We’ve seen reports this evening that Samsung might be causing issues with the latest software updates to older handsets. On Twitter this evening, we were alerted to an issue with DTMF tone dialing during phone calls made on the Samsung Galaxy S8.
Why’s this matter, you might ask? Well, if you call any major company or government department in Australia, there’s a good chance you might be asked to dial a number to be put through to a particular area. Reports are, this no longer works on the Galaxy S8.
Twitter users have found the issue and even discussed it with Samsung Australia’s customer service which has – it seems, at least – confirmed that the feature may actually have been removed:
Samsung Australia declaring that if you have one of their flagship galaxy phones and want to be able to select menu items when calling a government department or company switchboard… bad luck, their phones don't have that "old feature" any more. 🤷 pic.twitter.com/kPQkFq0KAv
— Well May We Say (@wellmaywesay) August 18, 2019
A bit of searching around on Google confirms that others have experienced the issue here and there, but it doesn’t seem to be a widespread issue, leading us to believe that the truth lies somewhere in between – the function may be broken on some devices, and working on others.
If the feature has been removed, this seems to be a rather poor idea – I know that I regularly use DTMF tones during calls (I tend to call a few places that rely on this to put you through properly) and losing the feature would be a big negative for anyone else who does too.
On the other hand, it seems more likely that this is something unintended at worst, and hopefully being investigated by Samsung at best. To this end, we’ve drawn the issue to Samsung’s attention this evening and we’ll come back to you with further information when we can.
UPDATE: We’ve been advised by Samsung Australia that the wrong information has been given to this customer, and the DTMF feature has not been removed from the Galaxy S8 range (or, indeed, any other Samsung phones). Rather, it appears something has gone wrong in software. Samsung Australia has undertaken to contact the customer involved and resolve the issue for them.
Is this the menu where you have, for instance, “Press 1 for sales, press 2 for technical support, press 3 for billing, press 4 for all other inquiries”?
That seems like a weird bug! Useful to know though – now if it happens with my S8+ I won’t have a tanty at the service I’m calling ; )
So much for the extensive carrier testing that always seems to be the excuse used by Samsung for the hold up to Aussie firmware updates … Good job telcos. /s