Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Warranty - Anyone Else Had Issues?

Lawjah on 26/05/2024 - 14:10
Last edited 28/05/2024 - 14:13 by 1 other user

I had a strange experience today, and am interested to know if anyone else has experienced this.

My Flip 4 has developed some small cracks along the fold lines. After looking this up, I figured Samsung would fix this under warranty.

I booked my phone in for service and visited a Samsung store today. However, the team assessed my phone and found a small dint and scratch on the rim of the phone. These are REALLY minor - barely identifiable unless you look really closely. They advised me that because of this damage, my entire warranty was void - even for any defective parts and services.

I questioned this, and was directed to the Assistant Manager on Duty, who said that yes, even though the cracks on the fold line may be a defect and unrelated to the other minor areas of damage, the warranty is void because of these minor areas of damage.

I then said that this doesn't seem right and may breach Australian Consumer Law. He then provided with a warranty card (attached), and told me that the second half of the first paragraph made it clear that ANY defects are not covered under warranty if there has been any wear and tear, accident, misuse, abuse, neglect or rough handling. This is absolutely NOT how I read the warranty card, but he just kept repeating the words "ANY DEFECT".

While in the Samsung store, I heard multiple other people receive the same advice, be prompted to pay for a repair and then accept this. In addition to this, the Assistant Manager told me that Samsung had been telling them to be really vigilant about warranty repairs.

I'm confident that the decision not to repair the phone contravenes the written warranty and my rights under ACL. Otherwise, it would mean that any company could simply very easily write away their obligations if they sell defective products.

Has anyone else experienced this? I'd like to decide whether I escalate this with Samsung alone, or contact ACCC.

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[UPDATE - 27th May]

I got a response from Samsung Australia in writing stating that it's policy that "Samsung don't do partial repairs", and this is why any dints or scratches can void your warranty (implying that it's even if damage is unrelated to the defect).

As user @eightimmortals said:
"That's like taking your car back to the dealer because the engine fell out and them refusing to fix it because you had a small scratch on the rear bumper"

It's a clear violation of a right to a remedy if your consumer guarantees are not met under Australian Consumer Law. I'm planning to file this with the ACCC, and encourage anyone who has experienced this to do the same.

Related Stores

Samsung

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          0FoxGiven on 27/05/2024 - 22:01

          @eug: Oh sweet! Thanks for sharing

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  Devastator0 on 27/05/2024 - 21:23

  Sounds like other companies are following the Asus methodology in terms of warranty repairs and are using CID (Customer Induced Damage) as an excuse to invalidate any warranty on the device even if the CID has no direct relation to the actual issue being reported. Even with ACL, these companies are getting more cagey in terms of how they're trying to skirt around it. It's pretty disgusting to see this happening more here in AU

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  Zapwap on 27/05/2024 - 22:29

  Faced the exact same issue back in 2022. The camera on my S21 started to freeze whilst in the pro video mode. I couldn't resolve the issue after resetting the device 2-3 times. For starters, with some online research I identified that the issue could be with the firmware and then dug a little deeper down the rabbit hole and suspected that the ultra wide lense was the real culprit.

  Didn't want to spend a second more on it and took it up the samsung care. In no time, they identified a small scratch on the back panel and straight up refused to entertain any of my requests. Only if they were so fast in getting their customer service in order than pointing out a normal wear n tear scratch.

  FFS, it's been over a year and a small scratch is nothing but normal. Overwhelmed with frustration, I just walked away. I could've landed myself a new phone had I been a bit more persistent. But chose my time and peace over a $350 phone (I purchased it during the 2021 sale using several stackable discount codes).

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    awjah on 28/05/2024 - 06:56

    +1

    Yup. Appears like a failure to meet Consumer Guarentees under Australian Consumer Law.

    It took me less than an hour to lodge a complaint with the ACCC. I know this is old, but if it ever comes up again it's pretty straightforward.

    Others have mentioned ACCC don't take action. I do note that they fined Samsung $14 million for misleading claims on the wayer resistence of phones after "hundreds of reports" from consumers, so clearly the volume of reports is likely to matter.

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  moneyhungry on 28/05/2024 - 04:20

  Same exact thing happened to my junk flip 4 phone, a crease appeared along the fold. When I took it for repairs, they picked up on minor scratches around the phone (which was from dust collecting under the case) and tried telling me it's not under warranty. They eventually ended up fixing it after kicking a fuss.

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    awjah on 28/05/2024 - 06:50

    You didn't end up losing this with ACCC by any chance, did you?

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      moneyhungry on 28/05/2024 - 16:18

      I settled it at the repair center.

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  wagonweel on 28/05/2024 - 06:19

  It doesn't matter what they put on their warranty as the accc made it clear years ago. There is an implied expectation of a lifespan for products especially based on cost.
  They just expect most customers don't know their rights and it saves them millions.

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    awjah on 28/05/2024 - 06:52

    Literally millions. Someone above reported that this repair is ~$900. There were multiple people in store in the half hour I was there that were told this story and instead of a warranty repair, received a quote for fix.

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  payless69 on 28/05/2024 - 06:35

  No

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  jerjergege on 28/05/2024 - 07:53

  Same issue on my Z fold 3, had to escalate it for them to repair.

  EDIT: See review here which I have attached photos. https://maps.app.goo.gl/rA8EEYDpDjTJUdbt7

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  Mintee on 28/05/2024 - 08:51

  -2

  After experiencing a very similar situation with a motor vehicle let me say that any state body, whether that be ACCC, Fair Trading (we call them Consumer Affairs here in VIC) - do absolutely jack in doing anything about organizations that blatantly dodge that law. We have these so called 'laws' as scare tatics, honestly.

  In my personal situation, I called ACCC 3 times and Consumer Affairs 6 times, as I gathered more and more evidence against the company.

  In the end, I had to get my own legal advice, and almost lodge a VCAT case to get the company to budge, which took so much time, evidence and money.

  Queensland has great laws, where If a QCAT case is lodge, there is protections in place so that individuals arent left with a heavy legal bill in the event an individual loses a case against a company.

  I 100% agree with your argument, and fully agree with the fact that they should REPAIR the screen crack, if they cant do this, and cant do a partial repair, thats there problem, not yours; the product has a manufacturing fault, there is also clauses around repairs with due care and skill.

  I think what also sucks is the moment people lodge cases with NCAT/QCAT/VCAT, its crap how the companies come to the party and fix the problem, and it ends up that indivduals withdraw the case, therefore the company has no bad mark against them…

  If you have enough evidence just lodge a case, give them the case number and go here you go.

  EDIT: I think the thing that frustrates me also, is the public. There is this perception that Samsung products are amazing, which has got them to where they are, and people dont realise that there are different products in the market, and often the 'little guys' do a better job in supporting there customers as they actually want/need your money. Im not a brand person, and there has been times where i've had faulty products and given the companies arent that well known there customer support has been great! I actually find the larger companies are the ones that suck. It's also people like that manager, that dont know how to judge cases indivudally and just follow processes like trained monkies, but ironically those are the ones that get the recognition and promotions.

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    rumblytangara on 28/05/2024 - 10:02

    +3

    In the end, I had to get my own legal advice, and almost lodge a VCAT case to get the company to budge, which took so much time, evidence and money.

    When I went to xCAT, the fee was $58 and evidence was just a summary of the situation, an email trail, and some photos. The wait time was ~2 weeks.

    One satisfying thing about it was that I dragged a manager from the company halfway across the city to waste half his day over a small amount of money.

    If xCAT covers consumer electronics such as phones, this to me looks like a really simple case to present.

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      paloverde88 on 30/05/2024 - 00:05

      you just drag a so called retail manager*who is another casual, does not hurt Samsung's bottom line one iota.

      • plenty of these in fast food chains and the whole floor of departmental stores are full of these so called 'managers'
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        rumblytangara on 30/05/2024 - 11:17

        If they bother turning up, it's going to have to be someone with enough clout to speak for the company in front of a government body. For a sole trader, that will be the owner who might otherwise spend his time laying bricks, but for an international conglomerate, it's unlikely to be a part time retail worker moonlighting from his uni degree.

        But regardless, an xCAT decision is legally binding and enforceable, unlike Fair Trading. And cheap to have done as it doesn't involve lawyers. The time-wasting aspect of having the company send someone out for the hearing is just icing on the cake.

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    Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 28/05/2024 - 12:55

    +1

    ACCC and CA don't deal with individual cases. Enough cases and they will act, so everything needs to lodge. Still lodge if they back down at the 11th hour, still lodge and let them fix it, so they can't dodge the stats.

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  meowmeowmeow on 28/05/2024 - 08:53

  Samsung customer service is a joke and you won't get anywhere. The only way I got anything fixed was to lodge a case with Fair Trading.

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  THICKnSLOW on 28/05/2024 - 09:10

  It's illogical to offer warranty on a feature that gets wear and tear naturally - being a fold phone one would expect the screen to crack eventually.

  It's built in consumer-cycle guarantee and you got sucked in unfortunately.

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    awjah on 28/05/2024 - 11:28

    Prior to buying the phone, I looked into this. Samsung claim the screen and hinge will work for 200,000 flips/folds and it hasn't gotten close to this.

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  ankor on 28/05/2024 - 09:23

  +1

  Quite happily and unexpectedly, I had a similar issue with my zfold 5.

  4 months of ownership and the phone looked just about brand new and then suddenly, horizontal yellow lines starting from the fold and going to the right.

  I took it into the samsung store, they saw that there were no scratches or dents or anything else to the phone and repaired the phone for free under warranty.

  I even got a 20% discount code from the online lady, although I haven't used that and just tried to use it for a qled tv and saw that it was not a category of product that was included.

  I bought my phone through the samsung online portal and had taken it into the brisbane garden city samsung store. Nice people there!

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  akoli on 28/05/2024 - 10:44

  Samsung have been the worst to deal with in all but one of my claims.

  Claimed watch for a known recall issue in US with the strap and buckle failing. Strap is only covered for 6 months not 2 years like the watch as its deemed an accessory .. this was at month 7 I think, was not long out of their warranty period.. lucky for them.

  Fold 3 the screen cracked, not a mark on it as I had a solid spiegen case, so they said as the screen protector was not on it, warranty was void.

  Home Cinema, smart things update bricked it, they replaced the board on the device…. that's the only good experience I have had and even then they tried to send me to a repair centre , other side of the state, until I said nope.

  I try and buy from JB or Officeworks from now on, as they have been great for warranty. But yeah I would give Samsung 0 stars.

  Last update to my s24 broke android auto, no fix and its been months, voice prompts dont work and it cant read your contacts

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    awjah on 28/05/2024 - 17:29

    Horrible.

    Did you lodge with the ACCC? They seem to priortise patterns of complaints, and don't investigate individual complaints. If everyone lodged their experience regarding this practice (even if Samsung 'flip' and offer a repair) it's more likely the practice will be investigated.

    It only takes about half an hour or so to lodge with ACCC.

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  movieman on 28/05/2024 - 10:49

  Sad that's how they treat their customers. Will avoid!

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    cloudie9 on 28/05/2024 - 11:43

    -3

    Stick with Apple!

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      movieman on 28/05/2024 - 12:19

      Well, I stick with neither…

      But have previously purchased Samsung (whitegoods). Will now ensure we avoid them.

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  dny on 28/05/2024 - 12:01

  -1

  I had an issue with the hinge on my Fold 4 where it wouldn't open all the way. I dropped it off at the Chadstone store in Melbourne and they fixed it under warranty and it was ready for collection at 10am the following day.

  The only annoying thing about the whole experience was I had to data wipe the phone otherwise it was faultless.

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  Relapse on 28/05/2024 - 12:59

  Samsung are the worst - Don't waste your time with the muppets, if you're in NSW just take it to fair trade.

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  yoonibear on 28/05/2024 - 15:52

  Kick up a fuss. Keep all written correspondence, post up on FB, review sites, twitter/X
  Wife had a Flip Z phone and it had a crack along the fold line, 1 year into the phone. Escalated through to Samsung and the phone repair place declined to fix it. I brought up the ACL and mentioned that I'm entitled to a repair as this constitutes a major fault - if I knew the phone would develop this crack a year in, I wouldn't be buying it in the first place. It eventually got escalated to Samsung and they offered to fix it at no charge. Keep pressing and keep making noise

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    awjah on 28/05/2024 - 17:26

    Did you still lodge with the ACCC? As @Typical16-bitEnjoyer pointed out, they won't handle individual cases. If everyone lodged their experience regarding this practice (even if Samsung 'flip' and offer a repair) it's more likely the practice will be investigated.

    Otherwise, they can placate those of us that kick up enough fuss or can be bothered escalating, to keep ripping off the punters.

    It only takes about half an hour or so to lodge with ACCC.

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  OzzyOzbourne on 28/05/2024 - 17:53

  Asus were caught out by GamersNexus for a similar scam, although not quite as bad as Samsung. (They quoted for repairs to cosmetic issues on top of the actual repair plus some other dodgy stuff).
  This is disgraceful from Samsung, clearly a breach of consumer law

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  Cam632 on 28/05/2024 - 18:02

  I had a similar issue with a Fold 4 that cracks down the screen. They gave me the same bs and run around. I tried every avenue through them before finally getting it sorted through NCAT. It cost about 50 bucks to lodge and will waste more time of yours and theirs however, im very confident youll get it sorted..

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    awjah on 28/05/2024 - 18:28

    Good outcome.

    Did you lodge it with ACCC as well? They don't act on individual cases, but volume of complaints seem to drive investigations… If enough people have reported this issue maybe it'll get investigated.

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      Cam632 on 28/05/2024 - 19:08

      No i didnt but probably will after hearing that, its criminal some of the stuff theyre doing

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  bigbadboogieman on 29/05/2024 - 17:56

  Yep Samsung at its best. (profanity) them! never buying their stuff again. They deserve an OzB boycott if you ask me. Had a really bad experience with their support regarding am 82" TV and had to push JB hi-fi to take it back (thank god I had purchased extended warranty from JB).

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  CocaKoala on 29/05/2024 - 20:52

  I'll never consider a Samsung branded item for this very reason. I tentatively replaced the washing machine and dryer, phones for myself and the missus and an earbuds for her. I had a Samsung option everywhere but I excluded it because I don't want to deal with those scammers or their antics. They don't deserve my business.

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  umoddbro on 29/05/2024 - 21:09

  I also had issue with my flip 4, with air bubbles in the middle of the fold… They wanted to factory reset the whole phone to just replace the screen protector… No thanks. Samsung tries to make things hard for the most simple things… Gonna reconsider getting another Sammy phone in the future.

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    eug on 29/05/2024 - 22:53

    Where did you bring it to? They replaced the screen protector on my phone on the spot without having to wipe anything.

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  Cheesysteakpie on 29/05/2024 - 22:03

  I had a horrible experience trying to get a refund for my watch 5 after it experienced trouble getting GPS lock, a commonly reported issue.

  It took sending the watch back twice for them to acknowledge the defect followed by 6 months of weekly calls chasing up to get my 300 bucks back. All up, I spent over 10 hrs on the phone with them.

  I learnt that getting an exchange was more readily offered over a refund and to get that approved, you had to send in a copy of your bank statement, a letter of ID and all this other bs for it to get approved and payment released after 30 days. It felt borderling criminal as this was systemically set up to be difficult.

  Anyone reading this looking for advice, keep pushing until you get a case manager assigned to your case. You must ask for it to be elevated to the voice of customer department for this to happen.

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  Randxyz123 on 29/05/2024 - 22:45

  Samsung after sales are crap. I will never purchase one of their products especially TVs again. I don’t care what bourses or deals they have. Utter shite service.

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  paloverde88 on 29/05/2024 - 23:53

  +2

  It's frustrating that Samsung's service in Australia is handled by foreign third-party contractors, not genuine Samsung staff. These contractors often lack commitment to Samsung's reputation, loyalty, and customer service. They are unfamiliar with legal implications, and Samsung's use of contractors gives a false impression of local presence. Simply putting Samsung signs and uniforms on these contractors doesn't make them authentic. It's clear that this company prioritises profit over customer satisfaction.
  They must be itching for a big fine like the ones Telstra, Optus even Harvey all got it, they must think they are immune, these third world third party contractors are slowing ruining their reputation.
  It's also unfortunate that the law allows an entire outfit run by casuals- who would put in any effort knowing that they can be let go at a drop of a hat. With casuals running the show in Samsung australia, this is what you get uncommitted staff who don't really care the long term loyalty of customers.

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  sp3ctr41 on 30/05/2024 - 09:06

  I've had a mixed experience with Samsung, but overall positive I'd say. I had a large cluster of pixels, about the size of a fingertip, fail on my S21 Ultra in the center of the display about a year or so ago. They were stuck in various colours of red, green and blue, some were turned off completely.

  The phone team fobbed me off multiple times because the device was out of warranty by a few months. They eventually told me to take it to their repair place in person to get it assessed.

  The repair place told me the same thing, saying most likely it's not covered due to out of warranty. I mentioned ACL. They assessed it and got it repaired under warranty and changed the battery and frame of the phone for free. So yes, there was a lot of resistance, but if you start talking about ACL they cave quick, and it's not all bad, they didn't have to replace the battery. The frame was probably replaced because they damaged it during disassembly I'd say.

  Miele on the other hand… I had a vacuum hx-1 power brick fail (just their proprietary transformer, worth not more than $30, unfortunately I couldn't find generics online, I'd have to cut the plug-in head and solder it to a different transformer). I had lost my receipt and they absolutely refused to honor warranty without it (even though they know the store it was bought from, only a year ago). They went back and forth saying that the adapter would cost $250 (not a typo), and that they would give a $50 discount (again after pulling teeth). Eventually I did find the receipt and they honored the warranty. They insisted on taking the product in, I even offered to pay $50 for their stupid adapter to just be done with it (a very reasonable price). I took it in, their service place was atrocious, very bad manners (the contractor goes off on people online for giving negative reviews), I came to pick up the new transformer days later after they had indeed assessed it was a faulty transformer and they had lost it (the box was empty). Miele is one company I will never use again.

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  payless69 on 30/05/2024 - 09:56

  Do the Jerryrig Bend Test before you buy it!

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  kaio on 30/05/2024 - 11:32

  I have the same experience on my Flip 3. I recommend you whenever you have warranty claim conflicts, directly lodge complaints with ACCC and related local tribunals. Last time my Flip 3 have sudden power off issues and the Samsung repairer said they have to charge me $580 for replacing both the display panel (has a light pixel) and the main board because they are bound together as one piece. I said it means Samsung has design and engineering flaws that not modulize parts for easier replacements. At the end, I lodged complaint at ACCC, TIO and posted my story on social media. They agreed to repair for me at no cost.

  After my experience of folding screen of Flip 3 and Fold 3, I switched back to iPhone.

  IMO, this is very common in electronic industries when these manufacturers outsource the repair department or create a silly performance measurement that encourage the staff to maximize the profit. You can watch this, another similar case by ASUS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwc-Ivb1DhY

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  chris666 on 02/06/2024 - 21:15

  Had issues with warranty on Samsung's watch 4 that was burning my wifes wrist… Won't buy a Samsung product again

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