[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by venks

They opened a case and accepted the phone for further check. A day after they called me and told me that motherboard of the phone is dead and needs replacement. I was totally shocked hearing this, as the phone is just 8 months old. I was not ready to go for a motherboard replacement on a within-warranty phone and told them that I need a new unit as replacement. I was expecting an Apple level service from Samsung as I have paid similar money. Apple would have replaced the phone even for a connector issue.

honestly, you are being unreasonable.

Apple does so because their phones use so much adhesive and are not really designed to be repaired by anyone anywhere just like that (read most service center staff anywhere).
http://dealnews.com/features/These-1...ir/795102.html

When they replace a phone, you get a refurbished phone (as seen with two of my friends).

here Samsung is replacing the motherboard, which is reasonable enough. What's the problem? This is a whole scale plug n play replacement in most phones, not some random jugaad.

Let this not degenerate into a Samsung bashing thread when they have offered you a FAIR solution.

[hellmet]

My Rs.999/- Nokia phone's motherboard died prematurely, within warranty. Nokia gave me a new phone without me even asking for it. Can't see why Samsung wouldn't do the same with a 34K phone.

Anyway, you should take the replacement offer and get rid of the phone on eBay if not willing to continue with it.

[Rahulkool]

I have replaced iphone 4/5 and ipad 2 with apple india and all were replaced with brand new units(no refurbished or repaired ones). iphone 5 and ipad 2 problems were very minor which i am not will not even get acknowledged in samsung/LG/HTC service centers. But they were immediately replaced no questions asked. In case of iphone 4 it was kept one day for observation.

Even they give me a brand new 8GB ipod nano for almost 7-8 years old non working 4gb nano. People think apple products are overpriced but its all justified when you have to visit the service center.

I have been to samsung, HTC and nokia service centers couple of times, they are filthy, over crowded and you have to always wait long time. and also the people available there have no clue about most of the stuff on their products.

[venks]

Again thanks for your time reading through my thread and response/advice. I have sent a mail to Samsung CEO Mr B D Park and Samsung Mobiles MD Mr Vineet Taneja. Mail to Mr Taneja bounced back, but the one to Mr Park went through fine. Hope somebody would read this mail and help me out. I forwarded that mail to Samsung India Support as well. Meanwhile I got a call from the same service person who is still pushing me for a repair/motherboard replacement. I asked him to put me through his manager so that I can talk to him directly. Do not think he/she is going to talk differently, but just a try.

I was almost decided on option 1, but that is when I talked to my colleague regarding this issue. Unfortunately, he had similar issue with his Galaxy S3 where he had to go for a motherboard replacement. He went ahead with that, but after couple of months, proximity sensor stopped functioning. And then later power on/off switch malfunctioned and he had to replace that too. He got fed up and bought an iPhone 5 and is happy.

Issue I am having here is when you pay premium price (almost same cost as iPhone) you expect premium service like Apple. I am fine with a refurbished phone as replacement. I work in Manufacturing Operations at a Telecom company and know a bit about refurb operations. Refurb units would undergo similar strict quality control process as new ones and they are almost as good as new. Having gone through what I had plus my colleague's experience, I am not confident of repair/replacement job done at a small service center of Samsung.

Originally Posted by AbhiJ

venks, what is the issue with a motherboard replacement? The process is simpler than having the screen changed. Just a couple of screws and connectors and you are done. Its a routine thing. If you motherboard is changed, 99% chance is that any faults in the phone will go away with it.

Nice to know that your Samsung phone is working fine, you are lucky. I am not sure about what exactly is the issue with motherboard. I could speak with only the reception lady at the service center in Trivandrum. She does not seem to be a technical person, she was generic in her response and said sometimes motherboard gets short and need to be replaced.

Originally Posted by amitk26

Apple replaces and gives you a refurbished unit because they do not have local service facility setting up chain of local service centres need volume and time.
Why exactly you think HTC , Samsung and LG should do the same.

Since Samsung is selling premium phone which is priced pretty close to Apple iPhone, I expect similar ownership experience. Problem here is, all the other companies listed sell phones that cost few thousand rupees to premium phones costing Rs 35K + and apply the same service policy across the segments. That I believe is not just done. Any day new phone/refurbished phone would be better than phone repaired at a local service center. I have visited many semiconductor manufacturing fabs and hi-tech assembly lines, they have this concept called clean rooms which are ultra clean to make sure no dust gets into these assembly operations affecting the reliability of the product.

Originally Posted by Bluebeem

I think you are mixing up the 2

There is a huge difference between a refurbished unit and repaired one. That is why only apple replaces your phone with a refurbished one rather than doing what Samsung does I.e open up the shell and "repair" the same phone right there n then.

Refurbishing carries a huge cost no matter where it's done. Repair is cheap. And you said apple isn't repairing because of volume considerations.

Apple puts the old motherboards through rigorous testing and then puts them into an entirely new shell. And they do not repair any motherboards in non working conditions. They simply replace the whole thing.

Yes, that is my point. Refurbished units go through stringent quality process in a hi-tech clean factory and hence more reliable.

Originally Posted by carzone

Are you sure that the communication port was at fault for the phone taking utter long times to charge.


My option, go with the motherboard replacement as it is just as new. They are Replacing the motherboard and not Repairing it.

Yes, that is what the service center engineer told. We did check with different charger to rule out any issues with charger.

Originally Posted by phamilyman

honestly, you are being unreasonable.

Apple does so because their phones use so much adhesive and are not really designed to be repaired by anyone anywhere just like that (read most service center staff anywhere).
http://dealnews.com/features/These-1...ir/795102.html

When they replace a phone, you get a refurbished phone (as seen with two of my friends).

here Samsung is replacing the motherboard, which is reasonable enough. What's the problem? This is a whole scale plug n play replacement in most phones, not some random jugaad.

Let this not degenerate into a Samsung bashing thread when they have offered you a FAIR solution.

Thanks phamilyman for your advice. I am really not sure about I am being unreasonable here. As I mentioned earlier, when you pay premium price you expect premium service and great experience. I am sure Samsung is doing that in countries like US. Refurb/new phones would be much better than repaired ones. Problem is when these MNCs come to India , they sell phones to different segments and apply same service policies to all customer segments. May be, as many mentioned here, this is India and they know they can get away with this.

This is not about Samsung bashing, I have worked with Samsung LCD division in Korea as a consultant and respect what they have done. Problem is when they come and setup their shop in India, they seemed to be different.

Originally Posted by Rahulkool

I have replaced iphone 4/5 and ipad 2 with apple india and all were replaced with brand new units(no refurbished or repaired ones). iphone 5 and ipad 2 problems were very minor which i am not will not even get acknowledged in samsung/LG/HTC service centers. But they were immediately replaced no questions asked. In case of iphone 4 it was kept one day for observation.

Even they give me a brand new 8GB ipod nano for almost 7-8 years old non working 4gb nano. People think apple products are overpriced but its all justified when you have to visit the service center.

Your experience is very similar to my experience with Apple. They sell great products and back it up with great service.

[F1amit]

We had a very good experience with Sony Service center. My wife had procured Sony Xperia SP and within a week or so, we notices that its not connecting to PC, its taking a lot of time to get fully charged (almost 6 hours), piece was heating up in short span of time.

We took it to authorised service center. Service center diagnosed it as motherboard issue and said that they would raise ticket with Sony mobile india for new motherboard. However to our surprise, Sony altogether replaces the piece and provided a brand new piece.

What ever might be the reason - either old piece was totally non repairable or its a goodwill gesture from Sony - we had a very pleasant exoerience.

Full marks to Sony at least for above experience.

[AbhiJ]

A motherboard is pretty simple to switch. I can do it and I not trained or skillful. The service centre is swapping the motherboard with a new (tested) motherboard because that ways, all problems get solved.

I understand simply Samsung is not meeting your expectations, but in all probability the motherboard swap will give you a perfectly functional phone. It will also save you a truckload of time and stress. Wish you best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

Originally Posted by venks

Your experience is very similar to my experience with Apple. They sell great products and back it up with great service.

YMMV. My experience with Apple has been horrible. Iphone 4s, Sound issue when receiving a call, 1000's had the issue, there is 100 page thread on Apple communities, apple refused to even acknowledge the problem exists.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

But they did give me 2 replacement iphones which had the exact same problem. Later turns out, it was a hardware issue in certain batches. And all defective batches miraculously turned up for sale in India. Another iphone 4s bought in USA about the same time worked perfectly for 1.5 years.

My family had 3 iphone users, and all of them have switched to Samsung. I can happily say that in my case samsung is not any less reliable than iphones.
The amount of mistreatment (falls etc) and abuse my S2 took was not funny, and it never gave a problem.

P.s. I no longer use a Samsung, but I did not switch due to reliability issues.

[venks]

Ok, here is the latest. Mail to Samsung India CEO Mr B D Park worked to some extent. It seems he has asked one of his colleagues to look into this and got a call today. After a lengthy conversation with Mr Bansal (Manager, Customer Experience), he requested me to give Samsung one more chance with their service operations. I agreed to accept the motherboard replacement. He gave his contact details and mentioned that I can reach out to him if there are any problems in the future. Also Samsung extended my warranty by three more months. I hope and pray that nothing wrong happens here after.

Thanks for the great response and all the advice folks.

venks

[honeybee]

An update on my Samsung phone: I got the phone back today, and prima facie the problem seems to have gone away.