I am writing this mail purely due to the frustration and dissatisfaction I have built over the last one month with Samsung as a brand. Just to give you a background, I have always been an APPLE fan so far, have been using Apple products for more than 5 years now, that includes 3 Iphones upgrades, 1 Ipad Mini, 2 Ipod upgrades. Had always believed that Apple was the trend setter and Samsung was the smart follower. But After Steve jobs, I somehow got a sense that APPLE had stopped innovating. Was really disappointed with IPHONE(5C +5S) as it hardly had any real technical enhancements. Being in a creative profession, My work typically involves capturing lot of photos, noting sudden ideas, rough sketching, accessing blogs and social networking sites, etc…
Once I saw Note 3 campaign, I was really impressed with the features and despite knowing the fact that I will not be able to sync other APPLE products with SAMSUNG, I decided to go for a note 3. Though it was the most expensive Smartphone that I had picked in my life but somehow the product really convinced me to push myself and go for it. On 15th Oct, 2013, My wife gifted me a note 3 as our anniversary gift, So eventually this product also had emotional value attached to it along with the latest technology that Samsung had to offer. (Piece was picked from Samsung smartphone cafe located in Phoenix Mall Bangalore, Bill Number – S13/2010, Amount 47K, Model Name – SM/N9000ZKEINU, Serial No.- RF1D93G74MF).
After 10 days of using the piece(on 25th Oct, 2013), While on my way back from Delhi to Bangalore, Somehow I forgot to Charge my Note 3, Due to which it had conked off by the time I landed in Bangalore. When I reached Home and tried charging it, it would not get charged. As it was a working day, I had to go to office, but I decided to skip the office as I was feeling handicapped without the note 3. So the first thing I did was visiting the same Cafe from where I had bought the piece. The sale staff peacefully suggested “Sir, this is not a big problem, Just because this is a new battery, it takes atleast a month to reach it`s true potential, so Ideally you should have ensured that the battery should not die in the first one month. But don`t worry, All you need to do is, visit a Samsung authorized service station and ask them to boost the battery. they will take 2 minutes and solve the problem. As this is a very small job, you will not have to wait in the queue too..” While I was surprised to hear the “True potential of the battery” concept that He gave me, but decided to believe him and decided to visit the closest service center, immediately.
Once I reached the Samsung Service Station located in Krishna Towers, Marathalli(Bangalore), I realized that there is no way I could have skipped the waiting queue. After waiting for 3 hours, Finally when I got the opportunity to have my problem resolved, I was told that the Boost was actually not helping the battery as there was some issue with the charging port, which had to be replaced. I was obviously not comfortable with using a repaired piece in spite of paying such a huge amount, but the manager of the service station refused to replace the piece. His reason being “Sir, If you would have reached us in 7 days, we would have surely replaced the piece, but today is the 10th Day”. While I wondered how things would have changed whether I came on the 7th day or the 10th day, as it was the same batter and the same charging port. Also this 7 day return policy was not communicated to me at the time when I was buying the piece(nor the bill has this condition written anywhere), But still I thought of adjusting with the situation as it was a minor repair, and would have taken just 2-3 hours for the service center guys to return the piece. After 1 day, I got a call from the manager and he informed that the piece actually has some motherboard issue and the whole motherboard will need to be replaced. After hearing this, I just lost it. As I will be expected to use a repaired piece just because the battery died 3 days after the deadline. But still I somehow adjusted to the situation and decided to manage with the repaired piece. As confirmed by the Manager, the repair job was supposed to take just 2 days, but today after 13 DAYS also, I have not received any call from the service center. I still don`t know the reasons behind the delay and the time it is going to take for the repair.
IF SAMSUNG IS SO STRICT ABOUT 7 DAY REPLACEMENT POLICY, WHY ARE THE SERVICE LEVELS SO POOR THAT IT HAS BEEN MORE THAN 13 DAYS AND I AM WAITING TO HEAR ABOUT Rs 47,000 WORTH OF PHONE.
OVERALL, REALLY DISAPPOINTED WITH SAMSUNG PRODUCT AND SERVICE LEVELS. HAVE LOST COMPLETE TRUST ON THE BRAND ITSELF.
EXPECTING SOMEBODY TO COME FORWARD AND CONVINCE ME TO BELIEVE IN THIS BRAND AGAIN. Else I will have no other option than to share my experience with the CREATIVE COMMUNITY(my social circle) in INDIA, who are still using Apple products and are perceived to be inspirational by many Indians..
Leave a Reply