Issues with trading in mobile phone

[a311]

I recently bought a new phone from Samsung taking a trade in deal. I didn't really want another Samsung phone as my 9 month old one stopped charging via the cable and only charged via a wireless charger which was slow and a bit of a pain in the arse. I nearly returned it under warranty but then discovered they have to be wiped when they're sent for repair and while a bit lazy of me transferring banking apps and so on would have been a pain in backside so lived with it.

Fast forward to today and I got an email saying

Since we have not received your old trade-in device within the given time frame (or you have decided to keep it), the special offer on your new Galaxy device is now invalid. This means there is a fee of £330.00 to pay to reimburse the discount you received when purchasing your new device.Please use the link below to pay this fee now.

I questioned this as I have proof of postage.

They then replied:

'The reason you have received a payment request is because you received promotion discount of £550 for Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G - 256GB but you sent A51 which you would only have received discount of £220 the difference is required to complete your order.'

That's weird it's surely one or the other? I'm guilty of neither.

It's a bit convenient for Samsung as I'm now outside of the 14 day cooling off period to return the new device. I called customer services and said I'll return the new device and take my old one back but said I can't do either.

Really got my back up, anyone else had a similar experience and/or can offer some advice? I paid for the balance in cash/bank (not credit) card. I've asked them to confirm if the issue is the return window or if it's the handset to provide evidence I sent a cheaper trade in device (which I've never owned).

Edited by a311 on Friday 30th June 18:32

[ingenieur]

Wait for the legal letter. Don't get too excited at this stage. It'll either fizzle out or move on a bit. You'll know what to do at the appropriate juncture. They have no ability to fine or penalise you as they're not an authority of any sort so have no legal capability to do anything like that.

[a311]

ingenieur said:

Wait for the legal letter. Don't get too excited at this stage. It'll either fizzle out or move on a bit. You'll know what to do at the appropriate juncture. They have no ability to fine or penalise you as they're not an authority of any sort so have no legal capability to do anything like that.

Cheers-it's odd as it's either one issue or the other. A friend had issues where they were trying to get an additional fee out of him as the phone had been returned with a non standard screen, although it wasn't. They eventually sent messages to the phone saying it would be locked and unusable unless he paid. They eventually backed down.

I get the feeling they've that many coming in they can't tell one from the next.

[ingenieur]

a311 said:

ingenieur said:

Wait for the legal letter. Don't get too excited at this stage. It'll either fizzle out or move on a bit. You'll know what to do at the appropriate juncture. They have no ability to fine or penalise you as they're not an authority of any sort so have no legal capability to do anything like that.

Cheers-it's odd as it's either one issue or the other. A friend had issues where they were trying to get an additional fee out of him as the phone had been returned with a non standard screen, although it wasn't. They eventually sent messages to the phone saying it would be locked and unusable unless he paid. They eventually backed down.

I get the feeling they've that many coming in they can't tell one from the next.

A case of the left hand having no idea what the right hand is doing.

[Mandat]

a311 said:

I recently bought a new phone from Samsung taking a trade in deal. I didn't really want another Samsung phone as my 9 month old one stopped charging via the cable and only charged via a wireless charger which was slow and a bit of a pain in the arse. I nearly returned it under warranty but then discovered they have to be wiped when they're sent for repair and while a bit lazy of me transferring banking apps and so on would have been a pain in backside so lived with it.

Fast forward to today and I got an email saying

Since we have not received your old trade-in device within the given time frame (or you have decided to keep it), the special offer on your new Galaxy device is now invalid. This means there is a fee of £330.00 to pay to reimburse the discount you received when purchasing your new device. Please use the link below to pay this fee now.

I questioned this as I have proof of postage.

They then replied:

'The reason you have received a payment request is because you received promotion discount of £550 for Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G - 256GB but you sent A51 which you would only have received discount of £220 the difference is required to complete your order.'

That's weird it's surely one or the other? I'm guilty of neither.

It's a bit convenient for Samsung as I'm now outside of the 14 day cooling off period to return the new device. I called customer services and said I'll return the new device and take my old one back but said I can't do either.

Really got my back up, anyone else had a similar experience and/or can offer some advice? I paid for the balance in cash/bank (not credit) card. I've asked them to confirm if the issue is the return window or if it's the handset to provide evidence I sent a cheaper trade in device (which I've never owned).

Just to clarify, did you actually send them an S22 handset, and Samsung are claiming to have only received an A51?

[fourstardan]

You should had sorted it under warranty, I've had multiple screen burns on the galaxy's I've had and always done it.

I was also worried about this as I noticed it before trading it in for the S23+ but luckily it was in warranty.

[a311]

Mandat said:

Just to clarify, did you actually send them an S22 handset, and Samsung are claiming to have only received an A51?

Yup sent them an S22 Ultra took a pic of it packed with the IEMI number on the screen-i guess that doesn't mean much as it could easily swapped prior to actually mailing it.

As another response said the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing as the first mail said I'd failed to return it in the allocated time frame.

[a311]

fourstardan said:

You should had sorted it under warranty, I've had multiple screen burns on the galaxy's I've had and always done it.

I was also worried about this as I noticed it before trading it in for the S23+ but luckily it was in warranty.

In hindsight sure. It's a bit of a pain in the arse though with personal and business banking apps are connected to a device. I Would have sent it back and got it sorted under warranty until I saw this deal. £200 cash back, £550 trade in and ear buds which I was going to buy anyhow I decided was the better option.

[ingenieur]

a311 said:

fourstardan said:

You should had sorted it under warranty, I've had multiple screen burns on the galaxy's I've had and always done it.

I was also worried about this as I noticed it before trading it in for the S23+ but luckily it was in warranty.

In hindsight sure. It's a bit of a pain in the arse though with personal and business banking apps are connected to a device. I Would have sent it back and got it sorted under warranty until I saw this deal. £200 cash back, £550 trade in and ear buds which I was going to buy anyhow I decided was the better option.

The other thing to bear in mind is that changing the screen on any device can leave you with a device that doesn't work as well as it did before the screen broke. Normally better to get the new device rather than a repaired one if both options are available.

[Grumps.]

There is a reason why Samsung are practically giving away their phones, and it seems you may have found another.

Had a bad experience with them a few years ago, so will never entertain any of their products in the house.

Good luck.

[Wackywoo105]

It's not much help now but when I recently purchased an s23, I decided to keep my ageing s10+ and bought a HTC hd2 (I actually had one back in the day) for £5 on ebay and traded it as broken for £150.

Could you have sold the s22 elsewhere and done the same? Given you just shove the phone in a box and stick the supplied postage label on it leaves a lot of room for things to go wrong. I wonder if they are giving someone else £330 extra as they sent in a s22 instead instead of an A51? Hopefully they keep a record of the imei of all received phones.

[a311]

Wackywoo105 said:

It's not much help now but when I recently purchased an s23, I decided to keep my ageing s10+ and bought a HTC hd2 (I actually had one back in the day) for £5 on ebay and traded it as broken for £150.

Could you have sold the s22 elsewhere and done the same? Given you just shove the phone in a box and stick the supplied postage label on it leaves a lot of room for things to go wrong. I wonder if they are giving someone else £330 extra as they sent in a s22 instead instead of an A51? Hopefully they keep a record of the imei of all received phones.

I considered it but as it was only charging wirelessly I don't expect anyone would have bought it without a big discount. The original offer was £550 which was pretty decent £220 less so. I'm hoping they realise a cock up on their end and have a half decent tracking system in place.

[Cockaigne]

A good bluff would be to say you will report phone stolen then get it blocked. if it went to court, balance of probabilities would be in your favour.

You have never owned a A21, is that correct?

[LesXRN]

Are you dealing with Samsung or a third party.
I recall some bad reviews about a mobile phone firm in the Trafford Centre a while back, it might be worth a Google.

[SmoothCriminal]

Think Samsung use a third party MTR to deal with their trade ins, seen loads of horror stories online but luckily mine went through.

Not sure what you can do here op apart from ask them for proof of what you sent in but then online I've seen people send in mint stuff and they send pictures of scratched up phones that weren't even there.

They also do brick phones if you don't pay them as according to them you have broken the t&c's you agreed when buying

[a311]

Cockaigne said:

A good bluff would be to say you will report phone stolen then get it blocked. if it went to court, balance of probabilities would be in your favour.

You have never owned a A21, is that correct?

Nope never had one. The phone traded in was bought directly off them also. I believe that the trade in lot are a sub contractor. I've sent two polite emails, one disputing that I exceeded the trade in window allowable and a second disputing that I sent a different model.

I'll see what comes back. The annoying thing is while they can freely ask for more money, impose timescales it's all in their favour as the 14 day return has been exceeded for the purchased phone which elimates the chance of me getting the trade in phone back and the new phone for a refund.

[MustangGT]

Grumps. said:

There is a reason why Samsung are practically giving away their phones, and it seems you may have found another.

Had a bad experience with them a few years ago, so will never entertain any of their products in the house.

Good luck.

This.

I do wonder why people keep buying them when they have so many problems with them?

[alexmonkey]

My suspicion is someone at the place where you sent your phone may have swapped your valuable S22 for their cheaper A51 knowing that proving this will be difficult.

You should report your old phone stolen and ask that the IMEI(s) are blocked accordingly.

Re the invoice from Samsung, as others have said, wait until/if you receive a civil court date and then make sure you take every scrap of evidence you can so the judge will be able to tell that on the balance of probability you aren’t cheeky phone scammer :-)

/Al

[a311]

alexmonkey said:

My suspicion is someone at the place where you sent your phone may have swapped your valuable S22 for their cheaper A51 knowing that proving this will be difficult.

You should report your old phone stolen and ask that the IMEI(s) are blocked accordingly.

Re the invoice from Samsung, as others have said, wait until/if you receive a civil court date and then make sure you take every scrap of evidence you can so the judge will be able to tell that on the balance of probability you aren’t cheeky phone scammer :-)

/Al

If this doesn't get smoothed out tomorrow I'll do.just that. Problem is I didn't know if its the exceeding of the trade in window or the wrong device (or both). The postage thing is easier to put to bed.

I half heartedly swore after the previous one packed in charging via cable after only 6 months I was done with Samsung. A fool is easily parted with their money I guess

[a311]

Bit of an update. Tried to call a couple of times but jsut get passed around from department to department and no response to emails

I've now had a message to say my device will be locked in 72 hours. Not sure about the legalities of that however doesn't seem fair when discounting the trade in entirely I've ab ~80% share in the phone.....