[Samsung Gear Live] weinassoc:
Samsung Gear S rash

5/5/15

I received a full refund of my original retail price 0f $349 in a check from Samsung.

If you are seeking a similar result, you need to be persistent and check in with them on a weekly basis. The following person was my contact for the process:

Jennifer Olivarez <j1.olivarez@sta.samsung.com> wrote:

My contact number is 469-241-4839, and the Tech Support number is 888-987-4357.

3/19/15:

The update as of today is that I alerted T-mobile to the issue described below. Because I was out of the 14 day trial period, they referred me to Samsung.

I called in and was eventually transferred to what sounded like a girl/young lady named Jennifer Olivarez out of Texas.

After hearing my story, including telling her that I was too concerned about the effect of the watch on my wrist that I would never wear it again, she requested that I send an email describing what happened with pictures if available, and that she would send an overnight box to me to send back the watch in addressed to that office in Texas.

At that time, She said they would have their engineers evaluate the watch and then she would send me a refund for the watch in about 2 weeks.

Of course, I was happy to hear this and Ms. Olivarez then sent me an email with her contact info email and direct line.

I sent the watch on Tuesday, 3/10 and it got there the next day 3/11/15 as confirmed by UPS.

I did not get any word for a week and I decided to call in yesterday. Nobody answered her number. And from what I can see, nobody has seen any of my follow-up emails either.

I called ms. olivarez again today and she did not answer once again. BTW, the voicemail is generic and says nothing about who's phone number it is.

Later today, I decided to call into the Samsung general number. Although they confirmed that they had a record of the incident on file, all I got was the runaround from the other Samsung operators regarding the status of the watch.

After several phone messages and emails to Ms. Olivarez, I still have not gotten any confirmation that anything is being done to get me a refund.

My next move is to call T-Mobile again and find out if they can help me find out if Samsung is being on the level or what.

I'll send an update as I get them.

Hope this helps.

Claudio

3/5/15:

Current status of my rash incident with the Gear S smartwatch:

The first indication of serious trouble was while I was on a call yesterday when I got a burning sensation on my wrist and a buzz sensation which was different than the vibration alert. The sound was more like a sizzling sound than a buzz.

I looked at the watch and there was a warning message that the watch was overheating and that I should take it off and let it cool then the watch cut the call off.

I do know how long the warning was there because I was the call on the watch when it happened.

Immediately, I noticed redness on my skin where the watch sat.

Shortly thereafter, I began to notice an itching sensation. As I scratched the area, I began to feel a rash like symptoms which soon turned into a burning sensation almost like it was blistering.

I put cortisone on the area which reduced the redness. However, the burning remains at this time approximately 18 hours later.

I have reached out to professional guidance on what my recourse is and I am considering going to a doctor to have it examined.

I have attached the pictures.

The following issues have made it frustrating to use and prevented me from wearing the watch 100% of the time:

I have had my Gear S from T-mobile about 30 days ago. I have been wearing it about 80% of the time since.

While navigating through the options and screens, the watch would freeze up at times and I would need to use the button to get out of what I was doing and return to the homescreen before returning back to the menu protocol.

On several occasions I would get messages that the watch was overheating.

S-voice would only work intermittently and speech commands within calling and such were either not there or if they were, they were not very responsive.

The heart rate function would not work intermittently.

I could not find a distance traveled option.

According to T-Mobile, their mobile network is faster than my wi-fi, which took me a while to find out.

The swipe functionality would sometimes think I was going sideways when I wanted to go down.

The swipe functionality would have trouble working when my hands were sweaty. I would prefer a back button to swiping.

T-mobile salesperson originally told me I need the Kies software to transfer from my pc to my phone. However, when I spoke with customer support on the phone, they said I did Not need the kies app and that I could get everything i needed directly from my smart phone.

The t-mobile salesperson told me the Gear S would work with the LG phone he sold me...Which it does not (Only works with samsung android phone 4.3 and higher.)

The sleep function requires that I manually turn it on and manually turn it off, as opposed to my lifetrack which automatically detected my sleep patterns.

The operating system is not android therefore limiting the Google App sync and interfacing which I use almost exclusively to control all activity on all my devices without having to transfer data to another OS.

Background of my decision process to purchase a smartwatch:

FYI, I previously had a lifetrack watch that I absolutely Loved because of the carefree usage, accuracy and ability to function without fail in my workout conditions over approximately a 6 month period.

When I got a new t-mobile contract about 30 days ago, I decided to try the Gear S so that I could expand upon my smartwatch usage beyond the fitness capabilities and into possibly replacing my phone and bluetooth headset during times when I was away from my desk and remote exercise activity.

I like the phone functionality and the quality of the screen and microphone for calls.

However, after several attempts to use the watch during my workout regimen, the size and potential damage to the expensive watch made it uncomfortable and distracting to my activities.

Consequently about 3 days ago, I stopped using it during workouts and solely for around my home office to take calls when I am away from my desk.