Electronics giant Samsung has unveiled an ambitious next day replacement service on several of its PC monitors in a move that was initiated by its Australian subsidiary.
Under its new swap out service, Samsung was offering to replace faulty monitors with brand new ones within a day, which it claimed is unique in the market. The company has employed a third party with national coverage to handle the returns.
Samsung declined to name the third party.
The service covers Samsung's range of SyncMaster 15 inch, 17 inch and 19 inch TFT models as well as the SyncMaster 15 inch, 17 inch and 19 inch CRTs. Only one 21 inch TFT model – the 213T – is covered.
The service does not cover the old CRT sub-brand Samtron monitor range which the company stopped selling earlier this year.
Three year warranties are offered on all these monitors meaning the customer can receive a new monitor within that warranty period.
If a customer returns a faulty monitor two years after purchase for example, a “like-for-like” replacement model would be offered, Joe Serra, market development manager at Samsung Electronics Australia said.
Existing repair service agents would not be affected by the new service, Serra said. While he admitted that Samsung has taken one aspect of their business away from them “to lose one category is not going to make or break these guys.”
Serra told CRN if a call for replacement is received before 3pm during business hours, a new monitor would be delivered to the customer on the next business day.
Under the old system, the faulty monitor would be sent to a service agent for repair. “It's not replaced with a refurbished unit – it's a brand new unit. This is setting a new benchmark and all the vendors are going to have to jump on this wagon,” Serra said. “Others may take six months to catch up,” he said.
Samsung's monitor return rate in this country is miniscule, around half a percent of all shipment per annum. Samsung moves over 10,000 units of TFT monitors and between 5500 and 6000 units of CRTs per month in Australia, Serra said.
Samsung was the number one monitor vendor in Australia unit-wise, according to research released in September by IDC Australia. In Q2, 2004, Samsung captured the lead with a 17.5 percent market share. LG Electronics was second with a 16 percent share.
The total market, unit-wise, grew sequentially by 12.8 percent. In January this year, Samsung competitor, Acer Computer Australia launched an LCD PixelPerfect guarantee across its range of notebooks and LCD monitors.
However, by March, the company had dumped the service, citing the worldwide LCD shortage for its decision. That policy was subsequently replaced with an optional 12 month guarantee which customers could purchase.
Under dumped the PixelPerfect program, an LCD monitor that contained an imperfect pixel would be replaced under the vendor's two hour warranty express
service.