Seriously?

On 9 February 2018, a few drops of rain fell onto the screen of my Samsung Galaxy S6. This created a lot of confusion for my smartphone, which I tried to fix in various ways.

On 20 February, I gave up and went to Vodacom who referred me to Samsung. The gentleman that I talked to, immediately referred me to their “technical expert”. Unfortunately, I did not get her name - she was a female, between 25 and 30, dark hair in one ponytail and dark eyes. She gave my phone one look and said it was water damage. I was so taken aback by her response, that I did not say anything. Then she said it has to be sent to Samsung to fix it. By then I have recovered from the initial shock of her response and I asked her on what does she base her diagnoses. I said she hasn’t done any troubleshooting and, obviously, did not listen when I said that I few drops of rain fell on the touchscreen. She insisted that it was water damage and I asked her where would the water damage come from since the S6 is sealed and cannot be opened by a layman (like me).

She then pointed at a blue-green device on her wrist and said that she was “a technician in training” and knew what the issue was. I was totally taken aback – again. I asked her how long it will take to fix my phone if she sends it to Samsung. She said 2 – 3 weeks and I said that won’t do. I asked her whether she is going to look at the phone at all and she, in her infinite wisdom, said no, it was definitely water damage. I said no thanks, and left the store.

I have been searching the internet for a few days and realised that this was not a unique problem, but that many Samsung S6 users have the same issue after raindrops fell on their screens. To make a long story short, I downloaded an app from the Google play store, which fixed the problem within seconds.

Maybe the real problem is that the “tech in training” receives commission from her referrals to the Samsung technical team? Maybe she should listen and pay attention to her client, or she should complete her training before she makes a call on the solutions to technical problems.