Samsung is providing lots of options to those who are in possession of the discontinued Galaxy Note 7. They can opt for an exchange with another Samsung smartphone, pick any other smartphone sold by its carrier and retail partners, or just get a full refund for the failed flagship. The company is apparently not being that generous with those who purchased the new Gear VR for the Galaxy Note 7. One such customer says that he was denied a Gear VR refund by Samsung because the handset works with other Samsung devices as well.
Said customer purchased his Gear VR directly from Samsung after ordering the Galaxy Note 7 in August. He participated in the first replacement program to get a what was then claimed to be a safe unit. Now that the flagship has been discontinued and Oculus has disabled Gear VR support for the Galaxy Note 7, the headset is of no use to the customer but Samsung doesn't seem to be willing to process the refund.
A service rep told him that Samsung won't process the refund because the Gear VR is “supported by other Samsung phones,” and that he's out of the 30-day return window. When you think about it, the rep isn't wrong, the Gear VR does work very well with other phones and Samsung is already providing monetary incentives of up to $100 to customers who exchange the Galaxy Note 7 for the Galaxy S7 or S7 edge.
The customer argues that he's no longer interested in purchasing a Samsung device so the headset is of no use to him, but an argument can be made that Samsung has drawn a line when it comes to refunds for the Galaxy Note 7 and that it would be a bit too much to ask the company to treat two separate purchases as one. What do you think, should Samsung process the refund even though the Gear VR was bought separately and it had no way to ascertain whether the customer was buying it just because he bought the Galaxy Note 7 as well?
