Warranty for equipment - about holy buyers, traders and other customers of services

Hello.

The more I communicate with service centers, the more I am sure that it is there that the ultimate

concentration of absurdity, impudence and otherunpleasant qualities on the part of ordinary people. Those working in retail are faced with negativity every day, but in service centers the situation itself suggests a negative development of communication - people come there to solve their problems. Any classification is flawed, but I liked the description of people in one of the service centers. Initially, I heard a phrase that caught on: “Valera, there the saint came, you know how to talk to them, take it upon yourself.”

Showed interest, and they gave me a listena conversation that, of course, baffled me and made me doubt the adequacy of what was happening. On the other side of the counter stood a man in his forties, wearing an office suit, holding a small briefcase from which he took out some papers. There is a broken smartphone on the table, the brand does not play a role in the context of the story. Then a remarkable dialogue takes place, at the acceptance the engineer says:

Look, you have traces of a blow here, the case is slightly bent, part of the screen is broken, and then you drowned it, stains under the screen speak for this.
I use my phone very carefully, not minefault that it is slippery and fell on the tiles. The phone is under warranty for another five months, it's expensive, and you have to get it repaired. It's not my fault that it crashed.
Do you agree that you dropped the device and it crashed?
Not exactly, I could not hold him in my hands, and he fell on the tile.
That is, he slipped out of his hands, fell and crashed, right?
Probably yes, but you must admit, it's not my fault at all.
And who caused the fall?
Producer, I tell you about it. It was they who did everything to make it fall and break like that, it needs to be repaired. I understand if I have to wait a day or two. But I can't wait any longer.
We can fix your smartphone, but this is a paid repair, as the warranty does not cover physical damage that you yourself caused to the phone.
No, I still have a warranty and you are obliged to repair the device free of charge.
Please read the warranty statements, we can give you the text, everything is very clear there, if you want, I will ask a colleague to show you the necessary items.
You do not hear me, I do not want to pay for repairs, it is not my fault that the smartphone crashed, you are obliged to fix it for free. If you do not do this, then I will go to court and contact the manufacturer.

I did not listen to the dialogue, because the valuethe term “saint” became clear, the person, despite the obvious absurdity of the claims, continued to insist on them. And this is just a very vivid example, usually they are not so noticeable, but the essence is exactly the same - the buyer firmly believes that he is owed something, while he himself damaged the device.

Very often people are mistaken and think that theythey didn't do anything like that. It is difficult to compare two events separated in time. For example, the fact that you dropped your device several times and it continued to work, so that it stopped working after it got into the water, although IP68 protection is claimed for it. Externally, the device was perfect, in fact there was no protection at the time of falling into the water. And the fact that the manufacturer refuses to repair is normal, I emphasize that in the guarantee of all companies the bay is not considered a warranty case.

But “holy” people tend to blame someone for their sins.anything but yourself. In the mail every week I have dozens of stories about different brands, repair problems that users have encountered, I will quote from one such letter:

“Everything suited me in S21, but about everythingorder. In December 2021, I bought an S21 at a Samsung branded store (54,990 rubles). Everything was great for six months. With the onset of summer, I noticed waves under the glass on the right side of the screen. Over time, these waves have increased and now occupy 2/3 of the height of the screen. Comrades, when you show them this "miracle", they told me that it was something with my eyes and that the factory protective film was peeling off. Everything is in order with my eyes, and when I peeled off the factory film from the screen, the “miracle of the wave” did not go away. It’s the month of October, I’m carrying the phone to the Samsung MTService service center at Weiner Plaza EKB, I say that it shouldn’t be like this and this is not the norm, and I also say that there is a barely visible gap in the device on this side, as well as a slight bulge glass in the right half in the center. In the evening of the same day, I pick up the phone from the service with a refusal in warranty repair with the wording “the detachment of the matrix occurs due to the ingress of a chemically active liquid or the use of hand cream”, the warranty repair was denied. I leave a claim on the Samsung hotline and after 3 days I receive an answer with the same wording. I must say right away that the phone was not treated with antiseptics and other liquids. I handle my phone with care. By the way, the factory film served me faithfully for 9 months.

————

I have a question for you:why such a drastic change in policy regarding warranty repairs? What kind of guarantee is this, which applies only to marriage in fact? I also understand if I broke the screen or did something to the phone that is not included in the rules of operation. For 30,000 rubles. in this service I could replace the screen and the battery, but then I have a reasonable question: why do I need a manufacturer's warranty and is it worth buying gray equipment then? I ask for help to understand the situation, perhaps to convey information to the Samsung representative office. I tried, as far as possible, to capture the defect on the video and photo, which I enclose. I am also attaching an act from the service.

The problem with this story is thatour reader has already had experience of communicating with a Samsung service center; on previous models, individual components were replaced in previous years, since there was a factory defect. And everything went off with a bang, no effort was needed. But the opinion completely changed when such a problem happened. It is difficult for me to remotely diagnose the device, but such cases are rare, always associated with external influences on the phone. And this is clearly a non-warranty case, no matter how regrettable it may be.

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People very often become "saints" because they don'tcan remember when and what they did with their device, at what point something went wrong. And so many firmly believe that they just did nothing. My experience tells me that for many this is a sincere feeling, people really do not remember any problems.

For smartphones with cameras that have OIS,any falls are contraindicated, the stabilization module may fail, fidget if you shake the device in your hands. People drop devices, but then they are sure that the module has broken itself, they pay attention to its work much later.

The manufacturer's warranty always goes to the factorymarriage, to something that broke down through his fault. The manufacturer cannot be responsible for the operating conditions, for how a person handled the device. For example, a remarkable case was in a service where lawn mowers are serviced. After the first season, a man brought a lawn mower, the work of which he was dissatisfied with - the knife was chipped, dull, the metal of the casing was covered with an even layer of dried grass. It was never cleaned, and most importantly, the grass was mowed and in places where there was some kind of gravel, which quickly killed the knife. The man insisted that in his worldview it was the problem of a manufacturer who produces such a fragile product that they cannot even mow the grass with stones. Of course, he was denied warranty service.

Trade around the cost of repairs - free or half price

Many buyers try their bestsave money on repairs, they come to official service centers and often want to get a service at the price of a basement service. For example, in one of the Moscow SCs, iPhone owners who demand a guarantee of the best price often show that replacing the battery somewhere else costs half as much! They are sent there, asking why they came to the official service. The answer is discouraging - I trust you more. That is, a person understands that in a conditional basement he will be supplied with a Chinese battery of incomprehensible quality, so he goes to the official service. But he is trying to get himself some kind of discount.

Moreover, bidding almost always involves arguments, people cite as an example the prices that they can find somewhere and which they refer to.

Here is the story of another of our readers, it well characterizes this approach:

“I have a story about a Samsung QE75Q6FNA TV.The screen failed after 3 years from the date of purchase. I have only good things to say about the TV itself. Everything suited me, I bought a soundbar for it and always watched it with pleasure - both movies and sports.

One fine day last weekTV didn't turn on. The indicator was flashing red, and there were occasional clicks from behind. I called a repairman from the service center indicated on the samsung.ru website. The verdict - the screen burned out. The cost of a new one is 116,000 rubles, a replacement is another 11,500 rubles, and they took 6,000 rubles for diagnostics. 3 years and 10 days have passed since the date of purchase, just the warranty ended.

Called Samsung, asked somehowhelp with the price of a new screen. In Europe, the screen costs 1,300 euros on sale (that is, already with a trade margin), well, for sure, Samsung has the opportunity not to gain 40% on the sale of the screen. In response, I heard that the service center is a separate legal entity and we cannot dictate prices to them. I answer that this is understandable, there is no need to dictate, well, at least ask to reduce the price of a new screen. In response, I was asked to call other Samsung service centers, perhaps they will have lower prices. They sent me a list of phone numbers, called everyone - none of these centers repair TVs. Only phones and other oversized equipment. Helped, what can I say.

I don’t know how other vendors behave in such a situation, but there is clearly no desire to buy Samsung anymore. A TV for 200,000 rubles for 3 years is not the best buy.”

The story is unpleasant, usually the TVs workvery long, decades, but there are other examples. Here, to whom and how lucky, the question is not the manufacturer. The difference in the cost of premium equipment in Russia and in Europe is noticeable, sometimes reaching 30-40%. As a result, the cost of components differs exactly the same. And the parallels here also remain, everything is the same. Access to information does not mean at all that such a screen can be bought in Russia for the same money. On the other hand, there is always the possibility to somehow order it in Europe (now it looks like a fantasy, but what if?), bring it in and replace it with the help of a person with straight hands. Or not replace. But in any case, there will be no guarantee.

Very often people consider the cost of repairsunfair (predatory), but at the same time they forget that it is calculated as a percentage of the price of the device. It is clear that the cost of repairing the iPhone will be very high, since the smartphone itself is expensive.

Short conclusion - saints and merchants

Affected only two types of service clientscenters, in fact there are more of them, but I don’t see the point in describing everything, these two are the most common. And in the service they are used to withstand the onslaught of those who are not ready to admit even small oversights. I will make a reservation that the service is also far from always right, they are cunning and sometimes deceive customers - by no means do I want to say that someone in such stories looks much better than the other side. It is important to understand how the service works and why it is not at all the responsibility of the service or the manufacturer to correct non-warranty cases. It is possible that for reasons of working on loyalty, the manufacturer will do this, but he is not at all obliged to do so. And for many this is a regrettable fact, but such is life.