Complaint Review: Samsung Repair Center Plano TX - Plano Texas

I received this phone, a 16 GB Note 2 as a replacement phone under T-Mobile's warranty service. When this phone proved to be defective, T-Mobile support told me to deal with Samsung directly, since it was a new phone. I figured this was just buck passing, but I went with it. How could Samsung's repair people be worse than T-Mobiles?

Within a month of me receiving my new (to me) phone, a few problems started to crop up:

The Wifi became unreliable, you press the button to turn it on, it goes light green for a few seconds, then turns itself off. It also does the router "not in range" thing and the "your internet connection is unreliable". From what I understand, this is a quite common Samsung problem.

The phone started to have difficulties coming out of sleep mode. You press the power button, you hear the noise, still a black screen. you can move your fingers around and hear the "bloop bloop" noises, very odd. After a few attempts, the screen would come back on, and work mostly as normal.

The audio began to skip/stutter, seemingly at random, regardless of the source of the audio. It reminds me of when I'd try to play hi-def video on an old computer, it just couldn't keep up. This even happens to the music that plays when you shutdown your phone.

Naturally, the first thing I did was run a firmware update. No updates found. Second thing I did was the factory reset. I was careful about what apps I added back, and none of the problems were resolved. Then I did the hard reset, where you have to hold down certain buttons for 15 seconds or whatever, and it brings up the android menu. This also didn't fix the problems.

After T-Mobile passed the buck to Samsung (because the IMEI on this phone was different than the one on T-Mobiles records (DUH they sent me a different phone) they were no longer willing to help me with it, I began what became a long and very painful relationship with Samsung's Customer Service:

On May 14th I contacted Samsung via their Webchat. I explained the above problems in a very concise, painstaking manner. I was given the usual apologies, and a ticket number: 4124647481. I was also sent a ups label via email, and instructions to include the power adapter and battery. OK, what do I know? I very carefully packed the items, and shipped them in. I also included a printed letter listing these problems in careful detail, wishing them luck in fixing them.

Here's where things really start to go wrong:

When I pulled the service ticket up online, it said: Power/Power/Intermittent Power Down. I don't know how the customer service person got that from the above list of symptoms! But again, what do I know? Oh well, I included the list with the phone detailing all the problems, surely they'd see the letter and do what needed to be done.

On May 22nd I received an email saying that my phone had been repaired, had passed QC tests, and was being shipped. I was elated...

Untill the phone came back, and I read the repair notes: They had replaced the power switch. My heart sank. There goes a week of my time, without the phone, for nothing. I thought, "maybe they fixed it, let's try it out". So I used it as normal, and sure enough, within a day, it was clear that none of the issues had been resolved. I'll also state that they said it had no signs of water damage or corrosion.

OK, this time I call Samsung, spend 7 minutes between the phone maze and hold times, I speak to someone, and spend the next 10 minutes again carefully detailing my issues. Again I receive the boilerplate apologies, and a new ticket number: 4124808684 It's May 26th by this time. OK, fine, they can't screw up a second time, can they? I pull up the e-mail to get the ticket number (to plaster all over the box) and I see in the symptom code field: Software Update/Mobile OS Updates/Software Reflash.

Now I'm truly dumbfounded, and angrier than I've been in quite some time. It's like she wasn't even listening to the problems I detailed. Once I calmed down, I called Samsung again, talked to a different (very sympathetic and helpful) person, gave her the ticket number, explained the situation and went through the list of problems again. She told me that she was able to annotate the service request, and that they should fix the problems. I also received a different UPS shipping label.

The next day, May 27th I shipped the phone back, in the same box they'd shipped it to me in. Again I included a list of problems, placed where they surely had to see it. I then crossed my fingers and hoped that incompetent lightning wouldn't strike twice. I also included the list of problems in the field where it says "send a picture of the problem"

Cut to today, May 29th. I pull up the repair tracker and see this:

*05/29/2014//18:56:44//0001773863//Telephone//ASC*

5/29/2014 5:56 PM-Daniel Gonzalez: The unit has left the technician. SOLUTION: S/W Updated

Now, I'm running out of words to describe my disappointment, anger, and frankly betrayal over this situation. I call Samsung customer service again. I give him a quick rundown of the situation and ask if he could stop them from sending me the phone back again, and maybe have the technician take a bit of a closer look at the situation? No, I just need to test the phone when it comes back, and send it back again if it still won't work, that this time it will receive a more thorough diagnosis. Lovely.

Now, here's the problem. The repair center is located in Plano, TX. I live in Houston, TX... Google says its a 4.5 hour drive to get there. If I take a couple days off of work and drive up there, is there going to be someone I can hand the phone to, along with the list of problems, and watch him actually test the phone out? or is it just a faceless warehouse complex? Should I even bother sending it back to them a third time? I'm at my wit's end. I thought about making a youtube video showing all the problems and sending them a link. But then I thought, if they won't bother to read the notes I include, they definitely won't bother to watch a video.

What can I do? I just want my phone working reliably again.