Today I received my much anticipated Note 10+ 5G which I ordered about 15 days ago and was counting the days for it to arrive. Only thing is that when I opened it, it turned out not to correspond to what I had wanted nor expected.
I've been an avid loyal Samsung customer since they released their Galaxy S2, some years ago, and a Galaxy Note user since the Note 2. The only thing is that for many years now, I have been buying the dual-SIM variant of their phones (even back in the days when I could only have it through import) as this has proved to be the most efficient way to keep both my professional and personnal numbers in the same phone.
As I was about to place my order for the Note10+ 5G, I looked closely at the stated product information, where it clearly stated:
"Hybrid SIM keeps you connected and expands your storage
With the Galaxy Note10 and Note10+, you can insert a microSD card for more storage, or swap it out to a second SIM card for dual SIM capability — making you twice as connected with one device" - without an Asterix or footnote indicating any exemption from that rule. (https://www.samsung.com/uk/smartphones/galaxy-note10/performance/)
Yet despite that, I got on the Online Chat "expert" line to be absolutely sure before I place my order, as to me this is a deal-breaker. To my surprise the Agent indicated initially that only a few variants of the phone were dual-SIM, but not including the 5G, but did not sound sure. Upon my persistence, he went back and forth on this information, and eventually conceeded that the 5G was indeed hybrid (after checking with his supervisor). Being still doubful, I took it upon myself to go to the Samsung shop and check with their experts in the shop. Again, the assistant initially said no, with some doubts, then went and checked with their in-house so called expert and then came bak with a different wild story where he confirmed that the phone was indeed dual-SIM but with one SIM as nano SIM and the other being an e-SIM (don't ask)
Foolishly, I took him at his word and went ahead and placed my order.
In the time I was waiting to have the phone delivered, I have heard all sorts of story and kept contacting Samsung online chat support (2 with their direct support department and 1 from Note10 support line), and everytime the same thing, where initially they would give a story, then change it by the time we get to the end of the discussion, always concluding that the phone was a dual-SIM.
Today, as soon as I received the phone, I opened it, and opened the SIM slot, only to find out that it was a single SIM slot + 1 Micro-SD slot. You can imagine how disappointed and agry I was. I got immediately on the phone to Samsung. After being thrown around different departments, I ended up with an agent who clearly had no clue nor knowedge about the phone, and she kept going back and forth asking her supervisor (believe it or not, she actually asked me to take a picture of the phone and send it to them to show them what is wrong with it - which has absolutely nothing to do with a dual-SIM feature). After such long waits of getting nowhere, I put the phone down out of sheer frustration and then got on the online support chat where I requested a call back.
Eventually, when I was contacted by an agent who sounded partly knowledgeable, she confirmed that many other customers who have been expecting a dual-SIM phone have also been disappointed and made a complaint, and that they (Samsung) were unsure about what happened, as they were also expecting these devices to be dual-SIM. She further added that they contacted their UK representative (it seems that the call centre is based outside the UK) to check what has happened and call back within 24 hours. She said so, without wanting to even confirm whether the Note 10+ 5G has a dual-SIM variant, but only said: "they are investigating the issue".
Not sure what is going to happen in the next 24 hours, but suffice to say that this whole process has been an absolute nightmare so far. Samsung, you truly messed up
