Poor Services / Exchange under warranty delayed for flagship handset Galaxy S21 Ultra

[SandeepShirsat]

Dear Community Members,

I am loyal user of Samsung Smartphones & wearables for past more than 5 years, was happy user of Note 8 earlier, hence recently bought the flagship handset Galaxy S21 Ultra + Galaxy Watch 4 & Galaxy Buds Live.

However, writing this post after so much disappointment due to poor under warranty services support from Samsung.

On 30 January 2022, the handset stopped charging & hence got switched off ultimately. Hence, I had visited service center at Low Yat Plaza & handed over the phone. After follow up & personal visit, on 4th Feb 2022, I was told that the motherboard needs to be replaced & once the spare is supplied from warehouse your handphone will be ready. But no definite date was confirmed.

Later, after daily follow up, on 11th Feb 2022 (Friday), I was told that Samsung has approved exchange for your handset & it shall be handed over to you within 2 working weeks, i.e. before 25th Feb 2022. (I have received this confirmation on email also as a reply to my complaint on Samsung website)

However, as of today (23 Feb 2022, 6.20pm) the service center & helpline informs me that there is no stock made available for the exchange unit & so there is no surety if I can get the handset even by tomorrow, which is the last date of Samsung's written commitment for the exchange of handset under warranty.

I find that the service centre staff really not updated by Samsung on delivery (it is a bare minimum expectation in today's time that the shipment details should have been shared by Samsung with their Service centers). Also, the Samsung tele Helpline staff found to be very rudimentary in their responses & helpless in answering any query, it seems they are also not updated with any info & do not have permission to connect customer to any senior person incharge (as told by the executive during the follow up calls), so they end up only repeating their general replies like - sorry sir, we can understand your difficulty, we have escalated your complaint, we have written a remark to contact you back with update, our Exchange/refund team to contact you etc. etc. but no one has called me in these last 4 weeks from Samsung, which is further disappointing from such a reputed organization.

My query to the community members is  -

1) Has anyone faced such delay/poor response from Samsung ?

2) If yes, what did you do ? what was the final outcome?

3) Since, it is almost 1 month that the handset is with Samsung, will they extend the warranty accordingly?

4) Shall I pursue my follow up with Samsung or it is hopeless to do so? They just do everything as per their convenience? 

5) In the event of default from Samsung to deliver my handset back by tomorrow - shall I insist for refund or take help from consumer court?

6) what is the contact of Consumer court in Kuala Lumpur & what is the process?

Thank you friends, in anticipation of your replies/support on this matter.

Best Regards,

Sandeep Shirsat

+60143386586

[Members_O8pPqLk]

I am facing the same problem where the newly bought S22 Ultra used for just 1 week, the screen display was spoiled. Samsung service centre took my set & confirmed it was the manufacturing defect & will replace the set in 2 weeks time. After few days, Samsung called up & mentioned no more stock & asking for my acceptance for a refund (basically is not asking but forcing me to accept the refund on the purchased price excluded all the accessories that already fixed to the handset...). I am at the loosing side since the handset is at their place & i was forced to accept whatever Samsung's wish! I was told that the refund procedure is either early month or mid of the month. The handset when returned to them was at the end of May & i was expecting to receive the refund by mid of June after filling up a bundle of form & providing them all the proof of purchased & personal identity in a short time (I settled all these request by 1st June & emailed back to the centre to catch up their processing time, ). Surprisingly, by mid of June, they emailed me to mention that the request for refund was successful (I thought this was their proposal but why need to get approval again) & the refund will be processed by Mid of July!!!! I called up Samsung & asking why it takes so many months to process such a refund & the answer is "Sorry, we understand your difficulties & apologize for the inconvenience"....without answering to my questions & also not able to speak to their next level. Come on Samsung, this is your manufacturing defect & you already admitted it, why you cannot process it within the 2 weeks lead time as promised to us as customer? It takes 1.5 months (not sure yet, maybe by mid of July, will again delay further...) to get a refund with the mistake from you yourself. Customer like me need to bear all the waiting time, following up, lacking of device to use, void all the screen protector that attached to the handset, the phone protector cover, Lens filter & etc. We as the customer have to absorb everything with no way to express our un-satisfaction! Samsung can take their sweet convenience time to decide when they wish to entertain you with what they feel fine with their policy & letting customer to pay for Samsung's mistake...Honestly, I can't do much here, same as the many Samsung loyal customers that eventually leaving Samsung to other brand. I will not using any Samsung Gadgets anymore after this really bad experience. I request to take back my unit to temporary use it while waiting for the long refund processing time also being rejected! (heh Samsung, before the refund, this unit is still under my property, what on earth made you to retain my property??) I am giving up Samsung, sorry to say that & I also urge Samsung to look into your procedure which makes your loyal customers leaving you 1 after another. Look at your overall sales, if you are serious about it & you will see this is 1 of the many reasons you are OUT from the race of top handphone maker globally!