harborbreeze,

I'm sorry to hear about this situation, particularly the amount of time a response has taken. I'm not sure why they would do that. To get a straight answer, you might call 800-SAMSUNG and ask to speak with the ECR Department.

It may be that they can't fix your particular unit, and are willing to upgrade you to the next series up. But these concerns should be brought to their attention so that they can address them with you.

The picture quality of both units are very similar, and you're not losing anything by getting upgraded to the next series.

--HDTech