The market is driven by wiz bang state of the art and beyond products with product cycles short enough so a segment of the consumer base renews their phones sooner than they encounter problems and the associated new product hype carries them along. Leave one manufacturer and what are your choices, just others who seem to treat their customers in a similar fashion although perhaps to different degrees.
Although Android is Android, the different bloatware and value added tweaks make moving from one to another a learning experience that can be minimal to irritating. I went from a Samsung (big bloat & tweaks) to a Moto (no bloat | tweaks) and it took quite a few weeks to get comfortable again. My next will probably be an Oppo, different again with their Android base ColorOS.
Manufacturers know this, they are not interested in setting precedents by what they see is unwarranted cost of supporting their customers, but as you ably demonstrated a loud enough complaint can get results, and good on you for persevering.
Most sales are because of products and features, and as with other products and services even those with the worst reputation for ‘customer care’ do not seem to suffer degraded P/L because of it.
Unfortunately Samsung is not alone in that regard!
Hi all, an update for those interested - my ‘Samsung Saga’ is still not over. They denied any wrongdoing at Fair Trading, and as such, my next step is to refer them to NCAT. I now have a hearing date set for mid March, which I am keen for - i just want this sorted!
Further, I got to do a bit of work with wizards of The Checkout on this issue, and apparently my piece is on the last episode of the series after the NCAT hearing!
Again, wouldn’t it have been nice if Samsung just fixed the damn phone in the first place
Just caught up on the past few episodes of The Checkout from the PVR, one of the absolute best programs on TV. While watching one item I remembered this thread.
The fun bit was that Samsung lodged at NCAT a few days before the hearing, requesting a telephone attendance, which then saw the hearing pushed back 3 weeks (NCAT need to allocate more time to a telephone hearing apparently so it couldn’t remain on the same date, but I suspect Samsung knew this), then I had a call from a Customer Service manager less than 24 hours later conceding that they had failen short of well… everything…
They paid for the phone repair and of course I discontinued the NCAT proceedings, BUT I told them that The Checkout were still going to be airing the matter on TV, because their team had worked so hard, and because I think the public need to know that even when the law is on your side, getting whats ‘right’ isn’t easy.
Hi, Just some feedback on NSW Fair Trading, they were categorically useless, and probably a bigger waste of my time than Samsung themselves. Samsung’s response to my complaint was more or less ‘we know the mount has narrow limitations but thats ok and we aren’t sorry’ and when I spoke to the person at Fair Trading about following up such a useless response, he said ‘we don’t make decisions. You need to take it to NCAT, theres nothing more I can do’. So they are just a government funded messenger service apparently.
If theres ever a next time, I will avoid NSW Fair Trading like the plague. NCAT were good though through the filing process, and The Checkout were phenomenal.
This phone holder works really well - sadly it doesn’t fit in every vehicle air vent but I can recommend it because it is so simple. Also, I have found some phones really heat up when you are using a map app because the screen is on all the time. I feel the cool air coming from the vent is probably a helpful bonus.
after the NCAT hearing!
