Unfortunately, repairing your Galaxy phone has become more difficult. Best Buy is officially ending a partnership agreement with Samsung and will no longer be an authorized service provider (ASP) for Galaxy smartphones.
In a new report, TheVerge published a screenshot of an internal document that was sent to Geek Squad employees informing them of the program's closure with text that read: “Samsung ASP will end in all SASP locations.”
Below the advertisement is a series of instructions instructing employees to begin collecting any and all parts of the Galaxy phone as they will be returned to Samsung. If you didn't know, the ASP program allowed Best Buy technicians to repair Samsung mobile devices. It wasn't as extensive since repairs could only be done in certain places, but this change makes things more difficult for Galaxy users.
Best Buy is one of the largest electronics retailers in the United States with more than 1,000 locations, but as the company ends support, it leaves homeowners with few options.
Continuous shutdown
The program is currently in the process of closing, as of this writing. The Best Buy page, where you could previously find all locations authorized as service providers for Galaxy devices, has been deleted. All that's left is an error message.
What's more, all mentions of Samsung repairs have been removed from its website, according to 9To5Google. Samsung itself has done something similar with its service center locator, since Best Buy stores no longer appear in the listings.
It is unknown why the program is ending and neither company has offered any explanation. We've reached out to both Samsung and Best Buy, but have yet to hear back from either party.
Best Buy spokesperson Katie Klister told TheVerge that the brand is working with Samsung to find a way to better help its customers in the future. Mario Renato de Castro, Samsung's head of mobile customer service, echoed the same sentiment, adding that the company offers other repair services, such as mail-in repair.
Analysis: cost reduction measure
We should mention that Best Buy is not the first to do this. iFixit ended its own collaboration with Samsung, stating that the tech giant's “approach to repairability does not align with [their] mission.” Could this be related to Best Buy's latest decision? Maybe, but it's hard to say for sure.
At the end of its story, TheVerge references a call from Best Buy CEO Corie Barry saying that the two companies will continue to work closely together. In fact, they're expanding their partnership with Samsung by having experts located “in appliance departments in hundreds of stores.” It seems that the decision to close phone repairs was a cost-cutting measure, and perhaps that part of the business was not doing so well.
It's still possible to repair a Galaxy phone at Best Buy, although it requires you to meet certain conditions. You must have purchased your device at Best Buy and purchased a Geek Squad Complete Cell Phone Protection Insurance plan.
Alternatively, you can take it to a UBREakiFix location. There are about 700 stores in the United States and you can find where they are using the UBREakiFix locator.
Be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best budget phones for 2024 if you're interested in a low-cost option.
