German Version of Note 10+

[blahblahblah]

Looking to upgrade to the note 10+ and going through amazon.de The phone availble states that its the german version. Cna someone she light on this, as if i travel i would normally get a pay as you go sim card to put in the phone whilst abroad. Is this possilbe? Or would this ohone be locked to EU/ Germany? 

[BandOfBrothers]

Samsung phones nowadays are region locked so ideally to remove this type of lock a phone call of around 10 minutes to a local number using a local sim card will remove this region lock before it leaves the country of origin @blahblahblah 

I have however seen posts where the region lock hasn't been removed and the owner has managed to get that countries division of Samsung to remotely remove it.

Other things to consider are ....

》 Does the 24 Month Manufacturer Warranty remain valid if you import that phone into your country. Check the Terms and Conditions.

》 Your imported phone may recieve software updates and security updates much slower than usual as your dependent on that countries division sending them out. 

》 Your phone may not be unlocked to all networks. Carefully check the phones description regarding this.

If you intend to buy from a reseller and not directly from Samsung then your phone may not get updates or can be very slow.

Some resellers source their phones from lots of places and are known as grey imports.

If you go ahead then when you get the phone download the phoneinfo app which will show its active CsC and help determine what firmware is on it.

In conclusion if this was me I'd buy a Samsung phone directly from Samsung in my own country 

It maybe a bit more cost but I prefer the peace of mind.....

》 that I can easily remove the region lock.

》 it comes already unlocked to all networks if bought directly from Samsung.

》 my warranty is valid.

》 my updates come directly from Samsung.

I wish you all the best with your choices. 

[Marie-LuTy]

Hi,
I was not aware of the grey market and warranty stories until I came across this post. I bought my brand new phone from Amazon and it worked perfectly until 1 month ago. It was blocked by a telecom company in Malaysia, I contacted the seller on Amazon, he totally ignores me and tells me my warranty is over, Amazon said the same. I contacted Samsung Malaysia where the phone is from and because I didn't buy it there they don't want it unlocked. I contacted Samsung Canada and Samsung USA, there is nothing they can do. Do you know where I can get help for this?
Thanks in advance

[BandOfBrothers]

Typically a phones imei number would only be blocked if the phone had been reported as lost or stolen by the original owner.

Due to obvious reasons this type of blacklist can only be removed by the network that's imposed it and they will only lift it from authorisation from the person that asked them to impose the imei block.

Samsung apply a 24 month manufacturing warranty on their phones however on imported phones this becomes an issue because they won't honour the warranty if its imported.

For example I'm in the UK and imported a Samsung Note 20 Ultra from Hong Kong as I wanted the SnapDragon soc. So Samsung UK wouldn't be able to give support to that phone because it wasn't released to be used in the UK. Unfortunately that's the downside to importing.

However the Samsung Manufacturing Warranty wouldn't cover issues involving a phone being blacklisted.

Your not Samsung Malaysias customer so they couldn't help you I'm afraid and other Samsung Region Customer services can't help as they can't impose an imei block only a network can. 

They can't intervene to lift a block as the block is in place to protect a phone that's been potentially reported as lost or stolen.

Your going to need to persevere with Amazon and the seller to try and get this resolved.

If you paid via PayPal then see if they can help in anyway.

This is an awful situation to be in and as such I wish you all the best with this situation. 

[Marie-LuTy]

Thank you for your reply.

I wanted the exynos and white version but there was none in Canada!

What I find strange is that my EMEI has never been blacklisted and still isn't blacklisted and it took 1.5 years to lock my phone! Since no one could help me I called an unlocking company in UK (directunlocks) but I haven't heard from them for 1 week and I don't know if it's going to work!

It's true it's an awful , stressful and overwhelming situation.

But thanks a lot for your help. I appreciate it very much!