Samsung Galaxy Ultra Watch copies everything except Apple's durability and customer servic...

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in Apple Watch

About a month with the Galaxy Watch Ultra was enough for one user to see its action button fall off, and Samsung seems resistant to help despite being under warranty.

A Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra with the side button removed on the table
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra defect



Samsung revealed a new rugged smartwatch that borrowed more than a name from Apple Watch Ultra on June 10. Design aspects, including the orange accents and band, bear more than a passing resemblance to Apple's product, though Samsung has long used the "ultra" moniker.

One unlucky customer received his Galaxy Watch Ultra on July 20 only to have the action button pop off in mid-August, according to a Reddit post. The user hoped Samsung would send them a new replacement rather than repair the defective unit. However, Samsung refused.

When the user sent in the device for repair under warranty, Samsung sent them a bill for $107. It seems Samsung is trying to claim the user may have broken the device in a way that voided the warranty.

While it is impossible to know if the user somehow broke the rugged smartwatch or if it is actually a defect, it seems the right answer would be for Samsung to just replace the device. Apple tends to provide a replacement device when a defect is discovered, if only to find out what caused the defect in the first place.

Perhaps Samsung should take the time to learn what might have caused its rugged watch to fall apart so easily instead of worrying about $107. Amplifying the story outside of Reddit, like how we discovered the story on Brandon Butch's X account, might help Samsung make a better decision for its customers.



Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    saareksaarek Posts: 1,559member
    Last week the power button on my Apple TV remote fell out. There does not appear to be any way to push it back in and have it stay there. I’m a week out of warranty too.

    If you search for power button falling out of Apple TV remote you’ll find hundreds of posts of people complaining of the same issue, so not an isolated incident.

    Which brings me back to this article. A single complaint of an issue, with no way of ascertaining if the user caused the fault, should not an article make. 

    Perhaps you should pick up the very real issue with the Apple TV remote instead…
    edited August 23 williamlondonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 16
    Apple doesn’t cover accidental damage either under their basic warranty no matter how new the product is. For accidental damage to be covered you have to purchase Apple Care+.
    williamlondonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 16
    riverkoriverko Posts: 241member
    saarek said:
    Last week the power button on my Apple TV remote fell out. There does not appear to be any way to push it back in and have it stay there. I’m a week out of warranty too.

    If you search for power button falling out of Apple TV remote you’ll find hundreds of posts of people complaining of the same issue, so not an isolated incident.

    Which brings me back to this article. A single complaint of an issue, with no way of ascertaining if the user caused the fault, should not an article make. 

    Perhaps you should pick up the very real issue with the Apple TV remote instead…
    Which Apple TV remote is it? The ‘old’ glas one or the ‘new’ metal one? Just curious as I’ve never heard of this happening to anyone I know with the Apple TV
    bloggerblogwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 16
    riverko said:
    saarek said:
    Last week the power button on my Apple TV remote fell out. There does not appear to be any way to push it back in and have it stay there. I’m a week out of warranty too.

    If you search for power button falling out of Apple TV remote you’ll find hundreds of posts of people complaining of the same issue, so not an isolated incident.

    Which brings me back to this article. A single complaint of an issue, with no way of ascertaining if the user caused the fault, should not an article make. 

    Perhaps you should pick up the very real issue with the Apple TV remote instead…
    Which Apple TV remote is it? The ‘old’ glas one or the ‘new’ metal one? Just curious as I’ve never heard of this happening to anyone I know with the Apple TV
    It must be the metal one cause I have the 1st gen 4k and that’s a black glass with no power button 
    appleinsideruserwatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 16
    danoxdanox Posts: 3,225member
    The first two posters are just wankers working for Samsung, Samsungs Modus Operandi worldwide is to take your money and run like all Asian companies on the continent all sales are final.
    williamlondonmacxpressBart Ywatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 16
    bloggerblogbloggerblog Posts: 2,497member
    jetpilot said:
    Apple doesn’t cover accidental damage either under their basic warranty no matter how new the product is. For accidental damage to be covered you have to purchase Apple Care+.
    A friend of mine bought a MBP and few months later he spilled tea on his keyboard. He took it to an Apple Store and they fixed it for him for free.
    dewmeBart Ywatto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 16
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255052386?sortBy=rank looks like people are having Apple TV power button problems as discussed above.
    williamlondon
  • Reply 8 of 16
    both apple watch ultra and Samsung watch ultra r a total waste of time. they have no AI but Samsung throwns in AI but its just basic useless AI.
    the future is AI since its all data driven
    williamlondon
  • Reply 9 of 16
    both apple watch ultra and Samsung watch ultra r a total waste of time. they have no AI but Samsung throwns in AI but its just basic useless AI.
    the future is AI since its all data driven
    You do know AI is making devices use more power right? It takes more memory and processing.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 16
    jetpilot said:
    Apple doesn’t cover accidental damage either under their basic warranty no matter how new the product is. For accidental damage to be covered you have to purchase Apple Care+.
    A friend of mine bought a MBP and few months later he spilled tea on his keyboard. He took it to an Apple Store and they fixed it for him for free.
    My experience with AirPods Pro are less good. I can’t use noise cancellation or transparency as the left one clicks as I walk. I also have a mic fault on the right one that makes a loud noise for the other person when on a call (so I’ve had to set the left one as the mic). Apple’s answer? Buy new ones.
    williamlondon
  • Reply 11 of 16
    AppleZuluAppleZulu Posts: 2,122member
    jetpilot said:
    Apple doesn’t cover accidental damage either under their basic warranty no matter how new the product is. For accidental damage to be covered you have to purchase Apple Care+.
    A friend of mine bought a MBP and few months later he spilled tea on his keyboard. He took it to an Apple Store and they fixed it for him for free.
    My experience with AirPods Pro are less good. I can’t use noise cancellation or transparency as the left one clicks as I walk. I also have a mic fault on the right one that makes a loud noise for the other person when on a call (so I’ve had to set the left one as the mic). Apple’s answer? Buy new ones.
    First generation AirPods Pro had a clicking problem, yes. They replaced mine twice under warranty before resolving the defect in design/manufacturing. 
    appleinsideruserBart Ywatto_cobraspheric
  • Reply 12 of 16
    Is staying on topic that difficult?  :p
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 16
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,598member
    I’ve had every Apple Remote and have bever had a problem and I don’t know of anyone else who has either. A lot of companies use the Apple Remote as their official supplied remote. If there were serious problems, it’s not likely other companies would be using it.

    that said, it’s true that one report doesn’t make for a serious issue. But Samsung should have just given him a replacement, if not just for marketing purposes. I know that they are trying to say he did something so as to make it seem as though it’s not a design or manufacturing fault, but that always backfires. When the Note 7 began to explode or catch fire, it took Samsung a while to admit it was a real problem and issue a recall. Samsung is not known for honesty or reliability for a number of its products, or business  practices. They just had another major product recall in their appliance line.
    Bart Ywatto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 16
    both apple watch ultra and Samsung watch ultra r a total waste of time. they have no AI but Samsung throwns in AI but its just basic useless AI.
    the future is AI since its all data driven
    You do know AI is making devices use more power right? It takes more memory and processing.
    I don't think any watch AI is even done on the watch or the phone . for workout data to be meaningful it has to be over weeks or months. yes the gen AI already works on my phone and it's not on the cloud. but if I delete stuff on a pic on my phone the quality isn't just as good vs if  the deletion is done on the cloud
  • Reply 15 of 16
    Never had a problem like that with any apple device, but no manufacturing company has a record of perfection with 100 per cent of their devices so let’s all take a chill pill. That being said,  Apple has never not taken care of any equipment failures on any apple device I have bought since 1992, just sayin…

    saarek said:
    Last week the power button on my Apple TV remote fell out. There does not appear to be any way to push it back in and have it stay there. I’m a week out of warranty too.

    If you search for power button falling out of Apple TV remote you’ll find hundreds of posts of people complaining of the same issue, so not an isolated incident.

    Which brings me back to this article. A single complaint of an issue, with no way of ascertaining if the user caused the fault, should not an article make. 

    Perhaps you should pick up the very real issue with the Apple TV remote instead…

  • Reply 16 of 16
    saareksaarek Posts: 1,559member
    riverko said:
    saarek said:
    Last week the power button on my Apple TV remote fell out. There does not appear to be any way to push it back in and have it stay there. I’m a week out of warranty too.

    If you search for power button falling out of Apple TV remote you’ll find hundreds of posts of people complaining of the same issue, so not an isolated incident.

    Which brings me back to this article. A single complaint of an issue, with no way of ascertaining if the user caused the fault, should not an article make. 

    Perhaps you should pick up the very real issue with the Apple TV remote instead…
    Which Apple TV remote is it? The ‘old’ glas one or the ‘new’ metal one? Just curious as I’ve never heard of this happening to anyone I know with the Apple TV
    it’s the newer metal one with the lightning port. Perhaps they’ve fixed the issue with the USB-C model that replaced mine. Very random, not something I expected to happen.
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