My Samsung experience

nemo_online

Disciple
I had been shopping for a tablet for my wife and had placed an order for a Samsung Galaxy A7 tablet on the 23rd of August from the “Samsung shop” app. However, sometime after placing the order, I had a change of mind and I cancelled my order. I promptly got a cancellation message on the 24th of August about my cancellation and that my refund will be issued within 7-10 working days. Standard procedure I reckoned and so no big deal. The amount in question was 16,499 which for many forum members might not seem to be a large amount but to each his own.

Doubts began to creep in when till the 2nd of September there was no word from Samsung. What snowballed my alarm was that when I tried to log in to the Samsung online shop via my desktop, using my credentials from the app, it said: "account does not exist".
I sent a mail the same day and to support@samsungindia ( the address given in the app) and received a mail which asked me to again raise my issue with another dedicated customer care team for the Samsung Shop app. (Didn’t quite get why the Samsung Shop App couldn’t directly send me to the concerned team). This was to be done via a new email. So I wrote another email and sent it to the given URL. This time I got an automated email promising resolution of my query within 5 days.

My mind was at unease so for good measure I called up the telephonic support as well.
It was here that much to my surprise I found out that Samsung had so far not initiated my refund. The funny, although not uncommon part, was that despite choosing the option to speak with a representative in English, I spoke with a person who seemed to have great difficulty in understanding my English. All I could take away from my conversation with the representative was that there was no supervisor and the refund would be processed. My understanding from this entire experience was that Samsung was unaware that my refund was to be processed.

From that day onwards, numerous calls were exchanged between me and the so-called customer support team but to no avail. To be precise, I called on the 2nd, 6th, 9th, and also on the 13th. Every day there would be a "sorry" followed by some vague assurances. On the 9th, a guy from the escalations team called back promising a refund within 2 days time and in case the refund didn't come through he would personally follow up and call me again. So, the 13th was the day I was supposed to get the refund. As expected no emails came about the refund and of course, no calls as well.

With age, I am learning to be very patient, so again I called Samsung the same day. The result - Another representative and another lie about a senior who would call me within an hour. So finally, when I realized that no calls would come I was forced to write an email to their grievance department the same day. Another day of silence ensued except for another automated email promising a response. Finally, when I was asking some of my lawyer friends for help and searching for consumer court help online, I got an email on the evening of the 14th that said that my refund had been processed. There was not a single letter of apology or regret in the email. It was as if they had just done me a huge favour by returning my money. Finally, I got the money back in my account on the evening of the 15th much to my relief.

The end result of this experience is that I am going to be apprehensive for some time to come about buying another Samsung product.
As I have written elsewhere on this forum, this is India and of course, we should always expect the worst in terms of customer care, but it is always a bit putting off when such an experience takes place with you. Having said that, I also realize that we as consumers don't have much choice but to buy with a prayer on our lips that everything will go well.
 
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I had ordered from Samsung Shop as well.
Luckily didn't go through any ordeal but the order was delayed and I couldn't get through to the right team despite trying many channels.

I think it's better off purchasing from Amazon/Flipkart which has better support in case things go wrong.
Yes much better to purchase from Amazon or Flipkart, but imagine if you take an extended warranty on certain products. Then there is no avoiding the Samsung support.
 
Unfortunately samsung shop is the only place to get good discounts. Eg. They were providing 20k advantage, 6k eshop voucher, 3k cc discount during 1st week of September. Many bought galaxy watch from there with an effective discount of arnd 10k

I doubt any other etailer can match this. However this can't be an excuse for their horrendous behavior
 
Refund issued date was 24 August refund credited on 15Sep, I think it was delayed by just 2/3days as they said refund will be issued within 7/10 working days plus banks takes 3/4 days to credit the amount back.


Also if u are not able to find your account on samsumg website them u must have done a guest checkout though you can check you order status with the order ID And zip code.

Im not taking any sides just sharing my thoughts.
 
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Refund issued date was 24 August refund credited on 15Sep, I think it was delayed by just 3/4 days as they flashback refund will be issued with 7/10 working days plus banks uskay 3/4 days to credit the amount back
Overall time taken was 21 days - even if you say 10days for Samsung and 4 days for banks, it still took over a week extra. Plus, why are you discounting all the time spent on making calls and communications? I doubt @nemo_online would have seen refund unless he spent all that energy and time, which is what this whole post is about - not just the extra time taken for refund, even for guest checkout - I had ordered and cancelled an item from theaudiostore as a guest, and I got my refund after 2 working days. And they are a literally just a small shop compared to the behemoth that is Samsung.
Having to follow up to get a refund is not the right way to go about things, and as many others have said, most other e-tailers have better policies.
 
Overall time taken was 21 days - even if you say 10days for Samsung and 4 days for banks, it still took over a week extra. Plus, why are you discounting all the time spent on making calls and communications? I doubt @nemo_online would have seen refund unless he spent all that energy and time, which is what this whole post is about - not just the extra time taken for refund, even for guest checkout - I had ordered and cancelled an item from theaudiostore as a guest, and I got my refund after 2 working days. And they are a literally just a small shop compared to the behemoth that is Samsung.
Having to follow up to get a refund is not the right way to go about things, and as many others have said, most other e-tailers have better policies.

I think you don't know the meaning of refund issue time which was 7 to 10 working days.

Also again im not taking any sides no one asked op to start packing just after4/5 days when samsumg clearly mentioned on the mail that it will take 7 to 10 working days.


As for refunds all companies takes there time refund the money some take 2 days some can take upto 15 days or maybe 30 days.

As for guest checkout read again I said is could be a reason why he was not able to find his account, Also guest checkout has nothing to do with refunds. Atleast read my reply properly before replying.
 
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Refund issued date was 24 August refund credited on 15Sep, I think it was delayed by just 2/3days as they said refund will be issued within 7/10 working days plus banks takes 3/4 days to credit the amount back.


Also if u are not able to find your account on samsumg website them u must have done a guest checkout though you can check you order status with the order ID And zip code.

Im not taking any sides just sharing my thoughts.


Empathy is clearly not your strong suit is it? :) You seem to have the got the feeling that I made a "much ado about nothing" .
Anyway, I do know the difference between a guest account and a 'permanent account'. :) I made an account on the app using my phone number and when I tried accessing the same through the Samsung website it said my account doesn't exist. My takeaway from here is that there are some technical glitches that has prevented the website and app from seamlessly reflecting an user's data. Also, 17 working days were taken to process the refund which should not have been the case. I got my money back after 17 days, after writing to "grievances dept" which is not the first level of customer support in an organisation btw. Just in case, some people here don't know the heirarchy of customer support, this is how it works. Something that should have been resolved in Level 1 of customer care had to go to Level 3. Level 2 is escalations team which also lied to me.

P.S. Had I not panicked on the 2nd, I would still be waiting for my money today because when I called customer support on the 2nd of September, they were still unaware that a refund had to be issued. 7-10 days is the time not for processing the refund , it is total time for getting the money back in your account.

From Samsung's email - "Please note we take 48 hours to process the refund once the order is cancelled. The refund amount will be credited to your Bank account within 5-7 business days once the order is successfully cancelled." Clearly, this hadn't happened, because it was more than 48 hours on Sep 2. Hope I have clarified any doubts that remain.
 
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Unfortunately samsung shop is the only place to get good discounts. Eg. They were providing 20k advantage, 6k eshop voucher, 3k cc discount during 1st week of September. Many bought galaxy watch from there with an effective discount of arnd 10k

I doubt any other etailer can match this. However this can't be an excuse for their horrendous behavior
Agreed on the extra discount part.
That was the reason I had ordered from them.
In fact, Samsung offers additional corporate discounts on top.

But if the difference is not much, then it's not worth the hassle.
 
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