WANT TO BUY SAMSUNG GEAR S2 SMARTWATCH, BEWARE OF DEFECTIVE STRAPS

Dear ASS Editors,

This is with respect to my purchase of Samsung Gear S2 (non-classic version). The watches have straps that break easily due to poor glue used. Many users in Singapore and elsewhere are having this problem (See the links below) but Samsung here does not want to acknowledge it and has caused me a lot of trouble since the straps broke. Here's my story. Hope you can publish it and let others know before they make their purchase decision.

I bought a Samsung Gear S2 watch on 19th october 2015. Within 2 months, the watch straps (both small and large) came off the place where they seem to have been glued to their latching mechanism with the watch.

On browsing the Internet and Samsung facebook page I came to know that it was not just me but many other users too facing the same problem with the watch straps, which were clearly defective. Since then I have not been able to use the watch and only option was to buy another strap for $69 as Samsung said they do not cover me under warranty for such broken straps.

Now after I created some noise on their Facebook page and got many people with same issue together, they contacted me to offer a "one time replacement" of the watch strap. They also claimed I was the only one with issue on the call, stressing me out as this was clearly a lie and they were shamelessly covering their ass instead of graciously accepting responsibility. This was in January third week. They asked me to go to their West gate service center to get the straps replaced on a Saturday.

But when I reached the service center all the way from my home (a 50 minute ride), I was totally disappointed to find that they had no idea I was to come and they will not be able to replace my strap. They said they will themselves call me in a few days to replace but they never did that yet and did not give me their contact number though I insisted. And the more frustrating part is they took my watch inside a room and without my permission tried to unlatch one end of strap. And while doing that they made a scratch on it. And said will replace only the part of the glass that was scratched by them and that too when the watch straps are available, which was not acceptable to me. I was left with a scratched watch for wasting my time visiting them when they had no replacement available and failed to notify me.

This has been a very frustrating and stressful experience to me. I have wasted my time, money and peace of mind for getting a simple watch strap replacement plus been unable to use the watch for months now. Their customer service and support is ridiculously small minded and pathetic. Their customer service email form does not even have a way to select their new Gear S2 watch while it insists I do pick a product for support and give the correct model number. And ultimately after putting up with all these issues and wasting time I end up with a scratched unusable watch."

Aravind C
A.S.S. Contributor

Here are my and other users complaints about the same issue:

https://www.facebook.com/SamsungMobileSingapore/?target_post=10102590812...

https://www.facebook.com/SamsungMobileSingapore/?target_post=10153946570...

http://forum.xda-developers.com/gear-s2/help/faulty-straps-t3263577

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dz2-LueFAM

https://www.reddit.com/r/gadgets/comments/3w00v9/samsung_warrantee_exper...