CrC London Reviews 3

My life changed, I encountered God in CRC for the 1st time in my life. It’s never been the same. Thank you 🙏🏻

A great, word based, multicultural church without any seeker sensitivity. People truly become your family after a while and leaders encourage you to be involved, accountable and discipled -good for living a true christian lifestyle. Probably not perfect, but this is definitely a place where you will reach spiritual maturity and get rid of worldly mindsets or lukewarm Christianity! A passion for the lost, a passion for people, a passion for building the Kingdom and a passion for Jesus.

I have written a 7 page dossier describing in detail my experiencing with CRC London Samsung repair centre. However, since I'm limited to space on this website, I shall try to keep it as brief as possible.

BEWARE OF THIS REPAIR CENTRE!!! I cannot stress this point enough. If I could give half a star, I would do so in a heartbeat!

I went to visit them because my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 began to reboot automatically without any rhyme or reason. I received a "kernal panic upload mode" message during one of the reboots and decided to visit this repair centre since the closest one to me did not fix Note 4s.

Upon arrival I spoke to an assistant to whom I described the problem, mentioning the aforementioned message upon reboot. He was totally clueless about it so he checked with his engineer. He came back and told me the engineer had never come across this message before on Android phones and that it was "only specific to iOS products". Well, no, because I had a screenshot of this error and attached it to an email I had sent them prior to my visit. I asked if they had read my email (which was sent 2 days prior) and indeed they hadn't even bothered. So the assistant checked the email and looked totally puzzled. I asked if he could show the technician my email so that he had a better understanding of the issue. The assistant came back and said this is not something they had witnessed before. So I asked if I could speak to the technician myself and tell him that I had seen this message on rebooting, but I was told by the assistant that the technician was too busy to have a word with me. All I wanted was a quick 2 minute chat with the technician so that I could explain the problem, but the assitant was just plain uncooperative and said he was too busy. Surely 2 minutes isn't going to be the end of the world for them. The assistant also said that the technician had been dealing in Android software for many years and had never seen this message appear. I wanted to tell the technician that this was not just specific to Apple products because I had witnessed it with my very own eyes. Not only that, it has been brought to light by numerous Samsung users in Android forums. Technology is a very fast-moving industry and newer, unseen issues can arise that haven’t been seen before. It’s their job to keep up-to-date, but in this instant that was not the case.

So the assistant flashed the phone at the store and told me that it was taking a long time to boot. I was told they would have to keep it for 2 days. I asked what likely work would be carried out and his answer was, “that is something the technician would have to decide.” So I asked him what his thoughts were, and he said it’s more than likely that it’s a hardware issue and that the motherboard (PBA) would be replaced free of charge since the phone was only 10 months into the warranty period. Already, the signs were looking ominous, and I knew I was dealing with a bunch of unprofessional workers. I bit the bullet and went ahead with the repair.

I visited the store 2 days later with the motherboard apparently replaced. Obviously, there is no proof to suggest that a brand new motherboard has been installed. I was told by the staff that they send the old motherboard back to Samsung and are not allowed to give it to the customer. The only thing they provided was a service sheet which tells you what work has been carried out. There is no serial number of the motherboards etc. as proof, so there is no way of me knowing that a new motherboard has been installed. Samsung say they wouldn’t prepare a service sheet like that without actually carrying out the appropriate repairs. In addition to this, there is also no way of knowing if the motherboard is brand new, and not a refurbished one. All Samsung say is that they only install new motherboards.
Whilst at the repair centre on the day of collection (6th Aug), I noticed that my Android version was 4.4.4, but my phone had 5.0.1 installed when I gave it in. At this point, the warranty was still intact. I gave the phone back to the assistant to update my phone to 5.0.1, and questioned him as to why this had happened. His reply was that even though the IMEI number of the phone had been transferred to the new motherboard, they forgot to update the software. I was obviously very suspect at this moment, because it showed poor workmanship and neglect.

On returning home that evening, the same reboot procedure happened again a couple of times, and my heart just sank because I truly thought that my phone would be fixed. During one of the reboots, I got the message, “"Kernel is not seandroid enforcing. Set warranty bit: kernel". I was hugely alarmed by this message and rang the service centre on Friday 7th Aug, informing them of this. They suggested I bring the phone back in for repair.

I went back to them on Monday 10th Aug 2015 after having had a busy weekend attending a wedding, and the manager (Jeremiah) said one of the apps I had installed off the Google Play Store was causing the reboots. I was utterly shocked at this because there have not been any apps installed that were already on there before this issue began. The technician ran the phone in Safe Mode, and lo and behold, the phone began to reboot in front of them at the store, suggesting that it could NOT have been an app that I installed because they get disabled in Safe Mode. They took the phone back into the technician’s room and the lady assisting me came back with the manager – my phone in her hand – and the phone rebooting again. This time it had some writing in the top corner similar to that shown in Fig 4., suggesting the phone had been rooted. They told to me I had rooted the phone because it now displayed “Custom” rather than “Samsung Official” as was the case previously. I was in complete and utter disbelief when I saw that the System status was now “Custom” and not “Samsung Official” as it had been all this time. I had absolutely not even the slightest inkling that this change had taken place.

I do not know how to root a phone, yet the manager at the store was suggesting I had downloaded an app off the Google Play Store that had magically rooted the phone?! Is that even possible? I told them very vociferously that the only USB cable that I had attached to my phone ever, was for charging purposes – and nothing else. Yet, here they were suggesting I had (within a 4 day period) rooted my phone by installing unauthorised software. I questioned the technician as to how such a thing was even possible, and he never gave me an explanation. They knew what apps I had on my phone. I have never downloaded any malicious apps: they have all been off the Google Play Store and used by hundreds of millions of people. The engineer seemed to think he could pull wool over my eyes, but I spoke to technical staff at EE and the Samsung Customer support staff, who were both surprised that an app from the Play Store has caused my phone to be rooted. Unbelievable!!!

Indeed, I spoke to a Google technician on 13th Aug regarding this matter and he said there is absolutely no record of any paid/unpaid app that I have installed from the Google Play Store that could cause the phone to be rooted. He was also pretty certain that it is a Samsung-related issue – hardware or software. A record of that call is available.

So now, instead of having the initial problem of my phone rebooting, I now had the additional predicament of Samsung voiding my phone of warranty. I stand firm and say that I would NOT want to void my warranty within a 4 day timeframe knowing full well that I still have 14 months left of it. Why would I suddenly decide I want to void it? The technician said that I may have “unintentionally” installed software on there that may have caused this to happen, which is quite frankly absurd. I left there deeply upset and clueless as to how this had happened. They refused to fix the phone because it had been rooted.

However, weeks after this whole debacle, I spoke to a few software engineers and they were absolutely certain that the technicians at the repair centre had rooted my phone! I was angered and thought there is no way they are getting away from this. This is why I find myself writing this review and indeed this will be posted all over social media. The service centre will also be reported to Trading Standards for their unethical, rude, dishonest and unprofessional work ethics. Jeremiah thinks he knows what he's talking about, but he is good at deflecting the blame off himself and his workers. Two of the key attributes to a good leader is taking accountability of your actions and being trustworthy, but unfortunately Jeremiah lacks both of these. His team is very poorly led. They don't know what they are talking about, and I shall add one more important fact here. Every time I went to that service centre, there were customers infuriated with the service (or lack of it) that they were getting.

The staff should be ashamed of themselves and should accept that they CAN do wrong, and when they do, they should accept accountability for it rather than pin the blame on the customer. Having that attitude will only put customers off and you will lose business.

Anyone reading this, please PLEASE think twice before using this repair centre. They assume everyone who enters their store is totally clueless about technology. Yet when someone like me - who has a lot of knowledge about technology - comes along, they have no answers and start pulling the wool over your eyes. Do your homework and approach a learned person before going to these cowboys. Absolute horrific experience. They should compensate for the utter inconvenience and costs incurred (petrol, calls etc)