Samsung plays punk on its warranty

No images because nothing you can find on the Internet can depict my rage as of the moment.

This really pissed me off. As some of you may recall, the WiFi switch of my Samsung laptop was damaged (read: sliding it either ways did nothing to enable the laptop’s WLAN capability). I delayed sending it for servicing due to 2 reasons:

1. I was told by Samsung Singapore that their only service centre for notebooks was the Plaza Singapura branch, which is quite far from my place, so I couldn’t afford the time to.

2. Peak period with all regards to school work.

So, since it’s the holidays (read: NO MORE excuses to NOT help do other people’s stuff), I’ve decided to dig out the ol’ warranty clause and send my system in. Wasn’t a long wait at the service centre anyway, since I got queue no. 2003 while the notebook owner currently served is no. 2001.

Though I jolly well know battery life of major electronics are not covered by warranty, I figure it couldn’t hurt to ask & the CSO said he’ll see if it’s still covered. Apparently he ain’t too well-versed with the terms & conditions of their own policies.

Next, I mentioned to him that the laptop’s earphone jack/output is spoilt/dysfunctional/not working. This means when I plug in a pair of earphones into the green earphone jack, the sound still gets routed to the main speakers, which, shouldn’t happen. Being conscientious, I tried to explained to him to try adjusting the volume with my earphones plugged in and it will still have the “bong bong” sound coming out from the speakers. He took over my whole pair of earphones (though for what purposes I can’t fathom since he didn’t place them anywhere near his ears) and fiddled around my system for a good 15mins before I got impatient.

Coincidentally, this 15mins allowed me to figure out that perhaps he’s trying to look for sample mp3s to playback to demo the “effect”, or lack thereof. Perhaps he’s snooping around for personal photos, we can;t tell for sure. But anyway, I was like,

“dude, if the system sounds, such as volume adjustment confirmation, can’t even be routed to the earphone jacks, why will a higher-level sound output, via an application of media playback, be possible?!?!?!?”. But I didn’t say that. Because I’m civil. (In case some of you are wondering what “bong bong” sound I’m referring to, this screenshot will help:)

Then the main dish: I told him the Wi-Fi switch is damaged and I couldn’t turn the WLAN capability on. And you know what that </insert random profanity of your choice here> told me?! “You may have to pay for any repairs done, as we classify this as cosmetic damages.” I was like “!”. The moment he dropped this fact upon another victimized consumer, I took the ashtray next to me and smashed it into his forehead, resulting in a 3-inch gnash across his cerebrum and drops on blood on my laptop lid that will be rather hard to explain.

Oh wait…that didn’t happen. Because I didn’t wanna get my shirt dirty for the dinner I’m having later. And because I’m civil. But nonetheless I was furious because his justification for that classification was that anything exterior on the laptop will be treated as cosmetics. By extension, if my power switch is spoilt and I couldn’t turn on my laptop, that will also be treated as a cosmetic damage which I have to bear the costs of. Which is like “No way man!”. A scratch on a lid, that’s cosmetic damages, a dented bottom, that’s cosmetic damages; faded palm rest area, that’s cosmetic damages…

but a malfunctioning control/input mechanism that results in the laptop being unable to perform a core function which was part of the original feature pack it was advertised for. That’s freaking INTEGRAL man! What nonsense cosmetic damages!

So fellows, you wanna buy Samsung notebooks and be screwed by their warranty clauses, be my guest.