During Black Friday 2024 I got a good deal on Samsung S24+ offered by DNA.fi. Since I was looking to replace my Sony Xperia 1 IV, which had a dead fingerprint (and some other minor annoyances in software), I decided to use that deal and bought the phone. That was a mistake.
No, it was not because of some issues with the phone itself. At least, not with the hardware. Not directly. The problem was with battery drain by an app called "Media Picker". It was draining on average 7% of battery per day with maximum (at the time of writing) being 14%. In background. That is it was constantly running in background.
That felt weird. Judging by the name, it's an app to select media files (perhaps when selecting wallpaper). It made sense for it to be active when I was setting up the phone, which took 2 days or so, since I was doing some other things in parallel, too. But why was it doing that on 3rd day and beyond? As I am somewhat experienced with Android already, I rebooted the device, and waited more - it did not help. It's also a system app, so I can't really do anything with it. Searched forums for solutions, and got nothing, but I did notice that there are quite a few threads about the issue with this app, and while not all of the threads were about Samsung devices (there were some about Xiaomi and OnePlus, at least) a lot of them were: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 to name a few. So I wrote to Samsung.
This was a weird response, since I used the Members app (which is confirmed by the screenshots themselves). But I checked what other options are available, and somehow there was only live chat and a call. Since I can't attach screenshots to a call, I obviously went for a chat. Unfortunately, I did not screenshot it, and there is no way for me to view it (at least not that I know), but the gist of it was:
"Have you tried standard things?"
"Yes."
"Reset your phone?"
"No way I am spending another 2 days to set it up again. Besides, I've just bought it."
"Report though Members App."
"I already did."
"Ok. I will file a ticket."
"Great. Cya."
"Cya."
There was no ticket shared in the chat and no email with it afterwards. I was sad about that, but maybe I should just wait, right? Whether I should have waited or not, at some point I search for more information, and one of the threads mentioned that Link To Windows. I have not really used it on previous phones, but on this one it came it enabled by default, and I think it prompted to link to Windows during initial setup even, so I did.
I did find it useful for me to access files on the phone through WiFi like this and also to share clipboard. And it does use some features, that would make sense to utilize Media Picker on the phone periodically, at least when some notification comes in or some other changes on the phone trigger an event in the app. So I tried playing with settings on Windows' side - nothing helped. Settings on phone side - did not help, either, so I disabled the app on phone completely - it helped, battery drain stopped. Well, from the Media Picker, at least. Thus I decided to write to Samsung about what I found:
Again not a very useful response, asking me to do, what I've just did. This time I tried searching a bit more and somehow found a WhatsApp chat for Samsung, so wrote about this there. Unfortunately it was in Finnish, even after talking to a bot, but you can use Google Translate or something else to help you with this.
Felt like there was a bit of resistance, was a bit strange that they asked me specifically what were my expectations in this situation, but, in the end, looked like they understood, what I need/want, I did get ticket number (chat number, but that's better than nothing) and even a coupon. That could have been the end of it, but it was not, because soon I started getting mails in Danish (although a few were in Finnish).
So, essentially they asked for screenshot, and to also report this in Members App. Again. I reminded them, that I have already provided all the information in 4 tickets (2 in Members, 1 in web chat and 1 in WhatsApp). Also I just got an update for the firmware, and confirmed, that issue is still present there.
Another set of "standard actions to take", completely ignoring all previous communications, even though the emails do have that chat number in the subject.
Another bot suggestions to disable the app (which I am using), monitor statistics (how else would I learn that the issue is with Media Picker?), and... Another request to use Members App. I am starting to lose my nerve already.
Now they do provide exact steps to follow in Members, but I get to the same screen I've been using before. There is a slight difference, though, because now I could select "Batter" category, which I do not think was available to me before (hence you can see "Settings" on previous screenshots). I do not know if I just missed it or it was added in an update, but if they wanted me to raise a ticket in specific category (why can't they just move it?) - they could have said so directly. And even after I raised a 3rd ticket, they still wanted details on when I raised it, which is really weird, because normal ticketing system should put everything under same bucket based on my email. They also still asked about troubleshooting steps in Members app, too. Not that it matters, since this is far from the end.
Ah, yes. Factory reset. Of course, they needed to suggest it. I mean, how could they not? It's a magic bullet, right? Why is this something that all tech support for all Android devices or app suggest? Do they not know, what factory reset does? That it then requires users to re-setup everything from scratch? Don't kill a spider - burn the house down approach. Very wise. Very pragmatic.
Let's try to ask the user do the same things, that were already covered or have no relevance whatsoever. I am now thinking that the support at Samsung is just plain stupid, so I waste my time on explaining why every point they suggested is irrelevant to the case.
Just to ensure, that everyone is on the same page, let's suggest the user to create another ticket in Members app. Because 3 is not a magical number, 4 - is. And then if user complains let's suggest him to RMA device. Because of course it should be RMAed when it's a software issue, right? Although at the moment of writing, I am seriously considering that.
Then after some wait let's ask the user to... Create another account in Members app. Because "there may be some differences in accounts, and a new one is needed to contact support team". I blew a fuse here. If I communicated this way with a customer, I'd probably be fired. But I am a customer in this case, and while I understand that I am not a pleasant one at this point, I believe all the screenshot above show that I am justified in my anger, let alone asking for a compensation. What was the response to this, you ask?
The ONLY message in English this far (aside maybe some in web chat, but I had translation enabled, so not sure about those). That's progress. But the English suggests me to... Talk to go to a Service Center to determine the case of battery drain. When I already identified it, and it has been clear, that developers need to be involved, not technicians in service center (whom I did mistakenly call "shop assistants" in my response, but they are still not the right people).
I did get a generic "we are looking into things" both in Members' ticket (which is at least not closed yet), and in email today. I do not expect them to actually be doing anything at this point, though. And even if they do, my experience has been extremely bad already, and while I would demand some compensation (or maybe even RMA it completely), I am definitely not recommending Samsung to anyone anymore, and will be avoiding it as fire or poison.
