Faulty Samsung Buds
Late last year, I had a mishap with the earbuds I was using; I accidentally put them through the wash with my pants pocket. Not knowing if they would ever work again, I was eager to move on to a new pair of buds; this is where I treated myself to a pair of Samsung Galaxy buds.
My first few months with the galaxy buds were great, bringing along some added features like wireless charging and tap to accept calls and pause. After a few months of use, I noticed suddenly the right earbud had a significantly lower volume than the left, although seemly functionally working in all other ways. At the start, I put up with the low volume, but after a week or so, it was all I could notice, and I had to do something about it.
I had four options from there: Google how to fix them, take them back to where I purchased them from, buy another pair or take them to the Samsung store and see what they would do.
First things first, I’m hopeless with receipts, and even though most retailers now have the option to have the receipt to your phone as a digital receipt, for some reason, I opted against it. I started sifting around the top drawer of my desk, where I usually stash my receipts. This is where I realised how much junk I buy, but it’s about then I realised I had thrown out the purchase receipt.
At this point is where I started both googling “galaxy buds one low side volume” and “right galaxy bud quiet” trying to see if there was a software reset I could do or a factory reset, along with searching for where and how much for my next set of buds. I found a few forums claiming a software reset would work or pair them with a different phone and then repair with your phone to reset but after trying all this to no avail. The other option people were talking about was taking off the mesh grill on the bud and cleaning the ear wax out – this was something that might void any warranty, so I decided not to.
During my frantic ranting about my new galaxy buds that seem to have a common fault that could be “reset” or due to me having “too much ear wax”, a friend told me to take them into the Samsung store and see what they say.
I wouldn’t normally do this out of fear of the assistant laughing and then turning away while muttering, “what, no receipt! Ha”, but I thought I’d try it. The following day I headed into the Samsung store in the city and explained my issue to the assistant. After my short description of my problem, he took my Samsung account details and sat me down with another staff member to process my order.
This is what I expected on the grilling of a lifetime as to why I don’t have my receipt, and they couldn’t do anything about it or even a sales pitch on how they could sell me another pair. How would they know that the buds were only purchased about three months ago. To solve this, the assistant asked if I could go into the Samsung wearables app and show him the connected buds.
He pressed a sequence of buttons which enabled the manufactures screen with all sorts of details about my phone and products I had connected, which included details of the buds being connected three months ago.
From this, the assistant completed his paperwork, handed me a receipt (which I later lost) and let me know the technician would attempt to fix them with the common cause for this fault being a build-up of ear wax in the mesh and if they couldn’t fix them, they would replace the bud. He let me know it would take a day or so before I could come to pick them back up. I left my buds with the assistant and was left to listen to my thoughts on the way home.
To my surprise, a few hours later, I received a text message from the Samsung Shop saying my buds were ready for pickup. Due to it being so close to closing time, I decided to head in the following day.
When I arrived, I was greeted by the Samsung assistant who asked for my receipt…. after explaining I had lost it, he just asked my name and went to pick up my Samsung Galaxy Buds from out the back.
He sat me down at the counter and went explained that they tried to fix my right bud by cleaning behind the mesh but couldn’t, so they just cleaned the left as a precaution, but they couldn’t save the right one. The right bud was replaced under warranty for free, which was a huge relief. I signed the work order; it was all complete, took my buds and walked out of the store with a smile on my face. I was happy with how Samsung handled the issue, and at no stage was I made to feel like I had done something wrong.
To all the people worrying about their buds and how to fix them, based on my experience, I’d say take them back to the shop you purchased them from if you still have the receipt or if not, head into the Samsung shop.
Samsung has worked well on their customer service and experience with something on par with an Apple shop. How many times had I just thought I wouldn’t get a refund, exchange or something under warranty out of the unknown.
Be sure to go over all your options before handing over your cash. FYI my buds that went through the wash, I put in a bowl of rice for 24 hours, and they started working again. Oops!
