Yeah three gens in I think it’s safe to say that Google is doubling down on the cost-cutting SOC and modem.

Did not realize that this was a thing. Woah

(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.

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:

1. Samsung management has enforced strict disciplinary action for anyone veering more than a nanometer off the Skyrim dialog flow-chart OR

2. 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.

I asked a support rep. He told me the solution was to delete everything and stop using the secure folder. I said “but I have some secure content”. He said “I’m so sorry…” and ended the support chat.

Bizarre experience but now I totally understand why he did that. This is such a weird hill for Samsung to die on. They literally refined Android Desktop into DeX before they’d consider hiding an always-on notification which defeats the whole purpose of the product.