I'm so irate right now that I've decided to just cancel my purchase of the S23 Ultra.
Purchased my ultra directly from the Samsung online store... received a call a few days later from what I assume to be the after sales department wanting to know if I was happy with my purchase.
I highlighted to them that although it was a brilliant device, but I noticed that there seemed to be a lag when typing in apps like WhatsApp etc. YouTube would also freeze and crash whenever I was typing in the comments section. The rep adviced me that he would book a device exchange for me and gave me a support ticket. This was done on the 3rd of March.
I kept following up with the e-store support department every couple of days so I could coordinate switching back to my old device before the collection, but they could never give me a date for the collection and exchange other than it would be between 14 days. At the beginning of every call to the support department, they struggled to find the information the support ticket was related to.
On March 13th I switched back to my old device in anticipation of the collection. On the 16th I missed a call from the courier company as I was in a meeting and I promptly called them back after the meeting, but the courier company couldn't assist me as I didn't have any information to help them trace my collection. I then contacted the Samsung Support centre who again struggled to find the related information, but promised me feedback.
That same afternoon I received a call from the Samsung aftercare sales rep who explained that the courier company had tried contacting me the day before and that day without success. It's true that I missed their call that day, but I had no record of any missed calls from the day before. The rep then then promised to get in touch with the courier company to re-arrange the collection. I asked him for the collection waybill so I could also speak to the courier company to facilitate the collection.
When I called the courier company, they told me they had no such waybill number. It was neither a delivery or collections waybill.
It's been constant calls and chats with the support department to try and find out when the collection will happen and each time, they remind me that I missed a call and that they are escalating for the collection to be re-arranged. This morning I had the same response and I've had my fill.
At the same time, I've also been struggling to get the R1000 reward that was promised. I even posted here and a moderator responded asking me to provide my order number so they could escalate, but they no longer respond to the thread after I provided the requested info.
This morning I had the same feedback that I missed a call last week Thursday which is false as I missed the call on the 16th and again they said they would escalate for the collection to be rearranged.
I feel like my life has been on hold because of this as I do everything on my devices. I even requested my bank verify my bank cards on Samsung wallet on that particular device and everything was just hanging in the air.
I'm so fed up I've requested the whole transaction to be cancelled due to this nonsense. They can come collect their devices. It's not worth all this hassle.
So my update to this saga is that I contacted the CEO office via the Samsung website and the response I received back was to provide them with the name of the rep I spoke to or to take my device to the nearest Samsung repair store for assessment.
Firstly, I provided them with my order and ticket numbers, so they could have easily investigated and found the details themselves if they bothered.
Secondly, the nearest repair store to me is about 150km away. I am not driving all that way to have the device assessed. Thirdly, I didn't want my device to be repaired when it was already having issues from the get-go. A replacement is what rightly should happen.
Anyway, a day after contacting the CEO's office, low and behold, the courier company, which apparently wasn't able to contact me on numerous occasions suddenly could reach me 🤔 The Samsung team couldn't even tell me on which additional days they had tried to unsuccessfully reach me on.
So either they were blatantly lying or I'm starting to suspect they ran out of stock since they are now out of stock on their website. These people were stringing me along instead of just telling me the truth.
🙈 I received an email from Samsung today stating: "This is just a reminder about your R2000 Samsung Online Store voucher that you still have to spend. We have some great offers for you to spoil yourself with."
Firstly, I've been begging for weeks about this and no one seemed able to help. Secondly, there are no vouchers listed in my benefits page or on my profile on the website so how exactly am I supposed to spend this voucher?
I had equally bad experience but through takealot. Use an office address for your delivery if possible. The best way to go is through Samsung themselves, trust me. You dont want to struggle with online stores like Takealot for instance.
