T-Mobile Subscriber Bought A New Galaxy S24 FE And Received A Dead Device, Which Was Replaced With A Used, Dirty, Refurbished Model

A user bought a new phone from T-Mobile and ended up with a replaced and dirty unit, causing a bit of a stir in the community. Usually, when carriers replace a smartphone under warranty, a refurbished unit is dispatched in its place, which is fine as long as both devices work. In a surprise turn of events, a T-Mobile customer purchased a brand-new Galaxy S24 FE and ended up getting a refurbished phone, which appears to have a few thousand hours of use time.

A user paid full price for the Galaxy S24 FE to T-Mobile and ended up with a used, refurbished model

Replacing a used smartphone with a refurbished one makes sense as long as it comes with a new battery. However, things took a slightly different turn when a Reddit user bought a new Galaxy S24 FE from T-Mobile. The phone was received dead on arrival, which means that it was unusable, and the user did what any of us would do – ask the carrier for a new replacement unit. The replacement phone arrived five days later but was not in its original packaging. This is the first clue that the transaction did not go through as intended.

T-Mobile possibly sent the device in plain white packaging, which is way different from Samsung’s original one. While examining the device, the customer also noticed that the replacement device had dirt in the speakers and the charging port, hinting that the device was already used by another user and the unit was not examined by quality control.  After running some tests through a diagnostic app, the user came to know that the battery was degraded compared to a new phone, as this specific unit showed 9,000 hours of use time.

We believe that T-Mobile should have accounted for the dead device as a return instead of a replacement. This would have allowed the customer to receive a new device instead of a refurbished replacement. Another user told the T-Mobile subscriber to inquire about the issue through T-Mobile’s T-Force customer service. While we are not familiar with the full story or if the issue was resolved by the carrier, it can be seen that the customer paid the full price of the Galaxy S24 FE and received an old, refurbished model.

The customer should have used the device’s original warranty instead of pushing it to the carrier as a replacement. We will share more details on the story as soon as further information is available.