Beware 'Open Box' Gears at Best Buy/Elsewhere

pwscott

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Jan 12, 2011
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I walked in to Best Buy not knowing the Gear had dropped from $299 to $239.99 and ended up buying one. I wanted black, and the only one they had was an open box with no damage and nothing missing and I got it for $219 and it looked perfect. :) When I NFC'd it and ran Gear Manager it worked fine with the SGS4 at first but would disconnect and not reconnect. I spent one hour on the phone with Support with Tier 1 Support, and then got routed to Tier 2 Support for a second hour...They were all very helpful and somewhat knowledgeable (weren't sure of certain gestures, next steps and had to look them up) We restarted the Gear, we powered it off/on, we even did Android Recovery on it (Hold PWR button until says rebooting, then tap it quickly and use it to navigate down to Reboot, and hold it again). Of course we verified SW version on my SGS4 is current...We uninstalled and re-installed Gear Manager, we installed the Samsung App Store and re-downloaded Gear Manager again...every time I try to connect to it I get:

"Failed to connect your mobile device to your Gear. Make sure that the correct charging dock is being used." :mad:

They eventually just gave me the address of the Best Buy Store where there's a Samsung Experience shop inside (that's where I got it) and said you need to return it and get another one. I wonder if the person that returned it experimented with it some or if it is just defective HW...

Two and a half hours wasted....and they don't have another black one on hand for me to grab before the blizzard. Damn. So I online ordered a black one for store pickup at another store....what a PITA. I
 

Haalcyon

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Jul 19, 2013
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I may be wrong but I have a feeling that the issue was more a problem with the Gear and the S4 together than with the Gear. I'm still doubtful that the Gear works perfectly with the S4 like it does with the Note 3.
 

pwscott

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Jan 12, 2011
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I may be wrong but I have a feeling that the issue was more a problem with the Gear and the S4 together than with the Gear. I'm still doubtful that the Gear works perfectly with the S4 like it does with the Note 3.

The replacement / new Gear I got connected fine right out of the box and works great with my SGS4.
 

jaltman

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Jun 26, 2012
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My gear and S4 have been fine since even before the 4.3 update came out. (limited use before 4.3, but creative people have creative ways :))
 

jblaze38

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Sep 16, 2012
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I bought a open box Gear from Best Buy. It connected to my Note2, but wouldn't send notifications. Went back the next day & the Samsung tech uninstalled then installed the Gear & everything has been flawless. He said he was having issues getting his own Gear to work with his S4. Started using it Saturday with a full charge, turn it off every night, have it always on vibrate, & have 8% battery life as of 5:20 PM on Wednesday. I'm hoping the life extends after the first couple of battery depletions, but I'm happy with the device thus far!

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