hope03

So, in the ongoing saga of the Amazing Technicolor DreamTV …

I got a call from Samsung’s service center. They’re apparently near Baltimore, and immediately, the rep is having me schedule an in-home repair visit.

Here’s where I just want to divert, if I may.

Why in the name of all that’s holy can I not find a place to even call about repairing TVs in the D.C. metro area? I spent two hours Saturday searching, and I came up completely empty. I’m hoping if you’re one of my D.C. readers, you may be able to help me out, here.

Anyway, I digress.

Samsung’s rep tells me there’s a $75 dollar (plus tax, as she said five times) evaluation fee. So, right off the bat, for the privilege of having Samsung’s guy walk through my front door, I owe them $75.

“Wait, is that because they’re coming from Baltimore?” I asked.

“No. Even if they were in Washington, it would be $75,” she said.

Sigh.

So, I move on to my next question.

“Will I have a chance to tell them I don’t want the service if the estimate is say, more than $200? Because at this point, you can buy a new 40-inch HDTV for $600 in some places. If it’s going to be that kind of money to fix, I may as well just hold off and get a new one down the road.”

She assures me I will hear the estimate, and then be able to choose whether I want them to fix it.

I then decided to punish myself a little more by asking her an obvious question — why Samsung is making people pay for this after their warranties expired, when this is a known problem with Samsung TVs. (If you want to learn more, Google “Samsung power cycling” and read all about people just like me who have TVs turning themselves on and off, but without the added delicious bonus of rainbow stripes)

She said something about buying an extended warranty or something. I really don’t think she was listening. I think she just wanted to get me to set the appointment and shut up. Fair enough.

Anyway, here’s where I’m presented with a quandary.

1. The repair estimate is favorable, I choose to fix the TV, I pay only parts and labor, I have my TV back and go along my happy, trash-TV watching way.

2. The estimate is more than it’s worth to repair, I’m just going to wait to get a new TV, oh, and I’m now out $75 for some guy in a shirt with his name on it and a company logo to tell me, “Your television is broken.”

You see where this is a hellish decision? Online estimates show the repair at less than $200, but nobody (and seriously, if you find this on Google, I’ll be shocked) has the same power cycling problem with rainbow screen that I have. Or if they do, they’ve not posted about it on the typical forums.

Last night, I priced some new TVs online, and I can get a new, 40-inch LCD for just about $600. So, as you can see, there’s no sense in dumping out as much as $300 for repairs when a new TV can be mine for only twice that. When I bought this TV (as the first purchase I ever made for my townhouse post-divorce), it was nearly $2,000. I never would have bought this TV if I would have known its shelf life was roughly the same as the bottle of squeeze mayonnaise in my fridge. It’s disheartening.

Why didn’t you buy the extended warranty, you ask?

Oh, maybe because at the time, I couldn’t justify an extra $200 for a “maybe.” My stingy ways come back to haunt me again, I see.

So, the decision I need to make in the next six days is whether to have Samsung come to check out the damage. A new remote for the TV arrived today (thanks, Mom!) so I’m going to hope (in vain) that maybe switching it off HDMI 1 will somehow, in some miraculous way, resurrect the TV.

Of course, I could also hope that in my coat pocket is a $100 bill I forgot I had. Either would be as productive.

But, your thoughts? As I said to my friend Shawn today (and The Original Paige last night), I feel like an insurance adjuster and right now, I’m standing before this wrecked SUV and I have to make the decision to fix it, or total it. What would you do in this situation?

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