In January 2023, I took a leap of faith and upgraded my Galaxy S20 phone to the new Z Fold 4. I knew this was going to cost extra to upgrade, but as a techie, I wanted to see what the new foldable phones offered. So I placed my upgrade request with Rogers Canada and anxiously awaited the arrival of my new phone.
Activation was pretty simple, and I returned my Galaxy S20 in working condition.
The features of the Z Fold 4 were great. I especially liked the big fold-out screen, and my tablet rarely got used while away anymore because the fold-out screen on the Z Fold 4 was awesome!
But then the problems began…
By December 2023 the original screen saver on the fold out screen developed a crack, which eventually got bigger and made looking at the content rather ugly. I called Rogers, who said they couldn’t do anything. I requested to speak with a manager, who eventually gave me a $300 credit on my Rogers account and said that should be enough for you to go find a solution yourself. Interesting. I watched some YouTube videos and settled on purchasing the Whitestone GEN Film Screen Protector from Amazon.ca for the whopping price of $19.20 and it worked great! You can read my review on this screen protector here but I believe they no longer sell this for Z Fold 4, but hopefully they are supporting the newer models as you will eventually need their product!
With the screen protector issue resolved on the Z Fold 4 I continued to enjoy the phone.
Phone Costs
With Rogers Canada, I am paying $102.40 a month for the phone (this does not include the cell phone plan). Over 24 months that works out to $2,457.60. I didn’t buy any type of Roger’s or Samsung Device Protection plan because it was at least another $22 month ($528.00 over 2 years) and you would think that the flagship Samsung phone would last 2 years! Under my contract with Rogers, at the end of my 2 years, if I return the phone in working condition, I’m done. Just like I did with my previous phone. However – if you return the phone and it’s not working properly – you own it and you have to pay out the amount you saved, which for me is another $710.00!
So now my phone’s final cost over 2 years is $3,167.70!! Holy crap! (It would have been $3,695.60 if I opted for their Device Protection plan)
3 months to go and now new Problems
It is now October 2024 and I have 3 months to go before my 2 year contract on my Z Fold 4 is up. Last Thursday October 10, 2024 my phone just went blank and died. After a few minutes it rebooted and came back to life. Under Settings > Device Care I was told the Facebook App was using too much memory. After the phone died a few more times I uninstalled the Facebook App to see if that would help. But it didn’t!
I eventually figured out that when I opened the Z Fold 4 phone, it would die. If you don’t open the phone and only use the front screen, the phone seems to work. I say seems to work because later I had an incoming call but couldn’t hear them and videos would play but there was no sound. I opened the phone a few times throughout the day by habit, only to have it crash and reboot, but on Sunday I do have sound on and by Monday I was able to make a phone call with audio. Now i have to remember to never open the phone.
I did a factory reset on my Z Fold 4 phone Friday night just in case this is just some weird software issue. This was difficult as Google was trying to send me a text with a code but my phone hadn’t completed it’s restart so that was impossible. I skipped that section only to be led to a Samsung app requesting I set up a finger print password and was instructed to open the phone to do this. So I opened the phone and it promptly died. Oh boy!
I went back to my Google account on my computer and had to shut off 2 Factor login which at least allowed me to log into my phone. I then reactivated 2 Factor login afterwards. But I still can’t complete the Samsung app setup because I can’t open my phone.
A Visit to the Local Rogers Store
So I took a trip to the local Roger’s store in Cobourg, Ontario on Saturday. The nice person behind the counter told me Samsung has a 1 year warranty but I’m obviously passed that. I didn’t pay for a Device Protection plan with Roger’s (why pay $528.00 more) so there is nothing they can do for me. I was told to contact Samsung to see if they could help.
A Chat with Samsung Warranty
Sunday comes and I have some free time so I go to Samsung’s Warranty website and open up a chat with Karl, explain my situation. Karl can only say “the device is out of grace period we do not have access to provide the one time warranty for you. Hope you understand our policy and limitations.”
I asked to be transferred to someone higher up and get Jack Lionel, who says he is the manager for the technical support chat team. I said that’s nice, but I need to speak to a Samsung Canada rep that can handle my phone problem. I go over the costs of their expensive flagship phone and state “you sell super expensive phones that don’t even last 2 years then expect the consumer to eat up the expense?”
I get “At this time, there is only service option and I am afraid it will be a paid service as it is out of warranty” and “I am sorry Gerald but as per the policy, any individual at Samsung would provide the same solution. I hope you understand our limitations in this regard” and finally “Gerald, As I said we can help you with the service but it will be a paid service.”
I did a Google search for “z Fold 4 shuts off when I open it up” and was surprised by the amount of hits I got. Below is just a sample of the first page and of note is “Loose or damaged connection” and “due to the defective flex cable.”
Karl from Samsung Canada chat responded with “I’m sorry, as I mentioned that at online forums the complaints will be all over the world and In Canada we have never heard this kind of repeated issue and since we are from Samsung Canada we do not have any information about other country models.” Am I the only one in Canada with this issue? I highly doubt that.
One Final Call to Rogers
I did call Roger’s Technical Support (from my partner’s phone) on Saturday and was told to call back on Monday as the weekend staff cannot help me (I have a Business account). So it’s now Monday and I call through only to be told since I didn’t purchase Device Protection there is nothing Rogers can do for me. I was offered a new phone with a $150 credit or I could even get a free Google Pixel 8, but I’d be locked into a new 2 year contract which is not what I want to do. [I no longer need business services so I had planned to cancel my Business account and switch over to consumer when this contract ends]
What to do now?
I have purchased a Samsung Galaxy S22+ from Best Buy. It’s rated “reburbished/excellent” and that, along with a phone case, shipped to my door was $484.71. Now if this phone dies within 2 years I’m only out $484.71 and I can live with that. I will take the Sim card out of my Z Fold 4 and finish out my 2 year contract and then switch to a consumer ‘bring your own phone’ plan on January 25, 2025. I was told to call 1 week before my contract expires.
What is the issue here?
My issue is Samsung builds and sells a new foldable phone and prices it at the very top, calls it their “flagship” phone, but due to mechanical and/or manufacturing defects, my Z Fold 4 phone didn’t even last 2 years before it broke! Not being able to return it after my 2 year contract is up is going to cost me $710.00 and let’s not forget the $2,457.60 I have spent to ‘rent’ this phone over the 2 year contract. Paying that much for a phone is on me but I certainly didn’t expect the Z Fold 4 phone to break down in month 21 of a 24 month contract!
Rogers says they can’t help because I didn’t pay for their Device Protection plan.
Samsung says they can’t help because it’s out of their 1 year manufacturer warranty (but did admit they would have repaired it up to 15 months).
So the consumer gets to foot the bill. How nice.
Should you buy a Foldable phone from Samsung?
My recommendation is NO! Unless you buy the Device Protection plan from your carrier which only adds to the already high cost of these phones. I have always supported Samsung but am very disappointed that they don’t stand behind their product. Buyer beware!