Samsung Screwed Me Over

[nviz22]

So I was sending a Galaxy S6 Edge in for repairs for overheating and it was brand new. Samsung's Plano, Texas 3rd party company wrote down it had liquid damage and the warranty was then voided by Samsung. The device never touched liquid in the first place. Then it also came with rooted access from Team Win Recovery. I didn't remember it being there with Super User when I reseted the phone multiple times when I was trying to ensure it was a hardware issue. I called their direct support and they noted the account and the rep didn't buy the liquid damage on the motherboard either because he said it shouldn't turn on properly with that. Then he said he was sending me to his upper level of support, but transferred me to T-Mobile and didn't say a word so I was under the assumption it was Samsung and then it caused more headaches. What do I do because there is clear negligence on Samsung's partners' end. I never root my phones either. I am furious because the phone is still problematic.

 

[three]

I'm not sure I understand your post. So did you buy the S6 Edge new or used? Why was it rooted?

 

[nviz22]

I'm not sure I understand your post. So did you buy the S6 Edge new or used? Why was it rooted?

New, it was stock too. The root must have come from the third party repair company because there is no way I would root the phone because of Samsung Pay.

 

[spinedoc77]

So I was sending a Galaxy S6 Edge in for repairs for overheating and it was brand new. Samsung's Plano, Texas 3rd party company wrote down it had liquid damage and the warranty was then voided by Samsung. The device never touched liquid in the first place. Then it also came with rooted access from Team Win Recovery. I didn't remember it being there with Super User when I reseted the phone multiple times when I was trying to ensure it was a hardware issue. I called their direct support and they noted the account and the rep didn't buy the liquid damage on the motherboard either because he said it shouldn't turn on properly with that. Then he said he was sending me to his upper level of support, but transferred me to T-Mobile and didn't say a word so I was under the assumption it was Samsung and then it caused more headaches. What do I do because there is clear negligence on Samsung's partners' end. I never root my phones either. I am furious because the phone is still problematic.

Samsung support is horrendous. They are clueless so you are forced to mail your phone to Texas and wait weeks to maybe get it back, or not as in your case. You're better off letting the carrier replace it as at least you can go to the store and talk to someone face to face. That's what Apple has going for it, it's a huge selling point that if anything goes wrong within the warranty (or extended warranty) period you just walk into your local Apple store and get it resolved.

 

[Fernandez21]

Maybe they got your phone mixed up with another? Your original box should have the imei somewhere on there, see if it's the same as the phone you got, and if it isn't tell that to support to see if they can do anything.

 

[MRU]

They use third party repair centres here in Ireland too rather than Apple who deal direct as there are no official Apple stores here to take a phone back to. That being said the two times I have had to have Samsung phones repaired (both sim slot replacements) the third party did the job without issue but it still took longer than it does dealing with Apple (who send you a replacement in a couple of days, whereas Samsung repair your talking a week to ten days here).

Your biggest issue nvizz22 will be to prove that it hasn't got water damage and likewise that recovery wasn't installed by you and I'm not sure how you can do that without costly third party inspection of hardware and getting legal advice. As soon as you go down that root your spending money on advice and still may not get anywhere which means throwing good money after bad.

Your caught between a rock and a hard place - you have to prove your innocent of installing recovery and you have to prove there actually is no water / liquid damage ...

If you have the device back and it's working (albeit overheating) I would try flashing a stock carrier firmware via Odin if that's possible (check on XDA) as flashing official firmware via Odin would remove that recovery and put your phone back to official status - though you still could have Knox flag tripped as well at this stage.

Once clean software flashed, boot into Samsung recovery to make sure it's on there not anything else.

You can also use Samubgs emergency firmware recovery in Kies to return to stock everything (recovery included)

Third party recoveries do not get removed by simply unrooting- the official recovery has to be flashed back on to the device with an official firmware via ODIN. Simply removing root / superuser and resetting device - doesn't change the type of recovery on your device (stock or modified) which is a separate partition and must be properly flashed via Odin or Kies/Samsung Emergency Recovery to change it.

----

Then keep on ringing Samsung and ask if you can send it back for re-appraisal / second opinion on liquid damage claim.

Your options are limited but that's a start ...

 

[ozaz]

I've had mixed experience with Samsung support.

There are Samsung stores where I live and I've taken a device into store to get it repaired. The experience was not too dissimilar from Apple Store. I gave a quick description of what was wrong, they took in the phone, and was repaired in a couple of days. No drama.

Another positive - also applies to my mail in experience below: like Apple repairs, there was no insistence on providing original purchase receipts for in warranty repairs (which is just as well since I didn't have them - eBay purchases)

On a separate occasion I've also used mail in repair and the overall experience was poor. A couple of positives were the use of local call centre staff who were easy to communicate with, and Samsung covering the postage and packing. But the rest was negative 1) The main Samsung support line was not able to give me update on the status of my repair because it seems they don't share a common database with their repair centres. I had to call the 3rd party repair centre direct which was inconvenient because their lines are not open on evening and weekends. 2) The first repair centre was unable to carry out the repair so it had to be sent to another one. Annoyingly, this transfer was not done by Samsung or the repair centres. The device was first sent back to me and then I had to send it in again under a new job number. 3) When I eventually received the repaired device back it had a 16gb drive installed instead of the 32gb drive that was in the original device
I gave up at this point because I hadn't originally spent much on it on eBay.

 

[Tsepz]

Very strange, as Samsung support down here in South Africa is incredible. Your Galaxy S4 up to Galaxy S6 and Note 3 to Note 4 come with ADH (Accidental Damage Handling), you get two free repairs whether the phone screen breaks OR is water damaged, or one of each.

We have Samsung Care Centres, and if you own a Note and it gets damaged they come and pick it up and leave you with another temporary Note, while yours gets fixed.

My Note 4 has not a single issue, but my S4 had a major issue with the magnet sensor where the screen flashed the black S View Cover screen randomly.
I took it to a closeby Samsung Care and they fixed it in just 2hours.

It may be due to the fact that we pay a lot more for the products, the Note 4 down here is still worth around $800USD.

 

[Technarchy]

Why didn't you take it to your carrier? I get all my phone support from AT&T.

 

[nviz22]

Maybe they got your phone mixed up with another? Your original box should have the imei somewhere on there, see if it's the same as the phone you got, and if it isn't tell that to support to see if they can do anything.

The IMEI is the same. This isn't the first time I had to go after Samsung. I went after them over having to get the S5 replaced numerous times and they ended up cutting a check like 2 months after I filed a complaint with the BBB.

 

[jamezr]

Why didn't you take it to your carrier? I get all my phone support from AT&T.

Yep. Same here. I have had Samsung phones replaced no questions asked twice at AT&T. Once the video went out on a S5 I went to a AT&T corp store and was in and out in 20 minutes with a new phone. Same thing with a Verizon S4 with a bad motherboard. I was in and out in less than 30 minutes both times. Carrier stores will replace devices that are still under warranty.

 

[nviz22]

They use third party repair centres here in Ireland too rather than Apple who deal direct as there are no official Apple stores here to take a phone back to. That being said the two times I have had to have Samsung phones repaired (both sim slot replacements) the third party did the job without issue but it still took longer than it does dealing with Apple (who send you a replacement in a couple of days, whereas Samsung repair your talking a week to ten days here).

Your biggest issue nvizz22 will be to prove that it hasn't got water damage and likewise that recovery wasn't installed by you and I'm not sure how you can do that without costly third party inspection of hardware and getting legal advice. As soon as you go down that root your spending money on advice and still may not get anywhere which means throwing good money after bad.

Your caught between a rock and a hard place - you have to prove your innocent of installing recovery and you have to prove there actually is no water / liquid damage ...

If you have the device back and it's working (albeit overheating) I would try flashing a stock carrier firmware via Odin if that's possible (check on XDA) as flashing official firmware via Odin would remove that recovery and put your phone back to official status - though you still could have Knox flag tripped as well at this stage.

Once clean software flashed, boot into Samsung recovery to make sure it's on there not anything else.

You can also use Samubgs emergency firmware recovery in Kies to return to stock everything (recovery included)

Third party recoveries do not get removed by simply unrooting- the official recovery has to be flashed back on to the device with an official firmware via ODIN. Simply removing root / superuser and resetting device - doesn't change the type of recovery on your device (stock or modified) which is a separate partition and must be properly flashed via Odin or Kies/Samsung Emergency Recovery to change it.

----

Then keep on ringing Samsung and ask if you can send it back for re-appraisal / second opinion on liquid damage claim.

Your options are limited but that's a start ...

It really is a headache and will take a lot of time. I have a bunch of work due for my first day of law school next week, so I don't think I'll go with the unroot process, but I will go after them by applying pressure. I beat Samsung once and I can beat them again.

 

[nviz22]

Why didn't you take it to your carrier? I get all my phone support from AT&T.

They would've provided a refurbished unit for a phone I got brand new off Swappa.

 

[jamezr]

They would've provided a refurbished unit for a phone I got brand new off Swappa.

I still would have gone to TMO and got a replacement. I have bought several phones from swappa too.
Was it never activated and in a sealed box? If not then it was used too. Getting a replacement from your carrier would have been the same IMHO anyway.

 

[apolloa]

I would just keep on them and request to speak with their complaints department, or insist a actual manager deals with your case.

On a side note, Apple uses 3rd parties to repair everything that's sent off, and I have had a poor experience and good experience with the Genius bar staff in Apple stores, they replaced a power board in one of my MacBook Pros once and I didn't notice till after the long drive home, they had failed to properly fit the chassis back together, I had to take it to another Apple approved store about 50 miles ish away to get it fixed after chewing Apples ear off!
The other option was to send it in and wait several days with no computer.
Then on my current laptop they replaced my motherboard for free cause if the faulty Nvidia chip issue in 2 hours whilst I went shopping, naturally I took it apart and double checked there work after and it was fine.

Each time was a different store though. First one the Southampton store which was the closet at the time, but still an hour and a half to two hour drive.
Then the authorised store was in Bath about an hour and twenty ish from home, and they then opened a big new Apple store in Bath too and they repaired my motherboard, I was seriously impressed with that service I can tell yah.

And its not about beating Samsung, its about using your rights and the law of the land as it should be.

 

[mi7chy]

Overheating is usually caused by wake lock issues introduced by rooting. Also, if you have an account on XDA it's probably a good idea to remove it until the matter is settled. Or, you could've used Samsung Smart Switch to do a full reimage to fix the root/wake lock and overheating issues.

 

[nviz22]

I still would have gone to TMO and got a replacement. I have bought several phones from swappa too.
Was it never activated and in a sealed box? If not then it was used too. Getting a replacement from your carrier would have been the same IMHO anyway.

This purchase has been a headache since it's a phone for a family member that I got.

 

[jamezr]

This purchase has been a headache since it's a phone for a family member that I got.

oh so sorry...that makes it so much more difficult.

 

[GadgetSN]

Samsung And Sony support are terrible. Thats what you get for dealing with budget phone makers that have a model or two in the high end space.

The flagship Samsung store in London has also closed down 2 yrs ago, meaning physical stores are few and far between.

 

[ozaz]

The flagship Samsung store in London has also closed down 2 yrs ago, meaning physical stores are few and far between.

There's still one on Oxford Street, albeit smaller.