Galaxy Buds replacement/repair

[TheBoyg]

TLDR: long time Samsung customer has disappointing experience with repair centre making them question brand loyalty.

Over the years I've had a fair number of Samsung devices. Accessories and PC components aside I've had...

D500
Galaxy S2
Galaxy S3
Note 3
Note 4
Note 10.1 2014 (Wifi)
Note 10.1 2014 (LTE)
Note 12.3 Pro
Galaxy s7 edge
Note 8
Note 9 (x 2)

Safe to say Samsung has had quite a bit of business from me. For the most part I've not needed to use repair services. It's said that the best customer service is the one you never have to use, but now that I have needed to use their services I can say I'm very disappointed, to the extent that I'm reconsidering my brand loyalty.

A little while ago I bought some galaxy buds. I also bought a pair as a present for my dad. I stupidly broke one of my buds. I contacted Samsung via the online chat making it clear that it was damage caused by me and not a warranty issue. I was advised to call my nearest repair centre. I called and they said they don't do out of warranty repairs. The online chat assistant said, "that's not right, let me see what I can do". He organised for the pickup of my device but couldn't give me an estimate for the repair (or replacement of the single bud as I suspected it would require). The headphones were picked up the next day and delivered to the repair centre. The same person who previously told they don't do out of warranty repairs now calls and tells me it's going to be £80 to replace the single damaged bud. £80? One retailer is selling them for £84.90, and Amazon is currently at £96.99 for brand new sets.

I cannot believe that Samsung genuinely thinks that £80 is a reasonable price for a single bud replacement. I know it requires special equipment to pair previously unpaired buds, but £4.90 short of a brand new pair?

So Samsung are not offering repair/replacement as an option in the first instance, not offering reasonable prices for repair/replacement in the second instance and offering no alternative to effect a repair/replacement by any other means, going so far as to hinder it. I can only conclude that Samsung have gone full apple and expect us to consign damaged items to the bin. What a waste.

Has anyone had any better luck with broken buds? Either with Samsung or a third party repair centre?

[SmileyJacques]

I have the same issue with the repair cost being the same as a new pair, my problem of weak sound in right hand side started within the first six months and I went just out of warranty and with the same answer I feel I don't want to repair or replace as it seems ludicrous to spend that on a repair or replacement of just one. They were great up to the point where only one side wirked, I thought it was my hearing or a blockage in my ear that was the cause but the problem slowly got worse to the point where using a balance app all the way to the right only proved it was in fact the bud that was not performing.

[jonathanrowntree]

Hi, I'm dealing with the same issue now. I was wondering if you managed to find a solution to your broken Galaxy Buds or did you end up buying new ones?

[TheBoygAgain]

Hi,

This is TheBoyg from the original post but I'm unable to post under my original username. It's the same email address, but somehow it's lost the connection to that username.

So after a lot of back and forth with Customer Services and a couple of different 'official' repair shops I ended up selling the good bud and case on eBay. Got pittance for them but if the case can be useful to someone then I'd rather that than another pair going in the bin.

Around the same time as I got myself a pair I bought a pair as a gift for my dad. They died after a couple of months and it took me, no joke or exaggeration, 3 months of emails and phonecalls, hours and hours of my time and 2 days off work to be home for RMA pickups that never came. They eventually arrived, picked it up and sent back what looked like a new (unboxed) set, but the effort to get them to do their job was shockingly bad. At one point in the process they refused to talk to me about it as I had to put my dads name down for the pickup address during lockdown and they decided that this meant I wasn't authorised to talk about it becuase of Data Protection. Then my dad had to deal with it for a while so the gift became a burden, ha!

I cannot express thoroughly enough how dissatisfied I have been with every aspect of Samsung's Customer Service and I will never, ever, recommend or buy another Samsung product again. It's now my job to pick hardware for the company I work for. Guess who's not getting the business!

All salty grumpiness aside I ended up being so annoyed with all the hassle and expense that I decided to go with a cheaper set, the KZ-S2 by KZ Acoustics. So far, I couldn't be happier. £30.99 on Amazon right now. Cheaper from China if you can wait. Amazon warranty might be worth the extra though. My brother got the Sony WF-1000XM3 headphones and they are amazing if you're looking for something more premium. Definitely worth the extra money over anything Samsung has to offer. Might be worth seeing if there's any deals during Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

[neelambhal]

Hi,

Similar case whereby i am frequent user of Samsung as almost abot 15-20 items i bought from Samsung but this was the 1st time i had to deal with their customer /repair service for my Galaxy Buds which start giving problem time to time. Firstly it was battery issue during warranty period whereby after so many rounds going to repair centre. Final conclusion was they provide me new pair but when i went for collection the pair was without any box. They just handover to me the new pair in transparent plastic by saying it is new pair which customer have no way to identify it. After collecting the buds, within 1 month the right bud had low sound isssue. Since warranty for my initial buds was over, they said i must pay for this repairing which to be honest, i dun even know if they have new pair or old pair. The repairing cost is about RM 300 which doesnt make any sense at all. If the repairing price is almost similar as new pair. This same issue have been faced by my other frends who bought galaxy buds. Clearly Samsung buds quality is not as good as I thought

[Quashies]

I'm facing a similar issue, and trying to decide where I should bother trying to get replacements or a repair. 

This half seems to be a defect and half seems to be general wear and tear(I use them frequebtly at work. I dishwash(I have to block out the metal scraping sounds), but make sure to keep them from getting damp)

My dad gave me these earbuds a few months ago, towards the tail end of January. The right earbud has always had a worse battery than the left, and frequently drains power, especially when the case's battery is depleted. It's only been a few months, but very recently it started getting phenominally worse. Both the case and the right bud deplete overnight, to the point I have to charge them once or twice a day. Usually when I'm trying to use them. I recently discovered right now that my case is still at 65% from last night(actually pretty good for its track record) and my right earbud was completely depleted.

My Left earbud has been consistent since I got them, and my right bud has only ever gotten worse.

I really wanted to just email Samsung because I am dealing with some baaaad anciety recently and don't want to actively chat, but I've been just trying to find the help center in general. All both Google and Samsung have offered me in my search for customer support is ads to just replace the thing outright. I can't really afford anything decent in place of buds, so should I even bother attenpting customer service after all the stuff I've read?