poor TV

What is this a picture of? Well, it's a picture of my Samsung television. As you can see, on the right hand side of the screen, it looks like there is some kind of shadow there. What is going on here is that the light tunnel in the light engine assembly of the television is collapsing. Being that I bought this set back in 2006 (wow, has it been that long already?) my one year Samsung warranty is no longer in effect.

Good thing I bought an extended warranty when I bought the set, right? WRONG!

I bought my set online through bestbuyplasma.com. When I purchased the 5 year extended warranty, the outfit they go through is Repair Tech, Inc. Wouldn't you know that their website no longer exists and there are tons of complaints out there about poor warranty service. Now, in 2009, it looks like Repair Tech, Inc. has gone out of business and all us lucky folks who bought extended warranties are now SOL.

After a bit of research, I found that the light tunnel assembly can be ordered and shipped for about $70 and there is detailed instructions on how to replace the tunnel myself. The question is, do I want to do this myself or get a service tech come out and do it? I also learned that Samsung is making good on their poor QC with this part and are authorizing repairs for this problem even if your warranty has expired. I will probably just give them a call and see if I can get service done on the TV. Now that I know that my warranty is no longer in affect, I have no problems cracking open this set and getting my hands dirty :)