Woman Accidentally Peels Screen off Samsung TV Thinking It’s Protective Film — It’s Not

A TikToker named Kuma documented how she is making a mistake that other Samsung TV owners are with their TV sets: peeling off what they think is a protective film on their units, but instead causing damage to their screens because the "protective film" is actually an integral part of the TV set that makes it possible for viewers to see the content on their screens.

In a viral TikTok that's accumulated over 6.7 million views, Kuma showed what it looks like when you make this error, and delineated how she went about contacting Samsung regarding the issue and how she was able to get it fixed.

"All right guys watch me rip off the screen to my brand new Samsung TV. Now I delayed posting this video because for obvious reasons, um, kinda didn't want it to go viral, uhh, because I had to talk to Samsung and say Samsung, what the hell is going on?"

In her clip she shows the extent of the damage that was caused to her TV set: it appears that the front cover of the screen, which could easily be a plastic film meant to protect the screen from any nicks, scrapes, or other damage it could potentially sustain in transportation/set up, is actually a part of the screen itself.

She demonstrates the extent of the damage by showing that the screen doesn't display any data save for white light. On the opposite side of the dark film, she peeled off? A regular old TV, which still displays screen data even with the film curling and dangling from the set.

She explains the situation she finds herself in: "So basically you know when you guys get a new TV and there's like that little protective plastic on it that you usually take off? Well, we thought this was the protective plastic because it really looked like that so we started peeling it off," she says, while the clip transitions to painful footage of a man ripping off a part of the TV that's clearly not supposed to be removed.

"And we did not realize that yeah that was the actual screen that we were peeling off. And at that point that's my husband pulling off the whole rest of the screen because well we were already halfway there and at that point the TV was already ruined," she says, showing how the TV screen data can be seen but only through the recently peeled film that's waved in front of the set.

"Apparently I'm not the only person that has done this because I Googled it and there's like whole threads of other people pulling off the screen [thinking] it was the protective plastic. This was one of the downfalls of me moving to Spain if you guys haven't been following my channel and looking at all of the hurdles this was just another one."

"Buying a brand new TV super excited get it in first day and rip off the screen that was just how my year my first year in Spain really was summarized up as...so here is the box, um, the model and everything and then here's the TV without the screen on it looks super nice and clear and shiny but, yeah, so that's the story I ripped my screen on the first day of my brand new TV."

So what happened with Kuma's TV conundrum? Did the electronics manufacturer tell her that she was out of luck because she technically damaged the product herself and that it wasn't a manufacturer's defect? Did she get sent a new film to attach to her screen or was told to take it to a repair shop to get it fixed up?

No, apparently, the Korean-based tech giant thought that the only way to make things right with Kuma would be to swap out the whole TV set: "But Samsung is cool and they replaced it," she says in the clip.

The TikToker added in a caption for the video: "I feel like I can talk about this now since its been a while. WHY was there not a sticker on the front that said this is not a protective plastic. Do not remove," she warned.

Different commenters had varying opinions on Kuma's peel-off plastic screen. Some said that TV sets don't come with plastic covers in the first place and that she was making a big mistake attempting to peel off the screen from the get-go: "TVs don’t come with the protective plastic screen! Are people ok???"

Someone else said that she could still use the damaged screen if we wanted to, just as a different type of monitor entirely, i.e. as a private viewing device she could set up with a pair of spy glasses: "That’s not the entire screen. It’s just the polarizing film on top. Stick it on a pair of glasses and you have a private tv, no one else can see"

Another person had the same idea, writing: "You can make glasses out of that film and then the tv will look just fine to whoever wears them"

And then there were folks who couldn't believe that the film was so easily peeled from the get-go: "Why would they make a screen where you can find a peelable corner in the first place"

This was a sentiment echoed by others who wrote: "It never should have come off so easily though right ???" while someone else said: "why is it so easy to rip off anyways"

Someone else thought that this was a serious error in the way Samsung designed the set as well: "design flaw. the screen should be underneath the frame so the edges aren't exposed, making them peelable."