Complaint Review: Samsung - Mcallen Texas

I sent my S8 (phone) to Samsung Customer Service in March for a software problem (phone started to continually reboot itself in a loop) [ticket 4147371661]. Somewhere between the time that I shippped the S8 and two weeks later when they acknowledged receiving it, the back cover had been physically shattered. This is what has happened next:

• April 4, 1:50pm - Email received indicating they wanted to charge me $502.23 to fix it. I replied by calling 1-800-Samsung. Customer Service rep confirmed that the damage occured either in their possession or during shipping (but noted that there was no damage to the packaging indicating it was unlikely it was during shipping), and in lieu of opening a UPS claim they told me they would fix the phone at no charge.
• April 4, 4, 4:36pm - Email received confirming that the repair will be covered "at no cost to you."
• Two weeks later - I received the S8 back. It was NOT repaired and remained shattered - really awful to open a box expecting, finally a working S8 only to find a shattered, unuseable S8 (Thanks so much Samsung :( ). Repair center indicated it was "beyond economical repair," despite the assurance I received on April 4 that it would be repaired by Samsun at "no cost to [me]."
• April 20 - I called 1-800-Samsung and opend a UPS claim [ticket 5120536523]
• May 1 - Samsung/UPS coordinator informed me that they would lift the "beyond economical repair" issue and fix the shattered S8 to resolve the UPS claim if I would please send it back to them. This was confirmed with another return shipping label Samsung generated for me. Note that the Samsung/UPS coordinator did also phone me with this information, but left no direct return phone number and never replied to any of my emails (again, Thanks so much Samsung/UPS coordinator for more of a truly awful customer service experience :( ).
• That week I returned the S8 to Samsun with their shipping label.
• May 22 - I received the S8 back. It was, once again (2nd time), NOT repaired and remained shattered - again, really awful to open a box (now for the second time) expecting, finally a work S8 only to find an shattered, unuseable S8 (now going on two months without it = uexcuseable Samsung).
• May 22 - I called 1-800-Samsung to complain and opened a ticket with "executive customer service" [5120731591]
• May 23 - I called 1-800-Samsung to get connected to executive customer care. After lengthy discussion of background, they apologized, agreed it should have been fixed despite the "beyond economical repair" status (since they had themselves admitted to having shattered my S8), and they want the S8 sent back to them for a 3rd time. Adamant that this would be futile, I argued for an alternative resolution, such as cash for the damage or a new phone; and I asked to speak with the Samsung/UPS coordinator. In response, they transferred me to a 1-800 general UPS line to track packages and such - just totally rude and unacceptable. I called back 1-800-Samsung and another service rep also refused any alternatives other than once more returning the S8 to the McAllen Service Center where it had already been twice in the last two months. Seeing no other option, I relented in exchange for an email (received the same day) stating "case was escalated to the department in charge, so they can remove the BER tag and get the  unit serviced." I can only presume, as they would not confirm, that previous discussions had not resulted in the BER tag having been removed which is why the service center has returned it twice without fixing it. However, as of this writing, I have not received a return shipping label!!

My thoughts on this experience? Simple, Samsung does not care to provide customers an honest, straightforward customer experience. At best, they are a disorganized, uncaring corporate behemouth that is either unable or unwilling to offer a positive back-end customer service experience. At worst, they are intentionally trying to tie customers up on lengthy, unfruitfal calls and transfers round-and-round that lead to no progress so that they will become so frustrated and disenfranchised that they simply walk away and leave them alone - they win! It is enough to drive me back to Apple despite viewing their products as otherise inferior just to have a full package with back-end customer care (which I always found to be very user friendly), or any other brands. There you have it, for what this is worth!!