Complaint Review: Samsung

Samsung Gear Live Too Fragile for Real Watch Use

#techregret #samsung #GearLive #buyersremorse #ripoff #crackedscreen

When it comes to my primary productivity tools, upon which I must depend, I do not often buy version 1.0 of something. I wait until things get ironed out. One doesn't want to lean on the metaphorical walking stick only to have it splinter and go through their hand.

That’s why I was so eager to get my first smart watch. I waited for the 3rd phase of Android smart watches from Samsung. 

Why does anyone need one of those silly smart watches, anyway?! Aren't those just for dorks and gadget freaks? Well, my being a dork or gadget freak is not the point. :o) I have a very valid reason for truly needing a device like this.

My life has a lot of moving parts, and I can’t afford to miss my own reminders. All too frequently, I don’t hear of feel any vibration caused by a calendar event alert or some other reminder on my phone when it is in my pocket. Having a watch vibrate my wrist and flash up some proactive alert on its screen is priceless. God forbid that I not show up for a meeting that I organized!

Also, I was excited to get the Samsung Gear Live because it does not run some proprietary software from Samsung like its first two generations of smart watches did. It runs the native Android Wear software.

So, for about three weeks, I was in nerdvana with my new Samsung Gear Live. Then, it happened. I looked down and was sickened by the realization that there were two cracks across the face of my new watch. They are long hairline cracks, which you can only see if you look at it from an angle, but they are there, and they do interfere with the pixels where the cracks traverse.

No. I didn't drop it. No, I didn't slam it into anything, at least nothing that I was cognizant of impacting. Yet, I knew before I called support that cracks on devices like this are not covered by warranties. They assume you've abused your device in some irresponsible manner.

The problem is that this cracking happened with what can only be described as standard wrist watch use. I don't know what incident caused it, but imagine pulling your chair up to a dinner table and the face of your watch bumping into the hardwood edge of the table. Or, imagine walking through a doorway and your swatch brushes across the door jam. That’s what watches do. Any watch will encounter impacts of that magnitude.

My only conclusion, therefore, is that this product is not really ready for the normal wear of a wrist watch.

The watch cost me $199 plus tax. If I wanted the face repaired, they estimated it would cost $167. Ha ha, yeah, that’s not going to happen.

So, I'm not upset with support. I think their policies for this sort of thing are pretty standard. The fault has to be in the product itself not truly being ready yet for the marketplace as a real wrist watch. 

As a novelty that you treat with kid gloves, sure. As a watch that you can forget about when you're not using it and let it just “ride on your wrist” like any other watch? No. Emphatically, no. 

I love Samsung products. If they come out with a more rugged version, I might that newer model some day, but I'll need evidence first - evidence that it's ready to be on normal peoples' wrists through normal life activities.

Buyers, beware!