Samsung Impress, So Far...

In 2006 I purchased a new Samsung monitor at Best Buy. It was quite expensive at the time and was one of the larger ones being 20" or so.

Everything was fine until the fall of this year when I noticed it was beginning to take longer and longer to switch on each morning. It seems to 'warm up' much like an old CRT. Once it has warmed up, it works just fine.

Annoyed with this I began shopping around for a new monitor and was contemplating spending some Christmas gift money on an upgrade. Perhaps a 22" widescreen by HP.

However, today I noticed that some of the new Samsung monitors had a three year warranty on them. So I went to the Samsung web site on the off chance and typed in the serial number for my monitor and told them about the problem I was having. They immediately told me that my monitor was still under warranty and agreed to ship a refurbished monitor to my nearest UPS store for collection. The deal is, I take my old monitor to the UPS store, give it to them, take my new monitor home and the problem is solved.

It sounds too good to be true at this point, and I am still a little skeptical. But certainly from first impressions it sounds like an astonishingly zero cost zero hassle way of taking care of my problem without blowing $300 or so on a new monitor.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens here, but I am certainly intrigued by what appears to be extremely easy hassle free service.

Frankly, once an electronic product is a year old, I never expect to receive any meaningful support for it. So for Samsung to stand behind a nearly three year old purchase, and agree to replace it for free (not even a shipping cost), is pretty neat. I don't even know where my receipt is at this point.

For those of you excited by such stories I will keep you posted on how long it takes Samsung to replace my monitor, and also to let you know if the replacement is up to scratch. I figure it's worth giving them a shot at taking care of the issue before I waste my hard earned cash.

My concern however is that the monitor they send will be faulty, or not up to the standards or quality of my current monitor. I also don't like the term 'refurbished.' Conjures up images of a broken unit they have dusted off and shipped out. And since the exchange will take place at the UPS store, I won't really know how good the replacement is until I get it home, at which point I will no longer have my old monitor.