Consumer Reports: Samsung won't support defective S7 Actives

[bkrell]

Samsung Won't Offer Lifetime Warranty on Faulty Galaxy S7 Actives - Consumer Reports

I emailed the author of the previous two articles to point out all the doubletalk and ignorance we are getting from AT&T and Samsung folks regarding replacing/repairing these phones. I didn't get a reply but it seems he was on the case. He posted a pretty scathing new article on the topic just now.

 

[TylerLV76]

Hmm, so if the test was conducted on July 8th and samsung didnt acknowledge it until a few days later, I think its safe to say that any phone manufactured before say July 12th is susceptible to water damage. So now what I need to do when this one fails is demand one from mid July or later.

 

[FLTimmyB]

looks like come oh November there are going to be a lot of dunked phones....

 

[Law2138]

It wouldn't be a bad idea for S7 Active owners to get their hands on a backup phone and perform incremental dunk tests during this 1 year warranty period. Even if it is in a bowl of water, you'll have the peace of mind knowing it could survive dunks in the sink or toilet.

There's no sense in paying extra for IP68 if it's not going to work.

I said before, Samsung shouldn't have aggressively advertised the phone taking dunks and being IP68 compliant/certified.

 

[jlczl]

Samsung Won't Offer Lifetime Warranty on Faulty Galaxy S7 Actives - Consumer Reports

I emailed the author of the previous two articles to point out all the doubletalk and ignorance we are getting from AT&T and Samsung folks regarding replacing/repairing these phones. I didn't get a reply but it seems he was on the case. He posted a pretty scathing new article on the topic just now.

You're thread title is misleading don't you think?

 

[TylerLV76]

It wouldn't be a bad idea for S7 Active owners to get their hands on a backup phone and perform incremental dunk tests during this 1 year warranty period. Even if it is in a bowl of water, you'll have the peace of mind knowing it could survive dunks in the sink or toilet.

There's no sense in paying extra for IP68 if it's not going to work.

I said before, Samsung shouldn't have aggressively advertised the phone taking dunks and being IP68 compliant/certified.

What I believe they should do is offer anyone with a phone pre-acknowledge date, the chance to request a trade in. Send them a new phone manufactured after the "guarantee" date and take the old phone back. They can fix those phones and use them as refurbs.

 

[TJA3500]

A manufacturer won't replace something until you can prove it's broken.
If you get that phone wet and it fails, then they'll replace it. If you never get it wet, then it will never fail from water damage.
If you would like to know if you have a defective device, hold it under water and if it gets damaged turn it in for warranty. If it doesn't that means you have a good phone.

 

[TylerLV76]

A manufacturer won't replace something until you can prove it's broken.
If you get that phone wet and it fails, then they'll replace it. If you never get it wet, then it will never fail from water damage.
If you would like to know if you have a defective device, hold it under water and if it gets damaged turn it in for warranty. If it doesn't that means you have a good phone.

I'm a manufacturer and have done just that multiple times. When we've received bad parts from a vendor that goes in our products we offer our customers the option to have the order replaced or warrantied. Its not an unheard of practice and more times than not its beneficial to the manufacturer. Not only is it good for brand image but it also allows the company the time to repair the issue without being bombarded and backlogged.

 

[bkrell]

You're thread title is misleading don't you think?

Funny you mention that. That wasn't my thread title. Someone changed it.

 

[bkrell]

My thread title was "Consumer Reports is doing is right." I guess a mod changed it to make it clearer what I was talking about...

 

[bkrell]

You know, I said I hadn't had any issues with my phone since briefly dunking it Sunday. But yesterday, I noticed twice when I answered my phone, I had no incoming audio. Both times, when I hung up and dialed the number back, everything was fine. I also had this weird situation when I streamed audio from the Milk Music app that my headphones started giving a static-y sound and the audio actually started slowing down. I restarted my phone and everything was normal. So....not sure if that's water related or not...

 

[FLTimmyB]

take some pictures...sounds like the camera lens fogs up pretty quick...that should tell you something

 

[bryanmsi]

Anyone else notice the text on the bottom of that AT&T page where it says that exchanged phones will only have a 90 day warranty? Does that mean we take our new Actives with 10-11 months of warranty and have them replaced with a refurbished phone that only has 3 months of warranty?

 

[bkrell]

Camera seems ok. Think I'm just getting paranoid.

Yeah bryanmsi, I know! And the thing is, people are just going to say "Get over it! The phone won't last forever!" But the thing is we paid for a feature we may or may not have gotten-ie water resistance. And the promise of water resistance is just nebulous enough to complicate the situation. If somebody got a phone with buttons that started falling off from day one, nobody would consider the rest of the owners too paranoid about wanting their phone warrantied for longer and/or replaced. Nobody would say, "what do you expect? Buttons fall off phones!" But it's even worse than that, because Samsung and AT&T advertise the IP68 rating and rugged durability as a benefit of owning this phone. So it'd be like them saying "Hey, our phone has the best, most rugged buttons!" Then having them all fall off, lol... It'd be a big joke.

 

[PLaBar]

Camera seems ok. Think I'm just getting paranoid.

Yeah bryanmsi, I know! And the thing is, people are just going to say "Get over it! The phone won't last forever!" But the thing is we paid for a feature we may or may not have gotten-ie water resistance. And the promise of water resistance is just nebulous enough to complicate the situation. If somebody got a phone with buttons that started falling off from day one, nobody would consider the rest of the owners too paranoid about wanting their phone warrantied for longer and/or replaced. Nobody would say, "what do you expect? Buttons fall off phones!" But it's even worse than that, because Samsung and AT&T advertise the IP68 rating and rugged durability as a benefit of owning this phone. So it'd be like them saying "Hey, our phone has the best, most rugged buttons!" Then having them all fall off, lol... It'd be a big joke.

I couldn't agree more.
Samsung should ID all defective units and offer replacements. Period! If they can't ID the units (which would be a significant issue in and of itself) then all unites manufactured prior to the fix should be offered to be replaced.

My time is valuable. I don't get paid to "test" their product and if it fails take it back to the store. That's hours of my time. Who will compensate me for that?

Bottom line is Samsung had a real opportunity to shine here and instead they followed up one failure (manufacturing) with another failure (customer satisfaction).

 

[Law2138]

I couldn't agree more.
Samsung should ID all defective units and offer replacements. Period! If they can't ID the units (which would be a significant issue in and of itself) then all unites manufactured prior to the fix should be offered to be replaced.

My time is valuable. I don't get paid to "test" their product and if it fails take it back to the store. That's hours of my time. Who will compensate me for that?

Bottom line is Samsung had a real opportunity to shine here and instead they followed up one failure (manufacturing) with another failure (customer satisfaction).

I kind of blame the carrier exclusivity deal between Samsung and AT&T. AT&T asked for the active line and Samsung agreed to it.

I'm just speculating about carrier exclusives, but I imagine AT&T ordering x number of Actives from Samsung and paying for them up front. Wouldn't this mean that AT&T owns the device upon delivery? Maybe there's some fine print somewhere that specifies "free of known manufacturer defects." Samsung wont give you a new device when you call them because AT&T owned it and sold it to the consumer.

The S7 Active is a flagship phone, but due to its limited quantity and exclusivity, it is treated less than. If this device was a worldwide release on multiple carriers, maybe quality control would have been better.

 

[Slade8525]

Anyone else notice the text on the bottom of that AT&T page where it says that exchanged phones will only have a 90 day warranty? Does that mean we take our new Actives with 10-11 months of warranty and have them replaced with a refurbished phone that only has 3 months of warranty?

Thats standard AT&T warranty on replacement phone; does NOT affect warranty thru Samsung, ie you have an issue, go thru att you then have 90 day warranty thru att with replacement (new or refurb), and remainder of warranty thru Samsung.

Smart move is to wait 11 months and a few days, THEN get it replaced thru AT&T; BAM; additional 90 days.

 

[FLTimmyB]

Marking my Calendar now... lol..great Idea

 

[Kelly Kearns]

This has been mentioned every time with these phones, but water resistantance is not water proof.

This same thing happened with the S5, the S6 Active and now the S7 Active.

The rating is the same as the Note 7. I wouldn't use my Note 7 underwater. That is there for accidents and sometimes you may be fine, it isn't for an underwater camera.

 

[FLTimmyB]

The issue that folks are having its no holding up to accidents, some are saying a splash has killed it off or a quick dunk in water, the standard for the IP68 rating is pretty strict, if the phone is not holding up to not even the daily abuse a phone takes then there is an issue that needs to be addressed. Samsung on their own page says you can take photos underwater and even gives a how to on it. So there is an issue that needs to be addressed imho.