Recently upgraded our two older phones…
Recently upgraded our two older phones (S21 &S23 Ultra). Offered $500 for the S23 Ultra as part of the Samsung trade-in program. Followed all the steps to wipe and reset both phones - this is not the first time we have utilized the trade-in program- and sent them off. We received notification via email on July 20th that the S23 Ultra did not pass their data wipe test and that we could request the phone sent back, or if they didn't hear from us, it would be recycled. The email clearly stated that we had three days to respond or by the 17th of July. Both options meant we would be charged the $500 that they had offered for the phone. What? They sent the email on July 20th and were saying we only had until the 17th to respond. Out of panic we selected the only option available, a button that said 'return my trade-in'. Then we realized after looking online that this seemed to be a common issue (failing due to data wipe test) with the trade-in program and we contacted customer service within minutes to see if we could straighten it out or get more details on the data wipe test and why it didn't pass. Customer service chat went as expected. Sorry, can't do anything about it since you requested the trade-in sent back. Again, what? This was literally minutes ago and per the email the only option we had since it indicated they had wanted a response by the 17th, even though they only emailed us on the 20th. Very disappointed in Samsung. We have been loyal customers since the 2010s but this makes us rethink it. The trade-in S23 Ultra was in perfect condition, and we followed all reset guidelines. The fact that they were unwilling to try to find a solution to a problem created by their deceptive email, that had the wrong dates, is beyond frustrating. I wonder how often they do this kind of thing?