Suburban Woman Sends Malfunctioning Samsung Tablet In For Repairs, And It Ends Up In The Hands Of A Stranger In Texas
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Have you ever been caught in a customer service nightmare? A CBS 2 viewer called us, eager to share what happened to her.
She received a Samsung tablet, but it was damaged, so she sent it in for a warranty repair, and somehow it wound up in the hands of a stranger more than 1,000 miles away.
CBS 2's Marie Saavedra reports it was a Christmas wish come true; Santa delivering a new tablet to Brittany Fleming, of Steger. But her excitement didn't last long.
"It had a dead spot on it, and within less than a month of using it, so I had to send it in for repair," she said.
A large dead spot is not cool on a brand new tablet, so Fleming sent it to Samsung. Days later, the trouble began:
First Fleming received two UPS tracking numbers for the tablet's return trip, and not to her home in south suburban Steger, but instead to a mystery address in McKinney, Texas.
"That was a red flag right from the get-go," she said.
She tried calling Samsung for answers, but didn't get anywhere. Then, she got a text: "Brittany?" A one-word message from an unknown number, followed by several more texts. Then it started to make sense.
"I believe I have your tablet," the stranger wrote.
"It was delivered to the wrong person," Fleming said.
The stranger down in Texas shared proof of delivery; a photo showing he had Fleming's tablet, and paperwork from Samsung with her personal info on it. That's how he tracked her down.
But Fleming would not have any luck tracking down the truth from Samsung.
"Nobody was communicating with me. Nobody was giving me the correct story. I could not get straight answers. And at that point I was getting mad, because I was just being passed around," she said.
Saavedra: "Calling like this turns into a part- to full-time job. What was your level of frustration to commit this amount of time?"
Fleming: "I wasn't upset, until I got to case management, when I was on hold for five hours."
Saavedra: "Five hours?!"
Fleming: "And then I got disconnected!"
More texts, more emails, no new info from Samsung.
And then a surprise package arrived: her tablet. Not from Samsung, but from that Texas stranger.
She tried complaining to the tech giant, but her gripes landed in a black hole, not unlike that dead spot on her busted tablet.
"I said, 'We don't know who this person is, what he has done to this tablet,'" Fleming said. "I said, 'It's in somebody else's hands. You guys should be either issuing me a new tablet or a refund at this point.' 'No, we can't authorize that,'" she said.
What motivated her to want to share the story?
"Other consumers need to be aware of it, that this doesn't happen to anybody else again," she said.
We pressed Samsung for answers. How did Fleming's tablet wind up in the hands of a stranger and what would they do to help her? Samsung sent a vague statement that doesn't address anything relevant:
"We regret the experience Ms. Fleming had and have remained in contact to ensure the matter is resolved to her satisfaction. While this is a rare occurrence, we aspire to have best-in-class service for all our customers and will carefully review this matter in an effort to constantly improve customer experience. We encourage any customer with questions about a Samsung product to contact us directly at 1-800-SAMSUNG."
The good news is the retailer agreed to help her out and provide a new one.
But again, it's scary to think that your device sent in for repairs can wind up who knows where, by no fault of your own.