Samsung A3 2016 Charging Saga

[A3-Pain]

Hi All,

Apologies in advance for the length of this post and alos if it's in the wrong location….

I purchased an A3 from O2 in November 2016, as a birthday present for my daughter and have had nothing but problems ever since. I have wasted time, money and effort, trying to resolve the problem, now I’m just another frustrated and dissatisfied customer!

At this point in the saga I have the following questions, which relate to the history below:

Customer Service

1. Is there anyone at Samsung that would actually care enough to do something about this?

Technical

1. Is there an ongoing charging problem with the Samsung A3?
2. Surely the Samsung branded chargers for the older models, S4 and S5 mini, would be adequate for charging the newer Samsung A3?
3. Surely O2 would have to match the required spec of the phones to the chargers they are selling?

Symptoms:

The phone operates and recharges as normal, for up-to 2, 3 or 4 weeks, it then decides not to charge at all, and gradually drains to nothing. This still occurs even after trying the official Samsung chargers that came with our other phones – S4 & S5 mini, (which incidentally, we have never had any problems with). The screen is totally blank with no indications. Holding down the home and volume buttons for 10+ seconds has no effect, so as a last resort I would return the device to the O2 shop from where it was purchase.

The saga history is as follows:

1. I return the phone to O2 but it starts to charge in their shop, so they refuse to do anything about it as the phone is working. I’m not happy but nothing I can do.
2. Within a week or so the problem reoccurs. I return phone to O2 but this time they are unable to restart the charging process. They suggest they could send it off to Samsung for repair but I insist on a replacement as it had been less than 28 days since the purchase.
3. The new phone worked for a while but within 28 days the same problem reoccurred. After being assured that they had not been informed of any stock faults with this particular model, I opted for another replacement. As my local branch was out of stock, I had to travel to a different branch but I did get a replacement.
4. A few weeks passed without issue, so we thought the problem was resolved. Sadly, that was not the case. The problem did reoccur but by this time, my daughter had chipped the screen, (event with its gel case) voiding the warrantee.
5. Since the phone would no longer be covered by Samsung’s warrantee, the best advice O2 could give me was to sell the phone for parts and purchase a new one!
6. Not happy with this I went to my local Samsung centre, which I had previously visited to get confirmation that there were no known faults with the A3s – confirmed, but not by an engineer.
7. Despite the history of faulty phones that I have been dealing with they refused to repair the phone, on grounds of company policy, due to the damaged screen. I would have to get the screen repaired, before they would look at the charging issue. During my visit, the engineer managed to get the phone restarted, but I was also informed, for the first time, that there was indeed a charging issue with a batch of A3’s, distributed towards the end of 2016 – just my luck!
8. Eventually after a call to Samsung Customer Service, I found someone who understood the concepts of “good will” and “customer service”, and hearing the problem history and checking with his supervisor, he advised that the repair to the screen, would be done free of charge, allowing them to repair the charging issue under warrantee.
9. At this point I did hope for a smooth run through the collection, repair and return process. Unfortunately this was not to be!
10. On the arranged collection day I waited through the morning and into the afternoon. I eventually called support to check, at around 3pm, and was told that the UPN driver had attempted to collect the device but got no response!
11. Eventually UPN admitted to an administrative error and collection was rearranged successfully.
12. Some days went and after receiving various confusing communications, I checked with customer service for an update. It turned out that the phone was indeed on its way back to me but due to the cracked screen, had been deemed out of warrantee – Ahhhh!!
13. Somewhere along the line the third party repairs company had not got the message that the screen was to be repair free of charge…. I think it took nearly two weeks to get the device back but even then the accompanying letter only mentioned a repair to the “external service damage”.
14. I tried to confirm exactly what repairs had been done through Samsung Customer Support but they couldn’t tell me, as they were unable to get through to the repairs company. They advised that I might like to try calling them direct, which I did but after holding for over 20 minuets gave up.
15. I went back to my local Samsung shop to see if their engineer could ascertain what repairs had been done. Unfortunately I was met with a response that was more on the side of brusque than helpful. I eventually persuaded him to check with the engineer, which he agreed to do, but the response back was inconclusive. Apparently, there was no way of knowing what work had been done on the phone, so I would have to assume that the repairs had been done as requested. I was out of options.
16. Once again the phone worked normally for long enough for us to believe the problem had been resolved. Yesterday, three weeks after its return, the A3 would not charge again!
17. After a call back to Samsung Customer Service, it was suggested that I send it off for repair again. I didn’t want another 2 week turn round, so I went back to the local Samsung store and was seen by one of their L1 engineers.
18. Unfortunately the phone started to charge as soon as the engineer connected the charging cable!
19. After over an hour, with him checking the recent repairs, (yes, he was able to check the repairs history, right down to the listed part numbers!) and me going over the repeating problem cycle, trying to convince him that the fact that the phone was now charging, didn’t mean there wasn’t an ongoing problem. I eventually found out that he was using a Samsung FarstCharge charger, which allowed us to come to an agreement on a possible cause – although I’m not convinced.
20. O2 provided what they call a “universal charger” with the phone, not a Samsung branded one. Therefore, it was possible that this, (as well as the older Samsung branded chargers, that I had also tried) was not the correct rating for the A3 device, which I had purchased. So it looks like I’ll have to get another charger!

[JOHN16]

hi first time doing this so bear with me ,my A3 2017 3 months old will not charge sent to vodafone for repair came back a month later saying physical damage warranty void, i can assure you this is not the case ,put on charge and nothing happens,simple faulty phone replace it, easy now in dispute with vodafone  i will not let this go keep going until you are happy with outcome , im going to