MY Sandisk Customer Support Experience!

[tarice]

Hi,

Okay, here’s my story with Sandisk Customer Support.

Not long ago I purchased a Sandisk 32gb Ultra Class 10 (micro sd) card in a local store.

I own a Galaxy S4 smartphone and as soon as I popped the card into it, I started having problems. 

Going to google and searching about it led me to find out ton of people are having the same issues with these cards and it’s a known compatibility problem with Samsung phones.

I go back to the store where I got the card, they test it with a couple of cameras and it works flawlessly. They tell me the card is ok and that my phone has a disfunctioning card reader.

On 14/05/2013 being left with no other option, I go to Sandisk website to see if their support can help me to debugg the card or my phone.

I get an answer from them the next day and they tell me they gonna send me a new card! I was suprised at the offer as not many companies will do this. Especially since I purchased this card from a seller who is in no way affiliated with Sandisk except from selling their card.

I had to prove that my card is a genuine product before they could issue another card to me. 
I was given a choice to either send them my card OR destroy it and send them photos of the destroyed card.

Not many companies will do this either and usually the customer is the one who pays for all the shipping costs. 

I decided to destroy it in order to avoid extra shipping costs.(don’t think you can cheat the system here because there’s a couple of tricks they use to make sure 100% you have destroyed it). 

So, it’s been 3 days since I frst contacted them and they finally told me that the card is getting shipped on 17/05/2013. I was told Im going to get a tracking number for the shipment in my Email. 

Two days passed since then and I didn’t receive any kind of email from them and tracking number didn’t show up anywhere.

I contacted them and their support asking for the tracking number but they just sent me a message which was obviously a script that they just copy/pasted to me. It said that the card was sent on 17/05/2013 and that I should be patient but nobody didn’t even bother to answer my question about the tracking number. 

So there I am, waiting for the card to arrive when suddenly they send me an email on 23/05/2013 which says that the card has been shipped on 23/05/2013 and they gave me the tracking number. So it actually wasn’t shipped on 17th as they told me it did but it was shipped on 23rd of May.

They shipped it via UPS service and tracking was updated all the time. 

The card arrived to me on 27/05/2013 in a non-retail packaging. ( which is fine for me as I got what I wanted anyways )

The new card works without any kind of problems with my Galaxy S4. Seems like the new series of cards from Sandisk have the compatibility issues solved and they have no problem with usage in Samsung phones

To sumarize everything, it took total of 13 DAYS to get the new card in my hands since the day I first contacted Sandisk.

My advice is that if you decide to send them your card, DO NOT send them the card reader too as they will only send you a naked card packed in a shock-proof envelope with a cardboard wrapping. It will also take around 6 extra days until they ship the card after they first confirm that the card has been sent!

After all, I’d say I’m very satisfied with Sandisk. Even though I got a failure card in the first place, Sandisk sent me a new one without me paying a penny for anything extra. I didn’t even have to send them my old card.

The only problem I had is the delay with the shipment, as they sent it 6 days after the day they said it was sent on. And their customer support team can be really dull with those scripts they’re using to answer customers. 

But in the end, they do the job and they DO care about their customers and their reputation.

I’m satisfied and I’ll stick to Sandisk products in future! Thanks SANDISK

[ch33baguy]

Hi,

Good to hear that you have got your faulty card replaced. I don’t have such luck.

I am living in Japan, bought the the imported model of the 32gb sdcard (SDSDQU-032G-U46A) from Amazon Japan.
After 9 months of usage on my galaxy s2 and now s4, it started to have the mounting, unmounting issue and sometimes blank SD card error.

When I contacted Sandisk, I was asked to produce my proof of purchase and also a photo of the back and front of the SD card. Since I am in Japan, I was escalated to the Japan sandisk agent which would only process the RMA if I still have the original packaging that came with the card.

Now, the packaging that came with the card is the one with the droid picture on it, it is pretty much cardboard wrapped around the plastic cover which houses the card. As the cardboard has to be tore up to get to the card, I discarded it. As I do not have the packaging, I am not able to replace my faulty SD card even though it is in warranty and have proof of purchase.

With such policy in place, the way the card is packaged and nothing stated that the packaging is required in the event of a RMA , it pretty much ensured that most people will not have their faulty cards replaced here. I would understand that packaging is required if purchase is within 30 days but this card was purchased 9 months ago.

I have to say that I am very disappointed with the policy of such a large corporation and will most definitely take note of this incident when I make my next flash memory card purchase.

[tarice]

Did you try telling sandisk support that you are having problems replacing the card in Japan? They might offer you a solution…

[jah732]

I’m glad you are satisfied with Sandisk customer support. My experience has been less than satisfactory. I had a malfunctioning 64Gb micro sdxc card. I contacted Sandisk via their web site and received an email back asking me to describe the card and its packaging (which I thankfully kept). From my description they decided my card was genuine but defective, so they emailed me a prepaid UPS label to ship back the card, which I did. After they received and verified the card, they shipped out a new one. It arrived about a week later (so about 2 weeks since my initial contact).

Unfortunately, the replacement card was defective.

I immediately contacted Sandisk again, this time via chat, and spoke with “Henry K”. He told me told to take pictures of the card then cut it in two and take pictures of the destroyed card. I did so, uploaded them, and was assured that “advance replacement” would be done. A week later I had heard nothing more, although I had gotten another email with a UPS return label so I shipped the destroyed one back. I contacted Sandisk again by chat, this time with “Dan G” after having another operator come on and then disconnect,  and was told the photos I had uploaded had never been sent to the appropriate departments. He had no explanation for this failure. He also explained that the email with the UPS return label that came after my chat with “Henry K” was auto-generated and I should have ignored it. Silly me for not realizing that the further correspondence I had been expecting was not to be read.

So this custeomer representative not only assured me of advanced replacement, but expedited delivery, just give them 24 hours. Three days later, no emails, no tracking number, nothing. I contacted Sandisk again, only to get an email that said my disk would ship in about 10 days’ time. That is NOT what I call expedited delivery, and contacted Sandisk again to express my utter frustration at this delay. The email sent back explained that the disk was out of stock??? so could not be shipped until it was in stock. Okay, so after it was in stock, it was shipped, by mail, not expedited, so it will take over a week to arrive. I am still waiting for it.

When it arrives, if this one is good, then I will simply consider the matter closed, but will never buy another Sandisk product again (I own many SanDisk SD cards, flash drives, MP3 players, and other Sandisk products). If this one is also defective, I will have to find out how to escalate my complaints. I will also use every social media outlet and reviews sites I have at my disposal, (and believe me, there are many, I am extremely well connected, to express my utter frustration at the contempt this company has shown for a previously loyal, long-time customer.