Samsung allegedly owes a business over $35,000 in trade-in credits it failed to pay
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Here is a different kind of story. If you've ever traded in an older phone to receive credit toward the purchase of a new device, you might be familiar with some of the pitfalls of doing this. The two most infuriating would probably be when the company you're buying your new phone from doesn't agree with you on the condition of your trade. After all, one of the biggest factors that determine how much credit your trade is worth is the condition of the device.
Taking advantage of a trade-in deal isn't always an easy process
You might think that the phone you're trading in is in pristine condition, but the truth might deliver a harsher reality forcing you to spend more for your new device than the amount you expected. Another aggravating issue is when the phone that you carefully wiped of all data, placed in a box, and shipped, supposedly never arrived at the destination.
The business purchased a total 125 units of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in three separate orders
And then there is the situation involving a business that claims on Reddit (via SamMobile) that Samsung never credited it the $45,000 it claims it was due from a massive trade-in deal for 125 Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra handsets. Using the handle T_A_I_N_T on the social media site, the Redditor explained that between April 15th and June 8th of this year, he ordered 125 handsets for employees (sounds like a great place to work!).
Three separate orders were submitted to Samsung starting with the purchase of 50 Galaxy S22 Ultra units on April 15th. With Samsung, businesses must pay in advance even for a trade-in deal, so a payment of $55,499 was made to the Korean manufacturer. The amount expected from the trade, $35,880, was never applied to the purchase or sent to the buyer even though he received this notification on May 8th: "We have received your trade-in devices and we are processing it. We will send the trade-in results in email in 8 business days."
The second batch of 50 Galaxy S22 Ultra phones was ordered on May 3rd. The business paid $59,113 for the handsets and expected to get back $40,060 from the trade-in plus an additional $2,113 from a negotiated price match. Samsung only applied the trade to 43 returned phones resulting in a payment made of $35,460 for a shortfall of $6,713 as Sammy failed to honor the price match.
So far, the business has been credited with $9,713 by American Express leaving $35,880 to be paid
On June 8th, the last 25 units were ordered for which the company paid the amount of $26,823. Expecting $25,000 from a trade, the company was credited only $22,000 by the manufacturer after Samsung once again miscounted the number of phones traded in which explains the shortfall.
The business disputed the transaction with American Express and Amex quickly credited the account with $9,713 ($3,000 + $6,713) to cover the shortfalls from the second and third orders. But the $35,880 is still not accounted for. Just in case he doesn't get satisfaction from Amex, he has a list of who to contact next:
- Samsung office of the president
- Various Samsung regional execs (or anyone I can find who looks like they might be relevant on LinkedIn)
- BBB/FTC
- California AG's office
- PayPal (they can at least help with the order I paid with PayPal..)
- Media outlets (though would need to give this one a bit more thought to figure out the most effective path forward)
It would seem that the last one is already off to a good start.
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Now would be a good time to give you a practical tip. You might consider it to be a pain, but you should photograph or video the process of packing up your trade-in before it is shipped. Granted, you probably won't have 125 phones to mail, but even if it is just a single unit, having photographic evidence of the condition of the trade could come in handy if there is a dispute with the company that you are dealing with.
The business involved in this article says that it does have evidence that backs up its side of the story (which is why Amex probably paid up so quickly for two of the orders). There is still the matter of $35,880 and if we hear anything one way of the other, it will be added to this article.
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