No Galaxy Buds, reward points or resolution from the customer services department. Samsung not honouring promotions and deals.

[Zaragosa]

I bought a 256gb Samsung Galaxy S23 on July 4th 2023. The reason I bought it when I did was that there were several promotions at the time; good trade in offer, £150 cash back and free set of Galaxy Buds Pro 2.

I realised that I hadn't logged in to buy the phone and I'd purchased it as a guest so I didn't get the 8000 reward points. Even though I'd paid using my registered name, address and email address, the adviser I chatted online with said the only way I could resolve this issue was to cancel the order and buy the phone again. It wasn't worth the hassle so I put it down to experience and took the hit.

However, when the new phone arrived there were no Galaxy Buds in the package. Over a four day period I spoke to five different advisors in various online chats and telephone calls. None of them were able to help me by agreeing to send out the buds. One adviser said I'd hear a decision in 48 hours (I didn't) and another said that the buds were out of stock and due to the terms and conditions I just wouldn't get any. 

The final adviser tried to get me to agree to waiting yet another 48 hours for a decision to be made but I've had such a bad experience that I just want to cut all ties with Samsung and send the phone back. This experience has been so frustrating and now that I've read the terrible (95% one star) reviews on Trustpilot and negative comments on this forum I've lost all faith in Samsung. I'm not even confident that they'd honour the cash back promotion and once you've lost trust and confidence in a company there's no point in dealing with them any more.

I was really looking forward to owning the S23 but I've decided to return the phone for a full refund and buy a Google Pixel 7 instead. I know the Pixel 7 isn't as good a phone but I'd feel a pang of disappointment every time I took the S23 out of my pocket so unfortunately I won't be buying any Samsung products from now on. I know this isn't going to make any difference to a multi billion dollar company like Samsung but it'll prevent me being as frustrated as I have been these last few days. 

#SamsungS23 #S23 #CustomerService  #Dissatisfied #NoBuds #untrustworthy 

[Glenntech]

Some of us have been in the unfortunate position of forgetting to sign in before purchasing. Me included 🙄

As for the Galaxy Buds.
What did the promotion say in the terms and conditions
Quite often you would need to claim them as promotions are done by a third party organisation. Terms can be very specific as well

Shame you didn't come through this community as well. Lots on here that can help with advice

Along with my S23 Ultra and Z Fold 4
I have a Pixel 7 Pro. It's a good phone, but for me it's just does not have that versatility that a Galaxy phone has. Only real reason I got it was to try out the latest Android Beta software
But you might find it suits your needs more than mine does.

Never know. We may see you back in the Samsung Galaxy club 😊

[BandOfBrothers]

This is disappointing to hear @Zaragosa  😔 

I think through habit I ensure I'm logged into Samsung.com and automatically look for my profile picture at the top before proceeding to make a purchase. 

I waited for the perfect promotional offers for me when purchasing the Samsung Galaxy s²³ Ultra.

I received the JBL Bluetooth Speaker with the phone.

I traded in my Samsung Z Fold³ and received the funds a short while later.

And received the £200 cashback promotional offer around 37 days later after completing the claim form online.

As @Glenntech mentioned some promotional items require a person to fill out a claim form as the purchased phone's imei number is required as part of the criteria for claiming. 

As with most promotions one clause is while stocks last , however I can't really see Samsung running out of them !

I'd really like to see Samsung just send the promotional items with the phone to stop any confusion or disappointment if a person realises they've missed out by not filling out a form.

Most understand and accept that things can occasionally go wrong, and then it's vital in regards to what is done to put that right which then instills confidence back into the company and product.

It's disappointing that your experience has led you to choose to send the phone back, and move to another manufacturer.

I wish you all the best.

[kanchwate]

Hi I too did not receive my buds pro2 on my order for  the S23 Ultra on the same day as you. Contacted customer service who are saying that they had run out of promotional stock so  the buds have not got automatically added to the order and there is nothing they can do about it. ( though they had stock to sell of the buds). To cut a long story short deeply frustrated with the situation, I wrote to the Advertising Standards Agency . The ASA is requesting for the promotion link or  something like a screenshot of the promotion in order to investigate. By any chance have you made a screengrab of this promotion?, thanks

[Zaragosa]

Hi,

Unfortunately I didn't take a screen shot of the promotion. Sadly, I'd never have thought it necessary to take these kinds of steps against a supposedly respectable company such as Samsung. Having subsequently looked at lots of posts on here and Trustpilot reviews I can now see that Samsung don't fulfil their obligations on a regular basis. They entice buyers in with fantastic offers that they simply can't (or won't) honour.

Judging by how far back these complaints go, I would say it's a safe bet this will happen again so I'll be taking screen shots of future promotions and sending the photos to the next victims that post on here complaining of poor treatment, non delivered goods and ineffectual customer service. If I can stop at least one or two people from choosing to buy Samsung products because of this I'll have saved them a lot of frustration.

[kanchwate]

Ok thanks , I'll let you know what I hear from ASA, most likely that they would drop it as I cant show them the original advert, which is a shame.