Samsung Note 4: A Cautionary Tale

[william burkett]

Before I get into my story, here are three short points:

(1) The Note 4 was a great phone – I really liked it
(2) The Note 4 is – apparently – a very fragile device
(3) Samsung warranty support is horrible horrible horrible

At this moment, I have a worthless piece of what was a very expensive device and no one has been able to help me get it back.

I acquired my Note 4 in October. The very first thing I did was put it in a Pelican Voyager case (Pelican ProGear™VoyagerPhoneCase for Galaxy Note® 4(C08030)), which – I thought – was pretty sturdy protection. I did not get insurance. I should have - MISTAKE #1 – I strongly recommend insurance for this device, now.

I dropped the phone twice. The first time it fell out of my pocket; no problem. The second time, I was using it navigate in the car and it slid off the center console on a turn. I’m not exactly sure where/how/what it hit before it landed on the floor in front of the passenger seat, but it must have been a pretty good jolt because the screen went black. There was no visible damage to the device – as far as I could tell - the screen was intact.

(1) I took the phone into AT&T, where I acquired it, to see what they could do. Once I explained what happened and told the representative that I didn’t have insurance, they told me there was nothing they could do and I should take it to a repair shop to get it fixed. I hate to cast aspersions on the qualifications of someone based on age or gender, but this was not good advice given that there was no obvious physical damage to the device. They did not – and should have – told me that opening the device would void the warranty. MISTAKE #2: listening to this advice without questioning ramifications.

(2) I took the phone to a national-brand repair shop. They also failed to warn me that opening the device would void the warranty. They said “it’s probably a microfracture in the screen” and seemed eager to just get on replacing the screen. They did so – apparently twice – and the display occassionally would go on, but wouldn’t stay on. It obviously wasn’t a screen problem. They were not able to fix the problem. MISTAKE #3: letting them open the device to fix it.

(3) As a last resort, I sent the phone to Samsung for a warranty repair, and this is is what pissed me off more than anything else: just two days – literally two days – after Samsung acknowledged receipt of my device by email, it was back on my doorstep. The repair statement said “your phone is beyond repair”, “unauth rep/mod”, “labor/parts void warranty”. Not surprising, but the very fact that they simply saw that the device had been opened, returned it immediately, and washed their hands of the problem really made me angry. No phone calls, no attempt to fix – nothing! They just threw it back in my face. Pretty $#!++y customer service, if you ask me, and has me seriously reconsidering whether or not I’ll ever by another samsung device.

The problem must be a poorly constructed motherboard and the fall caused something to become dislodged or loose. But I guess we’ll never know.

So heed my warning: the Samsung Note 4 is delicate and take my advice: get insurance.

Not sure what I’m going to do now.

 

[nytmare]

(2) I took the phone to a national-brand repair shop. They also failed to warn me that opening the device would void the warranty. They said “it’s probably a microfracture in the screen” and seemed eager to just get on replacing the screen. They did so – apparently twice – and the display occassionally would go on, but wouldn’t stay on. It obviously wasn’t a screen problem. They were not able to fix the problem. MISTAKE #3: letting them open the device to fix it.

(3) As a last resort, I sent the phone to Samsung for a warranty repair, and this is is what pissed me off more than anything else: just two days – literally two days – after Samsung acknowledged receipt of my device by email, it was back on my doorstep. The repair statement said “your phone is beyond repair”, “unauth rep/mod”, “labor/parts void warranty”. Not surprising, but the very fact that they simply saw that the device had been opened, returned it immediately, and washed their hands of the problem really made me angry. No phone calls, no attempt to fix – nothing! They just threw it back in my face. Pretty $#!++y customer service, if you ask me, and has me seriously reconsidering whether or not I’ll ever by another samsung device.

Sorry for your lose. Question: when you returned the phone to Samsung, did you state that the phone had been broken into in an attempt to fix it? If not, Samsung's response is unsurprising.

 

[nicholb]

For future reference...

1) Never admit/volunteer anything when bringing in a failed phone. When you took it to AT&T the correct way to do it would be to say the phone won't turn on and you don't know why. They will look at anything you did as a reason not to do a warranty repair/replace. Honestly you do not know why the phone failed. Just because it happened right after the phone fell does not 100% mean that caused it. It could be unrelated and it is up to them to determine why it failed. You guessing at the cause just gives them an out.

2) With any electronics, an unauthorized repair attempt will 99.9999% of the time void any warranty. You know that now, but for anyone else reading, the second step would have been sending it to Samsung for a repair rather than to a 3rd party repair shop. AT&T will assist in warranty returns as will most/all the providers, but ultimately the manufacturer is responsible for warranty replacement/repairs.