[_Codemonkeyism]

Got mine 5min after @Samsung told me they stop delivery.

Now unopened package on my desk.

Very angry at Samsung, their ecommerce shop (3 tries until ordering worked), delivery notification (10 hours late for every update), delivery (wrong delivery address from their system to DHL) has been very bad already. For an 850 EUR premium device. I will never buy from them again.

And now this.

Probably returning and getting an iPhone7.

[cdubzzz]

Try getting Samsung support in the US, hah. Where I work most of the employees prefer iPhones, but a few have Samsung. One of the Samsung users had an issue with his screen blanking randomly after about a year so I figured we'd find a local certified dealer or something and get it repaired under warranty. Turns out that in the US there are only three Samsung stores (LA, NJ and NY) that can do warranty repairs on site.

So we scratched that and went through an excruciating online form and eventually sent the phone to some repair center in Texas, I think. After about a month the ticket was updated (but no alert email sent about it, the user just happened to check the website) saying that the phone's warranty was void and it could not be repaired (no further explanation).

After a couple of calls, I finally got someone to tell me it was void because the battery was replaced with a third party one (which was, admittedly, news to me). Then, similar to your issue, they shipped it back to the wrong address (leaving out the suite number) so it took another month just to get the phone back.

I was really stunned at how awful the process was overall, compared to driving ten minutes to an Apple store and usually just having an in-warranty phone with a legitimate issue swapped out on the spot.

[taspeotis]

Technical merits of iOS vs. Android aside, one reason I like buying Apple products is their after-sales support (if you need it) is fantastic.

[pjmlp]

In US most likely.

At the Düsseldorf Apple store, they manage to give such an wonderful service three times in a row that a friend of mine doesn't care about any Apple product anymore.

[ghshephard]

That's odd. Here in Singapore we don't have an official Apple Store - but the "Authorized Retail" store (Wheel lock) has done repairs on my keyboard, on my power connector inside phone, and on my keyboard a second time (I'm very rough with my gear) - two of the three times they were able to do it while I waited by the counter, third time it was trickier, they quoted me '5 days' - but had it done the next day.

Also - nice thing about wheel lock - they have fifteen+ simultaneous counters available, so wait to check in gear is almost always less than 10 minutes, no advance appointment required.

I agree with Parent though - 10 years in, and probably twice as many apple care appointments later - being able to just take in broken gear under apple care and have them fix it is a major benefit of buying the (admittedly expensive) gear.

On the flip side - Dell has onsite repair for their Desktops/Laptops.

[pjmlp]

As I answered to sibling comment on her case it was a matter of failed expectations.

Regarding other PC manufacturers I have long learned not to expect anything.

[hnal943]

This feels like a blast from the past to say, but I have been a lifelong Gateway customer and they have always provided me great support, even replacing things that I clearly broke on my own.

[cdubzzz]

Yeah I imagine the experience is very different by region (and perhaps even regions in the US). I was just surprised how bad Samsung's support is here in the US given the popularity of the phones. But I'm sure it's the exact some way with Apple in many places outside the US.

Incidentally, I also support a number of users in various countries in SE Asia and they also mostly have iPhones but I don't think any of them have ever had issues that required warranty repair.

I certainly do find vast differences in support from computer manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo (and a higher rate of issues with the region-specific models out there).

[pjmlp]

Not saying the others are in any way better, actually I don't have positive stories to tell about PC OEMs.

On her case she was put off, because the experience was just like other companies instead of what most people talk about.

[happywolf]

Singapore as well. My iPhone 6 had a bloated battery, instantly replaced without any question. My LG Nexus had a bloated battery, all emails and FB messages ignored. Tell me who to love.

[tdkl]

And you paid what money for iPhone 6 and how much for the Nexus ? That's the merit how they love you back. ;)

[taspeotis]

I'm in Australia.

[ceejayoz]

> After a couple of calls, I finally got someone to tell me it was void because the battery was replaced with a third party one (which was, admittedly, news to me).

Wait, using a third-party battery voids your warranty?!

[cdubzzz]

I wish I had more documentation to back it up, but that is what I was told (and I believe ultimately it came down to somehow qualifying as "tampering"). I am a very unreliable source here, hah. At some point in the whole process I became so put off by the service that I just wanted to be done with it.

Ultimately it was the limited service options, crappy website, slow response times and bad phone support that I found appalling for such a popular product line.

[mindslight]

Obviously not, unless the replacement battery actually caused the damage. But like anything you might have to go to court to force the issue.

[blub]

You really have no idea how much crap Samsung is doing. Their entire business model is basically copy what the established players are doing, but not obviously enough to get sued and then undercut them on price. They screwed up once with Apple, but otherwise it works fine for them.

Then there's the bizarre sexist ads, refusing to pay the return flight for bloggers if they don't praise Samsung and other stories.

I wouldn't buy anything from them even if their customer support were great.

[Nursie]

In much of the world Samsung are the established player.

I'm not sure which 'established players' you think they're copying. They were the first to market a phablet at all...

[blub]

Miele and Nokia come to mind. Dyson too, although they dropped their latest lawsuit.

Not sure about Sony, I've only heard rumors about that.

I also realized that I focused just on copying and forgot about all the other nice things they did - see wikipedia.

[Nursie]

Ah, I guess we are talking well beyond mobile phones now. I guess what I find odd there is the idea that they copy established players, when they are an establshed player, one of the worlds largest.

What did they copy from Miele?

Nokia effectively disestablished themselves some years ago now so I'm not sure they're relevant any more.

In a lot of tech they are pioneers, I'm not sure it's fair to say their business model is based on copying when they are frequently ahead of the market and even making it (phones). NVMe drives are another area they are leading at the moment.

[bArray]

"Then there's the bizarre sexist ads, refusing to pay the return flight for bloggers if they don't praise Samsung and other stories."

Got sources for that? Quite interested in learning more.

[morb]

The stranded bloggers story discussion on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4468037

[kuschku]

Yet, they absolutely dominate the smart phone market outside of the US, having not just a relative majority, but an absolute majority.

[neotek]

That's true, but market share is a pointless metric, since ultimately all it takes to get market share is money - the more you spend on advertising, the more you discount your product, the more people will own it regardless of how good or bad it is.

What matters is profit share, and Apple vacuums up nearly 100% of the profit in the smartphone world, and meanwhile Samsung silently prays that some day it will be within earshot of just breaking even.

[Nursie]

Matters to who? Why?

I don't give much of a crap if my vendor makes a profit, I care about user experience and app support. A big market share certainly impacts the latter.

Samsung do make profit on their smartphones, by the way, not sure what makes you think otherwise.

( Edit -- 1Q 2016 they reported a profit of around 3.3 billion dollars on their mobile operations, source - http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/28/samsung-has-got-its-mojo-back... )

[_Codemonkeyism]

EDIT: After hours waiting in Samsung support lines without success, their shop not working with returns I give up for now.

[supercoder]

Well consider it lesson learned for not just going with an iPhone in the first place

[_Codemonkeyism]

"Well consider it lesson learned for not just going with an iPhone in the first place"

Been there bought the tshirt.

I had the first and second and third generation iPhone, first iPod (the one with a drive), first iPod touch, first iPod mini, first and second generation iPad, a Cube (upgraded with everything possible), XServes/XSans, a decade of MacbookPros, Airs and some iMacs (which currently I code on).

Apple quality went down and they don't care anymore since they wanted to become a luxury brand (e.g. screen with yellow blobs, bad iPhone reception, Wifi trouble on every Air, forced hardware upgrades b/c new iOS versions are slow). OSX is especially buggy with every release, especially SMB.

So I'm not a happy Apple user either.

[matwood]

I was annoyed with Apple when it took them so long to release a bigger phone so I switched to Android. Had an HTC One, then a Nexus 5 (I also have a Nexus 7). I switched back to the iPhone for many of the same reasons you list for not using it.

Buggy Android versions, abysmal performance on a devices just a year old if they were upgraded at all, random processes spin out of control and kill your battery in about 10 minutes and the phone feels like it's melting to list a few. While the iPhone isn't perfect, none of the issues are as bad as what I had on Android. Heck, I have older iPads here for testing that are running betas of the new iOS, and while slow they are usable. Compare that to all the issues the Nexus 7s have had with Android updates.

[_Codemonkeyism]

" older iPads "

How did you manage that? I have some unusable iPads I was using for watching e.g. Amazon videos. I can't use them as their OS no longer updates and Amazon (as most) only support new iOS versions.

Also: After buying a max specced Dell XPS 2016 I fear that you are right, Apple has many problems but others have even larger ones. The Dell with Windows (doesn't run Linux because of nvm) is not even close to working to my satisfaction for a 2500 EUR device.

[matwood]

I don't know what you count as useable, but I have an original iPad Air here (3 years old) that still works fine for my use - some games, email, reading, and internet.

It was only this year that I stopped testing our apps on the iPad 2. It was workhorse, and for many apps was much better than the iPad 3. With the 3 Apple went to retina, but IMHO the rest of the hardware was not quite retina ready.

[supercoder]

Cool, just switch to whoever makes the bug free OS then.

[mixedCase]

You know, there is such a thing as a middle-gound between "especially buggy" and "bug free".