Samsung ripping us off

[Perty]

I bought the Samsung s24 ultra last year brand new from samsung themselves. When it came to the release of the s25 ultra I was hoping for a good trade in deal to upgrade. 

Instead I was only offered £660 and the s25 ultra was £1349. So let that go.

I've been happy with my phone but would like to change so naturally looked at staying with samsung. I then looked at the s25 plus. My s24 ultra isn't listed as a trade in option, as I have the 1tb variant, so all I can get is £549. That's wrong. Have since discovered that in the USA their s25 ultra was same price as ours but in dollars obviously. But they were offered 900 dollars trade in. 

I did a live chat with the company to ask about these things to be told the deals are the deals and that's it. 

I'm now going to sell my phone and stay away from samsung. I don't like being penalised for buying their goods . Uk seem to bee 2nd class citizens. 

[Vetri]

I have been in your situation many times in the past, unfortunately the UK trade in deals are not as great as US its mainly down to the market size and Samsung trying to woo apple fans. In the UK, the best thing you can do, which always work for me, buy latest version of S series 3 months after release from a third party online store for nearly 40% less original price. That's how Samsung phones have always been, I would never spend more than £800 for a S series Ultra phone

Last year I sould my S23U private for £610 and bought S24U returned phone from EE which was good as brand new for £719, basically I paid just £110. Samsung S series improvement has only been just incremental since S21U days so I've stopped paying full price.

I was initially skeptical about buying returned phone but if I went with a reputable seller I wouldn't have much issues 😊

[Sonora]

Look at it from my side.

Everything you just said about the US, the entire EU (except Germany and France) can say the same about the US and the UK. You are also privileged. The rest of Europe is the last hole in the pipe for Samsung. No freebies,  even NO screen protectors to BUY here. And you get two for free. Free buds pro 3, free cases,  free charges. And you still complaining. Oo, I forgot trade-in. Phew,  Phew,  not even worth mentioning. Much less than you got

[Reylob]

Hi @Perty 

Welcome to the community forum.

It sounds really awful. However, it is not a Samsung or Phone exclusive. It happens with all manufacturers, if you compare prices in between the US and UK.

We have had this disparity for as long as I can remember. You can check TVs, Phones, etc and it does not matter the manufacturer. They always seem better priced in the US.

[Sonora]

Can you buy me one for that's price please 😋. Just kidding... In my country,  all returned flagships all retailers and Samsung himself  sells as new to another person's. How is that fair? They just tape the returned phones with the original tape and put them up for sale again. At full price 😡

[Piper123]

Hey there and welcome to the Samsung UK and EU Community Customer to Customer Forum

Sorry to hear of your disappointment.

When you say that Samsung USA had the S25 Ultra in £ and $ the same number, you need to remember that in the UK vat is added in pricing whereas in the USA sales taxes are added later, not in the front page of the website. So at between 10 and 30% to the $ price to allow for taxes.

Likewise in terms of trade in, offers do differ from region to region but $900 equates to about £690 ish so where you were offered £660 to trade in, not much difference.

Also note that Samsung is based in Korea so currency fluctuations can differ again between the £, $ and Won.

[Star_girl]

And US also gets better CPUs and extra features.

[Tourbillon De La Vie]

If you bought s25u with trade in and various offers at the time you could have got the brand new s25u for less than half price

[Tomisverycool]

Switching from s24u to s25+ isnt worth it at all, bear in mind that s24u will get 7 years of software updates so its not like it's old or anything, if you REALLY want to sure but honestly it's not much of an upgrade, id wait for the s26 or even s27.

[johnz237]

To be clear, you are under no obligation to buy anything. Your money, your choice. If you do not want to pay the prices available in your region, do not.

It's a shame we don't get the deals the US gets—but in reality, this seems to be the case for a lot of manufacturers. It's only recently we've been given the Snapdragon chips in the standard models.