[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note 4] mcmannion:
I recently had warranty service on my Note 4 through AT&T. The process turned out to be considerably more difficult - and potentially financially risky - than I expected. There are a lot of things that I know now, that I wish I had known at the beginning of the process. Therefore, I'm writing this summary to help prepare other AT&T customers who need service for their Samsung (and probably other) products.

If you don't care about the back story, just scan for the bolded TAKEAWAY lines below, or skip to the

SUMMARY

section at the end.

THE ISSUE

I bought a new (not refurbished) Note 4 a few months ago. From the moment I got it home, away from the blazing fluorescent lights and full screen brightness in the AT&T store, I noticed the dreaded pink tinted screen issue. The effect was minor at first, but grew in intensity over the subsequent weeks. It was bad enough within just a couple of days that I couldn't see the right-most digit of my alarm clock app at all when I had the brightness turned way down for nighttime (this would be at the top of the screen, they way it sits horizontally on my stand).

Having had a similar, but more severe, screen issue that rendered my Galaxy S4 unusable, I was particularly sensitive to screen quality and resolved to get this fixed.

MY OPTIONS

I had two primary options for fixing the problem (probably in addition to purchase protection on my business credit card):

1. Samsung

warranty

: Covers manufacturer defects for one year

2. AT&T

insurance

policy (well, 3rd party policy that AT&T sells): Covers virtually any kind of defect, damage, or loss, after paying the deductible

I decided to pursue Option 1, for two reasons. Firstly, the problem was clearly (to me, at least) a manufacturing defect. Secondly, the insurance policy had a $200 deductible. So, I stopped by the AT&T store in my local mall to get the phone fixed under warranty. No problem, right? I mean, my parents have had like a half-dozen iPhones fixed or replaced at the Apple store in their mall just by walking in off the street...

AT&T'S PROCESS

I learned my first lesson in the threshold of the door to the AT&T store:

TAKEAWAY 1: AT&T RETAIL STORES DON'T PROVIDE WARRANTY SERVICE FOR THE DEVICES THEY SELL

Huh? Given the aforementioned problem with my S4, I was shrewd enough to ask about the warranty before buying the Note 4. The AT&T person told me that it had a 1-year, manufacturer warranty. This was entirely correct. My mistake was interpreting this to mean that I could go back to the store where I had just bought the phone a few weeks prior and have it fixed under warranty. That's not the case. Instead, the person at the store handed me a business card with the toll-free number for AT&T Wireless support.

I went back home and called the number on the card. The person who helped me was prompt and professional. She logged the details of my issue, and explained the next steps to me as follows:

AT&T sends a new phone body

I swap my battery, SIM card, S Pen, and back cover to the new phone

I repackage my old phone body in the same box and mail it back to AT&T, postage pre-paid

So far, so good. But...

An AT&T person receives and evaluates the old phone

If the problem is deemed to be a manufacturer defect, the process ends for me here, and AT&T ships the broken unit back to Samsung

If the problem is deemed to be caused by physical damage, AT&T ships the old phone back to me, charges me the full retail price of the replacement phone, and I keep both phones!

Say what?! I asked what would happen in the unlikely case that the phone left my hands undamaged, but was damaged during shipping. She confirmed that AT&T would send the broken phone back to me and that I'd be stuck with both the old and new phones - and would have to pay for the new phone.

Dumbfounded, I asked for a way to mitigate the risk of my getting stuck with two phones. She recommended that I go back to my local store and have an AT&T employee inspect the phone, and add notes to my account stating that the phone is not physically damaged. Then, if it arrived damaged at the warranty center, they'd know that it had to have been damaged in shipping. She said that she'd leave my case open in her computer system, and that the next person I spoke with could complete the process after I returned from the store.

That sounded reasonable (enough). So, I went back to the retail store, an AT&T person looked at the phone, concluded that it was not physically damaged, and annotated my account accordingly.

I returned home, called the toll-free number again, and picked up where I left off. The person I spoke with this time reiterated the process to me, and confirmed that if the old phone arrived damaged, AT&T would send it back to me and I'd be stuck with it, stuck with the new phone, and charged for the new phone. "Except in this case", I added, "because the notes in my account said that the phone isn't damaged, right?"

Wrong.

If the old phone arrives damaged, I own both phones. "Why did I just go to the !@#$ing store then?" He said that I shouldn't have, and that the previous customer service rep shouldn't have told me to do so. He said that I might damage the phone after leaving the store, before I ship it back to them, and therefore that the notes in my account meant nothing. He's right, of course.

After a spirited discussion, he made another good point - the warranty is from Samsung, not AT&T. AT&T provides warranty service as a "courtesy" to its customers. For phones with defects, AT&T can send them back to Samsung and get reimbursed. For physical damage, though, Samsung won't accept the phone under warranty. Therefore, AT&T needs some way to guard against getting stuck with a broken phone. Before proceeding, let's pause for another takeaway:

TAKEAWAY 2: AT&T DOES NOT WARRANTY SAMSUNG PHONES, SAMSUNG WARRANTIES SAMSUNG PHONES

This makes perfect sense, and I definitely see the problem from AT&T's point of view. Still, the original unresolved issue persists. So, I asked the guy what I could do to protect myself against the possibility of the old phone getting damaged in shipping. He offered that perhaps the manager at my local AT&T retail store could pack and ship the old phone for me. I agreed to that, and asked what would happen if it arrived broken due to shipping damage. He said I'd get stuck with both phones, same as before.

Flabbergasted, I stated that I was willing to assume the risk of damage during shipping, and changed topics.

Next I asked what would happen if the phone arrived at the AT&T service center intact, but that the person assessing the problem concluded that the pink screen problem was due to damage, rather than a manufacturing defect. He said I'd get stuck with both phones, same as before.

I asked how to determine, definitively, whether the issue was manufacturing-related or damage-related, prior to sending the phone back to the AT&T service center and starting the inexorable process that may lead to me getting stuck with two phones. After all, the person in the retail store who annotated my account said that it was a manufacturing defect? He said that AT&T retail employees are not qualified to distinguish between manufacturer defects and physical damage. Another takeaway:

TAKEAWAY 3: AT&T RETAIL STORE EMPLOYEES ARE NOT QUALIFIED/TRAINED/AUTHORIZED TO ASSESS WARRANTY-RELATED ISSUES

(Makes all you AT&T store employees out there feel valued by your employer, eh?)

Fortunately, the guy on the phone was trained to make these types of assessments. Based on our call so far - and never having seen my phone in person - he says that the pink screen was most likely due to physical damage. With steam coming out of my ears, I told him that I wasn't even going to debate whether the issue with the handset was a defect or damage, but rather would stick to trying to understand the Kafkaesque service process.

Specifically, I said that the previous phone rep who I spoke to said that she thought the issue was due to a defect. So, regardless of who is right and who is wrong, the dilemma is that two different AT&T people made two different assessments about the root cause of my phone's problem. In one case, I could get it fixed for free. In another case, I end up spending over $1,500 for two phones, one of which is broken.

Naturally, I asked what my recourse was if the AT&T warranty center person determined that the issue was due to physical damage, but that I still thought it was a defect. He said I'd get stuck with both phones, same as before. I asked if there was an appeals process. No, there isn't. Next takeaway:

TAKEAWAY 4: IF AT&T SENDS YOU A NEW PHONE UNDER WARRANTY AND YOU SEND THE OLD ONE BACK TO THEM, THE PROCESS WILL RESULT IN ONE OF TWO OUTCOMES, AT AT&T'S SOLE DISCRETION:

A) AT&T DETERMINES THE ISSUE TO BE A DEFECT, AND YOU KEEP THE REPLACEMENT PHONE FOR FREE

B) AT&T DETERMINES THE ISSUE IS DUE TO DAMAGE, THEY SEND YOU YOUR OLD PHONE BACK, CHARGE YOU FOR THE NEW PHONE, AND YOU KEEP BOTH.

Period. End of story. No appeal. No recourse. Just roll the dice and pray that the AT&T warranty person who you've never met and never get to talk to ends up looking at the phone and coming to the same conclusion as you.

Unconvinced that a company as big and mature as AT&T didn't have some reasonable solution, I inquired, yet again, about options. There were two remaining:

1. Send the phone to Samsung for warranty service by mail

2. Take the phone to an AT&T Device Support Center for in-person service

The first option would leave me without a phone for a week or two. But, Samsung wouldn't stick me with an extra phone the way AT&T would.

TAKEAWAY 5: YOU CAN SEND YOUR PHONE DIRECTLY TO SAMSUNG FOR WARRANTY SERVICE, WITHOUT INVOLVING AT&T IN THE PROCESS

I don't know how easy or hard it is do work with Samsung, or what their process is if you think there's a defect and they think there's damage, etc... I'll leave that for someone else to explain.

But, this second option sounds good - an AT&T Device Service Center. As it turns out, this is what I was looking for all along! It's a real building, with real AT&T employees, who are qualified to assess warranty issues, and able to repair/replace defective phones. Perfect! The closest one to me is 225 miles away (which took the phone rep 10 minutes to find, because their system is only set up to offer this option if the Center is within 50 miles), but I GLADLY drove down there to get my phone fixed. The person there looked at my phone, immediately judged the issue to be a defect that was covered by warranty, and in 2 minutes had me set up on another Note 4 with a spectacular screen. So:

TAKEAWAY 6: YOU CAN TAKE YOUR PHONE TO AN AT&T DEVICE SERVICE CENTER FOR IN-PERSON WARRANTY SERVICE

TAKEAWAY 7: THERE ARE VERY FEW AT&T DEVICE SERVICE CENTERS, SO YOU MAY NEED TO TRAVEL A LONG DISTANCE TO GET TO ONE

SUMMARY

To summarize the preceding dissertation, AT&T customers with Samsung (and possibly other) phones who need warranty service should know:

The phone's warranty is from Samsung, not AT&T

AT&T provides in-person warranty service, on behalf of Samsung, through Device Service Centers only, not through retail stores

AT&T Device Service Centers are few and far between, so be prepared to travel

Warranty service by mail through AT&T is not a viable option, because you can get stuck paying for two phones, at AT&T's sole discretion, and have no recourse

Oh, and two more:

The pink screen issue is for real - and really obvious when it happens; folks who are adamant that it's imaginary, that we're looking at our screens crookedly, or that we're otherwise obsessing over something minor are just lucky enough to have units with good screens

A good Note 4 screen is AMAZINGLY good - if you have the pink screen issue, go through the hassle to get it replaced; you won't regret it