Samsung

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Samsung Group is a multinational conglomerate founded in 1938. Their product portfolio ranges from consumer electronics to heavy equipment. The company is best known to consumers for their electronics such as televisions and mobile phones, as well as their home appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines.

Samsung

Basic Information
Founded	1938
Industry	Conglomerate
Official Website	https://www.samsung.com/

Consumer-protection profile

Repairability

Status: Concerns

Concerns have been raised over Samsung's business practices towards serviceability that trade organizations like iFixit, Repair.org and repair industry professionals Like Jesse Cruz the owner of VCC Board Repairs , Former Samsung Independent Genuine Service Program technicians, like ADRDaniel owner of Advanced Device Repair have described as anti-consumer and anti-competitive.

Category: Smartphones

• The majority of Samsung Phones have components glued in place, making disassembly and reassembly difficult.
• Samsung has imposed strict conditions on Authorized repair vendors, such as requiring technicians to fully dismantle devices, and submit handwritten letters if they encounter non-genuine parts during repairs.https://www.404media.co/content/images/2024/05/Screenshot-2024-05-23-at-9.13.41-AM.png - a portion of Samsung's genuine parts authorized service provider contract or Independent Service Provider Network (for smartphone-repair shops) which requires complete disassembly of any devices found to contain third-party parts. This means legally, authorized service providers are contractually required to not reinstall any third-party replacement parts, which causes them, if they choose not to breach their contract, to return customers' property disassembled or to require customers to pay to have a genuine Samsung part installed, regardless of necessity. This practice causes the customers who have previously chosen to purchase non-authorized repair parts and service unexpected and undue stress in convince and repair costs.
• Genuine self-repair smartphone displays available through Samsung's self-service parts store are 2x times more expensive ( Samsung Genuine Part :$370.95 Mobilesentrix: $182.02 ) than identical, new parts from third parties such as Mobilesentrix, who have allegedly purchased from Samsung's own manufacturing or service partners having 95% of the global market share of OLED display manufacturing "These "service packs" from mobile sentrix are without a doubt new OEM samsung displays" according to a Fromer Samsung authorized technician "With no viable aftermarket parts and few refurbished screens to compete with, alongside control of the pricing and supply, Samsung has few reasons to make replacements affordable for phones it and its shareholders want people to keep buying new. "
  • Samsung's self-service repair part selection for their flagship models (such as the Galaxy S24 Ultra, for example) provide no photos, detailed descriptions or distinction between tools for these models services or parts for said model.
    • Samsung's genuine-parts store lists exactly 100 sub models of Galaxy S24, using their alternate, longer, 14-digit, and more confusing model numbers in their part-compatibility charts. These numbers specify carrier, region, sub-region, and color distinctions, which are unnecessary information to any buyer of self-service parts. An equally comprehensive list of all models (in the table below) from all regions lists only nine distinct models with their legible 7-digit part numbers: for the display replacement in question the part is universal to all submodels.

SM-S928B, SM-S928B/DS, SM-S928U, SM-S928U1, SM-S928W, SM-S928N, SM-S9280, SM-S928E, SM-S928E/DS

alternate model numbers in samsungparts.com self service parts store.

Category: Home appliances

• According to ifixit's documentation of Samsung repair, schematic diagrams and service parts were cited in their survey, in collaboration with PIRG and Repair.org, of professional repair technicians as "difficult to find service documentation"
• Repair manuals surveyed repair professionals where able to acquire from manufactures including samsung: "Even when they get access to those manuals, technicians sometimes don’t find the information they need. Repair manuals are often lacking fault codes and schematic diagrams needed to complete repairs."

Examples of Anti-consumer practices

• Opposition of pro-consumer legislation in the United States

^{[citation needed ]}

• Retroactive implementation of forced arbitration clauses in a mid-cycle update to its OneUI 5 Android Software

^{[citation needed ]} , limiting users' legal power.

• Imposition of strict conditions on "authorized" repair vendors, such as requiring technicians to fully dismantle devices, and submit handwritten letters if they encounter non-genuine parts during repairs. Additionally, disallowing authorized repair vendors to assist customers with filing claims or conduct repairs for in-warranty hardware issues on customers Samsung smartphones.

Other allegations include practices such as technicians deliberately scratch customers' TVs with tools to void warranties, ^{[citation needed ]}

and astroturfing online.

^{[citation needed ]}