Defective S22

Make sure your going into a corporate store not an authorized retailer. 

They want to charge the restocking fee because they are treating it as a buyer’s remorse return, not as a warranty claim on a defective phone. You do not need to pay a restocking fee for warranty. You may need to wait for the 14 day return period to pass before putting in a warranty claim but otherwise you need to make it clear this is a warranty issue, not a return. As noted, it also needs to be a corporate store. Even though ATT is authorized to provide warranty, you might want to go directly to Samsung.

I am going through the pain of a defective s22 myself and they are refusing to give me a new device because I did not claim a buyers remorse return. Was within the 14 days but they sent out a refurbished even after telling me it would be new multiple times. Now that I received that device and it's outside the 14 days they say I cannot have a new device at all.

Oh and the kicker is they "parked" my IMEI so the original s22 won't connect to mobile date and no one at Sales, Tech Support, or Loyalty can figure out how to allow the defective one to even partially operate while I work through the replacement.

Buyers beware. This customer service is terrible and I'm up to almost 10 hours on the phone with them since April 3rd. All to no avail.

turn off advance messaging.

Hey there @A123456789, we understand your concerns with your defective device and we want to help. 

Since you've passed your buyers remorse period, at this time you'll need to return your device under warranty. You'll need to contact warranty when: 

• For devices bought as new, we'll make the warranty device exchange on behalf of the manufacturer. Check your device manual or contact the manufacturer for warranty info. Your replacement device will be similar or better. It can take up to six business days to arrive.
• For AT&T Certified Pre-Owned or AT&T Certified Restore devices, we'll send you a similar or better replacement device. It can take up to six business days to arrive.
• For AT&T PREPAID exchanges, we’ll charge your credit or debit card for the full replacement value of the device. You’ll get that amount credited back when you send us your defective device.

Once you get your replacement device

• You get either a 90-day warranty or the rest of your original device warranty, whichever is greater. 
• You have 30 days to return your defective device. Your replacement device package includes return shipping materials.
• If you don't return the defective device in time and you have
• AT&T Wireless: We'll bill you the full replacement value for the device.
• AT&T PREPAID: We won’t credit your card for the return.

We hope this information helps and let us know if you have any other questions or concerns. 

Lynn, AT&T Community Specialist

The problem Lynn is that I hadn't passed the 14 day period when I found the issue and started the claim. Being passed that threshold today should be completely irrelevant.

The fact that AT&T wants to play goalkeeper is highly concerning. Samsung had a defective device and you are the retailer. You think if we purchased something broken from Walmart and they told us we'd need to take it up with China that company would still be around today?

I wish I had used a store initially. Because now that I started with the Sales team no store wants to help me. Idk what AT&T us thinking but I'm seriously regretting being a customer today.

Thanks for your response, @A123456789.

At this time, if you have a device that was received as a replacement within the last 30 days from Asurion, you'll need to call Asurion at 888.562.8662. 

They'll be able to assist you further with your claim and provide you more information regarding your original and replacement device.

Let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Lynn, AT&T Community Specialist 

Why on earth would I have to deal with them? I purchased the device from AT&T and it isn't under any third party protection plan.

This sounds like the web chat version of the phone run around I've been given the past 2 weeks.

We understand your frustrations, @A123456789.

We've directed you to Asurion because you stated in your previous post that you initially started a claim within you 14 day BRE period. 

Feel free to reach back out with any other questions or concerns. 

Lynn, AT&T Community Specialist

I started a request for a replacement of the brand new defective device. Apologies if the word "claim" means something different internal to the company. That is kind of like the "BRE" period I wouldn't have ever known about until i went down this rabit holo.

For anyone curious I'm told BRE stands for Buyers Remorse Exchange. And when you have a brand new defective device AT&T needs you to use those magic words or else you get a used one rmto replace it. This is according to a Loyalty supervisor named Pedro I spoke with for over an hour who wasn't allowed to help me because the system locks him out on replacements.

Thanks for confirming that information with us, @A123456789.

At this time, please confirm with us:

• Are you stating that you recieved two defective devices?
• Please provide us with more details on the concerns with each device, so that we're able to provide any troubleshooting steps. 

This information will better help us understand your concerns. 

Thank you. 

Lynn, AT&T Community Specialist

I am stating that I received a defective device (brand new with the distored/crackling speakers issue) and when I identified this to AT&T I was setup for a replacement. Many times I was told this was going to be another new one because I was within the 14 day period. Then I received a used/refurbished one instead. That wasn't acceptable to me and idk if the replacemrnt is defective or not, but I just agreed to pay AT&T for 3 years on a plan with a new device not a refurbished unit. Hence my original frustration.

The cherry on top was "parking" my IMEI while the device was still active, before receiving even the refurbished one, and leaving me with a small tablet instead of a phone for 10 days now.

We appreciate your patience and answering our questions, @A123456789.

We just want to ask for a few additional details:

• What made you aware that you were given an AT&T pre-owned device?
• For the new replacement device you've received, is it currently inactive and not allowing access to the cellular network?

Let us know so that we're able to continue to further investigate your inquiries. 

Lynn, AT&T Community Specialist

Let's get back to the original reason for this post.. My wife has a defective phone and we got the same crap excuse from our local AT&T store about a restocking fee and warranty issue.. Why on earth would we pay a restocking fee for a phone we had just received that isn't working properly? And why is it so hard to just hand us a new God (Edited per community guidelines) phone? No offense but my post was hijacked by someone else with an issue. 

@marccomfg

I agree it was extremely rude to hijack your post. And a t t help has continued to hijack by responding to the other person, repeatedly, and incorrectly.

If you are within 14 days of purchase, you may return a defective phone the same way you purchased it. Either to a corporate store if you purchased from a corporate store, or mailed back to AT&T if you received it by mail. If you purchased at an authorized retailer you must go back to the same authorized retail location. I think you are having a problem because you are approaching an authorized retail store to return something you purchased directly from att.com online. That's why they want to charge you a restock fee, you did not buy from them.  Authorized retailers are independently owned, it is a franchise, it is not owned directly by AT&T, and should say authorized retailers somewhere on the front of the store. 

Call 611 and ask where you can exchange a brand new, with in buyer's remorse, defective S22.   AT&T will either direct you to a corporate store, or ask that you shipped the phone directly back to them. ( corporate store would be preferred to dealing with mail) 

After 14 days:

Start a warranty claim https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1044996/