I have spent over an hour on the phone today with Samsung switched to every single department including executive relations and they literally all acted like I made this up.
It was announced at CES 2016 that every SUHD TV would be sent a Smartthings extend For free! I was in the market for a new TV and loved the fact that i would be able to use the TV at as a smart hub. Unfortunately I was baited into buying a TV from a manufacturer I probably wouldn’t have bought. It’s been almost 2 years since my purchase.
When I contacted Samsung I was told to buy a 2018 model!!! So their solution for not giving what was promised was to tell me to buy a new TV!!
I’ve sent an email to the CEO and all of the executives and nothing. The next step is contacting the media and sending them the YouTube clip of VPs of Samsung promising something that doesn’t exist. I’m sure they’d love to pick up the story
I await a response. I’m very disappointed in how Samsung treats their customers.
2 years and still nothing…Likelyhood of it happening is slim to none.
Least they could do is send you a v2 Hub or if you are tired of waiting and really want to get into it, get one when they go on sale for $59.99.
Truthfully speaking, since TVs are always changing, I would want to have all of my smart home devices tied to something that I know I’ll end up replacing after it’s useful life…
Samsung is horrendous.
Worst thing that ever happened to SmartThings is its acquisition by this horrendous company.
Samsung is a sales company. Nothing more.
Samsung is NOT a customer service company. Never has been, never will be.
Samsung routinely promises stuff, then fails to deliver on those promises.
What they deliver routinely does not work.
From ‘smart’ watches that can no longer be charged after just a year because the design ensures the charger can no longer clip into the watch, to washing machines that decapitte themselves, Samsung is NOT where smart consumers want to be. Especially because, as the poster in this thread makes clear, the company does nothing to address these issues. “your $2000 Samsung tv does not do what we promised, the solution is for you to spend another $2000 on a new Samsung tv”???
Samsung is not a “tech” company. They are a huge conglomerate, bigger than Panasonic and even Sony. Where they stand out is simply that they don’t care about their customers (unless liability and law suits are a concern).
I like SmartThings, but I hate Samsung (and they will eventually ‘F’ this thing up). When it comes time that I am forced to reset everything up from scratch, I’ll be moving on to something else.
While that’s true, the unfortunate reality is that Samsung is reaping coin from the tens of millions of folks who can’t be reached prior to their trip to Home Depot. They see that fancy ‘smart’ fridge with the built-in screen, they drop $4K… and then it turns out, after it’s already in your kitchen, that fridge cannot connect even to Samsung’s other products!! “But it will in the future, we promise…”
As long as there are consumers who don’t do much (or any) research before they allow themselves to be convinced by anything a salesperson says, there will always be companies (“tech” or anything else, doesn’t matter) like Samsung that fail to deliver on promises.
The biggest slap in the face is that I was told “2018 models support smartthings”. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
I found it insane that when I spoke to customer service and went all the way to executive escalations that they never heard of this? They tried to blame it on the retailer I bought the TV from. I kept telling them your CEO, president and VP announced this to the entire world 2 years ago. I was speaking another language. I’m not sure why they haven’t been sued into obilivion yet.
It’s funny how they are acting like this has never happened before. I spent over an hour on the phone and transferred all over the place and was told there is nothing they could do. So basically SOL after spending over 2k on a TV I probably would have bought an LG if it wasn’t for this. No empathy and told to buy another new TV.
Still no responses. I’m seriously thinking about going to the news outlets. I live in the chicago metro market and they love reporting this stuff. I’ve never been so offended by a customer service department. I even suggested to send me a Smartthings starter kit as compensation I’d be happy with and i was told over the phone last night not possible.
Do a quick search of the forums and you’ll see you aren’t the first person to propose this. You’ll also see that the extend was produced, beta tested, and now has a sticker on it and is sold as the Link for the Invidia Shield. So it’s as good as dead.
If you could find a press release proving this then you have a good chance to get what you want. Forward that to the CEO along with a lawyers letter, and threaten class action suit. It worked for me many years ago with a company which will remain unnamed due to my agreement with them.
I actually send the YouTube video of them announcing this to the CEO and customer service teams. I really wanted to keep lawyers out of it. I’ve already spoken to an attorney. The crazy part is how they just pretend like it didn’t happen. Blaming the retailer for telling me something, when i references the executives of their own company announced it, they just shrugged it off.
Again. Still no response from Samsung or Smartthings on the matter.
Honestly, if you want to follow through, then a lawyers letter sent to their legal team would help greatly. Tell them you want only what you should have received, or equivalent. (HUB V2). Posting here is helping vent, but will not get you anywhere with Samsung. If you don’t want to go that route, then go to Samsung Facebook and Twitter accounts and post there. See if it draws attention from other users, if so mention a class action. See what happens. I am not an attorney, but i feel for you, as companies pull this all the time. I bought a Samsung TV in 2016, and was told that a HD box which upgrades the TV capabilities would be available. It never happened.
I’m sure that’s very frustrating. I’ve never heard of a company being successfully sued over broken promises from a tradeshow announcement about future features, even when the CEO was involved.
Basically the FTC considers such announcements to be “good intentions” pre release discussions. Not specific advertising. So legally they represent the company’s “hopes,” not a promise. But you can contact the FTC and see if you have any options.
Definitely overpromising of this type can affect the company’s brand, and they may have to work hard to win back your trust, but as Mark suggested, when it comes to purchasing electronics or home automation it’s best to make your decisions based on the current set of delivered features.
Lawsuits are lengthy and expensive. Samsung undoubtedly has a gigantic and well compensated legal team.
Also there’s a pretty good chance that we all agreed to settle disputes in private arbitration, and expressly gave up the right to file a class action lawsuit, when we purchased various devices from Samsung.
yup. Seems like a whole lot of time and money that would better be served by spending $50-100 on the v2 hub, which is better anyway. Or if you get a reasonable support person they would just send you a v2 hub. I think i’ve seen someone on here get that.
I’ve never heard of a company being successfully sued over broken promises from a tradeshow announcement about future features, even when the CEO was involved.