Where to get a good deal for a Samsung S6?

[SS1]

I just bought a Samsung S6 for myself recently and now the girlfriend wants to buy one too. I got mine for around 20k baht brand new unlocked with 2 years Samsung warranty from the UK eBay and wondering if there are any places offering similar deals in Thailand somewhere?

I think the official new price at authorised retailers is around 24-25k (?). My gf was looking at some deals from True where they offer the phone for around 20k but tied to a 2 year contract with them.. to me this seems like a complete rip-off. Back home, if you get a smartphone on a contract you normally get the phone free or for a nominal fee only.

Where would you recommend getting a good deal for an unlocked Samsung S6 in Thailand?

[bamnutsak]

I think the current MSRP is 23,900 (SM-920F/32 GB).

Grey-market imports ~ 20,000.

DTAC had a promotion (phone heavily discounted but 6 months prepayment of a plan required at purchase) but that ended 31 July.

TrueMove H have a trade-in promotion; good if you have en existing/qualifying old Galaxy handset; can't find the referenced "2-year promotion", but if it comes with a plan which is suitable why not?

This phone is quite popular, and while there have been some price reductions in some countries there hasn't been much change here.

Is an S6 an absolute requirement? There are a ton of good/great phones available for lot less. Heck you can get an S5 for 11,500.

[SS1]

I think the current MSRP is 23,900 (SM-920F/32 GB).

Grey-market imports ~ 20,000.

DTAC had a promotion (phone heavily discounted but 6 months prepayment of a plan required at purchase) but that ended 31 July.

TrueMove H have a trade-in promotion; good if you have en existing/qualifying old Galaxy handset; can't find the referenced "2-year promotion", but if it comes with a plan which is suitable why not?

This phone is quite popular, and while there have been some price reductions in some countries there hasn't been much change here.

Is an S6 an absolute requirement? There are a ton of good/great phones available for lot less. Heck you can get an S5 for 11,500.

Thanks for the info.. where can you find these grey imports? They are always my favourites for buying phones and in the UK you find them all on eBay.

The trade in promotion could work too, gotta check that out. Not sure if the S6 is an absolute requirement, but I think she's gonna get one one way or another.

[speedtripler]

Be careful of grey imports at mbk,

I bought a new note 4 a few months ago which had a weird battery problem

I tried everything from calibration to installing different roms and everything else, I brought it back and they exchanged the battery to another faulty one (found out later the batteries are Chinese fakes)

In the end i ordered a new battery from Samsung Korea and it was a more snug fit solved those problems but I was faced with a new problem getting the spen detached popup error when it was in the phone and not even loose

A month or so later the phone got wet and I opened it up to let it dry out, inside was a sticker that said Samsung repair centre . Singapore....

I was back in mbk anyway so I saw the girl who sold the phone and asked her how a new phone can have a repaired in Singapore sticker on it? She said oho, I put those on when i check the phones and showed me a roll of thousands of the same little white stickers...

Now the phone is working again all except the speaker/microphone and I intend to fix it myself....

I will add, this phone was in a sealed and laminated box she cut open in front of me but it really was/is a refurbished phone made from spare parts and some of them are not even legit Samsung parts... I have bought a lot of phones from mbk and most have been fine but caveat emptor! Ymmv

[bamnutsak]

Yes, there have been quite a few horror stories re: grey imports here. And I always recommend avoiding them, primarily because they carry no local warranty.

That said, many, many, many, many Thais have long-term, trusted relationships with phone vendors, and seem willing/capable of trading off a potentially lower purchase price for the lack of a warranty. These vendors don't screw with these customers for obvious reasons.

Factory-refurbished units which enter the market legitimately should be available at a greater discount.

I'm not sure a new S6 is worth the ~ 16% discount at grey-market, especially when there may be service provider promotions. And some service providers here actually extend to original warranty - no experience with how well these work as I have not required warranty repair during my extended term, yet - to 18/24 months.

[wxpwzrd]

Probably somewhere else... In the rest of the world Samsung is reducing the price of the phone... Here? Who knows.

[muratremix]

Buy dual sim version from treemobile mbk

http://www.treemobileshop.com/index.php/category/samsung/

18600 baht only.

Cheaper, better (2 sims > 1 sim) and everything is same with 1 sim S6.

[SheungWan]

Yes, there have been quite a few horror stories re: grey imports here. And I always recommend avoiding them, primarily because they carry no local warranty.

That said, many, many, many, many Thais have long-term, trusted relationships with phone vendors, and seem willing/capable of trading off a potentially lower purchase price for the lack of a warranty. These vendors don't screw with these customers for obvious reasons.

Factory-refurbished units which enter the market legitimately should be available at a greater discount.

I'm not sure a new S6 is worth the ~ 16% discount at grey-market, especially when there may be service provider promotions. And some service providers here actually extend to original warranty - no experience with how well these work as I have not required warranty repair during my extended term, yet - to 18/24 months.

Grey imports should carry a 1 year warranty with the shop that sells the product to you. The place where grey imports are a speciality is Hong Kong. Many malls catering for the trade and recently bought a Note 3. As far as S6 probably better price wise to wait for the S7 to come out, but by then the GF will want to the later model no doubt.

[bamnutsak]

Grey imports should carry a 1 year warranty with the shop that sells the product to you.

This may be true. Just be sure to get some sort of suitable and acceptable acknowledgement on this. There have been many, many horror stories here re: bad experiences.

Certainly Samsung Thailand will not provide warranty service/repair on a grey-market import.

addition:

Yes, there have been quite a few horror stories re: grey imports here. And I always recommend avoiding them, primarily because they carry no local Manufacturer's (Samsung) warranty.

Edited August 8, 2015 by bamnutsak

[sup3r1or]

A lot of times, it is not worth the hussle with grey imports. Some menufacturers dont support grey imports, it is also worth remembering that they have to send the phone for repair to another country it will take up to 3-4 months to get fixed. I have done that already with HTC one.

SS1 you have to remember mate, this is not "back home" there is not need to compare, I had the same issue when I came here looking for free/cheap contracts phones. The price between 2 year contract and unlocked is usually 1-2k bht, so I rather go for unlocked.

Samsung promised to reduce price of S6 and S6 Edge very soon.

[bamnutsak]

The price between 2 year contract and unlocked is usually 1-2k bht

Well, there really aren't subsidization - contracts here like there may be in other countries. (Note that Verizon in the U.S. just announced that hey were doing away with the contract/subsidization schemes.)

The phones are certainly not locked to a provider.

Most of the 'incentivization' here comes in the form of a pre-payment of a post-paid monthly mobile voice/data plan for some number of months. So, for example, you can get a significant discount (up to 25% on a high-end model like an iPhone 6+) on the phone by pre-paying a lump sum at purchase, for six-months of service. These promotions are win-win; the provider locks in a post-paid customer who is more than likely to stay long term, and the consumer saves ~ 12.5 - 15% all in.

Other promotions involve smaller up-front HW discounts, but with voice/data plans which are also discounted, for a term of 12 months.

I could not find the promotion that the OP mentioned, that his girlfriend mentioned, so it is hard to evaluate that one. TrueMove H does have an S6 promo, but the handset is undiscounted, but the plans are 50% discount, no pre-payment. So over two years this could save you up to 11,000 baht on a mid-level plan.

I'd keep an eye out for promotions from service providers.

It's all about balancing your voice/data requirements vs. the IPP.

Samsung promised to reduce price of S6 and S6 Edge very soon.

Yes, this has already started in some countries. But then this is a popular model here, and some models/variants are out of stock. One rarely lowers price when demand remains high, unless you want to throw margin away.

Edited August 10, 2015 by bamnutsak