw someone complaining about a Samsung DLP TV... There are a lot of issues with various models because of the way they were engineered in the first place. They have been trying to work that out by issuing revisions to various parts. Sometimes that solves the problem, sometimes it creates new ones. I know of one particular model that has revisions that go from "A" all the way to "J" and each part revision has it's own unique personality.
Sony Corp is one of the hardest companies to get technical information from. They also over price their parts, charge ridiculous dud/core charges, and generally make repairing these things almost impossible. Right now, you - the end user - can get parts more inexpensively than the repair companies. There are several issues with the Bravia series that give technicians migraines.
I can only give this advice - shop around and do the research before you buy ANYTHING that is the "newer technology" - those pretty LCD's, Plasmas and DLP rear projections won't last as long as that 20 year old CRT behemoth you have in your basement for the kids.
use this number to get ahold of Assurant/GE for CircuitCity Advantage - don't hit any prompts - just wait through them to get to a human
[protected]
Lamps in DLP tv's are good for anywhere between 3000 and 6000 hours. If you run your tv most of the day (or all day/night) you'll be buying lamps about every 13 months. That is the nature of the beast. There is nothing that can be done about that except turn your brightness down and read a book once in a while (sorry, but that's the way it goes.)
That thermal sensor is a known issues with that version of Mitsubishi DLP tv. The first wanted technicians to hard wire the sensor to eliminate the problem, then they decided to have technicians replace it. Between you and me, hard wiring the sensor insured the problem never happens again (that being a faulty sensor).
The CircuitCity/Assurant/GE extended warranty covers ONE lamp replacement. Most of the DLP lamps can be switched out of the housing with just a replacement bulb for about 150 bucks. Repair shops usually stock the bare lamps and will charge a minimum fee to put it in your housing. If you want them to come out to do it, there is a service call charge involved.
If you feel that the lamps are going out too soon, you could have a technician check the lamp power supply to see if it's faulty.
Unfortunately, Raul, the actually life time of this technology is about 3 years. I always recommend people buy the longest extended warranty that they can afford. The technology is fragile, the components they use can be under rated and the replacement costs of some parts (as you've figured out) can be cost prohibitive to fix. They don't want you to fix them - they want you to throw it away and buy a new one.
Um... they're not stealing from you - you won't have to pay next month because it's been paid. It's not their responsibility to inform you if the bill is PAID - you contact them to give them money, they take it. How hard is that to understand?
