Samsung’s Warranty Procedures Are Less Than Impressive

Just a smidge over a year ago I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 from my local AT&T store.

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In the year of owning the watch and paying for service, it's consistently had issues syncing to my phone, another Samsung product.  I so far have approximately 24 hours in person in a store, one the phone, and online by myself, trying to troubleshoot issues.

The issues finally got so bad that the watch was unusable and had to be sent to Samsung for repair.  Within a week it was back, and they claimed it was fixed.  I then spent another two hours in a store with trying to get it to work.  Off to Samsung it went again, this time with an email after arrival stating the device was "unrepairable" and will be shipped back.

I spent more time on the phone trying to see what Samsung would do since the device is still under warranty.  They said I would be eligible for a refund or replacement, and that was six days ago.  I called Samsung support again to see at least roughly when I would get a refund so I could go purchase another watch.  I was informed I couldn't get a refund until I receive the broken device and then send it back to them.

Yep, you read that right, the device they just had in their possession, and confirmed was broken, needs to be sent back to them after I get it back.  How does that make sense?  In all of this ordeal, I will say that the local AT&T stores were incredibly patient and tried many potential solutions to get the watch working.  Will I drop Samsung products going forward though?  Of course not, I'm not ready to drink any "I products" Kool-Aid, despite Samsung's questionable warranty circus BS.