Hello,

Just curious how often you guys notice dead pixels on TVs. Had a tiny black dot on a 7 series Samsung the other day out of the box. Customer noticed it and cant unnotice it any longer. Beyond 4 feet away I dont find it noticeable. Spent lots if time with Samsung and they refuse to do anything. Apparently they dont replace panels unless there are more than three dead pixels. I knew I should have just purchased from Bestbuy instead of a distributor to make a couple of bucks. I may have to take the hit on this one unless I can convince the customer it’s normal.

thanks
alexsunny

I wouldn't say it's "normal" but it is total BS the manufacturer nor the distributor stands behind products.

Does your distributor give a rat's ass about their customers, or do they just want to push boxes out the door?

The way Samsung stood behind their products when the shitty caps they used failed and they wouldn't make it right?

Are you proposing that the distributor eat the set if the manufacturer wont stand behind it?

At this point I prefer that the customer purchase their own TV. We don't make enough margin to justify the pain. We don't need to bother with "I can get a better price", "It's too big", "It's to small", shipping damage, or, in a case like this, a bad pixel.

I suspect that the big box stores have an easier time returning a set or pushing out an 'open box' set to a cheapskate.

In my opinion the easy return mindset drives prices upward. People will order multiple products, compare them, then return all or all but one. It's a remote showroom.

The disty should have just as much pull as a retailer, and should use it to correct a problem.

If neither will "own" this, I would eat the loss and go VERY public with how badly they both supported the product.

Samsuck needs to be dropped by every installer. That would be enough drop in sales to make them regret their position.

I don’t know if he was, but that’s absolutely my expectation. If you sold me a faulty product, I expect you to make it right.

I don't believe a one size fits all approach should apply. There are sets and sizes that would disagree. High end sets and larger sizes should absolutely yield a margin/spiff combo that makes it worth it. Now if you are small and shipping to a residence that may change things with lost time to receive product.

I believe there are extended warranties that you can sell that will cover all the way down to a single dead pixel. And margin to boot. It is all spelled out in the manufacturers warranty that they do not cover it unless there are "X" number of dead pixels. It should not be a surprise that they stand by their warranty as it is written, should it?

Yes. If I received a TV with a dead pixel, I would be pissed off. But since I assumed the risk, I would not have much recourse with the manufacturer or distributor or reseller, etc. as the warranty is explicit in its coverage details.

What I think they SHOULD offer is a replacement option where if you get a TV with a dead pixel or 2, you can opt to have it replaced for a reasonable fee. Now, how much is that kind of service worth to you, your clients, the manufacturer, or disty? That would be the battle.

I am afraid we are waaaay past the point where manufacturers of electronics have any desire, motivation, or incentive to design, build, and/or sell products that will last for any length of time. It just is not in their best interest.

Now, surely someone could devise a device that you could connect to a TV and "manipulate" pixels......hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Back in my former life, TV manufacturers would cover panel replacement for dead pixels when you had a certain number of dead pixels in a specific measurement of space on the screen. 1 or 2 wouldn't cut it.

I haven't dealt with service in a long time but I'm sure the standards are worse for us now rather than better.

We deal with about 1 TV nightmare a year. It is worth the headache for what we make on all of the other TVs we sell.

Disty's make very little margin on product and even less on TVs. Also, a single Best Buy will outsell your disty on TVs. Thinking of that, how many BBs are there versus the disty you buy from? One of them has pull with TV mfgs, one doesn't.

This industry has changed so much in the last 15 years. First Best Buy and Circuit City took away so much business from us, in turn taking business from those distys, then Amazon came along, and now Snap. Personally, I'm just happy I even have a disty to goto still.

I now sell TVs one of three ways:
1. Buy them from Best Buy and mark them up $100 for the delivery.
2. Buy from my disty, check the TV before receipt, let customer know if it goes out, it needs to be repaired by mfg.
3. I don't. I just let them go buy it themselves.

It's all aboout setting customer's expectations.

What do you do if you let the customer go buy the TV themselves, and then it turns out not to have, say, discrete ON and OFF, or discrete input commands?

Then they didn't buy the TV model I told them to.... their fault, not mine.

Also, BB make about a 20% margin on the better TV's. Your disty makes about 8% and sometimes less. It's easy for Best Buy to stick that TV on the clearance rack with a 10% discount. That's their decision, they are not getting credited from Samsung. It has nothing to do with how much pull they might have with a vendor.

Your distributer should be able to work out something with you. Mine does (they even sold me a replacement tv at their cost one time when I broke one). Just remember, that means they have to re-sell that TV as a clearance item, and probably will take a loss to do so. Form a good relationship with one of the salespeople, even the manager. Make sure they know you, and make sure they know you will support them back.

Samsung will not take them back, or give credit for this issue, as has been said, it's in their written warranty. To be honest, they don't actually take anything back. For actual factory defects, Samsung will only repair them, under warranty, and then they credit back the distributor, who then has to re-sell the TV as clearance, once again, at a slight loss depending on how much allowance they provide.