Samsung LN46A530 LCD television high pitched sound -- Help?

Hello,

Thanks for responding. Samsung will not open up another ticket and advised me to email the "office of the president", whatever that means.

Hopefully, I'll receive a response, but I'm doubtful with their history of getting back to me. Sorry for being so negative, but this has turned into a nightmare.

Chris

Not knowing all your details but understanding you got a "high pitched" noise.

It appears it seems to be working and you're able to use it. What this suggests to me is a "competent" like a transformer or toroid or similar component is "vibrating at such a high pitch because of voltage running through it, it actually generates a noise and as you noted some don't hear it. This can be caused by poor design, use of lesser quality components and/or the location within a product PCB. This is hard for a tech to fix, more than likely only a major component swap or whole replacement is going to work. -AND- if any of the same conditions exist with the replacement/new part will repeat itself. If that's the case, your real solution is a refund. If you can record the noise, do so. Repeated attempts at repairs should justify a refund. However, it will appear to the maker you're a picky customer after all they're going by the tech notes and/or what they "think" is happening. I exclude any farthings thinking along those lines.

Example: Run water through garden hose at low level(pressure), notice the noise. Now, run it at high pressure(max. turns at valve), notice the noise level now and feel the valve at spigot. A noticeable difference even though these can handle the water gushing out, the materials handling it do change and can cause a noise and feel variation. The performance is just as good but if you didn't like the feel/noise, how would you fix this?

tada -----Willy

Thanks Willy, some good info and consistent with what the technicians have thought as well.

Found this interesting site that shows how we lose our range of hearing (I was surprised at the difference between my wife and I and also how much more our three year old can hear):

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/can-you-hear-this-hearing-test/

Samsung was supposed to get back to me regarding my email in 48 hrs. I'm not surprised, considering how we've been treated so far, that it's been almost a week. If I don't get a reply by day's end on Monday, I'll be contacting the BBB and a lawyer. I don't have many other options left.

Hello HDTech,

I've emailed the 'office of the president' and I'm not getting anywhere. It seems as though no one is listening or willing to do what is right. They are now saying this problem is within the televisions specs, but I know very well it is not within the specs for LCD televisions to emit a high frequency sound that can be heard quite clearly from greater than 10 feet away. I hope desperately that you can help or I have no other option than to file through the BBB and possibly legal action. By reading other posts it seems that you are compassionate and truly want to help customers, so hopefully you can help us out?

Sincerely,
Chris

Below is my communication by email with Samsung:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter because I am hoping for some resolution to an issue with our 46" LCD television that we've had since December 2008. Initially when we bought the television we were excited because we had spent many hours researching which LCD televisions offered the best quality. Samsung was always recommended for its quality and customer service. To date, I have experienced neither to be satisfactory. This is our perspective:

1. A high pitched sound was noticed from at least 10 feet away after the TV was operating for at least 20-30 minutes. This sound becomes louder when the screen is brighter and the 'contrast' setting is greater than 25. This was confirmed by multiple people. However, we did notice that older people had difficulty hearing the sound. We researched this further and found that our ability to hear certain frequencies becomes less with age. However, we listened to multiple other Samsung LCD televisions in different locations and we never heard the sound. We contacted Samsung who arranged for a technician to come to our house. This technician, who was probably in his late forties, said he could not hear the sound. He wasn't concerned because he recognized why this high pitched sound might be happening. When he removed the backing, my wife was able to pinpoint exactly where the sound was coming from. By pressing the component, the pitch changed in tone. He said that is common for high pitched sounds and recommended to exchange the television. We exchanged the televisions at Visions.

2. We noticed the exact same sound almost immediately, following the same parameters as described above. We tried to adjust the settings, but could not reduce the sound to acceptable levels. We contacted Samsung again who sent a technician from SMR. He brought it to the shop for testing and informed us that he found the problem and he contacted Samsung who advised him to replace the 'power supply' component. When we received the television, it was apparent the problem was not fixed. We then contacted a number of technicians who advised us that it is likely a defective 'power supply' component and it is a common problem with certain models.

3. Contacted Samsung once more and they sent out SMR once more and they brought it in to the shop. Their technician had us come in to the shop so we could show him where the sound is coming from as he could not hear it. When we visited him, before he showed us to our TV we heard the high pitched sound from outside the room. We went straight to our television which was surrounded by several other silent flat screen TVs. It was easy to pick out as ours was the only one that was making any noise at all. He did not disagree that there was a problem. He contacted Samsung tech support who advised to use a sealant spray. We got our television back and it continued to make that sound.

4. Contacted Samsung once more who said that a ticket would be started and someone would call me in two days. No one called after one week, so I called in. They said someone would call me in 2-3 days....still no call after another week. Finally I called again and was informed the file was closed and basically told me there wasn't a problem with our television. A supervisor contacted 'Tier 2', but they refused to talk to me to discuss this issue.

This is completely unacceptable customer service. We've been more than compliant following any suggestion that was made. I've missed multiple hours of work to stay home for tech support visits. We've been without a television completely for weeks during periods where the exchange and repairs were being made. We have not received a television that we can watch for longer than thirty minutes because it becomes so irritating. We have a definite problem that does not exist with other televisions anywhere else. Our excitement in having a quality Samsung television has turned to extreme disappointment. We have become progressively more angry as Samsung is now refusing to take this further. Please reconsider our case with respect to your customer, not your policy.

Samsung(OOP) answer:

In reference to your email dated August 10, 2009. Thank you for taking the time to share with us your experience with Samsung. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you. We have reviewed your concerns outlined; we have confirmed with our quality control department that your TV is working within the specifications, and there is nothing wrong with the set. Therefore we are unable to accommodate your request for another service call.

Thank you for your time and we appreciate your cooperation

Sincerely,

Chris889,

I appreciate the way you worded your request. I will see what I can do to assist in a resolution. I'm limited in what I can do, in that I don't get to make the decisions, but I can escalate them to those who can.

I've sent this in to our Executive Consumer Relations Department as of this evening, and someone will review it likely on Monday. If you give the situation a few days after Monday, there will likely be some progress made. Once I send these issues up, my role in the communication is very limited, but I'll help out as much as I can to get you an answer.

--HDTech

I thought I might add my experience which was with a different model Samsung LCD TV.
(It was the LN22A450 a 22inch model).

I also experienced significant irritation from a constant high pitched noise, most noticeable during quiet parts of a movie and when in standby mode. My girlfriend can hear it but my parents are unable to.

I sent it back to Samsung who replaced the whole unit, but the replacement model had exactly the same problem. I didn't even bother asking them to look at it again because I just assumed it was a model wide fault.

Instead I got a remote control power board so that when I turn it off all power is cut and there is no noise when it is switched off. (here is the remote control power switch: (http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=459507)

I wish you the best in trying to resolve this problem.