Just want to know the next steps. I bought a S23 Ultra in Feb this year.
The phone somehow slipped my hand and within a month I had a small fender bender incident and my phone got a small scratch.
Few days ago, I found something weird with my display, it has a fudgy patch on it and it doesn't go away.
I went to samsung store and they replied that because I had a scratch on my phone, it's warranty has been voided and they will charge 500+ $ to rectify the problem.
*How is that fair?*
Need some guidance here, what can I do next? I really don't want to spend 500 bucks.
The nature of the scratch is not their issue. The scratch itself is evidence of damage by the user and obviously internal damage is impossibe to identify withou dismantling. Hardware damage is not covered by .warranty. Your options include disputing this via your State's Consumer Affairs Department or the TIO (Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman). If you go for indepejdent repair there are some good repair businesses, I don't know how to find a good repairer so do some thorough Google searches. You could also do some Googling around the topic phone hardware claims, in case there is better advice on this.
The TIO only deal with complaints related to the phone company. You would have a valid complaint if you bought it through your provider and they refused to help you with the fault.
if you bought it directly through Samsung, you need to deal directly through your local state consumer law body, generally retailers are supposed to repair, replace or refund for major failures which this sounds like it is.
Depending on the scratch it sounds like wear/tear which is not an acceptable reason to knock back a repair.
this behaviour is consistent with Samsungs modus operandi, which seems to flout Australian consumer law and make you jump through hoops or offer no remedy to genuine faults.
