Google Pixel Watch Failures

Posted: December 17, 2023 | | Categories: Miscellaneous

I'm a big fan of Google's Pixel phones and I ordered a Pixel Watch as soon as they were announced.I love the watch and wore it every day, but now I realize they're just an expensive experiment.

My first Pixel Watch broke after about 5 months; it stopped charging and took about a month for them to replace it. Fast forward 8 months later and it broke again, in the same way.

I called Google and impatiently answered all of the ridiculous questions. For example:

G: Which watch do you have?
Me: The Google Pixel Watch
G: But which one?
Me: Dood, the box says Google Pixel Watch. You're asking and I'm giving you the exact, correct answer. There's the Google Pixel Watch and a Google Pixel Watch 2 and I have the Google Pixel Watch.

Ugh, so frustrating.

So I know the watch is more than a year old and they already replaced it once and I know that the warranty is likely one year. I called Google to understand what my options are for repairing the watch - paying Google to repair the product they sold me.

After about 30 minutes on the phone with Google, they informed me that they would escalate my issue to the Warranty team.

Me: Warranty team? But the watch is out of warranty.
G: I have to escalate this to the warranty team
Me: What's the device warranty?
G: One year
Me: It's beyond one year, so it's out of warranty and I knew that. What I'm asking for is what are my repair options?
G: I have to escalate this to the warranty team
ME: but it's out of warranty?
G: I have to escalate this to the warranty team

So I wait around to hear back from them and what do I learn except that there are no repair options for the watch.

Hello John,
Many thanks for reaching out to the Google Pixel Buds Customer Care Team. We are glad to assist.
After checking the case with our warranty department, we were able to confirm that the warranty expired on October 21st, 2023. Therefore, a replacement isn’t currently possible under your device's warranty.
Since your device warranty period has expired, it’s not covered by the Google Store warranty policy. It’s recommended that you reach out to the retailer for available warranty options. And Google does not have any repair center.

Several things are wrong with this response:

1. They responded as Pixel Buds Customer Care team, so apparently they don't even know it's a watch question.
2. I already knew the device was out of warranty.
3. I told them I knew the device was out of warranty.
4. Google is the retailer, I bought it from them AND THEY KNOW THAT!

No repair options? Seriously? Two devices couldn't last more than a year and they don't offer any options for repairing the device?

The device is just too damn expensive to replace every year. The trade-in for the broken watch is only $50US, which really doesn't help either.

I guess it's time to go back to a $100 Fitbit. Sigh.

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