Hi folks,
I'm curious to hear experience from USA owners of Samsung phones, regarding whether Samsung actually in practice won't do warranty repair work without seeing the receipt.
My story is a pretty typical one: I bought a used phone off of a used phones site, and have the receipt for the transaction. However, the receipt doesn't show the IMEI number, so it's not really a definitive record of the phone's purchase.
The phone is having a hardware issue (not water damage or mishandling), almost certainly a manufacturing defect. Basically, when playing sounds it makes weird static noises, and resetting (FDR) doesn't change it.
I checked Samsung's warranty status page based on the IMEI number, and it actually shows the phone has lots of warranty left. However, whether they will honor it remains to be seen.
I was able to register the phone via my Samsung online account, and tried to request service for it online, but encountered "web snafus" with their site, and wound up doing a chat with someone at Samsung. She initially denied the phone was still under warranty, but I referred her to their own warranty check link and told her it was still covered, she told me to call the service phone number. Also recommended I fax a copy of the receipt to a certain fax number.
Called the service phone number yesterday (Saturday July 5th) and actually spoke to a real live person, quite lucid and coherent, briefly described the problem and what the online chat person said to do as troubleshooting, and he agreed it was a hardware issue. He took my IMEI number and put me on hold for a while, and when he came back he issued me a return label, which I printed out, and have shipped the phone to Texas for repairs. He didn't ask me for the receipt, or mention the need for it. He did of course caution me about water damage, cracked screens not being warranty work. He didn't say anything about the warranty status, actually.
He gave me a warranty service transaction number, which I can put into their online system, and it brings up a page that says the phone hasn't been received yet (of course), and there is a button to upload a receipt if I wanted to.
At this point, I'm curious to hear how many people get their phones repaired without submitting receipt, and how many needed receipts to be sent.
My plan of action is not to upload anything unless asked directly to do so for this warranty service transaction. But if they do ask for it, I have a couple options:
1. I could upload the purchase receipt (it's a paypal receipt with description saying an ATT Galaxy S4 phone). Or,
2. I could add the actual IMEI number to the receipt, which in some ways makes me feel dodgy, but it would be the actual number from the phone, nothing fraudulent.
Interacting with the original seller is a last resort I don't plan to do... it was an odd transaction that I came close to cancelling. In the end I think he was just having an off week and probably wasn't trying to defraud me, but I wonder if he knew of the problem (which was minor upon phone receipt and has gotten worse). He described the phone as mint, and while it was in very good condition, I should have called him on it at the time. But it was too long ago.
If I don't get warranty coverage, most likely I'll have them send me the phone back and I'll sell it as-is (with a thorough description of the problem) and get what I can for it, and take it as one of the lessons learned when buying used electronics on the internet.
Curious to hear thoughts and experiences.
Marc
I'm curious to hear experience from USA owners of Samsung phones, regarding whether Samsung actually in practice won't do warranty repair work without seeing the receipt.
My story is a pretty typical one: I bought a used phone off of a used phones site, and have the receipt for the transaction. However, the receipt doesn't show the IMEI number, so it's not really a definitive record of the phone's purchase.
The phone is having a hardware issue (not water damage or mishandling), almost certainly a manufacturing defect. Basically, when playing sounds it makes weird static noises, and resetting (FDR) doesn't change it.
I checked Samsung's warranty status page based on the IMEI number, and it actually shows the phone has lots of warranty left. However, whether they will honor it remains to be seen.
I was able to register the phone via my Samsung online account, and tried to request service for it online, but encountered "web snafus" with their site, and wound up doing a chat with someone at Samsung. She initially denied the phone was still under warranty, but I referred her to their own warranty check link and told her it was still covered, she told me to call the service phone number. Also recommended I fax a copy of the receipt to a certain fax number.
Called the service phone number yesterday (Saturday July 5th) and actually spoke to a real live person, quite lucid and coherent, briefly described the problem and what the online chat person said to do as troubleshooting, and he agreed it was a hardware issue. He took my IMEI number and put me on hold for a while, and when he came back he issued me a return label, which I printed out, and have shipped the phone to Texas for repairs. He didn't ask me for the receipt, or mention the need for it. He did of course caution me about water damage, cracked screens not being warranty work. He didn't say anything about the warranty status, actually.
He gave me a warranty service transaction number, which I can put into their online system, and it brings up a page that says the phone hasn't been received yet (of course), and there is a button to upload a receipt if I wanted to.
At this point, I'm curious to hear how many people get their phones repaired without submitting receipt, and how many needed receipts to be sent.
My plan of action is not to upload anything unless asked directly to do so for this warranty service transaction. But if they do ask for it, I have a couple options:
1. I could upload the purchase receipt (it's a paypal receipt with description saying an ATT Galaxy S4 phone). Or,
2. I could add the actual IMEI number to the receipt, which in some ways makes me feel dodgy, but it would be the actual number from the phone, nothing fraudulent.
Interacting with the original seller is a last resort I don't plan to do... it was an odd transaction that I came close to cancelling. In the end I think he was just having an off week and probably wasn't trying to defraud me, but I wonder if he knew of the problem (which was minor upon phone receipt and has gotten worse). He described the phone as mint, and while it was in very good condition, I should have called him on it at the time. But it was too long ago.
If I don't get warranty coverage, most likely I'll have them send me the phone back and I'll sell it as-is (with a thorough description of the problem) and get what I can for it, and take it as one of the lessons learned when buying used electronics on the internet.
Curious to hear thoughts and experiences.
Marc
