I was looking to buy my wife a new Samsung Galaxy A50 phone, her existing phone has had a real thrashing the last 3 years from Texting and Talking on LINE and watching You Tube all day and half the night LOL. The A50 seemed to be reasonably priced and ticked all the boxes (including NFC) according to various NZ Websites.

I also wanted NFC as my wife was always losing her card in the depths of her handbag or purse and muggins me ends up paying the bill. (I know I will be called sexist for that remark LOL)

Being technically inclined I trotted off to Spark and their brochure said it included NFC. I started checking the A50 but could not find it in Settings/Connections. I could find it on the A20 and A30 easily though.

The Spark Rep also could not find NFC.

So off to Vodafone and they could not find it either even though it should have had it.

I checked some other places as well in the same shopping mall and none of them had an A50 with NFC included.

So I decided to email Samsung Customer Service with my issue. That’s when it all started.

They came back with how to find it but I had already previously tried looking for it.

Then they came back with that they had checked with their Head Office and that NFC sis supported on the A50. They also wanted me to supply an IMEI number and Serial Number so they could check.

I was reluctant to ask a retailer if I could get that info (I do know how to get it) and to ensure that they were not in Demo Mode.

I went back to them and they said they would refer to a ‘Senior Technician”

I got a reply a short while later saying to check out a URL they sent me, and the Senior Tech also requested my IMEI and S/N of “my” A50 ( I don’t have one, and would not buy one until I knew it was performing as expected, it was for my wife anyway) I dont know why they just dont go into any nearby retailer and check for themselves.

My conversation with Samsung just seemed to go around in circles. This has been going on for a week now.

I did go into another Vodafone Store 2 days ago now and that A50 did not have NFC either. The Sales Rep was helpful and also said she knew the A70 does not have NFC either.

It surprises me that the A20 and A30 have NFC and yet the A50 and A70 (which is not out yet) do not

I would love to buy the S10 but too expensive for me, a pity as I could have got Buy 1 Get 1 Free from Noel Leeming on Saturday.

I also would not buy another brand as my wife is so used to the Samsung brand, also who knows what phone manufacturer Mr. Trump will have a snitch against next.