Samsung folding cell phones: No guarantee for scratches and dents – Kassenrutsch Espresso

Jürg Kesseli sees black things – at least when he looks at his smartphone: the display is defective. His Samsung Z Fold 4, a high-end folding cell phone for an impressive 2,000 francs, started showing problems after a short time. First, the WiFi and Bluetooth functions fail. Later it can no longer be opened completely. And then the big screen appears: “It always goes black when I turn on the cell phone,” explains Jürg Kesseli.

Since the warranty period is still running, he sends it to Samsung. But the repair center refuses to repair it under warranty. “Traces of external influences” were discovered on the device. A repair costs 814 francs.

Hard to believe: Jürg Kesseli’s partner has exactly the same experience. Even your Z Fold 4 can no longer be fully opened after a while. And Samsung also rejects the guarantee, citing “traces of external influences”. “Kassenrutsch” has seen her cell phone, it looks absolutely new. And more people are reporting whose foldable cell phones are defective and Samsung is refusing the warranty. The alleged connection between scratch and defect is incomprehensible to those affected.

Optical trick? Highly enlarged photos of scratches as evidence

Samsung sent Jürg Kesseli highly enlarged photos showing scratches and dents as evidence of the “external impact”. “You can hardly see them with your eyes, without a magnifying glass,” says Kesseli.

Samsung finds traces of “external influence”

He complained to customer service several times. But Samsung remains firm: The guarantee only applies if a device is repaired without “external influences”. And further: “This applies regardless of whether the fault complained of was caused by this external influence or not.” Jürg Kesseli isn’t the only one shaking his head: “This is a systematic rejection of the guarantee. That’s not fair.”

Frédéric Krauskopf, professor of private law at the University of Bern, also doesn’t understand the reasoning. “If the product defect has nothing to do with the scratch or dent, the guarantee must apply,” he explains. Samsung would have to prove that the defect was caused by external influences. Otherwise, a warranty rejection is not justified.

Consumer protection: Rejected guarantees are a big issue

Sara Stalder, Managing Director of Consumer Protection, sees the problem not only with Samsung, but with almost all smartphone manufacturers. “Customers are told that there is an external influence, that they are to blame for the defect, that they have used the device incorrectly.” So that the error happened to the customers and was not a production error.

In the EU, however, there has been a reversal of the burden of proof for some time now: there, manufacturers have to prove that a defect was caused by the user and not the other way around. This is not the case in Switzerland. “Consumers have to prove that it is a production error – an impossibility,” says consumer advocate Sara Stalder. If you want to defend yourself against this, your only option is to take the expensive legal route. “But the manufacturers of course know that in such cases hardly anyone goes to court,” says Professor Frédéric Krauskopf.

After the intervention of “Kassenrutsch” things are moving: Samsung is now repairing Jürg Kesseli’s cell phone under warranty.