Some Galaxy S26 Ultra buyers claim Samsung is paying them not to return the phone

At least one Galaxy S26 Ultra buyer says Samsung’s support team offered them a $250 partial refund when they contacted the company to initiate a return. As expected, it’s now getting a lot of attention online.

This was posted on the r/samsunggalaxy by a user who goes by u/Time-Credit43. They shared an alleged screenshot of a conversation with Samsung’s support team. In the chat, the support agent first mentioned that they’ll “make sure the return process is smooth and straightforward”, but quickly followed up, stating that they can also offer them a “$250 discount in the form of a refund” to keep the phone instead of returning it.

That sounds like a pretty sweet deal, to be honest. But before you hop out of your couch or bed and hit up Samsung support, you must know that it’s not guaranteed that you’ll be offered $250 to keep the phone, if any amount at all.

Nevertheless, the thread quickly picked up steam, with hundreds of upvotes and a wave of replies from other S26 Ultra owners sharing their own experiences — or trying to replicate the same thing.

One commenter said they only got offered $38. Another got $45. A user who had done a trade-in said they accepted $52.20 back, which worked out to 10 percent of their total out-of-pocket cost. Someone else reported being offered a promo code that shrank from $137 to $100 between two separate emails from Samsung. At least a few people said that support just sent them a return label with no offer at all.

The basic approach that people are following is to contact Samsung chat support, tell them they are dissatisfied and want to return the phone, and then see what they offer. As I mentioned before, it’s not a guaranteed outcome, and Samsung hasn’t said anything publicly about it being an official retention tactic.

While interesting, this isn’t something really extraordinary, especially for buyers in the US. Buyers have posted about similar return-deterrent discounts before, though usually for much smaller amounts, so the S26 Ultra chatter looks less like a shocking new move and more like Samsung leaning harder on a tactic it has already used. 

We reported earlier this month that some buyers had already started returning the phone over display complaints, and just days ago we covered how the Privacy Display — the headline feature Samsung pushed hard in its S26 Ultra marketing — has become one of the device’s biggest sources of complaints. Paying people to hold onto a phone they’re trying to give back does not exactly help that picture.

Whether Samsung formalizes or quietly kills this approach depends on how widely it gets exploited now that it’s gone viral.

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