I usually find the phone is carrier locked. So to unlock I can never get the maker to unlock it but have to deal with the carrier.
I worry you asked the wrong company.
This is a letter that I sent to Samsung today...
I write to you today as a long time Samsung customer who cannot actually believe or understand the poorness of the customer service experience I have received from your company. On November 24, 2014, I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 from Costco, one of the best phones I have ever had the pleasure of owning. I immediately registered it with Samsung and received an email on 11/25/2014 thanking me for doing so; it even had a coupon for 50% off an accessory which I used to purchase the wireless charging back. Recently I after much personal debate and the unexpected failure of the Galaxy Note 7, I decided to upgrade to the Galaxy S7 Edge.
Since I no longer needed my Note 4, I sold the Note 4 to another individual who upon trying to setup the phone was prompted for the Samsung password. Despite my giving it to him and numerous attempts at password resets, the phone refused to accept it. We mutually (conference call) contacted Samsung support. We were told by support that I needed to prove ownership of the phone. I told them it was registered to me on the Samsung site and I could provide them all of the registration information. They proceeded to tell me that support could NOT look at the registration as that was a separate part of Samsung unrelated to support!? I asked them what the point of registering the phone was and they told me that it provided the ability to access a “locate my phone” feature which if I am not mistaken is native to google…
I was then informed that they would open a ticket and I needed to email them proof of purchase and to include the IMEI #. I sent them my receipt from Costco (which simply stated purchase of Galaxy Note 4 Blk) and a copy of the outside of the original box (to show the IMEI) which I also included in the email with a contact email and phone number if there were any issues and a request to be contacted in the event of a problem. Approximately a week later I learned that they had canceled the ticket almost immediately because the receipt did not have the IMEI # printed on it. I only learned this because I called in and spent an hour on hold and got someone to look it up. No email, no phone call or communication of any type sent indicating an issue with processing the request. I again questioned the technician I was speaking to regarding the fact of why the fact that the phone was registered to me on the Samsung site was insufficient proof and again was told that the technical side cannot access that information!? He then insisted that the only proof they would accept was either a receipt that showed the IMEI or an activation log that showed the phone having been active on my Verizon account. He gave me a new ticket number to send the information in on.
I went to Costco and they were able to screen shot a history of all the phones that were ever active on my account and sent it in and waited. Again nothing. I called after 3 days and after another hour wait, I was initially told that the ticket # I received was incorrect that they were unable to locate it. Somehow when I gave them the first ticket number they then found the second ticket number. They said that again the proof was no good because it did not have my name and it had been canceled (again no notification of any kind). They had not looked carefully because it was in the background of the screenshot (as the foreground had the IMEI and dates of all the phones from my Verizon acct). I then had to spend another 2 hours on the phone with a technician (sending him the proof where I circled the areas he needed to look at) before they agreed to send a UPS tag to get the phone unlocked for the person I sold it to.
All told this event took about 15-20 hours of my life and 5-7 hours of the person that I sold it to. I am at a loss as to the point of registering a phone if the registration information cannot be referenced as proof of ownership or for any other good reason. I also really do not understand why this could not have been fixed remotely as the whole issue seemed to center around the Samsung password and once Samsung had the IMEI, I do not understand why they could not reset this in their system.
While I understand the need to protect customers from theft, as I stated many times to the technicians to whom I spoke, there was a clear chain of custody (Samsung Registration, Costco receipt for purchase of a Note 4, Original box UPCs with IMEI, my phone number <which they seemed to be able to coordinate to the phone>
. Making someone jump through hoops due to an inability for Samsung Employees to work based on the purpose rather than the letter of the policy is beyond ridiculous. This lack of flexibility just makes the customer feel frustrated and undermines the intention. I have been a loyal Samsung customer for many years owning multiple phones, TVs and other products but am left wondering whether I should continue this relationship based on this treatment. This is certainly not the way one treats valued customers.
Thought you should be made aware.

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