[Galaxy S I9000 Android Development] SamuraiHQ:
After reading these forums for the last few weeks, I thought I'd register to somewhat explain the situation that I have found myself in.

Basically, I ordered my Samsung Galaxy S at the end of August, and had it delivered on 1st September. While I've been checking out the apps and so forth, I never had a real need to use the 3BR method as a) there hasn't been any firmware updates from T-Mobile, and b) I'm still finishing up my other contract's minutes so I haven't *really* used the Galaxy S as much as I'd have like to. I still haven't made any calls or texts and no one as my number yet.

Anyway, the codes you listed above are identical to mine, and I'm also missing the 3BR method - which I'm extremely unhappy about.

Before all this kicked off in the way it has, I (like many others) assumed it was Samsung's fault, so I rang them up. I was on the phone for 35 mins explaining the situation to someone in authority - who basically told me that he hadn't heard of this before, and the mobile must be faulty, to send it back, and get a replacement.

So I called up the retailer who I purchased it from, in my case BuyMobilePhones.net. As it happens, I managed to speak to the guy in charge of their technical support team who assured me that not only did their devices come straight from the distribution centre's of the respective operators... it was THEM who had removed the 3BR method, not Samsung.

My next call was straight to T-Mobile, paying 25p for the privilage of speaking to someone about this (even via the 150 method). After speaking to someone in India who was absolutely clueless, I was told that I'd be called back within the hour, which didn't happen. At this point, I was beginning to lose it. I'd been on the phone that day for around 3 hours already and it wasn't even midday.

I decided that I'd make one more phone call, before I'd literally go down to the nearest store to me, and create such a scene I'd probably have been arrested. I would have informed every customer going in and out of that store, exactly what was going on, and hit them where it hurt most.

Fortunately, the second time I rang I finally managed to get through to someone in charge of their tech support, who absolutely agreed with me that this function should be working. He promised me that he would speak to the relevant department that would be responsible for something like this and that he'd let me know. He did say it could take a couple of days to get an answer, but he would get back to me. I said that was fair enough, I took his contact details, and we left it at that.

Not less that 15 minutes went by, when I received a call from a woman at T-Mobile, who had been contacted by this gentleman and was now "taking over the investigation". So I'm now directly dealing with her.

She basically admitted that T-Mobile was to blame here, as Samsung had wrongly informed her that the 3BR (or Debug Mode) was used primarily to install 3rd party firmware on the devices. A such T-Mobile couldn't "allow" this to happen.

I explained that although this had some truth in this, it wasn't the main reason why people like myself wanted it back. I told her that this was (in effect) a "safety net" in case an official update went wrong and people like myself would be able to recover the device instead of having to contact T-Mobile / Samsung Service Centre, and get the phone repaired each time. I stated that this tool should of been there from the start, as it was one of the reasons I decided to purchase this phone, and not something from Apple.

I drew the analogy that this was just like the Internet. Yes, there are some "bad people on there" who did this, that and the other, but what about all the good it could do too. Would it then deserve to be shut down as it were? Of course not.

I put my point across politely, but firmly indicating that if this decision wasn't reveresed, it would just be a question of when and how I go about cancelling, and if needs be - I'd be willing to take this up to court.

She told me that she would speak to "her contact" at Samsung, and let me know of the outcome as soon as possible. I took her contact details down, so I now have her direct line, including extension number - and I'm basically awaiting that call. It's been a few days since I last spoke to her, so I shall be trying on this Saturday - not all their staff work Mon to Fri, so it's worth a shot otherwise it'll be first thing Monday.

My personal take on this, is that the mobile operators have (while branding our devices), discovered a method of locking this part of the phone down and included it in the official firmware. As such, many of us are in the same boat, as we're all experiencing this from different carriers.

I believe Samsung, actually believe they've screwed up somewhere, and are now being active in overturning this "mistake" to prevent further dissatisfaction among customers.

I may be completely wrong in this, but again, it's just my opinion.

I have been active in the Samsung UK Mobile Facebook page detailing what I'm doing to help everyone, which can be found here: FB / SamsungUKmobile as well as the Samsung Canada (I can't post links as a new registrant - a little annoying, but I can understand why).

As it stands now, until I get a resolution to my satisfaction from T-Mobile, I won't be trying the fix just yet (and may not bother) if I really do have to go down the route of cancelling this contract / going to court.

I will update you all if I hear anything back, but do check out the Facebook page, if you're in the UK - what I will say, may directly concern you and anyone else you know who's having the same issue with a UK network.

Apologies for the speech - I wasn't expecting this with my first post aha, but I wanted you all to know everything in full.

Take it easy all, and I hope you all have a great weekend.