Faulty Galaxy Buds Live promotional gift and Samsung (lack of) support

[DirkGently68]

Just had my Samsung Galaxy Buds Live (came from Ingram Micro Services) as the free promotional gift for purchasing the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (512GB/16GB variant) from the Samsung webshop.

The delivery note states if you have any issues contact the promotions team via the website, it may be me, but I am unable to find any link to the promotions team.

After 2 minutes of use and with both buds on maximum charge the right hand bud has died, it will not connect to the phone or PC even after 7 hours in the charging case with the red light showing.

A 2 hour plus social media conversation with support has told me to reset the buds and clean them! I've reset them, fine sensible suggestion.

Their next best option is to clean them as there may be dirt in the mesh stopping me hearing through them or dirt stopping them charging.

Really! dirt! They are brand new and have been out of the case for about 5 minutes total. The red light comes on when the faulty bud is put in the case but never goes off, and the bud went from 100% to dead in less than 2 minutes. Is this magic battery draining dirt that lives only in one of my ears?

Beyond this no one has responded, I've never been a big Samsung fan but thought I would give them a go this year, but the level of support makes me wish I'd spent my £1329 with a different company.

Rant over, just needed to get this off my chest as someone who works in customer service!

Tomorrow I will start again but on an open forum like twitter. If customer service is King then Samsung at the moment are acting more like the King's Jester.

[MrNoble]

does the app say its dead? or are you going by the red light on the case only? if the app doesn't say its dead, what they are getting at about cleaning (yes daft thing to say) they probably also mean make sure I sits on your ear properly as they function mostly by the sensors that register it is indeed in place
if the app says its dead then they will have to replace it

just a thought though

[DirkGently68]

The app shows the left hand bud and case as connected, the right hand bud is greyed out.

[MrNoble]

did you try the reset and reconnect part? if that hasn't changed anything then sounds buggered and just needs a straight replacement

[DirkGently68]

I've rebooted the phone, I've tried connecting to PC, switched on and off Bluetooth, and everything else the Samsung site suggested (which was surprisingly more than support managed to suggest). With my limited knowledge I'd say the battery in the right bud is knackered, it died in under 2 minutes and now won't take a charge. I get somethings come from factories faulty and I may have been unlucky (Though some googling would point to this being a known problem).

My main issue is with Samsung support treating me as if I am an ***** whilst they are reading from their script sheet with no ability to answer any question that strays from that script.

[DirkGently68]

Hilarious, i.d.i.o.t is censored! I wonder why?

[MrNoble]

just ask for a replacement directly, saying its faulty and tried all suggestions, no point going through it again

[Jase4122]

you shouldn't have got live buds with the s21ultra, it should have been a set of pro buds

[DirkGently68]

Buds live were the promotion at the time.

[DirkGently68]

Just had them back, they say nothing is wrong with them, couldn't connect them to phone or laptop, had to rescan for a  new device, old BT connection was Buds Live (3072) now it is Buds Live (00B6). Can't try anything else yet case has 4% charge, and buds have 1% and 3%.