please forgive my lengthy article, but the case is serious for me, and unfortunately a bit complicated.
i recently purchased my first SAMSUNG phone. Unfortunately, the factory fresh device suffered from the problem to not adapt it's CSC from the preconfigured EUX to it's current geo location during the first time initialisation according to the inserted SIM, and therefore i was not able to install OTA updates.
The device came directly from a sealed box, from the shop. Hardware tests all finished successfully (USSD Codes like "*#0*#, *#0011#, #*#0*#*#*, *#9090#" etc., but also simply by handling the device during initialisation and debugging) Firmware resets and installation of Playstore updates worked perfectly fine. Just the SAMSUNG updates never worked. Simple and well known problem.
Therefore i contacted the SAMSUNG support via email, and was immediately helped with the propsal to visit a local SAMSUNG Support Center (CSP).
At the CSP the process derailed completely: The problem was obvious, explicitley communicated, understood and agreed upon with the service when handing in the phone: that all it takes to fix the problem would be to adjust the current CSC away from "EUX" to "DBT", which is nothing but a configuration/software problem.
Next day at 9:00 i was informed that the repair is finished, and that "ALMOST ANY COMPONENT HAVE BEEN REPLACED" (original wording of the repair service) - of this factory fresh and 100% fully functional device. This included:
the display,
the modem,
the Wifi antenna, and
"additional" components the service was not able to specify one day later.
All of this without asking the customer for permission to proceed like this.
I was shocked, because i had read two days earlier in an internet customer review about this specific CSP service point from a customer who warned that for him the perfectly fine display was swapped without asking him, and he had to pay for it.
 But i deemed that an obscure edge case.
Given the fact
that the device is a A52s, which at this point in 12/2023 is already 2 years old and 1 year out of production, and the fact
that CSP is not specialised on servicing mobile devices, and
the entire repair took from 10:00 AM to 9:00 AM next day, and
the display definitely looks heavily like a used component (can provide photographic evidence), i don't believe a second that the swapped in parts are even fabric new components.
My doubts were enforced, when i asked for getting this repair explained, which they simply could not:
They started with claiming, the display would have had "a wrong country code" and that blocked the OTA updates.
When i did not accept this obviously made up explanation, they tried again with claiming, the modem and the WiFi antenna would have been defect, and that would have blocked the OTA updates. When i insisted that this makes no sense, as post-firmware-reset installations and Playstore updates ALWAYS worked perfectly fine for me right before handing in the device, they simply had no answer.
When i wanted to know which "other components" have been defect as they mentioned before, they claimed, they can't remember, although the repair happened just the previous day.
For me the case is absolutely obvious, but i hesitate to tell here, assuming everyone else understands as well what went on there.
Therefore i immediately got back in contact with the SAMSUNG support via email, asking for a device replacement. Unfortunately, they did not actually help.
Every other attempt by me to get help was serviced by someone else, and all of them (kindly) kept repeating the same stanza, that ANY repair conducted by an official CSP repair is to be considered justified and trustworthy.
Which clearly is not the case in my situation.
Any time i asked for explanation of the obvious nonsense the service told, the SAMSUNG email support simply stopped responding..
Now my impression is that SAMSUNG prefers covering up the obviously questionable business practice of a service contractor, but don't protect their own customer.
Which i simply still can not believe. Not from SAMSUNG.
I intentionally have chosen SAMSUNG over other technically very attractive chinese phone alternatives because of the assumed premium service i was ready to pay the extra fee for.
Which now brings me to my question: do some of you know about a suitable contact with SAMSUNG, which might be willing to take care of customer needs in the professional and decent quality i assumed so far?
How would you go about it?
It matters a lot to me, because i will never use ths phone, because i don't trust it any more.
I would prefer to sell this former factory new phone as the now used device, having to look for a better solution.
