The projector bulb on our Samsung 61" DLP television blew out on Monday night--we had finished that night's episode of 24 not five minutes before we heard the pop and saw the screen go black. (Could have been much worse--it could have gone out five minutes before we finished 24...)
Called HiFi Buys, the store where I bought the set and a five-year service agreement in May of 2003, and told them I needed a bulb replacement (the flashing indicators confirmed that's what the problem was). They told me they could ship the bulb to me and I'd have it in two days; if I wanted them to install it, it would take two weeks. I told 'em to ship it, since they assured me there would be instructions in the box and the whole thing was user-installable.
Today, two days later, no bulb. Called back... it seems that HiFi Buys doesn't keep any extra bulbs for these sets in their parts warehouse. None... nada... zip. Yes, you and I know that it would make perfectly good sense to keep in stock a number of replacements for a part that is with 100% certainty going to fail every 3 or 4 years, but apparently HiFi Buys is the company that wants to take the "service" out of "service agreement." They assure me that I will get the bulb within two days of the time they get it, which might be by the end of next week. Grrrr... I didn't get into the explanation that this is one of several reasons why I quit buying anything from HiFi Buys in mid-2005. They used to be my first stop for anything in electronics entertainment; now they're not even on my list. But that's a long story...
In the meantime, I've had to move a replacement LCD HDTV from downstairs into the family room, and we're having to adjust to watching television on a 32" HD set. Now bear in mind that a 32" HD set is actually only about 25% the screen landscape of a 61" set, and you can see how I'm having to suffer. I've compensated by moving the set a bit closer to me, but it's still a very big difference. Alas, no one seems to be moved by my tale of woe...
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