[Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra] derausgewanderte:
thank you all. Here is what my day went like today. I'm used to this. I just went through the same crap with Fitbit.

1) 8am: called Samsung support and was instructed to go to UbreakIfix in my area to assess the situation. They are contracted with Samsung (US). Luckily only a 20min drive for me.

2) 10am: the folks at UbreakIfix recognized the problem and it agrees with enigmaamit's and my conclusions above.

3) They informed me that they will start the process and it includes contacting Samsung.

4) 11am: They called me an hour later to inform me that Samsung said that it is NOT under warranty.

5) I contacted Samsung Support to let them know that I do not agree with their blind assessment, that even the UbreakIfix folks agreed with me. That didn't move the support lady and she was trying to give me some bs why not. I asked for a supervisor and waited 20min for her to find one.

6) Then talked to a supervisor and he eventually he agreed that it is still under warranty and gave me a ticket and reference number I can use to have UbreakIfixit continue the work.

7) 12am: I called UbreakIfixit and let them know. They were impressed that I turned this around (oh no, wait... we are not done yet...). They said they will proceed but during the process they will have to contact Samsung again before the surgery.

8) 1pm: UbreakIfixit calls to let me know that they were told by Samsung that it is not covered under warranty.

9) Called Samsung Support and the guy immediately asks me if I want to discuss with a supervisor. He can't get a hold of one for 30min but I eventually have all three parties on the call to address the situation. Samsung support rep says, he will have a supervisor contact me after evaluation of the situation. PS: during all these calls, Samsung kept asking me about 20 times whether there is any damage to the phone. I knew I should not call what I see damage and called it manufacturing problem.

10) 4:30pm: UbreakIfixit calls to let me know that they just got off the phone with Samsung. Apparently they were on hold for 3hours with them just to find out ......drum roll......it's not under warranty and that I have two options. UbreakIfixit had the phone already taken apart with the replacement screen ready to go onto the phone! Pay the $318 for the repair or reconnect with Samsung to have it directly shipped to Samsung for evaluation and repair, with emphasis on "no guarantee it is under warranty and that I will have to pay the repair if it's not".

Wow, what a cluster f...ck. Kudos to the UbreakIfixit folks for going through this and keep a straight face. They told me that over the last couple weeks a number of S21 Ultra folks came in with blank screens and went through similar Samsung support nightmares but got theirs replaced under warranty. I guess I can only hope my phone goes blank before the warranty is expired.

Phone is back with me. For now I am too tired to think about shipping it just to find out that it's not covered under their warranty - whatever that is.

It's a nuisance at the moment and I will go that route once the delamination expands. I am also looking at repair kits and there are good instructions online how to do it. Of course I am going to wait with that until my warranty expires.

Great product but awful customer support. They are trained to save every penny and their #1 goal is to tell you that whatever you have is not under warranty.

In the meantime I will write this up in a letter and keep bugging them about this. They wasted my and UbreakIfixit's time with this.

Alright, hope you never have to contact Samsung support!!

cheers and thanks again for looking at my post and replying.

Update1: based on repair kits on ebay it is clear that there is a cover glass above the actual touchscreen. The kit costs $20 and includes tools and LOCA. What this tells me is that I am indeed seeing delamination of the touchscreen from this cover glass. The ebay listing also says that it's extremely difficult to do a repair. I will not touch that but it was informative.

Update2: as a tinkerer I also looked at OLED repair kits. both on ebay and aliexpress they cost ~$300 (it's not just the touch screen itself but a bunch of other things). The UbreakIfix price including labor for $318 is actually really good. Good to know....