It seems to me this thread needs to be split into two separate ones: One for people who knowingly bought their device through some sort of trade-in scheme and for whom the trade-in process has somehow gone pear-shaped and another, completely separate thread, for people who didn't (knowingly) buy their device as part of a trade-in scheme but have out-of-the-blue found that their device has been remotely locked by Samsung.
I fall into the latter category: I bought my device on Amazon, paying in full (as one does on Amazon) for what I thought was a new, legitimate Samsung Tab S7FE. My device worked for about a week, then, whilst I was away on holiday I got a message saying "This device has been remotely locked as the original purchaser failed to complete payment of their order"; no advance warning that I had 24 hours to sort it out or anything. I tried contacting the email on the screen (help@tradeinresponse.co.uk) but got no response, then tried the Samsung live chat which basically said I had to contact the retailer, which I did. I also tried emailing help@tradeinresponse.co.uk a second time.
Anyway, long story short, my device did, briefly, get unlocked though I had no communication about it and so don't know which of my actions produced that result. Just as I thought everything was sorted, it has since been locked again and has remained so for over a week now. After contacting both Amazon and the marketplace retailer (I hadn't realised at the time, but it turns out I hadn't bought from Amazon directly), I have now been offered a refund. The problem is that refund only covers the original price I paid (of course) which means I will have to cough up another £60 to get the same spec device from somewhere else. I have also lost money on the screen cover I bought which is fixed the locked device I've had refunded. Moreover, I am having to return my device connected to all my accounts as I cannot log into it to delete them, which I feel is a major security risk, responsibility for which lies squarely with Samsung. I have pleaded with them to unlock my device again just so I can unlink all my accounts but they maintain there is no way that can be done, which I simply don't believe.
All in all a complete shambles, with Samsung blaming the retailer and the retailer blaming Samsung. I am also minded to report this to the UK trading standards authority and online fraud people.
