Absolutely Furious!!! (New Phone Will Be Locked In 72 Hours)

[gohan2092]

On 17th January I pre-ordered an S24 Ultra from Samsung directly and traded in my S10 Plus (for £190.00). I had until 20th February deadline for Samsung to receive my old phone and I posted on 14th February via Post Office using the Tracked 48 hours pre-paid return label provided in the Samsung box.

I kept the Post Office receipt for almost 2 months before throwing it last week when I was sorting through old documents. It had been 6 weeks since the deadline, I had received no indication from Samsung that there was a problem so I had not given it a second thought and assumed everything is fine (how stupid of me).

Yesterday afternoon, I received a notification on my S24 Ultra that it will be locked in 72 hours due to an incomplete trade-in issue. I immediately phoned Samsung customer support. The guy gave me a telephone number and email address for MTR (03332 079 424 and help@tradeinresponse.co.uk). I emailed the trade in team with a detailed account of events and this morning at 8:24am they replied saying only "Please provide an image of your postage receipt." I replied back immediately saying they clearly have not read my email because I explained my situation. I mentioned that I will call them at 9am. So 9am on the dot, I called 03332 079 424. I was first in the queue yet despite waiting 30 minutes, no one answered. I redialed, was first in the queue again but no one answered. I then emailed MTR 4 more times in the morning asking them for a contact number or for them to email back and help. It's now been 4 hours and no response from them! I have now contacted Samsung Support and they told me the MTR number of 03332 079 424 is incorrect and it's actually 03332 079 676. The agent tried to call but couldn't get through. I also tried to call and it says you are in a queue in position (and then it goes silent). He suggested that perhaps my phone was sent to the Samsung warehouse and not the Trade-In department so put me through to Sales team who apparently have more power to help. The sales agent there explained there is no number to contact MTR and that I have to use the email address. The thing is they are not responding to my emails! She said she will log an investigation but said I have to be patient and there is no time frame to resolve.

So is this the standard of Samsung Trade-In? I'm 6 weeks over the deadline to return my old phone. I did return it, I kept the receipt for almost 2 months. I had no indication there was a problem and now all of the sudden my new phone is going to be locked in 72 hours? My life is on my phone, I use it for work, I have my travel tickets digitally stored on there too. This is absolutely disgusting! and searching online, I see similar stories from others. How can they treat customers like this? and with no contact number to the correct department? only an email address which they appear to ignore. I am absolutely fuming! I did message @Sam_UK last night but no response so far.

[smiley]

Sorry to hear your experiences... there is a lot of information in your messages here.

Obviously I won't say 'you should of' or 'could of" as this is not helpful in hindsight.

It is worth mentioning to you that the trade in company MTR and Samsung are two different companies and communication between them is not great... from others experiences. Samsung commission MTR to handle the returns on their behalf... these are then recycled and likely sold on ebay by phone companies and recycling means.

The worst case scenario for you is that you may have to either pay the £190 deficit in costs due to a breach in the trade in... or negotiate with samsung for the return of the phone (although well outside the 14 day period). However you 100% won't get your old phone back... so you will need to ensure you have a phone at all !

If you get no joy from the investigations team before your 72 hour lock is enforced then I personally would just pay the £190... put it down as a very bad experience and this is one to learn from for the future... and move onwards.

I am sorry to be blunt but there are probably limited options and this is not a solitary case... others have had similar trade in issues.

I do hope that samsung investigations can help with the matter, and it is likely that MTR are at fault... in their defense they receive hundreds of thousands of traded phones in a short period of time during promotions and peeorders. All it takes is one incorrect piece of information in the paperwork and it gets 'lost' in the bulk of the goods received.

Just to double check, you did use the label intended for the trade in phone...and not the return label for the new phone (in case it wasn't needed / wanted / faulty). This is something others have also posted about...using the wrong return label.

Whenever I return a trade in, I take photos of all aspects of display, power up, packaging and likewise... as others have stated before MTR have also tried to say a phone is damaged when actually it was fine upon delivery... evidence is important.

When i send a trade in I await with baited breath for that 2nd and 3rd email... before I assume it is completed.

Thankfully I have trade a few phones and I have NOT had any problems... but I do use the upgraded postage to ensure it is adequately insured.

Good luck with your problems being sorted 👍

Smiley

[Robin999]

Agreed. Backup everything ASAP. Beg, borrow or steal another device and xfer everything across.

[gohan2092]

You're assuming it's lost, we don't know that for sure because they haven't actually given me a reason for the locking my phone notification, only that there is a problem. My Note 10 is worth less than £200 so I felt the insurance provided by Samsung was enough to warranty free delivery. The address label is provided by Samsung and paid by Samsung, they must have the tracking details and if I kept the receipt longer than 2 months, I would have the tracking details too.

Taking a picture of the phone before sending doesn't prove anything. They could claim I sent something different in the box right? My regret is not photographing the receipt and emailing them with a picture when I notified them that I posted the phone back. If I had thrown the receipt away like I did, I would have had a digital backup.

Despite my errors, this does not excuse Samsung's lack of communication and lack of a proper way to contact them. I have literally spent all day trying to get someone who can help me to help.

[gohan2092]

I take everything you're saying onboard and will apply this for the future. Thank you. I only saw one pre-paid address label with my new phone. Since I opted for the trade in during pre-ordering the phone, I had assumed the pre-paid address label was for the old phone. Now you are saying it may not be? I actually mentioned this to Samsung customer support today who said they will investigate but I have literally just had a reply back from the trade in email who repeated again in asking me to send proof of delivery which I said I no longer have. They replied back in minutes confirming they have not received my phone but asked for my IMEI of my new phone which I provided and then they replied saying only this: "Samsung have been informed and Royal Mail contacted. The notifications will cease in 48 hours." So I have no idea what's happening moving forward. I have asked for clarification. I don't know what I am suppose to do to make this situation better.

[-Robot-]

Agree they may find it, but let's hope, I I usually video it being sealed and the labels etc on them and then post it but

Finger crossed for you

[smiley]

Usually there is a returns label for the new phone... in the box with the phone. This is in case you want to exercise your 14 day rights for return.

Not always is the returns pack included with the new phone delivery... often it is sent a week later and separately with a blue sealable bag and the paperwork with two labels... one for Royal mail 48 tracked for free... and a second option to use special delivery at a cost to the sender.

I suggest if the label was addressed to 'MTR group limited' and NOT samsung... then you likely used the correct label. If it was to samsung returns or any associated division of samsung maybe it was sent incorrectly.

Unfortunately I see your options right now as limited... it will take time for those investigations to take place.

Just as a scenario if this was happening to me... I would contact and pay the £190 to get the pending phone lock removed. Use a credit card if necessary and then you might have some further 'protection' from tbe bank should you need to use a chargeback.

At the same time, keep pushing on getting this investigation completed in the next week or two. If it all works its way out correctly then they can always pay you the money back for the trade in...

If things don't work out in the refund / investigation route... you at least have a functional phone to use... although perhaps some remorse and £190 lighter... with the bad experiences in the trade in process. 😵

[smiley]

By the way, reading your messages you got the first email from trade in team ? Do you still have that email ? There should be a trade in reference number associated in that email and perhaps that email had a printable PDF return label, and is that what you used to send your phone back ?

If so then there will be tracking details from this email... maybe for your investigation team.

Just a thought.

This is the email address that the trade in team use...

[gohan2092]

No, the samsung@tradeinresponse.co.uk told me I have the wrong email and I had to contact help@tradeinresponse.co.uk. I agree with what you're saying. Definitely taking those views onboard for the future. I definitely had a label that gave me two options, one option to use the free label or a second to pay for my own and I definitely had a sealable blue bag which I put the phone in (boxed first) so it looks like I did use the correct label.

Samsung are giving me no option to pay £190 that's the thing so even if I wanted to, how do I do it? every response I get is "contact the trade in team" who are extremely poor at replying. Anyway not sure if you read my recent message but the trade in team said they haven't received my phone, then minutes later asked for my new phones IMEI which I provided then moments later said "Samsung have been contacted, Royal Mail will be contacted, your notification will cease within 48 hours" - that's all they said! no explanation!

[gohan2092]

There is a trade in reference but unfortunately there is no PDF files or any attachments. I didn't print a label out, one was already provided along with a blue bag within the box of my new phone. I used that. Here is the latest comminication from the Trade In Team. No explanation, very brief small replies. 2 hours ago they said they had not received my phone, then they asked for my new phones IMEI number, then they said this:

[smiley]

The way I read this... is that they have investigated the issue and the notifications on your phone to say that 'it will be locked in 72 hours' should now stop within 48 hours.

Fingers crossed that this is the way the message is meant.

I would sit on it for 2 days and see what happens. It seems you now have 'no further action'. Perhaps they had forgotten to disable the phone imei lock from the trade in process.

See what happens now 🙏👍