Editorial Samsung, or How To Fail at Outsourcing

[Easy Rhino]

the situation you are talking about does not involve "outsourcing." outsourcing is when a business or corporation uses foreign labor to manufacture products or provide a service because it is cheaper than domestic labor. what you are talking about is your run of the mill corporate business strategy which has proven quite successful but is not perfect. all corporations have offices spread across the globe. you are probably just dealing with the moronic one.

 

[Pinchy]

At least you got a reply dude.

The folks over at GeCube don't believe in having real email addresses or phone numbers on their website. They have absolutely no way to communicate with them.

Their emails bounce back and all telephone lines are disconnected. Kinda sucks when you have a $300 4870 thats dead.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=99158

^

 

[Frederik S]

That is too bad

By the way: "Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to an external service provider"

You can outsource anything from manufacturing to services such as PR, HR, and warranty handling

 

[Kitkat]

WOOOWWWWW rant vs news. dont u have a twitter for this?

 

[niko084]

Samsung QC these days seems questionable, sad because I quite liked some of their LCD's used to be the best bang for the buck you could get. They don't make a bad product, don't get me wrong but they made a name and now they are starting to make their buck, until their name is destroyed and the whole process will start over most likely.

As for outsourcing, they do save a lot of money this way.

They contract a company to handle their repairs, it's off their chest they pay the bill.
The company that does the repair is generally a electronic repair company, who also outsource for certain particular types of repairs they do not want to pay or train their people to do, generally do to the current market in their area.

Comes down to the same old story, you can open 20 micro Bestbuy stores in a metro area, or open 2 large stores, sometimes that 2 larger stores is going to be more efficient.

I don't like it from a customer stand point, and I wouldn't expect anyone else to either, but it is just business.

 

[Easy Rhino]

That is too bad

By the way: "Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to an external service provider"

You can outsource anything from manufacturing to services such as PR, HR, and warranty handling

by classic defniition yes, you can outsource labor within the same country to another business which can do it cheaper. but by modern definition it means shipping jobs "to another country." regardless of which definition is used, darksaber used the term incorrectly.

 

[gR3iF]

Hm two stories:

I bought a Keyboard made by Cherry its a small one for about 13eur+ shipping. I' d linke to have a hand rest with this unit. So i started searching for one and there is no one to buy. I contacted Cherry about this and they asked me for my contact information and after one week I got a hand rest for free... In case of an 50eur Keyboard I would say okay, but this is a 13eur unit.... Honestly I was very impressed.


The other story is around ym Asus p5b Deluxe... This Board is now 9 months old and today I send it the fourth time into Rma... There is no way to contact Asus about Warranty status or something. There is just waiting time. Alls in all it take normally around 4 weeks for Asus to repair this Board, every time it returns something else get broken or is at arrival...

I mean this shoudl be the premium board by Asus but this support.... Honestly: I will never buy an Asus again....

 

[BazookaJoe]

Where I work We have some samsung laser printers.

Short story WORST MISTAKE EVER - WILL NEVER BUY THEIR CRAP EVER AGAIN.

They have NO support of any realistic kind, they outsource all of their everything to the cheapest nastiest backyard venders under the sun they flat out IGNORE ANY AND ALL RESPONSIBILITY TO THEIR WARRANTY'S and just plain don't give a FFFK about anyone at all after you have purchased their overpriced garbage.

I wont go on any longer about specific examples, save to say it took us 3 months and more than 15 trips to 2 different "Official Samsung Service" dealers to get a printer replaced under warranty - One of witch just flat out said they DON'T CARE IF IT WAS UNDER WARRANTY - THEY WILL NOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT - PERIOD, and still expected us to sign a "Release Form" for the return of our printer - which was actually an invoice for repairs that HADN'T BEEN DONE, and cost MORE THAN REPLACING THE PRINTER.

Needles to say we did NOT - and will never even STAND NEXT TO a Samsung product ever again as long as we live & will advise anyone who ever asks us, to never ever touch their brand.

 

[HalfAHertz]

Ah, the wonders of outsourcing. I remember writing a huge report about that. I cant recall any hassle with techsupport or RMA, mostly because i dont want any hassle and buy a new item if the old breaks. Ive only RMA'd my gpu and that went fine.
Outsourcing is a double edged sword. Its cheap, quick and easy for a large company to outsource parts of their business, but can come at a cost for others.
One example is Darksaber current predicament. Others are far worse. Lets take an example. My brother works for a large flight travel company, (dont know the english word) which name i wont reveal, in a department where they document plane tickets among other things. The company figured out, that it would be cheaper to fire the six-seven people working there, and then outsource that job to india. SO! They ship, by boat, all the tickets all the way to india, document and handle them, them ship them all the way back here. And that is STILL cheaper.
Thats just insane. So we gotta be "green" and save the earth from pollution? I got the answer right here.
And then the government complains we have so many un-employed. Gee, i wonder why?

Let me guess...SAS?

 

[DanishDevil]

IMO this does not belong in the news section. This isn't news, it's a sharing of a personal experience, and everybody else does that in other forums. I have a very bad feeling about this, because putting it in the news section is putting a public marker on techPowerUp! for the nonsupporting of Samsung products. This should have been approached very differently without calling out a specific company as a focus.

 

[Easy Rhino]

IMO this does not belong in the news section. This isn't news, it's a sharing of a personal experience, and everybody else does that in other forums. I have a very bad feeling about this, because putting it in the news section is putting a public marker on techPowerUp! for the nonsupporting of Samsung products. This should have been approached very differently without calling out a specific company as a focus.

i sorta agree but it does say 'editorial' on it. regardless, darksaber should make sure to followup on this and perhaps add some balance to it.

 

[Static~Charge]

There you go. I've always received parts from Dell the day after I called them.
I've yet to have a Dell LCD monitor fail.

You're lucky. I've had several Dell LCD monitors fail at work, mostly due to power problems (won't power on, powers on then shuts off after a few seconds, backlight won't power on, etc).

I'll give Dell credit, though - when the monitor is under warranty, they're quick to send out a tech or a replacement unit.

 

[BazookaJoe]

IMO this does not belong in the news section. This isn't news, it's a sharing of a personal experience, and everybody else does that in other forums. I have a very bad feeling about this, because putting it in the news section is putting a public marker on techPowerUp! for the nonsupporting of Samsung products. This should have been approached very differently without calling out a specific company as a focus.

I'm my personal experience Samsung deployed their products & product support in such a maliciously neglectful manner, that I personally believe that it is a fantastic public service that has been done here, helping to bring to light the terrible, neglectful support offered by a company that tries to market itself as a global giant of fantastic innovation & wonderful experiences.

Everyone posting here admits that these are re-tellings of personal experiences & nothing more.

If Samsung cant take the heat for the pit that they have dug themselves then it's on their heads and nobody else's.

 

[DanishDevil]

I still think this was approached the wrong way. This should have been titled something along the lines of "How to Fail at Product Support Outsourcing" and not have Samsung mentioned in the title. An introduction should have been made, then there should have been a clear indicator that DarkSaber's experience with Samsung was a personal example of bad outsourcing, and then at the end, a question posed to the members of the forum for examples of how bad outsourcing has effected them.

Some of these things were done, but as it stands, Samsung will take it offensively. It is totally skewed against Samsung, and looks more like a bashing of the company than an editorial. Yes, it may say editorial, but it's phrased differently.

I can see W1zz getting a letter from Samsung very soon...

 

[Meecrob]

At least you got a reply dude.

The folks over at GeCube don't believe in having real email addresses or phone numbers on their website. They have absolutely no way to communicate with them.

Their emails bounce back and all telephone lines are disconnected. Kinda sucks when you have a $300 4870 thats dead.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=99158

^

GeCube is dead m8, check the net, they left the gfx market and infact from wha ti can find they are only going to be doing stuff in the asian market from now on :/

 

[Darksaber]

I still think this was approached the wrong way. This should have been titled something along the lines of "How to Fail at Product Support Outsourcing" and not have Samsung mentioned in the title. An introduction should have been made, then there should have been a clear indicator that DarkSaber's experience with Samsung was a personal example of bad outsourcing, and then at the end, a question posed to the members of the forum for examples of how bad outsourcing has effected them.

Some of these things were done, but as it stands, Samsung will take it offensively. It is totally skewed against Samsung, and looks more like a bashing of the company than an editorial. Yes, it may say editorial, but it's phrased differently.

I can see W1zz getting a letter from Samsung very soon...

Why would W1zz get into any kind of trouble?

1. I am just taking Samsung as an example and am trying to get the opinion of the readers. That seems to work and I have read through all the responses you guys have given.
2. It is clearly labled as an editorial. The only reason it shows up under news is the fact that the front page items are linked to this part of the forum
3. As for Samsung "bashing": I never said their products is bad or that their support sucks, I just question their workflow and how things are done and wanted to know if there are other - possibly worse - stories out there.

The purpose of an editorial is to post ones experience and express an opinion formed from these experiences and I wanted to know what the visitors of TPU think

cheers
DS

 

[mlee49]

Outsourcing is bad news cause it gives the finger to point. People can read this and say it was Samsung's original error in outsourcing warranty service, but I say it's Samsung's fault to fully establish the warranty process to ensure streamline service.

I work for a world wide electronics manufacture, specifically with support so I know all about warranty returns and necessary processing to keep the customer happy. Granted we dont outsource nearly anything so I cant help but be an outsider looking in, but I would say that Samsung has the right people in place to make the big decisions and this is obviously a faulty system I would hope they address.

Hope you get your 30" back soon.

Edit, I personally think that this should be renamed "How to Fail: Outsourcing"

 

[Kreij]

Why would W1zz get into any kind of trouble?

1. I am just taking Samsung as an example and am trying to get the opinion of the readers. That seems to work and I have read through all the responses you guys have given.
2. It is clearly labled as an editorial. The only reason it shows up under news is the fact that the front page items are linked to this part of the forum
3. As for Samsung "bashing": I never said their products is bad or that their support sucks, I just question their workflow and how things are done and wanted to know if there are other - possibly worse - stories out there.

The purpose of an editorial is to post ones experience and express an opinion formed from these experiences and I wanted to know what the visitors of TPU think

cheers
DS

I agree. I think editorials like this are a welcome addition to TPU.
As to whether they should be in the news section or an Editorial section is another discussion.
I, for one, would love to have an editorial section that was moderated, and the articles reviewed for content, that some of us could write in. There have been many times when I am doing extensive research on the state of gaming market, genre proliferation and hybridization, and other topics that I think would bring lively discussion to the boards.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[WarEagleAU]

That sucks DS, but I, fortunately, do not have a horror story. I dont own much samsung stand alone products, none to be quite honest with you. Wish I did, as they make some awesome stuff. Did own a DVD burner for my pc, but it works flawlessly.

 

[imperialreign]

:shadedshu

No offense to you guys but you've lost it.

I LOVE my samsung products. They're the best. Maybe in your region samsung might suck but I find them to be one of the better companies here and in asia as well.

I agree . . .

keep in mind, y'all, that RMA/warranty experiences vary from one region to the next, as many "spotlight" manufacturers have numerous warranty facilities spaced out to facilitate quicker claims handling . . . while one region's ability to handle a claim might be pure tripe, another region might be knocking them out of the ballpark . . .


personally, I've never had any poor experiences with Samsung, nor have ever had a need to have one of their products addressed under warranty . . . from my experiences, their products are great quality, solid and overly reliable.

 

[Mussels]

Logitech australia doesnt do warranty, returns, spare parts, customer service, or... anything.

Everything has to be done via where you bought it, and if that store closed down or wont help you... you're screwed.

 

[Pinchy]

GeCube is dead m8, check the net, they left the gfx market and infact from wha ti can find they are only going to be doing stuff in the asian market from now on :/

They should still honour their warranty.

Abit did it.

 

[Steevo]

Does this really qualify as news?


If so I recieved three, count them three fans doomed to fail on my MSI motherboard, for a total cost greater than the northbridge cooler I bought to save me the time of pulling out my motherboard to replace a piece of crap designed to fail. I was going to go for the fourth, but the rage it put me in to replace yet another was too much.

 

[ArkanHell]

Yo think that is bad warranty service? Then you should live in southamerica, where the warranty service is... how can I say it, non-existent!
Most of the warranty service are in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, for the others countrys if you have a problem depends on the store if their policy is to repair or replace, but mostly isnt one either ther other "is your fault! It wuz an electric problem! This has been shaked! etc, etc, etc"

 

[Mussels]

Yo think that is bad warranty service? Then you should live in southamerica, where the warranty service is... how can I say it, non-existent!
Most of the warranty service are in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, for the others countrys if you have a problem depends on the store if their policy is to repair or replace, but mostly isnt one either ther other "is your fault! It wuz an electric problem! This has been shaked! etc, etc, etc"

yeah that sounds about my experience with logitech, lol.

They give you a survey every time, and every time i complain about the same things... oh sure, the knew exactly what he was talking about. What he was talking about was how logitech policy refuses to help me.