SAMSUNG EAST GATE MALL--INCOMPETENCE

I went to Samsung store in Eastgate mall, in Bedfordview, Johannesburg on the 12th of July 2022. I had asked whether they do repairs to Samsung galaxy three watches and they said they did. My Samsung galaxy three watch was not charging even though on the port suggested it was charging but the phone just didn’t switch on. This I first discovered while I was overseas in November last year and haven’t used the watch since, thinking that there was a serious issue with the watch because it had not switched on after charging a whole day a couple of times. I initially thought it was a battery issue. There was a lady who was answering my query at the front desk and she told me that there is a charge of R200 for A diagnostic to be done which I agreed to and paid. After two weeks of not hearing from Samsung galaxy in Eastgate mall I then called the store by Phone on the 26th of July 2022. A lady presumably the same lady, answered the phone and said that the diagnostic was done after much wait on the phone and that the problem was with the motherboard apparently. After a little bit more of a delay she said that it would cost me R3600 to have it fixed. She said one of her co-workers was in charge of the diagnostic and that he forgot to call me back. She also mentioned that she’s also a technician but wasn’t assigned to this case. This phone being roughly about 5000 rands I purchased for five years prior, I didn’t think it was worth fixing for that amount of money. She also said that she would email me the quote and so I wait for the quote round about 5 pm that day she called to ask whether I had seen the quote in my email. There was no email from her, either way,I wouldn’t pay that much anyway and so the next day I went to the store to retrieved my watch. While there I was curious to find out what the problem actually was because I’m not a very technical person and she mentioned something about a lot of sweat getting into the watch and therefore destroying the motherboard or something to that nature. To be honest this is a smart watch and it is for health benefits primarily- heart rate/step counter etc -that I bought it for and therefore I would be running jogging and the rest of it with it ,so her explanation didn’t really wash with me. I had asked her to print out the quote (which she supposedly sent to me by email the day before). On the quote it said that the technician found that the PBA and rear was damaged due to impact damage. This made me curious and I asked on what basis she says it was an impact damage. She then proceeds to say that she” just” put that in for insurance purposes if I wanted to claim from insurance. So told her I just want to know what the actual problem is with my phone and then she goes on to say that she can change the wording to something else if I wanted to. HUH?? I again told her no I just want to know what the problem is with the watch and she proceeds again to say that the sensor at the back and the PBA was the problem and again she said because a lot of sweat getting in etc.Remember they already charged me R200 for diagnostics. Something didn’t sit well with me so I had it checked out at an fix8 store. The fix8 store calls me later the same day and told me that there is nothing wrong with the watch itself. They then send me a video to prove that it’s actually works there nothing wrong with it and that the phone is switching on. The issue was just my usb charging line ( not even the docking port) and it’s just a matter of a 45 rand charger cable change. So the issue as you can imagine,is that Samsung in East Gate mall did not do run a proper diagnostic on my phone. In fact I don’t think they ran a diagnostic at all. My impression is that they forgot to do a diagnostic on the phone for whatever reason and then when I called two weeks later realised that they’re not done their job and I quickly made up a story about what the problem is and put in a quote and printed that out to cover their behind. This shows a level of incompetence that is part of some ( hopefully not all)of the crew working in Samsung Eastgate mall shopping centre, Bedfordview, Johannesburg. The whole Thing, from me dropping off the phone to me calling two weeks later after not hearing from them has just been a mess. The lady who assisted me there ,and I suppose the same lady who talked to me subsequently said she was a technician and that there was another technician working in Samsung that apparently looked at my phone and that he had forgot to put in a request or some sort to get back to me regarding the issue of on my phone. I need to get my my refund for diagnostics not done on my phone back. Clearly they did not do any diagnostic on my phone because there is no way a working phone will show up as a PDA failure or sensor problem. And the sheer gall of this woman to quote me R3600 for a perfectly working watch is infuriating me even more! I need my diagnostic refund back.I also need Samsung to look into this particular case. Samsung is a company based on quality and I use a host of their products. This type of incompetence I’m sure is not something they wish to be associated with.