[venks]

Dear T-Bhpians,

Sorry for the lengthy email, need your advice on best course of action I could take with this situation I am going through. I am having horrible time with Samsung Mobiles India because of their service of my Galaxy Note II with dead motherboard, within warranty period.

I like Apple and really happy with my iPhone and Apple service. I needed a second phone and decided to buy a Note II from Samsung believing that it is equally good and Samsung is a formidable competitor to Apple and would provide similar service. So bought a Note II, by paying Rs 37K, almost eight month back from a retailer in Bangalore.

Couple of months into using the phone, the device fell from my wife’s hand onto the floor (from 2-3 ft height) breaking the LCD screen. I immediately went to their service center in BTM layout. They checked it out and said I need to replace the LCD unit and this won’t be covered under warranty. I agreed to this as it was my problem and replaced the LCD paying Rs 7000 +

Four weeks back, I encountered another problem with the phone. Charging the battery to full capacity was taking pretty long time, close to 9 hours, which is not usual. I took the phone to the same service center, their initial reaction was there is nothing wrong with the phone. After some argument and reasoning, they accepted for further check by opening a case. I got a call one day later stating that connection port is not functioning properly and needs replacement. I agreed to that and got it replaced without paying anything as the phone was still under warranty. Just a day after receiving the phone, we tried to charge the phone as it drained out. But to our surprise it did not switch on. The same day I had to travel to Trivandrum so thought of checking with the service center there.

After reaching Trivandrum, I took the phone to the service center at Anna Arcade. 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. Service center lady asked me to talk to the Samsung telephone support on unit replacement. For past three weeks I have been taking to customer support folks many times, sent mails to CEO office, Executive Escalation team, Samsung executives etc. To my total surprise, only response I got from them and for the mails was “we are looking into this and get back etc etc” All standard “templatized” response without any specifics.

Finally, after three weeks of struggle, I got a call from a person, who I suppose is part of customer escalation team, today. He argued that he cannot do much and I need to accept the motherboard replacement. I was in no mood to accept a motherboard replacement and clearly told him that. He talked to his superiors and got back to me after few hours asking for few details so that they can process either a replacement unit or refund the money. I was happy and thought, though delayed, Samsung would treat me appropriately. Same person called me an hour later and told me they cannot process my replacement request as the phone went through a LCD replacement due to an accidental fall six months back. I was totally disappointed and could not understand the logic behind this argument. How could Samsung correlate an issue that happened six months back with motherboard failure? If there can be any correlation, it could be with the connector replacement that happened just a day before motherboard failure. Probably a shoddy service job done by the Samsung service center at BTM Layout in Bangalore. Escalation team member told me to accept the phone repair and he can extend the warranty by a month or two. I strongly denied this and asked him to either replace the phone or provide the refund as he initially mentioned. If this is not possible, provide a detailed report in writing on what went wrong with the motherboard and how it is related to a LCD replacement that happened six months before. Also I asked him to sent the note II back to me in the same state as I submitted at the service center. My plan is to approach consumer forum and see if I can fight this with Samsung.

Here are few options and would appreciate if you could provide some advice/share any similar experience.

1. Accept the motherboard repair in a within-warranty Galaxy Note II and regret my buying decision as well as pray god that nothing wrong would happen with this phone in the future.
2. Collect as much documentation from Samsung about the repair and get the “dead” Note II back and approach the consumer forum.
3. Courier the “dead” Note II to CEO of Samsung India as a not-so-goodwill gesture so that he can use it as a paperweight!

Am I missing any other option here?

Mods, please feel free to move this post to any other appropriate thread if needed.

Thanks
venks

[Jaggu]

Take option 1, sell it off at ebay. Trust me for a 3xxxx worth device option 2 and 3 are really not worth it. In a court also you really don't stand a chance since company is ready to fix the issue.

Samsung is Samsung, Apple is Apple don't compare the service levels of apples to coco-nuts

ps: if you really want to gift it, fix it and gift me!!! Just kidding!

[9thsphinx]

Option 1 sounds the most feasible. Samsung has enough money to throw for legal cases as you might have seen from the ongoing Apple Samsung fight.

Option 2 and 3 will just be a waste of time.

Get it fixed for free while it's still under warranty else you'll lose that chance too.

[ontheroad]

Samsung's service is pathetic, to say the least. Some retailer association in the name of "TALK" in Kerala was even threatning to stop selling Samsung due to poor service. Two weeks back my Galaxy SL's display was to be replaced. Samsung took around 10 days to arrange spares!

[Lukeskywalker]

I'd say get the motherboard under warranty and be done with it, the screen is new, the connection port is new and now the motherboard is going to be new, so essentially you actually have an almost new unit, just change the outer case and it will also "look" new.

[Octane_Power]

Getting to see quite a few distressed BHPians these days with grievances ranging from cell phones to BMWs; quite sad.

venks, if they are ready to replace motherboard then why not accept it?
The motherboard is the main component and if they feel that replacing it will solve the problem then go for it.

Why stress youself with those legal tangles or just send your cell to someone who wouldn't care much (I've always dreamt of owning such a costly phone, please courier it to me , will pay for the shipment charges )

-Bhargav

[eq24]

I will give you an option 4, but you need to have some guts for that.

Take the Galaxy Note and approach the Bangalore office of Samsung, call some media guys and burn it on the road for all and sundry to watch. It will be great fun and will kick samsung in the ball sack.

Samsung is the worst company in the world, I bought a TV from them 2 years ago costing nearly a lac. Less than an year and it developed a fault. Samsung did not do anything about it after repeated mails and everything. If the TV had stopped working I would have taken it to the Noida head office and burned it at their main gate. I think I still will the day it stops working.

[honeybee]

I think option 1 would be the best course under the circumstances. Even if you went to court, the company will always claim it's ready to fix the problem. Since there's no repeat problem to indicate the device was defective to start with, you may not be able to claim a replacement device.

On a side note, I have sent my Samsung Galaxy S Duos to the service centre for a motherboard replacement too. The problem I faced has been widely reported on the net by many other Samsung users, viz. once the display goes on standby, the device stops responding till you either reset it or remove and reinsert the battery and then start.

With your problems and the diagnosis of motherboard replacement, I think there's something seriously wrong with the product quality as a whole.

[Bluebeem]

Originally Posted by venks

Dear T-Bhpians,

Sorry for the lengthy email, need your advice on best course of action I could take with this situation I am going through. I am having horrible time with Samsung Mobiles India because of their service of my Galaxy Note II with dead motherboard, within warranty period.
==========
Am I missing any other option here?

Mods, please feel free to move this post to any other appropriate thread if needed.

Thanks
venks

I'd take option 3.

Not literally, but I would email the CEO explaining the issue in detail. I would imagine one email to the CEO would get you a replacement.

Option 1 is going to be available to you all the time. Why not try the appellate authority and the CEO route first?
The contact us page on Samsung india website has a "email to ceo's office" link.

After all the LCD replacement was also done by Samsung itself right ? So samsung is responsible for it. And the phone was working fine for 6 months after that. It's obviously some issue with the connector replacement. They are trying very hard to wash their hands off it.

This may sound funny, but if the CEO route doesn't work, I would mark an email the CEO and CC it to the CEO of apple india and LG india. Just to put Samsung to shame. Lol. Seriously.

[shashank.nk]

I had a problematic car,got it fixed, informed the buyer of what had been done on the car, sold it and now i'm happy I don't have that car anymore even though it left me without a car for a few months.

Why bother so much for a phone,that too a 2nd one ? Get it fixed and sell if if you are so unhappy with it. I don't think any of the other options are feasible,court,media etc as they demand a lot of your time,which I don't believe is worth it

[Kimified]

I coincidentally own the same phone and am yet to face any such issues you have mentioned. Touch wood

I think you should go ahead with option 1 and get it repaired. I see no point fretting over point 2 and 3 for a 30k phone. Considering that it would go your way legally in the court and the court asks Samsung to replace it with a new unit, is would be Note 4 launch time by then and you would be least interested in using this phone (Leaving out the satisfaction bit that you would get winning the case).

Like some of them already mentioned, Apple and Samsung are two very different level companies when it comes to service. Interestingly, Over the last 4.5 years, I have owned an Apple for 2 years, HTC for the next 2 years and the Samsung for the last 8 months. I had problems with my Apple device, the ear phone socket wasn't working, they replaced it with a new unit. No questions asked. Sadly, HTC and Samsung are no where near this level of service. So, don't expect great things from them. Go with option 1 and hope nothing goes wrong again. Cheers!

[speedsatya]

If I were you , I would first write on their Facebook page and then wouldn't settle for anything other than option 2. I also have an iPhone 4S and a Samsung S3 as my second phone. If I can afford 2 phones costing a 1L INR in total , I wouldn't care much about refunds. I am paying more for the reliability and the trust I have in that brand.

I wouldn't say much if they accepted their mistake and replaced your motherboard. But here , they are talking BS and they have to punished for this. You should ensure that they don't try doing it to someone else who might be buying these expensive phones on EMI.

If I were you , I wouldn't hesitate to approach the consumer court.

[venks]

Thank you guys for your response and advice. Option 1 seems like the popular choice so far. And for those who are dreaming about getting a repaired Note II couriered to them as gift, nice try

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Samsung is Samsung, Apple is Apple don't compare the service levels of apples to coco-nuts

You are right Jaggu, Samsung sells products for premium price, but Apple sells ownership experience.

Originally Posted by Lukeskywalker

I'd say get the motherboard under warranty and be done with it, the screen is new, the connection port is new and now the motherboard is going to be new, so essentially you actually have an almost new unit, just change the outer case and it will also "look" new.

My problem is I am not confident of the repair job done by the service center folks. The whole motherboard issue might be due to faulty repair work done by service center guys while replacing the connection port as motherboard failed after a day.

Originally Posted by eq24

I will give you an option 4, but you need to have some guts for that.

Take the Galaxy Note and approach the Bangalore office of Samsung, call some media guys and burn it on the road for all and sundry to watch. It will be great fun and will kick samsung in the ball sack.

eq24, nice power packed action. I am not sure whether I am up for that at this point. May be I can write a book - "Guy who burned his note II" after this action, just kidding.

Originally Posted by honeybee

I think option 1 would be the best course under the circumstances. Even if you went to court, the company will always claim it's ready to fix the problem. Since there's no repeat problem to indicate the device was defective to start with, you may not be able to claim a replacement device.

On a side note, I have sent my Samsung Galaxy S Duos to the service centre for a motherboard replacement too. The problem I faced has been widely reported on the net by many other Samsung users, viz. once the display goes on standby, the device stops responding till you either reset it or remove and reinsert the battery and then start.

With your problems and the diagnosis of motherboard replacement, I think there's something seriously wrong with the product quality as a whole.

I understand your point honeybee. I am sure Samsung would have behaved very differently if the same scenario would have occurred in the US. They would have replaced the phone immediately. But this is India and these big companies can take the customer for a royal ride. Yes, I agree on the quality of products and, equally important, service.

Originally Posted by Bluebeem

I'd take option 3.

Not literally, but I would email the CEO explaining the issue in detail. I would imagine one email to the CEO would get you a replacement.

Option 1 is going to be available to you all the time. Why not try the appellate authority and the CEO route first?
The contact us page on Samsung india website has a "email to ceo's office" link.

Yes Bluebeem, I have already sent few mails through "email to ceo's office" option in the samsung website. Also I sent a mail to few sr executives leading customer satisfaction function at Samsung, picked this details through LinkedIn. I am seriously thinking about dropping a mail to CEO/MD as well.

Originally Posted by Kimified

I coincidentally own the same phone and am yet to face any such issues you have mentioned. Touch wood
...........

Like some of them already mentioned, Apple and Samsung are two very different level companies when it comes to service. Interestingly, Over the last 4.5 years, I have owned an Apple for 2 years, HTC for the next 2 years and the Samsung for the last 8 months. I had problems with my Apple device, the ear phone socket wasn't working, they replaced it with a new unit. No questions asked. Sadly, HTC and Samsung are no where near this level of service. So, don't expect great things from them. Go with option 1 and hope nothing goes wrong again. Cheers!

Yes, there is no match to Apple's customer service levels. Can you believe? I got a new Nano with double the capacity without paying a single rupee as replacement for an out-of-warranty nano with issues.

[Naparajito]

Yes in fact this is very true. I had a Samsung metro, which had a motherboard failure, 4 days after the purchase. Though it was only of Rs 4000 they did agree to replace the device, but they took 2 months to do so even after continuous follow ups.

Comparing them with LG, they replaced my mum's LG Arena even after 11 months coz the screen digitizer had gone kaput don't know how?!

I would suggest you to repair it and sell it on ebay or quikr (which is convenient), you have get around 23-24k easily for it.

Regards

[F150]

Think with a cool head and go ahead and get the motherboard replaced.
Your expectations of receiving apple (USA) like service in India are unrealistic, welcome to INDIA.
Your case is already weak, physical damage to the phone.