Dear Oh-Hyun Kwon,
Today I tried to login to Samsung.com to register a product to my account. When I attempted to login it told me my password was incorrect so I requested a reset. After doing that I received confirmation that it was reset and attempted to login again, copy and pasting the username and new password into the fields to ensure they were correct. It still failed to login so I called customer services.
Calling Samsung customer services is like having teeth pulled out. Let me elaborate: after listening to one of the longest introductions I have ever had the misfortune to hear all about Samsung, my data and its protection and such I got through to a grumpy sounding woman. I explained my login problem to her very explicitly, describing the steps I'd attempted to overcome it. She then responded with: "You have to reset your password", the exact phrase which I had just said to her when explaining what I had done! I kept my patience and repeated the fact that I had just done that, twice.
Her next response was a little more telling. She said I would have to request my password to be emailed to me. She clearly doesn't spend much time on the Samsung website as there isn't an option to request your password. I admit my patience was wearing thin by now but I persevered, explaining that I had already attempted what appeared to be the only option available to me on the website and it didn't work. She put me on hold.
After 5 minutes of being on hold she came back and said I could email support and request that my account was removed, so I could re-sign up on the site. I explained that I already have some devices assigned to that account and they have data backed up against that account so I wasn't keen to remove it if that backed up data was going to be lost in the process. She repeated that I could email them to get the account removed... and I began holding my head to stop it exploding.
I had to repeatedly ask her to confirm if the information would be lost or not as she just kept replying I could send an email to remove the account. Eventually she audibly sighed and asked if she could put me on hold again. After 18 minutes of telephone call the line went dead.
So what to conclude, apart from WOW Samsung that is really pretty special? I do like your hardware but pretty much everything else about the company sucks:
- Communication: Complete lack of communication about upcoming or prospective hardware and software releases.
- Companion software: Poor does not adequately describe the Kies companion software or on device App offerings. They are not fit for purpose. The website is clearly just as bad.
- Customer services: Rude staff with a complete lack of training or knowledge does not constitute a customer services department. I would rather you didn't bother at all.
I'm not an Apple fan-boy but I do think from pre-release to after care their model is a hard one to beat. OK they have the money to do it but really it's not that hard to overcome the above issues with some thought and a modest budget.
With frustration and still unable to log in,
Phil
PS. When I contacted your company via 'Contact us' on your website the representative replied saying "I am sorry to inform you that your email has came through to the wrong department. [Please] forward your email to...". I would ask why he or she couldn't do that themselves rather than responding to me? But it is becoming clear that if there is a worse way of doing something, your team will take it.
[UPDATE] I received a call from Samsung customer services a day later. The manager 'K' initiated a solution to my registration issue and increased the warranty on both the phone and the tablet by way of an apology for the service I had previously received. That's great and I'm very thankful for it but what a shame the team couldn't just get it right in the first place.