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Samsung Gear s2 promotion was a scam

I called customer care to set up an upgrade to the s7 from my htc one m8. I was very specific that I wanted the promotional item gear s2 for the purchase and i was assured that I would be eligible, there would be a code on the receipt that would be in the box when I received my new one. I pre-purchased it on 3/11/16 and received the phone on 3/13/16, the release date. I applied for the promotional item as soon as I got the package. on 3/23/16 I received an email saying:

Congratulations! Your submission has been approved; however because the

purchase receipt you uploaded denotes an in-store and/or online business

purchase, you are only eligible to receive the Samsung Gear VR with 6-game

bundle.

It doesn't make sense because I was on the phone making the purchase. I was also told I would be eligible so at the very least it shows incompetence of my verizon rep.

I have since tried contacting both verizon and samsung about it. Both chat services are useless, Samsung's promo email support said they would respond within 24hrs and it has been more than 72, I've sent several. I spent a long time on the phone with verizon customer care because Samsungs promo customer service line said all lines were busy try again later, Verizon tried to contact them and they got the same message. The Verizon CSR told me she would look further into it about what I could do and I would be contacted, but I haven't heard from them yet. I have tried more time to get some kind of solution from both companies and also inquired if I could return the phone to which I was told that I could return the phone within 14 days, today being the 15th. so that isn't even an option. It's very frustrating to make a purchase from a company you've been with for 10 years under the impression you would be receiving a $299 watch with a $700 dollar purchase but to find out later that you're locked into receiving something worth $150 to someone, but not me. I was not interested in the VR headset in the least and I wouldn't have gotten the phone if that was the deal.

Comments

geonh

I have the exact same problem except I was told by a Verizon company store manager that I could get the phone there and still be eligible for the S2. Went online and applied and got a congratulations letter which was followed 10 days later with a confirmation of my VR order which I have no use for!

Kathy0529

There are a few threads about this same thing as a bunch of us received this surprising email stating we did something wrong or were business customers and would be receiving the VR and not the watch as requested.

A few of us called and were told that it was an error and it was confirmed by the Prize Logic rep that the S2 would be sent. I was told that there were still watches in stock so it was not an inventory issue. My ship date is estimated for April 18th, so I guess I have to take the rep at her word that the watch will be shipped, but will have to wait till I have it in hand to know for sure. The number to call is: 888.795.6442. I believe she asked for my name and email address. I did not need my order number or anything from the VZW.com order.

Good Luck!

mcdonaldb200

I did the same as Kathy, and received the identical response, it was an incorrect email that went out.

Tidbits

Make sure you get every customer now. Not just the ones who believe they should have gotten the watch only because that's the one they wanted.

colbycheese

Contact the Attorney General in your state with all your info. If more people do this they will be held accountable for their bait and switch. Flood your states Attorney General with complaints! it may help!

cjpd

I too have been scammed double!!! We upgraded our phones early to qualify for the gear S2 watch offer which I was told that we would qualify for. We purchased online and once the phones arrived quickly submitted for the watch. We received emails stating our submission had been accepted for the gear S2 watch on each email yet we both received the VR.....OMG! (I did save each confirmation email) I never would have paid to upgrade our phones early for the VR.....really!!!!! Shame on Verizon for not standing behind this as well! I am getting the run around from Verizon, was told it was okay to drive to the nearest store which is 1 hour each way only to find out that this is not correct either. The Verizon person on the phone call apparently lied to me to the point of telling me he called the store and assured me they had 2 watches in stock and that I should go today and noted they were in 2 different colors. How can this be? So, I called the local BestBuy to speak with a Samsung rep and he said for sure to call the www.samsungpromotions.com number at 888-795-6442. After being on hold for 55:12 min a representative answered to state they could not help me but would have a supervisor call me back within 24 hours but it may be up to 5 business days and also that they couldn't give me any idea if I would eventually receive the watch in exchange for the VR. I asked this rep how many calls are they receiving today with the same complaints and they ballparked about 80%! This is a very bad situation now! I have been a loyal Verizon customer since 1998 but perhaps this is a sign of things getting worse? I will write more if this situation is correctly resolved otherwise, don't believe what you read when Verizon offers material gifts unless you get it at the same time as the purchase.

PAPETER

I too got the email that I was getting a useless VR instead of the S2 watch. I purchased the S7 Edge mainly because of the watch offer. After trying to get it resolved, I had the most frustrating and negative customer experience I ever had from both Prize Logic (Samsung third party partner for their promotions) and from Samsung itself. I got the same circular song and dance as those described above. It was belittling.

I started with Verizon and they told me it was an on-line purchase. Verizon told me I had to deal with Samsung directly.

Next, I contacted Prize Logic and they told me they could not change it. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was also told it may take 5-10 days for them to get back to me.

I next called Samsung and the rep forwarded me to another number which was once again Prize Logic so I hung up.

Next I tried Samsung online Chat. The Samsung chat rep created a ticket and gave me a phone number that he said was a higher level of service.

I called the 'higher level of service number' and I believe I was routed to the same old customer service number at Samsung that I called earlier. I got some guy that first told me they were out of stock and then told me that according to terms and conditions they did not need to do anything for me. I was insistent with him and told him how dissatisfied I was. The Samsung customer service rep hung up on me. I could not believe it.

Too much stress and time wasted for today. I will try some more tomorrow but feel very sour on these companies and the way they are treating their customers. Not a good long term strategy.

Verizon should own this problem and fix it for their customers. That is what great companies do! Any response Verizon????

jpettis

I was told that I didn't qualify for the Gear S2 watch due to I wasn't in the correct area/location to get the watch...so they are sending me the VR instead...which I am not happy about!! Which is totally B.S., they should have disclosed that information in the beginning ..

cjpd

This is such a bad situation and Verizon keeps saying it is not their problem yet they benefited greatly from our contract extensions and the extra fees associated with the S7 phone which is very expensive. I have been an 18 year customer of Verizon and this is very poor!

cjpd

I am going onto the State Attorney General website right now and filing a claim. I am not going to open either VR box and sure hope something changes.

cjpd

I just spoke w a supervisor at PrizeLogic and she said now, they are waiting for some type of audit within the company and hopes to get back w me by the end of today. This is a scam. Are you suggesting I contact Verizon at the 678 number you listed above vs contacting the State Attorney General? I live in another state and I believe we all must contact our local State Attorney General, correct? Not the one for the State of Georgia?

cjpd

Do not accept this reason! Was this clearly stated on the original offer? I bet not! That is what they told me there were looking into in my case today....well, that cannot be valid for us either since 1 of the 3 of us did receive the watch! We received our email confirmation for the watch on March 3/12, 3/13 and 3/14 FYI. That is just another excuse jpettis

cjpd

I see that the company PrizeLogic is not a BBB accredited company! Go to the BBB and file a complaint about this company. Why are Verizon and Samsung, supposedly reputable companies, doing business with a non-accredited company? Consumer Complaints for PrizeLogic - BBB serving Eastern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula

jpettis

OH I won't!! This is b.s., I'm on the phone right now with Verizon and they will get a Samsung customer support person on the line with me right now....and they said they Verizon will get to the bottom of this. We'll see

snace84

We were all scammed. Samsung committed fraud. If you read the Terms and Conditions now... the language was changed. They should not get away with this. A class action suite should be started. I received an e-mail from Samsung that they received my submission for the watch and it was approved. Now they are saying they had a limited supply and if you don't want the gear vr, you need to opt out to get a 100 e-reward certificate to shop online. The original promotion language was changed... the links don't work anymore and you cannot even get someone on the phone. It disconnects you and tells you to read the promotional for rules.

FRAUD!!!!!

icerado

I'm not sure how many people will come across this thread but you are not alone. I personally pre-ordered my phone online because I followed a forum thread on slickdeals that discusses the details of the promotion. I do know for a fact they altered the "rules" or "qualifications" more then one time. I don't have the original write up that they had on the Samsung promotional site, but I do have a screenshot of the promotion after they added the requirement to purchase online leaving in store purchases in the dark.

I pre-ordered my phone, and somehow Verizon managed to "missdeliver" my phone on 3 separate occassions. Each time they would cancel and reorder the phone. The third time I did not even AUTHORIZE them to charge my card, but after 3 weeks I'm assuming they just figured I'd be happy to finally get my phone I pre-ordered. I have contacted both companies multiple times because of the fiasco I went through just getting my S7 and was always told I would have no issue getting my s2. So with that I emailed Samsung back with the following response email:

Hello,

Thank you for your inquiry; we use the location code on your Verizon receipt in order to verify where you purchased your device. The option to select a Samsung Gear S2 watch instead of the VR headset and Oculus Game Bundle is available exclusively for participants who purchased either a Samsung Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 Edge from www.VZW.com or through Verizon Telesales. For more information, please review the official Terms and Conditions here: https://promos.samsungpromotions.com/gearvr/en-us/Rules . More information about this may be found under Section 4. Gift Details.

If you have selected the Samsung Gear S2 option when you registered for this promotion and you did not purchase from www.VZW.com or Verizon Telesales, you will only be eligible to receive the VR headset and Oculus Game Bundle. Our team will also perform a second manual review of all location code receipts that we have received, and if the status of your submission is changed you will be notified by email.

Thank you,

PrizeLogic Support

My Response:

I'm replying once more to explain that you already approved me for an s2 watch. Quite frankly I don't care where Verizon sold the phone to me from I purchased the phone online. I did my part to qualify for this promotion. If you're telling me I can't have the item that I was promised after Verizon delayed my delivery by almost a month then you should expect me to dispute through American Express because you're not fulfilling your side of the purchase agreement. If Verizon changed where the phone was purchased that's something you will have to discuss with them. If a VR is delivered to my address I will not accept the package and the phone will be returned to Verizon.

I appreciate your time but I have screenshots from Samsung saying I was approved for the promotion. It was stuck on the shipping time as there were mass delays due to an overwhelming amount of s2 orders. Due to the vast information of delays with the watches I would only assume you're trying to get as many people to take the VR bundle as possible. If that isn't the case then I am sure you will listen to my phone calls with Verizon listening closely as I mentioned multiple times that I should still be eligible for said promotion. If your response is the same in saying that you just can't give me the watch even though you already approved it, then I would appreciate you just write up a return on the phone because I have no desire to keep it at this point.

Regards,
Joe

This information will at the least help anyone who purchased over the phone because it blatantly says Telesales. Which I should also qualify for because I never ordered any other way then through Verizon's Customer Service. My final response to them is as follows and I will update if I hear anything more.

cjpd

I think I did get somewhere with my submission to the BBB. I also filed w the state Attorney General but have not heard from them. This is such a poor situation and I am not going to give up. I have been an 18 year customer of Verizon and have nothing but Samsung products so perhaps it is time for me to believe they are not as good/reliable as I was hoping. I am also on a thread for Free Gear S2 Watch.....you may want to get onto that one as well! I have no other idea how to get this out of the Verizon site and onto the Web for more exposure but clearly this issue needs to be resolve correctly for us all or Verizon benefits the most...they have us all on a new 2 year contract now don't they and they have washed their hands so conveniently by saying it is PrizeLogics fault. I am blaming Samsung, Verizon and Prizelogic and feel they all need to make this right for us. I will wait for PrizeLogic now to try and figure out what the problem is electronically and hope that we get a good resolution. I am not going to open up either VR box in hopes there will be an eventual exchange somehow!

jpettis

I contacted all three companies and finally after talking with prizelogic for the third time I was able to speak with a supervisor. And he told me that Samsung did an internal automatic Audits and there were some glitches. They did the audit to make sure that that people who ordered the watch phone online would get the watch or VR. He told me that I did qualify for the watch and the email I received was an error. And I should be getting the watch sometime within the next two weeks. The supervisor also noted on my account that we discussed what happened and that if there's any issues that I could call them back and talk to him directly to get things figured out if I didn't get the watch. So it's a waiting game right now and I'm hopeful that I am going to receive the watch. If not then I will contact the BBB in the general attorney and prizelogic again.

icerado

I'm going to try my best to avoid the BBB and Attorney General until I get a response email from them. However I am not giving them more then 2 days to respond and that means they have until the end of today. I understand they have had problems with stock for the s2 watch, but that doesn't excuse what looks like a bait-n-switch. They seriously sound like they hoped people would just take the VR, but did they really think anyone would choose the VR over the watch??? I just think they are overwhelmed and this was a attempt to trick people into just accepting the cheaper alternative. I will not be accepting the package and I will return the phone if I don't get my watch within the next 2 weeks. Verizon could easily use their in-store inventory to remedy this where they can

unhappy22

I also was scammed. I bought the new phone ONLY to get the Gear S2. Once I got the phone, I went online and ordered the watch. Then a few days later, received an email that had VR on it. I called and confirmed that i would be getting the watch. Several weeks later, the VR arrived. I made several phone calls and was eventually lead to P. Logic. Was told that a supervisor would call me back in 5 to 10 business days. (yeah - I should have figured THAT one out!). Of course, no phone call.

I would like to know did ANYONE actually recieve the watch, or was just a scam to unload a big inventory of VR units and they never intended to send out the watch at all? Has anyone been successful in getting satisfaction in their complaints - even thru BBB? If someone has a suggestion of what to do - please tell me. As it stands now, verizon is just passing the buck and so on and so on, until the uproar just dies out.

Rockym

Had no problem. Ordered my phone on 3/15, received on 3/16 and submitted info to get watch. Approval email came on 4/7 and the watch was delivered a few weeks later. Which 6-8 weeks from the initial submission just like they said.

If I may ask, why did you buy the phone just to get the watch, when you could have just bought the watch itself for less than half the price of the phone? The S7 is not required to use the watch, it works with any Samsung phone that runs Android 4.4 or above.

lcpoll

You all should just be happy if you have received something. I applied for 2 watches on March 8th, and still haven't received so much as an estimated shipping date. I've contacted Samsung, Verizon, and Prize Logic, and they just don't seem to care at all. They just keep blaming everything on some third party that is handling the distribution, but there's no way to contact them. Lying to people about a promotion just to sell their new product is not a good way to get repeat customers.

Erickosor8

Sorry to hear that. I received my watch a while ago, so hearing this makes me glad i did. Hope you eventually get it in the mail. Good luck to you!

Redhawk70

Well still waiting have been passed from person to person for months . I was told still processing this was the biggest scam from Verizon and Samsung. Followed the rules to be let down what a bunch of crooks.

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