. I have my phone back (somewhat worse for the wear but serviceable ... both me and the phone) since Wednesday. Thats a long story worth telling some time. But, heres the short version. Samsung Mobile USA (Samsung/us) does not honor warranty on any Samsung GSM unlocked smart phone in the US. Their advice ... obtain warranty where it was made for sale ... in my case the Middle East. If I were in Baghdad or Saudi, thatd be easy. But since the US does not allow cell phone to be shipped via air mail, there is little way to get it there other than slow boat. And, besides telephone calls and emails concerning warranty issues are not returned from the Samsung/levant support website ... could be my US address scares them off. The web store where I purchased it (factoryoutletstore), with full manufacturer one year warranty and some other reassuring marketing ploys, uses excruciating customer service torture (never say no and never follow through) to convince you that youre better off taking care of things yourself. (I should have checked BBB before I purchased from them!) Soooo ... I did. I took my 2 month old Samsung Galaxy S3 model GT-I9300 unlocked GSM smart? phone to IFIXANDREPAIR (a local affiliate of a national franchise service of ifixandrepair) in West Town Mall Knoxville. There Jamie, who is eager to go into business for himself in two months, reassured me he knew precisely what was wrong, he could fix it in an hour and hed even give me a $30 discount ... he talked a great game! Turns out he didnt have an black bezeled LCD assembly in stock but could get one in about 7 days (he started researching eBay as we spoke). He did have a pebble blue screen in stock in Florida and could get it in two days so I could have have my phone by Friday. I went for the pebble blue and left my phone and $175 on the counter (dont do that!). I think Jamie and IFIXANDREPAIR take customer service lessons from Samsung because I could never get a phone call returned (they knew they didnt have an acceptable answer and were avoiding me). Three times I was promised the phone the next day before it finally came true. That was after I left a message stating I only wanted to know What time tomorrow I can pick up my repaired phone, or, my phone and a full refund. That call wasnt returned. It really started downhill from there the next day. But, he did repair my phone with minimal damage ... the chrome bezel covering on the speaker is missing and on order (yeah like Ill ever see that!). The phone is a unique black/pebble blue combo and it does work fine now with its cosmetic defect. Theres no chance at warranty repairs ever ... never was. Im a whole lot wiser and little poorer. Next time, lets hope there is not next time, Ill just order the parts and do the repair myself. Believe or not ... there was never a curse word uttered during all these conversations. I wont discuss what went through my thoughts though. The moral to this story is the first sentence of the second paragraph.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 10:27:30 +0000
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