Initially posted in r/S22Ultra but posting here as well to maybe get some help…
For a while of owning the S22 Ultra (had it since per-ordering it nearly 2 years ago) I had a good experience with good battery life. Over the past 1-2 Months I have noticed severely decreased battery life. Having gone from 20-24 hours of battery to loosing %30 overnight even after doing a factory reset and placing it on airplane mode. So on 11/23 I placed a repair request, I figured hey why not this should be a quick and easy fix and I even pay for the Samsung Care+ insurance.
On 11/24 at about 1030AM I visit the authorized repair store near me, it was then I was informed that I had not booked the correct type of appointment for the Samsung Care+. Around 11AM I was able to contact Samsung Care + Support and file a claim and pay the $99 deductible. After confirming the that the payment was successful I got a reference ID and an email to show that the claim was submitted. The workers at the authorized repair store we’re completely unsuccessful at finding my claim but had thought that they found a work around for this issue. So now thinking the issue was resolved I left my phone in their hands and was set to return at about 3pm.
2pm that afternoon, I receive a phone call from the authorized service provider letting me know that the work had been completed but they ran into an issue with the claim and told me that I would have to call Samsung to resolve the issue prior to picking up my phone. This caused some confusion because once I dropped off my phone I presumed that the issue had been settled. I revisit the store and after discussing the issue and determining that I had 3 options. Option 1, they reinstall my old battery (which they informed me did test as bad) or option 2, I call Samsung again to straighten this out or option 3, pay out of pocket for the repair work done.
At this point I contact Samsung again as I did not want a faulty potentially dangerous battery back in my phone (note 7 bbq anyone?) Samsung support informs me that there is an unspecified issue and they will not be able to resolve it for unknown amount of time although stating that it may take 24-48 hours. Well this was no good, not because I was trying to be impatient but because I am on-call and need my phone for work. I had started this process because it was supposed to be same day service. I request that they cancel the Samsung Care+ claim so that I can pay out of pocket for the repair to have my device back same day. They cancel my claim and I get an email confirming the cancellation.
3pm I let the store know that due to issues with Samsung’s crappy system I would just like to pay out of pocket and proceed. They confirm this choice and I pay the $90 price to get my phone back. BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! Upon paying of the $90 out of pocket I was informed it would take about 2 hours, without asking I presumed that was due to final testing needing to be done. At this point I wait in store as I live an hour away and didn’t want to have to drive back. After waiting a short while, I was informed they were still having issues. This is when I discovered that even though I paid out of pocket for this repair they are REQUIRED to keep my device until it goes through samsung’s ticketing system. GREAT… As far as I am concerned the device repair has been completed and fully paid for but now my device is being held hostage until Samsung decides to fix their systems.
About 4pm I am able to over hear the repair tech calling Samsung and repeatedly arguing with them. He keeps telling them that I paid out of pocket so they need to release my device. Support keeps telling him they he needs to have me submit an insurance claim. This goes on for the next hour or so. By now I’ve told my tale of woe to the other customers coming into the store and they can also hear the circular logic of these idiotic support people and are just as shocked and infuriated as I was.
5:30pm The manager and myself was unsuccessful in getting through to the single brain-celled Samsung support staff. Since the system could not be completed the manager was required to keep my phone… having recognized this stupidity the manager made me a deal. In the event that they require the device back for finalization or testing I would bring my device back in (we’ll see about that…) and I would be recharged for the repair so that he wouldn’t “get fired”… This is also where I discover that when you pay out of pocket for a repair at an authorized repair provider the money doesn’t go to the provider, it goes to Samsung and then Samsung pays the provider. So having had nearly my entire day ruined by this nonsense I pay $90 again to get my phone back.
Now at this point I have paid a $99 insurance deduction, $90 out of pocket repair through the repair provider to Samsung, and another $90 out of pocket to the repair provider. None of which I have seen any refunds yet… So including lost time (because time is money) I am now out about $450 for a simple battery swap. And after another night and day of use the phone battery is still draining extremely quick meaning my entire day and was wasted and I went through this stress for absolutely nothing.
This whole situation has been a cluster****. I tried reaching out to corporate or just anyone at Samsung to escalate the issue and have had no luck. To anyone reading that might be able to put me in touch with someone, ANYONE that can help with this situation I would greatly appreciate it. I have been a diehard Samsung user since the S6 and now I am seriously considering switching to Apple, they might have worse right to repair stances but at least they are less likely to leave me high and dry.
TL;DR: Issue with phone, told it was battery and was a same day repair. Paid nearly $200 and they still held my device hostage as required by Samsung. Only after the manger broke the rules and I paid the shop for their time did I get my phone back AND ITS STILL BROKEN AND I CANT GET HELP FROM SAMSUNG. Now looking at switching to iPhone…
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Batteries and Bulbs will replace your battery without all the nonsense
Went to them for a camera lense issue & they were great. Better than ubreakifix. Ubif was a nightmare to deal with.
I went to ubreakifix to replace my battery and they took my phone. They called me 2 hours later telling me they didn’t have any batteries in stock. I called them before asking about the battery replacement an hour before I went in too.
Count yourself lucky. They tried to write my phone off.
Can agree, they took my note 20 ultra in to repair it for a randomly dead screen and said there was a damaged ribbon cable and it seemed like it may have been user damage. Thankfully samsung classified the whole repair as under warranty since the cable was unrelated to the screen being dead and they suspected a manufacturing defect.
Couple weeks after getting my phone back I notice the camera lens itself has a tiny scratch on it…only way that could have happened is if the tech goofed up and they denied it was their fault.
Tl;Dr ubreakifix sucks, don’t use them for samsung warranty work if you can help it
Maybe tweet it out? I’m not sure how responsive they are on “X”, but some companies respond better there.
Tried that, so far no luck.
You should post it on the your country’s Samsung facebook page. The PR team gets things fixed faster than the service side.
This is really shitty service. US I presume?
US correct, I tried Twitter/X but no dice so far. I’ll try Facebook soon.
I’ve noticed that recently, like in the last 1.5 years or so perhaps, Samsung support reps have gone through a major downgrade. I’m talking SD865-to-Exynos990 levels of downgrade.
My family and I have gone through samsung reps, support, care, etc many times over the years for sales, deals, swaps, and taking advantage of the programs. For the last decade they’d always been smart and moved us along very quickly.
Then 1.5 years ago something changes. Not just the system, but the sheer cognitive ability of these reps. I’m not talking English skills or technical skills or anything, no - I’m talking actual Neanderthals holding telephones unable to break outside or even properly use their little script. OPs story is almost verbatim what I’d experienced recently, a classic “oh we hear you but the button shows me ____” scenario.
I’m convinced either:
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Samsung management has enforced strict disciplinary action for anyone veering more than a nanometer off the Skyrim dialog flow-chart OR
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Samsung pays reps so low that the job market boom in 2021 to early 2022 flushed out anyone that could read a full page from a Harry Potter book from their ranks
Love these phones. Love the prices. Love the software. But Samsung’s support structure, at least in my region, are becoming a problem that’s getting harder and harder to ignore.
You love the prices? They’re still way overpriced lol
Everywhere is like this. It’s to the point probably 80% of my interactions with CSRs have me asking them if I’m talking to a bot or if they’re even reading my messages.
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The important lesson here is the shop fucked you over. They told you they thought they had a work around. When in fact they didn’t have a work around. I would check your work order you submitted via Samsung in a week or so to see if it was ever complete. If it’s marked as completed not only did you pay out of pocket to the shop. They also got paid by Samsung for completing the repair as well.
While I agree that a certain portion of responsibility is placed on the shop a certain amount needs to be placed on Samsung, this was a Samsung partnered shop and Samsung made no effort to help fix this or make it right.
This is why I love the New Zealand consumer guarantees act so much.
The retailer is responsible. When you purchase a phone, it has to be fit for its intended purpose and last a reasonable amount of time. Which usually overrides the warranty.
Some retailers contract out the repair to the manufacturer - eg. samsung says to the appliance store “sell our phone to your customers and we will handle the repairs etc for you”. But ultimately its the retailer that is responsible - not the manufacturer.And our government department has taken retailers to court and won against them when they failed to adhere to the act.
It’s sad when you need the government to force them to act decently.
I ain’t reading all that. I’m sorry that happened tho.
The shop scammed you.
While your not wrong, it is a Samsung partnered shop and Samsung holds some responsibility.
Buy a S23 Ultra it has the best screen on time, more than 10 hours.
Later I will post recomnendations for batery life.
Complaint to the BBB?
I can’t help you with your issue, but as someone that has used both Samsung and apple a lot, and recently switched to Pixel, I recommend pixel. Especially over apple. I did enjoy my time with iPhone, but I would often get annoyed at how limiting the OS is. You can’t even decide how long to snooze an alarm for, it’s 9 minutes whether you like it or not. Also customization is far worse. If you’re a super basic user that don’t need anything fancy and don’t mind abiding to apples strict rules then go ahead. If you still want the freedom of android but want to try something else than Samsung I definitely recommend pixel. I got the pixel 7 and it’s awesome. There’s many pixel exclusive features I like a lot. There’s also Samsung features I really disliked that I’m glad pixel doesn’t have. Definitely worth giving a try I’d say.
(Case against Pixel incoming, no hate towards OP. as lots of people enjoy these phones).
I tried Pixel with the Pixel6 and the photos were cool but I kind of need a phone whose modem actually connects reliably. Tensor’s modem was an even bigger issue than the SOC Also their attack on multitasking (Google borking split screen and disabling display-out over the type C port to sell chromecasts) bugged me a lot.
The worst thing about Pixels though was the community. Notice that in this sub and in Apple’s subreddits if you have an issue people will rally around and try and help or at least share similar experiences. In the Google Pixel sub people would yell that it’s impossible something is wrong with these phones, send me hate DM’s, and one guy even tried to locate me he was so mad that I posted a bug.
A fellow former Samsung user (left Samsung for similar reasons to me) and current pixel user that’s a friend of mine is looking at switching to iPhone as well over modem issues. Its a shame because I was looking at moving to Pixel. But after hearing of the modem issues and seeing that the only authorized repair dealer was the same one that was authorized to fix my Samsung I’m gonna have to say no.
Yeah three gens in I think it’s safe to say that Google is doubling down on the cost-cutting SOC and modem.
Made it onto sam mobile !! https://www.sammobile.com/opinion/samsung-care-is-really-working-hard-to-make-the-iphone-look-good/
Wow! Thats awesome, maybe that’ll help get traction.
The only thing I would want to add on to that is that my phone is still in a broken state.
Outrageous but not surprising. Sorry you went through all of this. Businesses seem to do the very bare minimum to get something done, and don’t take any responsibility for or pride in their work. It never used to be this way years ago.