The pre-order process for the Samsung Galaxy Note7

[Fellwalker]

16 August 2016.  The BIG day.

Woke at 6am to order from Samsung. By 6:10 was ready to hit someone.  Realised that it was me needed hitting  - I had HTTPS everywhere switched on, and that prevented the Samsung web site from correctly adding the phone to my basket.  Moved to a different browser, got it ordered. Card purchase referred by bank.  Message on screen from the security check - If we've not called you after 5 minutes, please ring us. Within 4 minutes, the message dropped off and threw me back to the shopping basket, where the phone number I had to ring had disappeared.  Had to try ordering again, knowing it would fail, to get the phone number back on screen so I could ring.   Rang my card company.  Ansaphone message "You have dialled an 0845 number, which has been changed.  Please redial using 0345".  How stupid is it that they cannot change the number on their security message? 

Rang again, got a person.  Apparently, Phone purchases are a high risk so it was just an ID check.  I passed - I am me after all - and the purchase was confirmed so there would be no trouble when I retried. Now 6:20.

No trouble.  Great, back to Samsung.  Ha ha.  By now the blue had sold out. Not a worry to me as I wanted black anyway.  But when I put in my card details and pressed PURCHASE,  it gave me a message that "There was an error processing your credit card. Please check your details and try again".  So I did - everything correct.  But the same message.  After the third attempt, I rang the card issuer to see if they were still blocking it.  Nope, they were not even being asked for the money.

I tried another credit card, then my debit card, still that same message.  Someone had it in for me.  Eventually I cancelled the purchase altogether, and started from scratch.  There was an option to use Paypal, so I tried that.  It worked.  My new Phone was ordered.  It was now 6:40, so it had been a long early morning so far.

But I was not happy that the price of £739 seemed higher than I had expected.  I looked around.  £777 from O2, so I had a better deal than that.  Off I went to golf, followed by a meeting, planning to look again in the evening.

There are other options

£675 from Clove - from whom I bought my first Psion 3 many years ago.  That was a lot cheaper, but no Gear VR included (the old Gear VR is £80 alone), so if the Gear VR (2016) isn't worth £59 to me, perhaps I need to order from Clove instead.  Apart from the initial "how does it work", I cannot imagine me using it beyond the first week or two, so the included deal is not worth it.

Then I had a brainwave, and looked on Quidco again (there had been nothing earlier).  £80 off if you buy through their link from Carphone Warehouse.

Pre-order the new Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and get a free virtual reality headset worth £79.99

And the CW price was £699, so that makes a net £615.  Bought it.  I can pick it up from my local store, so I don't have to worry about being in to receive it.

Samsung order now cancelled.

Countdown to 31 August 2016.  A day later than the Samsung one was likely to be, but still soon to be mine.  Fingers crossed that there are not more pitfalls along the way.

But hang on just a little moment.  My email from Carphone Warehouse does not mention the Gear VR.  Next day, my Quidco advice says £5, not £80.

Back to the websites. 

• Quidco absolutely does not mention anything about any situation where you might not get the £80 or Gear VR.
• Carphone Warehouse is there but well hidden.  I now see a tiny little (1) on the main page where it shouts about the offer.  Just after the word HEADSET.
  
  That says the Gear VR is only available sometimes
  And when you go to the Note7 page itself:-
  

  Get the new Gear VR headset (2016) when you pre-order the Note7 on pay monthly or upgrades

• Now I understand the con.  Quidco have this great £80 off, but you only get it if you order the Note7 WITH FREE GEAR VR.  And you can only get the "Free" Gear VR if you order on Pay Monthly.  But it is then far from free, as if I get the same allowances as I currently have, the phone would cost well over £800 over 2 years of a contract.  I am now getting even more frustrated.

I have winged an email off to Quidco to complain about their dreadful offer that does not offer what it appears to do.

Meanwhile I have ordered a Spigen Rugged Armor (sic) Case for the Note7.  

I've downloaded the manual from the Samsung website (and wasn't that a palaver finding it) to give me something to do while waiting.

As things stand, I am considering whether to cancel the Carphone Warehouse order and reorder from Clove to save £20, or wait for Quidco to see what they say.  I may end up with a case and a manual, and no phone.  Ah well, the Nexus 5 has stood me in good stead so far.

Did you know that it isn't a Note 7?  It is a Note7.  There is no space in the name on Samsung official documents, or indeed on the phone.

[Fellwalker]

@Fellwalker DON'T ORDER STUFF WHEN YOU ARE TIRED.  YOU MISS THINGS AND GET INTO A PICKLE!

[jonsie]

I'm just going to wait a while and simply walk into the Samsung store here. I'm also hoping for a lower price than the UK but it's dependent on the exchange rate.

[MI5]

Interesting read and if it's any consolation it made me smile  

[Cleoriff]

I enjoyed the read and felt your frustration every step of the way. Many would have given up.

[Bambino]

I got exhausted reading that. Just out of curiosity, why is this in the Try The Tech section?

[Fellwalker]

@Bambino because I couldn't find a section for Try to Try the Tech.  Also, it is a precursor to a full Try the Tech when I finally get a Note7, so both bits will be in the same section.

[Fellwalker]

@jonsie  No Samung store here.  Also, if I could have got a Gear VR for actually truly free, it might have been a bit of fun.

[Martin-O2]

Hi guys I've moved this thread over to the Discussions & Feedback board as it is not a device review.  

[Fellwalker]

You couldn't make it up!

Carphone Warehouse computer decided at the last minute to cancel my order. 

• Placed 17th August.
• Expected 31st August.
• Acknowledgement email said "We'll contact you if there are any problems"
• Cancelled 29th August 04:42 by TWO emails.  Text message (ON MY HOME LANDLINE!) at 07:00 saying the same.  No reason, no apology, no alternative, no contact along the way.

SO I rang them on the number in the emails, and after getting through all of the press button menus, they didn't open till 8!

So I complained, and got very little more despite phone calls and emails.  The story changed a few times.  Along the way, one of the suggestions was to ring their order line, but they quoted an out of date number that is not in service! 

After a robust exchange of views, I have been advised that it was their fraud prevention system that cancelled it, but they cannot tell me any more. They cannot explain why that took 12 days. They cannot explain why they did not contact me until the last moment.  The final straw was an email (one of a long string) that said "Unfortunately I am unable to discuss this matter with you, as the account is in someone else’s name. Please ask the account holder to contact us directly so that we can resolve this for you."

That email also suggested that I could re-order on their web site.  You remember, the web site that cancelled my order 12 days after placing it. Doh!

It was now 31st August, and I had seen a couple of reports about Note7s having caught fire while charging.  I thought it would probably prove to be the fault of a cheap charger (these often are) and there is no phone like it, and I've been waiting for an update ever since I got to Try The Tech with a Note 4.

SO I decided that as I wasn't going to be an early adopter, I'd wait for it to arrive in the shops.  There is only Carphone Warehouse in Durham from which you can buy an unlocked unbranded phone. I called in on Wednesday, and a very helpful lad in there offered to ring me when it came in, hopefully Friday.  He did so!  Top marks to him for actually doing as promised despite it being bad news.

Of course, by Friday, the distribution of the phone had been halted, due to 35 having battery problems and a few of those having exploded (or, perhaps as Elon Musk said about his Falcon 9 when it crash landed on an ocean barge "RUD = Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly :)"   https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/277608)

CPW web site now shows 21st October as the expected delivery date for those ordering today.

Will my Nexus 5 hold out?  It has been behaving badly in the last couple of weeks, with freezing and even a reboot of its own choosing.