Galaxy S22 Ultra locked by Samsung

[RHTGOEL]

Hi,

I bought a Galaxy S22 Ultra fully unlocked from a Facebook marketplace and now after 4 months Samsung one day decided to lock my phone. Upon calling their helpline they are asking for the order number to move further, which I dont have with me. Providing IMEI seems to be useless, customer service is not ready to listen anything else unless I have order number. The seller guy has for obvious reasons ghosted me.

After reading other portals, I understand that originally guy might have bought this costly phone for a trade in offer which he never fulfilled and thus Samsung after sometime blocked the phone making it useless for anyone.  However, I also see cases where Samsung has enforced locks incorrectly.  But there is no option with me to find the truth since Samsung helpline is not of any help without original order number. This phone is now lying bricked on my desk. What are my options?

There were neither any warnings on phone nor any issues during phone registration to my account from Samsung or my service provider. I see Samsung has satisfied its vengeance by locking the phone but at my expense.

Concerns are what kind of sales practice is this which is prevalent now a days with these large Multi-National Companies? Samsung boosted its sales but ended up loosing the device for no/low payments. Facebook received ad money but is not responsible either since payment did not go through Facebook. Is this not a bad business practice with short term goal to achieve higher sales of products to show big numbers against competitors?

Current situation is neither helpful for Samsung and nor looks like a business practice helpful in long term sustenance.  Samsung has a capacity to bear this small loss I see it did not try to correct the situation and poor people like us will continue to pay. 

Questions:

1. Since Samsung has address of the cell phone buyer would it share the same with law enforcement agencies to help remediation?

2. Samsung must also have some financial information of this buyer with which either the phone was originally financed or initial installments were paid. Could these information be shared with law enforcement to trace the fraudster?

Suggestion for future improvements:

Samsung should provide a platform to validate the lien information on these devices which are being sold in installment model e.g. Cell phone, TVs, appliances, etc. . A common platform wherein a user could login to validate if the device being bought is truly fully paid or not. Alternatively, for phones during registration of a new sim card, phones companies can provide a message indicating ownership risks, if any. I think this information is available with Samsung like companies , but its being used only for their own benefit. Why not public at large? Replace the phone with a car, in same situation state agencies as well as private players provide options to validate the history of the car why not with phones? 

[Glenntech]

Unfortunately, the original contract was with the seller of the phone and Samsung won't have any knowledge of the sale to you.
If finance was taken out to purchase the phone, then technically it remains the property of Samsung until the final payment.
If the seller has defaulted on the repayments then Samsung will lock the phone.
So really it's still their device and not yours.
Sadly I'm not sure you have many options if you cannot reach the seller of the phone.

You could try going into a Samsung Experience Store if you have one nearby with all your relevant information about the purchase.

If you used your credit card, then maybe try and get the money back from them and they will pursue the seller.
But depends on what region you are from as to whether this is an option for you.

Hopefully you can get it resolved soon.
Let us know how you get on.

[RHTGOEL]

While writing this post I did not expect a quick solution from Samsung, so this urgency to respond with no solution is not helpful. You have also ignored my two bulleted questions as well as future improvement proposals, seems Samsung is not open for such things.

Yes property is Samsung's I agree, I never questioned that. If money is not paid Samsung is rightful owner. But if this was a car or a house there are checks and balances in system to avoid fraudulent initial purchase and also subsequent sales. Those checks help manufacturing, financing companies as well as  public at large. But why such checks are not available in transactions involving mobile phones? Samsung is definitely not oblivious of occurrences these fraud/scam, since it has set up a system to discourage users from defaulting to a payment.  But if the property belongs to Samsung, why not make this information public as well so people can be restrained from doing a fraud? Why only use this information for Samsung's benefit? Why cant you provide a message/portal indicating a pending lien on the device to prevent fraudulent sales?

Also, if the device was bought on a lease agreement in US, if Samsung obtained the contact/legal (SSN in case of USA) details of the buyer, how is this information used in case of default? 

You neither shared a solution which involves Samsung as a remediator nor accepted the loop holes which your sales process has, just tried to reroute the concern to seek help elsewhere but Samsung. Where do you get an option to pay via credit card for purchases from individuals using Facebook market place? Also, since the purchase was through facebook market place, Samsung help center is not entertaining my concerns. The only response from Samsung is to provide order number to proceed further, and for your information the conversation agent became so rude since he did not hear what he what to wanted hear that he started speaking foul as well ignoring my comments. I said 'I dont have order number' quite a few times in that conversation but the response was always 'Samsung needs order number to proceed further'.

What are Samsung's plan to prevent this crime from spreading further and avoid the public at large? So far it seems Samsung is only extending the support to such scams by offering high end phones at cheap rates at common man's peril.  

[BrendonSarnyai]

This is why you should not trust 3rd party/ second hand places to buy anything from that has more value than your ok with losing. Buying the phone from Facebook market place, is basically the same as buying it off a guy on the street with no receipt. It does suck that you've been scammed, but you made the conscious decision to go for a cheeper price with the risk of not knowing where the device came from, or who actually owned it. As far as Samsung is concerned, the phone could have been stolen. Your problem isn't with Samsung, since you haven't bought it from them. Your problem is with the guy you bought it from, or more like yourself, since you bought a second hand device with no receipts or anything. And by the way, no company on earth would take responsibility for something like this. They just give me affordable options for people who want their products paid off over time, but they can't stop scammers selling off phones that they haven't paid off yet, the same way they can't stop people buying second hand products that they don't know where it came from.

[Robot-]

That reply wasn't from Samsung, that was from another customer. This is the Samsung Community site, where other customer try to help each others

We aren't not Samsung and do not represent them

But @Glenntech is right, the device was not yours in the first place therefore Samsung locked it. You brought the phone from Facebook market or whatever it is called, the sale was illegal as the seller didn't not have the right to sell it in the first place

Gonna be honest, TLDR

[RHTGOEL]

Yes i agree, the title passed to me was defective and I can not claim an ownership with clearing up the title. But if this was a house, would you be OK to lock renters inside for unclear title? How was a decision arrived that Samsung can take the punitive action agaisnt device holder and what would be the punitive action.  Why not collect sufficient information of the buyer and then use that information against buyer if he is at fault. At present Samsung has created a system which is promoting frauds? Since the deal is benefitting Samsung, they should also  establish a mechanism to prevent frauds, not just themselves. I can see the very same guy online selling another Samsung device at throw away price after 4-5 months of hibernation, he can continue to do so since Samsung is not bothered. Where and how to end this? Why information of Phone's lien can not be part of device itself or a common place on samsung.com kind of websites. Just like you get Car loan lender putting a lien on registration certificate and you can find this info in licensing office as well.

[Glenntech]

I understand your frustration with this.
But to put it bluntly. This is the risk you take buying from unregulated selling sites and auction sites.
Some of us take the risk and sometimes things like this happen.
Fact is that Samsung are bound by data protection regulations that means if you cannot provide the correct details, they cannot discuss anything with you.
They will have set out in the details of the original purchase in the small print exactly what happens if payments are defaulted.
This is not a unique procedure to Samsung, but other manufacturers and network providers do the same thing.

The seller seems like they do this regularly and I'm sure you are not the only one that's come up to this problem with this seller.

Maybe try contacting the Samsung Community U.S to see if you can get more targeted advice as this is the European Community. So our laws are different here.

Why not see if there's some sort of complaints procedure through Facebook Marketplace. As really pursuing the seller for some sort of refund is about your only realistic option.
I wouldn't know about the procedure as I'd personally never purchase electronic products through Facebook Marketplace.
Though it could be there's a time limit and the seller knows this.

On a side note. I like many others here are regular consumers, and don't work for Samsung. So many here will understand the frustration you feel about what's happened, as some of us have got caught out like this before.
I personally bought a device off ebay, thankfully cheaply. The seller waited until the minimum period had passed and reported the phone stolen, that bricked the phone, I guess to claim insurance money.
Basically nothing I could do about it.
Just had to chalk it up as a lesson learned the hard way.