End of a love affair

Oh dear, it has come to this. In July 2011 I bought the NP900X3A-A01UK. I love it and as a bonus the laptop came with a 3 year warranty. Sadly, after 2+ years of faultless behaviour the trackpad developed a problem. The clicks intermittently would not work. I made sure it wasn't a software issue and then took the laptop into the London service centre in Islington on the Tuesday after the Bank Holiday - just over a week ago. The following day they called me to say that Samsung would not authorise a warranty repair as the model only carried a twelve month warranty. From that point Samuel King (the London service centre) has been trying to get the authority based on my evidence which included a photo of the sticker on the box which states "3 Years Warranty" and a copy of the page on "My Samsung" which also shows 3 year warranty. I have also spoken to Samsung a few times and then on Monday finally spoke to someone who recognised the fact that this model carried a three year warranty and that as the date of manufacture can be seen from the serial number there isn't even the need for a proof of purchase. He said he would get it escalated and approved. Today the Service centre called to say the Samsung will not approve the warranty repair as, they say, none of the Windows 7 Home Premium laptops had a three year warranty. This is not true, of course, and I have just come off the phone after a long call and after sending them a page FROM THEIR OWN WEBSITE which clearly shows that the model carried a three year warranty I now wait for another response. At this point my laptop has been in service for eight days without anything being done. To say I have been inconvenienced is an understatement. I am now considering paying for the repair and then taking out a small claim against Samsung UK to recover my costs and an amount in compensation. I should not have to jump through hoops to get them to honour the three year warranty that came with the machine. This is the worst example of poor customer relations and counter productive P R.

Will I ever buy another Samsung product? Unlikely

 

I agree that events like this are frustrating. I had to be a little persistent to get them to replace my X3B battery within the first year but I had kept a PDF of the web page claiming that the battery would still have 70% of capacity after 3 years. It was then the Samsung customer services who instructed the service people (Digicare) to collect, repair and return the computer. One also needs to acknowledge that it is not easy for the service centres to know the serial numbers of those notebooks which had the 3 year warranty offer and they do not want to undertake a repair without specific authorisation from Samsung.

Your other channel is the reseller. Does the receipt show the 3 year warranty offer or is it recorded in the reseller's order database (like my X3B from John Lewis since it was their extended warranty offer)?

John

 

Well, it has finally been resolved. On Thursday I spoke to yet another person in tech at Samsung who also acknowledged that the model carries a three year warranty and took it upon himself to make sure that the repair would be authorised and I held on while he called the relevant people and then he finally said that it had been approved and Samuel King would be sent the authorisation number. I checked with Samuel King first thing on Friday but they had not received anything. I called Samsung and unfortunately the guy I had spoken to previously was off but someone else checked the file and said they would raise the number now. Thet gave me the number and said it would also be emailed to Samuel King. I called SK back and, of course, no email. I gave them the number and they checked on the system and YES it was listed. They then went ahead and had the laptop ready for me by lunchtime!

So, after jumping through hoops for two weeks I finally got what I was entitled to. The new keyboard/trackpad unit, however, has an Elan trackpad which does work well but I miss being able to restrict the pointing area which you could do with the Synaptics pad. The keyboard also has a couple of noisy keys in the spacebar and backspace. Can't face going back with it, though.