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May 12, 2008 5:00 pm US/Pacific
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Call Kurtis: Brand New Busted TV
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
Hal Ward recently became a father again, this time, to his grandkids.
He just bought a home and couldn't wait to enjoy his new Samsung 40-inch LCD TV.
"We figured we'd have a Super Bowl party, have a brand new TV, barbecue and do it right, well that didn't happen" says Hal Ward, Stockton resident.
His daughter bought the TV from a Best Buy in Stockton back on December 23rd.
She paid more than $1,600 cash.
Because Hal was in the process of moving, he didn't test out the TV until more than a month later.
"We brought it out of the box for the very first time, we turned it on, it was just like a spider web" says Hal.
Since then, the TV sat in his bedroom closet.
Hal pulled it out and showed us the problem.
Clearly, something isn't right with the screen.
Hal says "it's still a good looking tv that doesn't work."
When he went back to Best Buy, Hal says he was told to deal with Samsung directly because it was past the 30-day return policy.
Samsung then instructed Hal to call its technicians from Precision Television to check it out.
On February 12th, the technician confirmed the "unit has a cracked panel" and wrote the "tech did not see any point of impact indicating that the unit had been damaged by customer."
"So we sent pictures of the TV itself and the box indicating and showing there was no damage" says Hal.
But numerous calls to Samsung still got him nowhere.
"Oh, I'm beyond frustration" says Hal.
That's when Hal called me.
We contacted Samsung and a customer relations representative says the reason it took so long is because they had the wrong name on file.
The representative also says there's no proof of how the TV was damaged and insists it's not a manufacturing problem.
Regardless, Samsung agreed to exchange Hal's TV for a new one.
"I feel relieved because this is something that's always there, like a thorn in your side" says Hal.
We talked to Hal this week.
He tells us his new TV just arrived a few days ago and that he's happy with it.
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