15 years down the drain due to poor service

In February I purchased the S23 Ultra (ZA***) directly from the Samsung online store. I 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, I noticed that there seemed to be a lag when typing in apps like WhatsApp, Signal etc. YouTube would also freeze and crash whenever I was typing in the comments section. The rep advised me that he would book a device exchange for me and gave me a support ticket number ***3. 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. Around that time frame, I had also contacted my bank to verify my bank cards on the Samsung Wallet app on the S23.

I kept contacting the e-store in hopes of getting a collection date - I was hoping someone would tell me that the collection would be done in 2 or 3 days’ time, so I could switch back to my old device. At the beginning of every interaction with the e-store or live chat team, they would struggle to find the information the support ticket was related to and would tell me that they would escalate it.

On March 13th I switched back to my old device in anticipation of the collection and factory reset the S23. On the 16th, during a meeting, I missed a call from the courier company, but promptly called them back after the meeting in hopes of arranging a time for the collection. The courier company couldn''t assist me as I didn''t have any information to help them trace my collection details. 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 classified me as unreachable as they had tried contacting me in the morning and day before without success. It's true that I missed their call that morning, but I had no record of any missed calls from the previous day. The rep then promised to re-schedule the collection.

I requested the collection waybill so I could also speak to the courier company to facilitate the collection. I figured it would be easier for me to be in direct contact with the courier company and I could also trace the status online. When I called the courier company, they told me they had no such waybill number. It was neither a delivery nor collections waybill. When I looked it up online, I realized that it was the waybill for my original delivery of the S23.

It was constant calls and chats with the e-store and support teams to try and find out when the collection would happen and when I would get the new device, but each time, they remind me that I missed a call and that they were escalating for the collection to be re-scheduled.

At the same time, I'd also been struggling to get the R1000 reward that was promised during the promotion. I even posted on the Samsung Members app and a moderator responded asking me to provide my order number so they could escalate the case for me, but after I provided the requested information, they no longer respond to the thread. Our last interaction was on March 15 and I have three times asked about the status and have received no response.

On the morning of the 29th when I contacted the e-store live chat team, I received the same feedback that I had missed a call the previous Thursday which is false as the original call I missed was on the 16th and it was only one call that I missed. Again they said they would escalate for the exchange to be rescheduled meaning that all the other times I was promised that the collection would be re-scheduled, it actually wasn''t. In the meantime, I was putting my life on pause waiting for something that was never going to happen.

Later on the 29th, I received a call from a Samsung rep telling me again that the courier company had tried contacting me again without success, but he couldn't tell me on which day they had failed to get hold of me on. I receive and make phone calls daily and have no record of any missed calls. I mean how was the support rep getting hold of me then if I was not available?

Samsung needs to seriously review their support team as they are irritating and driving customers away. I'm not sure when last they even looked at the Samsung Members app that they keep driving customers to, to see that there are a number of irate customers who have been waiting for weeks to receive promotional items after their pu5 or irate over poor support services.

I was so fed up with the whole nonsense that I asked them to cancel the whole transaction and refund me. The representative I spoke to notified me that they would be in touch and that they would request me to complete some forms and send them pictures of the devices before collection.

I decided to contact the CEO office with my complaint and all they could do was ask me for the name of the consultant I had been dealing with or if I didn’t have the person's name, they recommended I send the device to my nearest Samsung repair store which is about 150km away. Very disappointing as I provided them with my order number and ticket number, so they could have investigated using those details.

Anyway the day after contacting the CEO office, the courier company who supposedly couldn't get a hold of me previously, could suddenly and mysteriously reach me. Meaning all the weeks I kept contacting the Samsung support team and they kept telling me the courier company couldn't reach me or they kept promising me they had scheduled the device exchange, they were lying all along.

Extremely disappointed that Samsung hasn't gotten so big they don't care about their customers anymore.