Samsung Singapore presented one of its customers with a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) after they’ve tried to replace their faulty Galaxy S7 Edge that died less than a week after being purchased from one of the company’s stores, Mothership reports. One Brian Lim replaced his old Galaxy S4 with the Galaxy S7 Edge in late February, only to have the new device fail six days after being purchased. Upon his return to Samsung’s store, Lim was presented with an NDA that the company’s employees described as standard practice and a requirement for using one’s warranty. The document not only stated that Samsung is under no legal obligation to exchange the device and was only doing it as “a gesture of goodwill” — which is seemingly untrue under Singapore’s Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act from 2013 — but also mandated that Lim must not in any way communicate messages that could harm the public perception of Samsung, its products, and officials, all under the threat of being sued.
Following Lim’s refusal to sign what he deemed was an unethical and likely illegal agreement, he apparently received the Galaxy S6 as a loan and was told to wait for the situation to be resolved. After a month of no updates, he took to Samsung Singapore’s Facebook page to voice his displeasure about the way he’s been treated by the company’s representatives, once again receiving a reply that the form he was required to sign was standard practice. After going back and forth with Samsung for a few more days, representatives of the company told him that no replacement can be issued until he signs the controversial agreement. Lim is still refusing to agree to those terms as of this writing and is reportedly looking for other means of getting Samsung to issue a replacement device.
It’s currently unclear for how long Samsung has been issuing controversial NDAs to customers seeking warranty replacements in Singapore, but it’s unlikely Lim was the first consumer who was given that treatment. It remains to be seen whether the largest phone maker in the world will comment on the situation in the coming days, but this latest turn of events will hardly help the company promote the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus that are scheduled to be announced tomorrow.