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MaxTheLimit
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Samsung RMA Nightmare! *UPDATED*

Thu Nov 11, 2010 9:32 pm

I've been conversing with my very close friend Kyle and his troubles with the RMA process that he has been going through with Samsung. It seems that he is having lots of trouble with official RMA channels, and so I offered to post up his experience. He made a quick write up and I promised to post it up as a warning to other folks who have bought Samsung monitors in Canada, and had to go through this process. Be warned the post is quite long.

My Samsung Adventure,
By: Kyle ***

Oh where to begin my most magical journey with Samsung and UPS.
Well, from the top I guess.
A year and a half after purchasing my Samsung t240 something went wrong and the display would not appear when the monitor was turned on.
“No problem,” I said to myself, “I kept my receipt and it's still under warranty for another year and a half!”
So on Sept. 14th I gather the needed material, write down the needed numbers and place a call to tech support, thus beginning my interaction with Samsung.
After going through the standard idiot test, “Is the monitor plugged in?” and “Is it turned on?” the Samsung rep. sends me the needed UPS waybill to send my poor monitor off to Hinet Systems INC. for repairs.
Proud of my forethought, I remove the monitor’s original box, complete with all packaging materials, from storage. Very carefully, I place the monitor in its packaging making certain there were no weak spots and no chance of accidental damage. Following this I drive to the nearest UPS location, drop off my package at the desk and it is whisked off on its wild adventure in Mississauga.
Time passes by, slowly and a little worrisome as my work requires repeated internet access throughout the day and without my monitor I missed several last minute shift opportunities to get extra hours under my belt. But that was a short term problem; surely I would get it back soon.
Ten days pass and on Sept 24th UPS rings my buzzer and I, more eager than a kid on Christmas, wait by the door for the delivery.
I finally have my monitor back. The first thing I notice is that it has been returned in different box.
“Strange,” I thought, “why wouldn’t they just use the same packaging? It was sturdy, eye catching and most fitting for the product.”
I disregard this thought quickly as I open the box and remove my dear friend from his confinement. This is where my heart stopped. It was broken.
Casing cracked, screen smashed so hard that it drove through the side of the unit and a terrible rattling sound as I hold it up. I take a closer look and see the foam it was packed in was anything but sturdy, buckling with the slightest pressure. I back off and examine the box – sure enough in the corner are signs of damage from being slammed too hard into the UPS truck.
Image
Image
Image
I quickly find the phone and call Samsung to report this and am told to fill out a UPS damage call tag online and email pictures to Samsung. I do so and on Sept. 27th UPS is at the door to retrieve the package and perform an investigation. This is completed on Sept. 28th and the package is sent back to Samsung to do the same.
This is verified by UPS both tracking number online and again over the phone.
A few days later Ann Marie from Samsung calls me, stating they have my monitor and were wondering why it was returned to them. Confused as to why I was needed to tell her how to do her job, I simply explained the situation and after the 3rd attempt she understood. I was told to sit tight and she would see to it that everything was looked after and I would be hearing from her.
“Great,” I thought, “there was a slight hiccup, but it is being resolved.”
Fast forward –
November 10th, 2010 I am still without monitor, still missing out on shifts at my work as a result.
Fed up with waiting I place a call to Samsung to inquire on the status of my monitor. After plodding through their menu I am connected to an agent who is able to see the following:
I sent the monitor in on the 14th
Contacted again about the damage on the 24th
That’s it.
So I am told that Samsung never received the monitor.
“Very strange,” I say, explaining my experience to the agent, stressing several times that I did receive a call from them saying they had it.
It seems Ann Marie failed to fill out the needed information. But as far as this agent was concerned I was wrong and asked me to send in pictures… again, and contact UPS.
So I call UPS first, and shocker, they say it was delivered and Samsung never did their part by returning information to UPS to resolve the matter.
I thank the agent for his help and place another call to Samsung, where I get a new agent and explain everything for the 5th time.
This started to get to me, why, after 4 previous iterations of this story am I needed to explain it again? Not one employee made adequate notations or passed on important information to anyone.
By this time I am frustrated, but after working in a call centre some time back I know that losing your cool, swearing or berating your service rep will only result in them refusing to help or hanging up.
So as calmly as I could I explained the story, and politely stressed how irritated I had become, after all two months had nearly passed and they seem to have lost my monitor.
After this is explained I am requested to email the problem, so I write it out as follows:
Attached please find my UPS Damaged Package report from UPS. 

I have been 2 months waiting for my monitor to be returned to me in working order. I have confirmed to return on this package to Samsung by UPS on the date of Sept 28th, 2010. 
I received a call shortly after this from a Samsung representative named Ann Marie, so I know the packaged was delivered. There, for some reason, is no notation of this in Samsung records.
UPS claims they are waiting for contact from Samsung.

I shipped in a monitor for warranty repairs, and get back one with cracked casing and damage so severe the screen was forced through the side of the casing on the top right side. 
This is caused by either insufficient packaging by Samsung or improper handling by UPS. Either way, I sent in an intact monitor and was returned a broken product.

Thank you for looking into this,
Kyle ***

I sit back, finally happy that the matter is being handled after 2 months of Samsung jerking me around.
I send another email after this with pictures as requested and get back this response:

Hello Mr. ***,
 
I thank you for the pictures.
 
Samsung will repair the monitor for you. I will send you in separate email a UPS waybill to return the monitor. Please make sure to properly package the monitor to avoid any other damage during shipping.
 
Should you have any question, please don’t hesitate to forward them to me.
 
Sincerely,

So here I am, without a monitor, typing on a foreign computer and waiting for yet another response from Samsung after I explain the problem for the 6th time. Oh yeah, I move in less then one week.

This is an absolutely pathetic display from Samsung, all they have proven is that they don’t care enough to record or even read the information sent to them; information that should have easily got this problem moving towards a resolution.
After I have, in the past convinced 2 family members and my best friend to buy Samsung monitors, same as mine, as well as my 52” Samsung TV and parents 52” Samsung TV this is the treatment I get.


I am the friend who bought the same monitor he mentions at the end there. I hope I, nor anyone here has to go through this situation.
I am a bit disillusioned about Samsung's handling of their RMA.
You folks here is in a demographic that would probably care about the RMA process of a company before purchasing a product, so this post comes as a warning! BEWARE SAMSUNG'S RMA BEFORE PURCHASE!
Last edited by MaxTheLimit on Mon Dec 06, 2010 1:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
ryko
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Re: Samsung RMA Nightmare!

Fri Nov 12, 2010 12:20 pm

it seems to me that it is a UPS problem. your friend never should have contacted samsung the 2nd time after the box and monitor showed up damaged from the original RMA. he should have only dealt with UPS claims services and let them deal with procuring a replacement. they damaged the monitor and should have to replace it. i see no reason for your friend to have gone directly to samsung the 2nd time. from their point of view, it looks like the same person is trying to get 2 RMA's on a single item.
 
MaxTheLimit
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Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: Samsung RMA Nightmare!

Fri Nov 12, 2010 2:33 pm

Maybe, but from what he says, all they told him to do was to contact UPS to file a damage report ( which he did ) and to email them pictures of the damage.
He did have dealings with UPS, but once UPS said that Samsung had the monitor back he was told by both companies to wait for contact.
While there may or may not have been a more effective route to take, I would say the steps taken seem reasonable ones.

As I read it -
received broken monitor
called samsung
samsung says to email them pictures and contact ups
contacted ups
ups requests to file damage report and return item
shipped package back
item returned to samsung by ups
samsung loses track of situation in relation to the package and the state of the RMA return.

As I see it, that is handling things reasonably well. At any rate it only really gets weird once Samsung has the monitor back the second time.
Everything before seems a reasonable process....if a bit unlucky.
 
cphite
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Re: Samsung RMA Nightmare!

Fri Nov 12, 2010 3:29 pm

Hopefully your friend has a copy of the tracking information from UPS. He should email the last person who contacted him, explain that Samsung already has the monitor, and include the UPS tracking information as well as the name of the person (Anna Marie) who acknowledged receipt.
 
MaxTheLimit
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Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: Samsung RMA Nightmare!

Fri Nov 12, 2010 4:07 pm

As I understand he has all his documentation, and Samsung isn't refuting it, they are just....lost in what is going on.
 
MaxTheLimit
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Posts: 1896
Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:00 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: Samsung RMA Nightmare!

Mon Dec 06, 2010 1:49 pm

It has been a while, but I do have an update to this little adventure.
I went into Ottawa to visit my friend kyle to celebrate his new house and his monitor finally arriving back from samsung.
Much drinking and gaming were on the agenda.
When the monitor comes on this is what we saw:
Image
Image
Looks like the monitor has a whole new set of problems now.
In the first pic you can see the green line running up the screen with no video cable plugged in.
In the second pic you can see that it remains on screen when connected via HDMI.
I will update this thread when a response for this most recent debacle comes from Samsung to my friends email.

PS - Sorry for the picture quality in this post. I only had my cell phone at the time to take the pictures with.

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