Samsung Care plus is a **** and designed to frustrate clients to not claim

I am deeply disappointed, possibly even disgusted, with Samsung South Africa and Samsung Clear Water mall.

I booked my Z flip 3 for a screen repair on the 18th of November 2022 and I have still not received my repaired device (today is the 30th of January 2023) and it does not seem like I will get my repaired device anytime soon.

This is all due to the ridiculous system in place to claim for repairs through samsung care. Long story short even though Samsung care plus is sold through Samsung when purchasing a device, they do not have a clue as to what happens when a claim is submitted, the store does not know who the insurer is and when you query in store they shrug their shoulders and say its out of their hands.

To start, most cell phone manufacturers offer a free warranty on their cell phones to assist with screen cracks or breaks, however as you will be aware Samsung offers these warranties at a cost, the standard Samsung care policy has a once off fee and the Samsung care plus has a monthly fee as well.

I am a client who chose to spend the extra money on Samsung care plus to ensure myself and my wife will not be without a device if something happened. However, as it stands it seems my effort and money spent was all in vain. We booked my wifes galaxy z flip 3 in on the 18th of November 2022 with the service promise that we will have the phone back within 14 to 21 days, it is now the 30th of January, and we are nowhere close to a resolution.

After the initial 14 days we contacted the store several times and we were rudely dismissed multiple times and told the technician will contact us. On the 21st of December 2022 we were at the mall, and I thought I would pop in to find out the situation and it was at this point for the first time we were advised the system is rejecting booking the phone in. The technician (Washington) advised he will contact the insurance provider to get the authorization, we were also advised that management has been made aware of the issue, Washington also advised he will contact us regularly with updates. We waited and did not receive any communication. I returned to the store the 28th of December and Washington advised, he is waiting for feedback from the Samsung care team.

We were also told well if I want to sort it out, I need to phone the insurer to get an answer. I contacted Samsung directly and they said they can’t help and gave me the number of Samsung Care, I then called Samsung care and they told me they can’t help because they are not the underwriter, I then called Hollard and they advised even though they are the underwriter they do not have access to Samsung claims, and I need to call Samsung again and the cycle repeated.

On the 4th Of January I returned to the store and was again dismissed as Washington and the manager were on leave and nobody could provide me with an update about our situation, but when they return Washington will call me. I waited until the 9th of December and did not receive any feedback or call from Washington. I called the store on the 10th and was again advised Washington will call me back, but he did not. I walked into the store on the 12th, and I could see the visible dread on Washingtons face with having to deal with me again. He then went on to give me tons of excuses and it’s not his fault and he wants to undo the repairs and send me to another shop to process the claim (YES, HE TOLD ME TO GO AWAY AND LET SOMEONE ELSE DEAL WITH IT).

I then told him to not “unrepair” the phone and I will do my best to sort it out. I then went through all my mails and the policy documents and for the first time I found a company called IUA, they had sent me an email in June saying there is an unpaid debit order of R199. I was not aware of the missed payment as the money has been deducted from account timeously since June and there was only one missed payment.

As soon as I figured this out, I made the payment and sent the proof to ***. Washinton then went on to claim he figured out the missing payment, which is a complete lie, I figured it our and contacted IUA MYSELF.

My wife and I have been following up as nobody from the store or IUA have provided feedback and to my disgust this morning Washington argued with my wife saying that there is nothing he can do, and he refused to give us the service manager and store owners contact details. He then went on to advise he has removed the repaired parts and its out of his hands as he does not work for Samsung he works for a franchise, and we need to take it up with Samsung.

The issue now is that IUA can not or have not been able to allocate the payment to my account and the system is still rejecting the claim. None of this is my fault and it all sits with the Samsung suppy chain to get their act together, in the mean time i keep paying for a device i do not have and an insurance policy that I cant claim on.

This is utterly ridiculous and my advise to any cell phone consumer is get an iPhone or a Huawei heck even get a blackberry because the service I received from Samsung is the worst customer experience of my life.