No spares - Your Samsung AC must only last a year, no more.

Be warned South African public considering buying a Samsung Air Conditioning product - Samsung SA does NOT have a dedicated department to deal with spares or replacement parts. They will quite happily farm you out to a 3rd party, multi-brand repair agency for you to source (and hope to find) spares from them. Then, Samsung's "dedicated" repair and spares facility tells you that they won't sell directly to you, you have to have the part ordered through another supplier that they in turn will sell to. Never mind that there are now 3 parties all adding a markup to the item you want. No wonder a remote control now costs over a thousand three hundred rand. They also do not keep cosmetic items (covers, inlet grilles, etc.) for any model which is serving its purpose. The inlet grille I'm after has been discontinued - damn pity that Samsung uses cheap and nasty ABS plastic to produce their cosmetic parts from, which everyone knows turns yellow and goes brittle from UV light within a year. How long exactly do you expect an AC to last Samsung, or would you have us replace the existing one with a new unit every 3 years? Interesting that the entry level, dirt cheap, Far-East machines have a massive backup and they are only too eager to supply you with parts - even your competitor LG allows you to walk into their spares division in Germiston and you can buy directly off the counter. A 10+ year old LG split unit AC that is the same size as the Samsung one I'm trying to get parts for, I can still get all plastic cosmetic parts of. Its remote control is just shy of three hundred and fifty rand. So how and where does your madness with prices and "discontinued items" come from? It's time to shop wisely - check out the manufacturer's back up and service first before buying anything. No service = No Sale. Only buy and support brands that have outstanding support and dedicated service/spares facilities.