Google says it can’t fix Pixel Watches, please just buy a new one | With no official repair program and no parts, broken Pixel Watches are just e-waste.::With no official repair program and no parts, broken Pixel Watches are just e-waste.
On the other hand, a Garmin Fenix can be easily opened with an inexpensive tool and replacement parts are easily found online.
Their customer support is also aces too. I’ve got a Fenix 6s and the battery is going out on it, and they’re replacing it for free. No questions or fuss. Just a shipping label.
For as expensive as they are, I’ve been extremely happy with them. When this replacement dies in another 3+ years I’ll definitely be getting another Garmin.
Same with the Google Nest Hub.
It cost me around $600 and has a known splash-screen issue which I just woke up to one morning.
No fix available when it happens. Nothing I did caused it. I just had to bin it.
It’s either planned obsolescence or just shitty design.
Companies should have fines for at least as much as the revenue they generated with those devices. Designed obsolescence is something that needs to be *abandoned, even if it hurts really bad financially.
Even simpler: If you sell it, and it breaks or becomes useless, you’re expected to take it back and dispose of it responsibly. Electronics retailers can charge a deposit, just like the supermarket does for beer and Coke.
Just imagine if things worked that way —
Find the broken husk of an iPod Shuffle on the beach? Take it to an Apple Store; they give you five bucks.
Find a roadkill Dell laptop on the side of the road? (I did earlier this summer.) Take it to any big-box store that sells Dell laptops; they give you five bucks.
Pixel Watch turned into e-waste? Mail it to Google; they give you five bucks. (Probably on your Google Pay account, yeah, but that’s better than nothing.)
Nest Hub for $600? Which one is that expensive?
Cool i’ll just buy a watch that can be repaired then
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Oooooh, that’s a neat idea in light of the current EU legislation concerning the Right to Repair: Introduce a mandatory, highly visible, and standardized seal that all electronic devices have to display on the front of their box:
Repairable
or
Disposable
I would also suggest mandatory price caps on disposable products, to incentivize the elimination of production of such devices.
It’d be more fitting to mandate every product to include its ecological price. Disposable vapes, for example, would disappear instantly.
Also a good idea. I’m trying to make it too expensive to manufacture the vapes, you’re making them too expensive to purchase.
i bought a P-Watch due to the circular aesthetic, have been wearing mine since release. it’s “OK” but last week i fell on my bicycle and scratched up the watch face pretty badly, so QUITE annoying that there is no repair program.
doesn’t matter though, switching to a classic Cassio watch soon anyways. “Smart Watches” aren’t that helpful for me, ultimately i don’t understand the appeal. it’s just PHONE ON WRIST, seems like another way to “PLUG INTO THE MATRIX”
I wear my smart watch exclusively at work because when I’m on or around heavy machinery, I need to know if that little alert was something important or not. Otherwise I’d be checking my phone every five minutes. But I don’t have to stop or slow down to check my wrist.
Never understood the appeal of Dick Tracey’s phone watch, still don’t understand them now that the are real.
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I get Google bad but what watch face is that in the thumbnail of the link?
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What’s a warranty worth then?
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Pixel Buds are the same way. IIRC from a teardown vid, those earbuds (and I’m guessing most of their competitors’ too) are designed to be quasi-disposable in this way. They’re glued together, the only way to open them up destroys them, warranty support consists of replacing defective earbuds.
This business model does create an e-waste issue… More lithium ion batteries ending up in landfills, more gold extracted from components by kids in developing nations burning them and breathing the carcinogens…
If you are a google product adopter in 2023 then you deserved to be relieved of your money.
“But… but… Apple USB 2 ports!”
