Funke Akindele - N20 million (US$ 123,495.00) deal with Vita Foam Funke Akindele shot into prominence with the release of her smash hit movie Jenifa where she made over #60 million. Since then, she has become the queen of endorsements with numerous brands using her to advertise their products. Her endorsements include Vitafoam where she got #20 million. Telecoms giant Globacom, Jobberman.com, Qlichy.com, Klin detergent, Lagos Inland Revenue Service and Nigeria's premier detergent, OMO are among those paying the actress mouth-watering money to represent them in our capacity or the other. Genevieve Nnaji: N100 million (US$ 615, 475.00) Etisalat deal Genevieve Nnaji is one of the richest actresses in Nollywood and she achieved the feat not only by starring in high budget films but also by promoting several blue chip brands.
Some of the brands she is representing or has represented include Lux, Cintrion Energy drink, Range Rover Evogue, Etisalat, Polo and Amstel Malta. The Etisalat deal alone earned her N100 million.The Polo deal is put in the region of N70 while the Cintrion drink rakes in N50 million for the actress. Wizkid - MTN is worth N45 million (US$277,863.75) His deal with Telecommunications network MTN is worth #45 million. Wizkid also has endorsement deal with Pepsi worth about $350,000. He has another endorsement deal with Guinness.
No wonder the Jaiye Jaiye crooner could afford to replace his crashed 25 million naira Porsche Panamera with a brand new one just two weeks after. Omawumi - Glo deal worth N25 million (US$ 154,386.75) Omawumi shot into limelight after becoming 1st runner up at the 2007 West African Idols. She is now one of the highest paid female artistes charging up to 5 million naira per show. She is also one of the singers with the highest number of endorsement deals. Glo deal is said to worth N25 million. Others include including Konga worth between 5 - 10 million naira, Mortein and Malta Guinness.
Local media said $36 million worth of merchandise was stolen, based on preliminary reports. Samsung said Monday night that $6.3 million in goods were stolen and that just 50 employees were held. Goods worth milions of naira were consumed in the inferno which reportedly began at 12 midnight January first. At the time of this report at 5am Jan second, shop owners and sympathisers were making attempts to salvage their goods.
Tiwa Savage - MTN deal worth N30 million (US$ 185,242.50) Apart from her very successful music career the First Lady of Mavin Records, also has a number of juicy endorsement deals worth several millions of naira. Her MTN deal is reportedly worth N30 million. Other deals include contracts with Pepsi, Forte Oil and Maggi. Davido - N30 million (US$ 185,242.50) MTN Pulse deal Aye crooner Davido has deals with MTN Pulse and Guinness Nigeria. While the Guinness deal hasn't been declared his MTN contract is reported to have made the Omo Baba Olowo N30 million richer.
Banky W N100 million (US$ 615,475) Samsung deal R & B Singer Banky Wellington popularly known as Banky W is smiling to the bank with his jaw-dropping N100 million endorsement deal with Samsung mobile as well as his endorsement with MTN. Kate Hwnshaw Kate Henshaw also has an endorsement with Samsung as the Face of Samsung Mobile. She has other multimillion naira endorsements like Face of Blessing Perfume and Face of Onga. Mr Ibu Veteran Nollywood Actor Mr Ibu has been entertaining movie lovers for a very long time. Just recently, he got two very lucrative endorsement deals, one as an ambassador for Sports Betting Company MerryBet and another one as brand ambassador for GoTv.
D'Banj gets close to N100 million (US$ 615,475) Dbanj's deal with Glo is said to be in the region of N100 million while Psquare's deal with same outfit goes for N140 million. Just few months after Mike Ezuronye was dropped as Glo Ambassador, he ported to Airtel in a very lucrative endorsement deal running into millions. Flavour N'albania Flavour has become one of the most sought after Nigerian artistes and charges nothing less than 4.5 million - 5 million naira (25-30,873.75) or shows in Nigeria and #8 million naira to perform at international events. He has multimillion naira endorsements with well known brands such as Globacom, Harp and Onga seasoning.
Bill told me the TV simply wouldn't turn on despite repeated presses of the power button. The red power indicator would flash on and off, accompanied by a clicking sound.
At first a picture would eventually appear after ten minutes or so, but after a week or two the TV wouldn't not turn on at all, although it did continue to click. Online stories and forum posts mentioned a bum that wasn't properly suited to the job. Bill even found YouTube videos of intrepid users replacing their capacitors-a $5 part-and fixing the problem.
Bill said he planned to call Samsung but was wondering if I wanted to write something about it. I told him I'd heard about problems like this before, and in fact he wasn't the first co-worker to describe a TV 'up and dying' to me (for the record the other, making two in ten-odd years of doing what I do, was a Vizio). I said such stories are tough for me to write, mainly because getting a TV maker to say anything worthwhile on the record is basically impossible. Then I heard about a report on the exact same issue from newscaster CBS4 in Miami (CNET is a property of CBS corporation).
Widespread issue, class action settlement In a February 9 report entitled, consumer advocate Al Sunshine and his team tracked down disgruntled owners and interviewed a pair of local TV shop owners who pointed to the bum capacitor as well. Even more interesting, CBS4 uncovered new court documents as part of a class-action lawsuit in Oklahoma where Samsung hinted at the extent of the problem. In a hearing on February 1, Samsung attorney Phillip G. Whaley said 'Well, I think there'll be as many as seven-and-a-half million of them out there. So it could be a big class.' In this context, according to a statement from Samsung, Whalen's 'them' refers to the total class of consumers affected, not the number of TV sets with the capacitor issue.
When I initially asked Samsung to comment on the report, I was sent a statement that said in part 'We are unable to provide specifics on the actual number but can say that it is a small number given the volume of Samsung TVs in the US.' A follow-up statement got a bit more specific. ' 'Based on the most current data available, we can confirm that only a small percentage-approximately 1%- of all TVs sold in the US during those three years could exhibit the faulty-capacitor problem.'
I followed up by asking how many total TVs Samsung sold in those years, but the company again didn't provide that information. I also asked for the number of TVs affected by the issue, the number of repairs performed to date, exactly what models and model years had the bum capacitors and what Samsung TV owners should say when they call customer service with the symptoms mentioned (clicking, power failure).
These questions were not answered directly, although Samsung's statement did say that 'The models affected by the settlement are 2006-8 TVs, listed below' and then listed select models of LCD, plasma and DLP TVs. There are concerns that the number of affected TVs could be larger than just the older ones listed in the Oklahoma settlement. I've seen numerous complaints describing the same symptoms on other, often newer TVs, at places like for example. To my knowledge however the 2006-2008 models on the list are the only TVs Samsung has publicly promised to service. What should you do?
If your TV, Samsung or otherwise, stops working, your first step should be to call the manufacturer. Bill did exactly that with his broken TV (without mentioning any affiliation to CNET). He made sure to mention the capacitor failure and request the free fix he'd heard about online. He was advised that if Samsung determined that the problem isn't associated with that known issue, he'd be responsible for fees.
Soon afterward a repair tech came to his house, swapped out some components and had the TV working again in about 20 minutes. Bill wasn't charged a dime. Samsung's statement promises as much for 'affected TVs,' and judging from Bill's experience the company deserves some credit for responding.
Samsung's spokesperson also pointed out that the Oklahoma court found Samsung's response to the issue appropriate for the situation. If you don't receive similar treatment to Bill, your options are unfortunately limited. My first advice would be to call back a few times to get a different rep. If that doesn't work, I'd recommend calling around to local repair shops, although that might get expensive. One Florida resident cited in the CBS4 story paid $150, for example. If nothing else, leave a comment on this article and we'll to bring it to Samsung's attention. It's worth remembering that Samsung TVs aren't alone in suffering manufacturing defects that can affect long-term viability.
I'm only singling them out here because the cause seems pretty clear-cut, the problem is widespread over multiple years and models and a confluence of information from different, unrelated colleagues brought it to my attention. It would be unfair of me to let this story affect my judgment of Samsung TVs in the future as a TV reviewer (long-term reliability testing is in numerous ways), but I think it's also unfair to readers not to mention it. Samsung says current TVs aren't affected. Samsung's updated statement promises to extend the warranty to 'more than 7.5 million customers' TVs' nationwide as a result of the Oklahoma class-action settlement. The company will announce additional details on February 20.
In the meantime, what do you think? If you're a Samsung TV owner, let us know how your TV has performed over the past few months or years. Does this news, and Samsung's response, make you more likely or less likely to buy a Samsung TV?
Let us know in comments. Samsung's initial statement to CNET (February 13): A small percentage of certain models of Samsung televisions have experienced performance issues caused by a component called a capacitor.
We are unable to provide specifics on the actual number but can say that it is a small number given the volume of Samsung TVs in the US. Since originally confirming this issue in early 2010, Samsung has voluntarily provided free repairs for U.S. Customers with affected televisions.
Customers who believe they have an affected TV should call 1-800-SAMSUNG to speak with a customer service representative. The Oklahoma settlement reaffirms that Samsung's efforts to voluntarily repair affected products for consumers since early 2010, have been appropriate for the situation. The settlement will be final on February 20, 2012, at which time we will make a nationwide announcement to explain next steps to customers. Once the settlement is approved, a process will also be put into place to compensate consumers who have already paid for a repair. The models affected by the settlement are 2006-8 TVs, listed below.
The asterisks represent the size and series of the TVs. CORRECTION: The headline of this article originally read 'Samsung TV power defect could affect millions of sets' but that headline was changed in response to a follow-up statement we received from the company, clarifying a statement made by a Samsung attorney. Editors' note: The embedded CBS4 Miami video present in an earlier version of this story created an HTML glitch that prevented the comments from being accessed or viewed.
We have removed the video embed (available ) so that comments are accessible on this page.