The Smartwatch Saga Continues

Yesterday I wrote about my temporary smartwatch while I wait for my Suunto 9 Baro to be repaired. Before posting to my blog, I checked the status on the Suunto customer service website and could see that they had received the watch but had not done anything with it. They publish they have several statuses but the fact that mine continued to say "Received" led me to believe they had not yet looked at it.

This morning I woke up to a text from DHL saying they had a package for me arriving on Monday. That's nice but I don't have any orders I am expecting and so I didn't click on the link in case it was a phishing attempt or worse. I went down to my computer and had two more messages from DHL. They also had a lot more information and so I knew they really did have a package for me. My inbox also contained a message from Suunto with an update about my watch.

It is important to note that my Suunto watch was well past the one-year warranty and so their message surprised me. They told me that they couldn't fix my watch and were sending me a new one free of charge. They also explained that they removed the band from my original watch and were sending it with the new one. I am pleased that Suunto stands behind their products and is replacing my watch at their expense. I am also confused.

The text and e-mail from DHL now made sense combined with the knowledge from Suunto so my package on Monday would be my replacement watch. What confuses me is that the replacement watch is coming from Hong Kong and my watch band is in Ogden, Utah. I would have expected some sort of an update from the service center saying they were working on the watch, couldn't repair it, and were sending it overseas for further evaluation. That would explain how my new watch is getting my old band. Maybe I will be getting 2 packages in the near future and one will contain the replacement with the other my old band. Ultimately I am happy to know I am getting a new watch and I didn't have to pay for it. I also didn't have to pay for shipping.

This experience reinforces my idea that you want to go with name brand smart devices. I am sure Apple would have done something similar. As for my inexpensive no-name temporary replacement. I'm sure I would be out the $49.99 I paid for it.