[Resolved]  RKR Infocom — Beware of Fraud Samsung Mobile Service Centre

I am a Samsung Electronics employee, and I beg to warn you of fraud Service Centres in Bangalore, like RKR INFOCOM, who claim to be 'authorized' but will definitely rip you off a heavy sum of money for no big problem in your phone, and you won't even know it!

I purchased a Galaxy S3 couple of months back for personal use. Last week during heavy rains in Bangalore, my phone caught moisture, and the 'back' and 'options menu' buttons at the bottom of the screen stopped working. I happened to approach RKR INFOCOM, since it is close to my office. They immediately opened it up and figured it is a case of water-logging, and without even delving into any details of the problem, bluntly prescribed to me that both the board (circuit/PCB) and the LCD of my phone were gone, and need to be replaced. I was gagged, as my phone was just 2 months old, and I am already being asked to incur a damage of about Rs 15,000 on it!

I requested the RKR fellows to look into the problem in some more detail, in case they could crack a more friendly way out. They refused, the technician making a helplessly sad face, and mentioned that they could try and get me a small discount, since I was a Samsung employee. They would come back to me in a couple of days with the verdict, they said.

I walked away, wondering how I would tackle such a massive damage, and came up with an idea to go for a second opinion. In the meanwhile, I get a call from RKR the next day, and they say, "Sir, we can give you a discount of Rs 2000, but you'll have to come today itself, else we won't be able to give you the discount". So I realized that they figured I may go for a second opinion, and thereby they would lose their pretty month-end incentive!

I thought "what the hell" and went for the second opinion to Samsung Mobile Service Centre in BTM Layout to get my phone re-checked. I was pleasantly surprised that these guys at least followed a process, and were ready to see what ways could be worked out to avoid an insane loss. They flashed the phone first, did not work, then they opened it. They figured the water-logged state, and took a declaration from me that this problem won't be covered under warranty. They said the problem could be in the LCD, though they would first try a thorough cleaning. I was OK with it, so they cleaned, and to my supreme surprise, the phone was working fine!

There was never a problem in the board (circuit/PCB), nor there was anything wrong in the LCD. Just some water stains, and a thorough cleaning which costed me about Rs 300 did the magic for me! So imagine, I made such a narrow escape from those frauds, who would have cheated me for thousands of bucks, and also probably cheated some other poor customers by giving them my used PCB/LCD as new replacements! Beware!