Fido and Samsung Suck - Do Not Buy a Galaxy S6

    I purchased a 128GB Samsung Galaxy S6 from Fido in 2015. I returned my phone to Fido within days of purchase with reception issues, dropped calls etc.. They swapped SIM cards and told me to try that. On my next visit with the same issue they told me to wait for a patch/system update from Samsung. I did, things didn't improve. I went back to Fido again and again. After sending my phone out for repair, which did not resolve the issue, they replaced my phone. The replacement had a malfunctioning screen. More time goes by, and they finally produce the current device in my possession. I immediately noticed that it's battery life is significantly less than my previous phone, they tested it but it passed their "diagnostic" and they did nothing for me. It has only gotten worse and worse every day. It is now only usable for a short portion of the day when not charging. It dies at about 40-50% battery. This is a very expensive flagship phone, and I have been very disappointed since it was purchased.

    Now I have a phone that is technically out of warranty, but that has not been in my possession a year with all the back and forth out for weeks for repair/replacement. Yesterday I took it off the charger at 6:40am and at 10:00am it was dead with 0% battery when I plugged it into the charger. I hardly used the device all morning. This morning I watched the battery like a hawk and when it dipped down to around 60% before 9:00am I tried to charge it. It wouldn't charge until I rebooted it.

    All I want, is a phone that works. That is all I have ever wanted.

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    They email back with a form email saying to reset the phone and if that doesn't work I'm out of luck. They gave a link to help me find a Samsung authorized service centre. I clicked it, and when it couldn't find a service centre within range of me it just stopped. Dead stop. No alternate links, nothing.

So I tried to post this comment in the survey at the bottom of their email asking how they could have done better:

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    You could have stepped up to the plate and delivered exceptional customer service. You could have changed me from someone who has only had negative interaction with your company to someone who has had a positive one, and who would sing your praises rather than your failings. For instance: your link in your email to me to find a Samsung Service centre was unable to find one within 50km of my location. So how do I get my phone repaired?

    I am willing to pay to get my phone repaired but you don't want to take my money and fix it.

    Also the troubleshooting steps recommended, to basically wipe and reload the phone, are reasonable steps, however the device has had inferior battery performance ever since the day I received it. So how would a system reset help since it had been reset to factory defaults prior to me using the device? Basically you're wasting my time, and adding insult to injury. I have never spent so much money and been so disappointed as I have been by Samsung and this S6.

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    I couldn't post the above comment, as it is about 1000 characters and their comment box only takes 250. So I'm posting it here. Moral of the story? Don't buy from Samsung.

I'm free!

Freedom!

    I'm free of the shackles of ****, free from their horrible customer service, free from their policies, procedures and bull that make it a pain to be their customer. I can finally take my business elsewhere! Recently I called **** to cancel my contract. I wasn't the original account holder, but my wife had added me on to the account. The agent who tried to "help" me out couldn't because **** has a whole second level of account authorization that they had not done when my wife added me. Why? Why make it hard for your customers?
    I noticed something odd while waiting for the customer support agent. I had to wait. And wait. What tool could this agent be possibly using that would take minutes to do simple database query? Why was I on hold so long while they checked things? Can't a telecommunications giant afford decent computers and inter/intranet connections for its customer service support staff?
   I visited a **** store one day a while back to cancel my account, and at the store they could not help me, pointed me to a nearby phone to call customer support. What kind of slack witted morons decided that that was a good policy? Why the hell would you do that to a customer who has walked through your doors? Let your employees actually help the customers.
    The day I actually managed to cancel my contract with **** (my fourth attempt at cancelling) the agent I spoke to had to put me through to a different department to do the cancellation. WHY? What goat brained fool thought that was a good plan? Again: Let your employees actually help the customers. The second agent I spoke to that day got my call dumped on their lap without an introduction or the proper warm transfer that should happen if for some reason one phone agent needs to transfer you to a different department. This second agent had the horrible job of trying to keep me as a customer ... and the first agent hadn't even introduced me. I had to do that, and explain what I wanted all over again which wasted even more of my time and made me more upset. *HEADDESK*

WTF eh?

Suppose you are a company that sells widgets. Now suppose you make it a huge hassle and pain in the ass for customers trying to buy those widgets. Do you think that you will retain those customers if there is a competing widget seller? Do you really??

First Post!

Hi,

This is the first post for First World Blathering. Sadly firstworldproblems.blogspot.com was already taken. That's a good example of one. ;)

Today's blather is about customer service.

*Yourcompany* should empower it's employees to actually allow them to help customers instead of redirecting them to another department for more rigmarole. Frustrated customers want help and problem resolutions not repeated emails telling them to contact some other department.