Very negative experience with Suunto 9 Peak Pro and support

MKPotts

@suunto2023user
My S9 Peak Pro failed completely (wouldn’t turn on) about a month ago and I sent it back to Suunto in Finland, arriving 30th Aug.
I got the initial auto-response saying it would take 4 weeks, then later another email saying it would be longer because they’re so busy repairing watches.
Then on Monday (25th) they contacted me to ask a question, repaired it on Tuesday and I got it back yesterday. So if you sent your watch back at a similar time, I’d expect they’ll look at it very soon and then it will move quickly.
None of that is to excuse how long it takes. 4 weeks is unacceptably long in my opinion, never mind longer than that. Making it worse is there doesn’t appear to be any way to write to them formally to complain.
To give credit in one area, the pick up and return of the watch is very efficient and hassle-free (at least from/to the UK).
I hope you get the watch back soon. If not and you bought it less than 2 months ago, can you claim a refund from the retailer you bought it from or your credit card company?

LudovicTheRunner

Same here.

My Suunto 9 Peak Pro stops suddenly during a race, leaving me without any information for many hours. I was really upset as the charge was still at 35% !
Then, yesterday morning it stopped at 47% !
I’ve sent an email to the mailbox “support-fr@suunto.com” (as I expect some assistance in France)…no answer.
I’ve chatted with the Twitter account (https://twitter.com/SuuntoFR)…who asked to to reinitialize the watch and asked me if the issue is resolved. How can I know ? This is a random issue than happens unexpectedly. I’ve asked how I can change the battery…no shop in France can do it, as there are only specialized in diving watches (many shops told me they asked Suunto to be removed from the “support” section of the Web site for many months…without any answer from Suunto).

So, as this point, I’ve the most important race for me in 2 weeks (I expect to run for around 20 hours)…and the only solution I’ve is to send it back to Finland…which I refuse to do, just for a simple battery change…and because I don’t think I’ll get it back on time for my race.

Very disappointed by Suunto support, for a very simple issue that happens to an expensive watch.
I think I should now consider Garmin…

sartoric

@LudovicTheRunner

Out of curiosity, what should it be a viable solution for you ?

LudovicTheRunner

@sartoric: at least being able to change the battery, as i don’t have any confidence anymore on it. I’m doubting that after being reinitialized the bug will disapear. I’ve noticed too that the watch stops charging at 70% when on the cradle and I’ve to remove it and put it again for the charing to start again. But with a race starting 2 weeks from now, I can’t afford to send it to Finland…as Suunto doesn’t take any commitment on delays.

@LudovicTheRunner I see, it happened to me too in the middle of a race… and I agree that delays do not help to be less angry. Being able to change by yourself the battery is not possible as you can easily understand unless you have the skills and the right tools/room/etc for doing so. Hope you find a fast solution for the issue, good luck!

Jamie BG

@sartoric
Get hold of suunto support within reasonable time period - they send out a replacement watch - for which you put a deposit down. When receive replacement watch you send your faulty unit back into suunto support at which time your “deposit” is credited back to you.

A sensible win win for both parties.

(PS - this is how Garmin handles it).

@Jamie-BG said

A sensible win win for both parties.

Good to know!

LudovicTheRunner

@Jamie-BG: how did you do this ? Via email, chat, phone ?

Jamie BG

@LudovicTheRunner
Suunto? --> this was my response to someone who wondered how the suunto replacement system could be done better. So haven’t done this with suunto. Never had an issue with my suunto prior to replacing it - was more a case that something that better fitted my requirements turned up - so moved to that instead.

Garmin - never had to replace, but pretty common in the posts that people have posted in reddit and garmin forum by garmin employees. In most countries seems to be better to do this via Phone.
For other support issues I have done that via support web portal and then resolved the issues via email correspondence. So far my issues across the 3 years have been 4 issues: 2 were server related issues i.e. data on watch was fine it just wasn’t popluating the app/web correctly - they did something on their side and 1 week later its all populating correctly. The other 2 were bugs - on on official software which they fixed before I could raise a support request (was on holiday the watch crashed in a very particular sequence i.e. paused state, looking at map, then going into nav, back to pause into map and bam crashed - rebooted - straight back into the paused activity - so no loss (seems wasn’t the only one - however no one seems to have lost anything); 2nd one was a bug I picked up in a recent beta version - raised through process - no idea if fixed (basicaly if workouts activity is open and you try and sync a workout while it was open the watch would crashe and reboot - again nothing lost - just annoying) - gave them the data and sequence - got confirmation back that bug was official. Since had new beta rollout but not bothered to check if fixed or not yet).

suunto2023user

Hi everybody,

Thanks for the different answers !

As for me, 9 days more, and still zero news from the repair center except the generic mail saying that there are delays in factory production… (I sent them my watch almost one month and a half ago)

And this watch was supposed to be brand new (ordered the 31th of July 2023)… Right now, I paid for a watch that I was almost never able to use from day 1 and I get almost zero support from Suunto. I don’t understand how a company can care so little about its customers.

Do you know if there any other ways to report something to Suunto (except the generic chat from the website that does not really help) ?

Thanks

GiPFELKiND

@suunto2023user make suunto a official Deadline, until this Deadline you want your product back otherwise you manage it with other steps Like an attorney . And No only with the chat service… ‍

SoCorsu

@LudovicTheRunner Hello
I know have a better understanding about your prb, it is very strange !
A good thing should be that a battery health tool was available on the watch or phone/computer.

suunto2023user

15 days more and almost no news from Suunto of my watch.

Suunto is by far the worst company I have ever bought from. Poor quality products, overpriced, and absolutely no customer support. They don’t care at all about their customers and their products.

What are my options ? Should I just accept that my watch was a scam and that I lost money ?

zhang965

@suunto2023user said in Very negative experience with Suunto 9 Peak Pro and support:

15 days more and almost no news from Suunto of my watch.

Suunto is by far the worst company I have ever bought from. Poor quality products, overpriced, and absolutely no customer support. They don’t care at all about their customers and their products.

What are my options ? Should I just accept that my watch was a scam and that I lost money ?

It sounds the company is running by a bunch of non responsable volontaires .

Btw, welcome to Suunto community forum.

MKPotts

@suunto2023user
I would check the legal rights you have in your country. I’d be surprised if you aren’t entitled to a full refund, given that you have had almost no use of the watch in the 3 months since you bought it. Ideally you’ll have a right to a refund from your credit (or debit) card company.
Once you know your rights (and route) to a refund, tell Suunto you’ll be requesting a refund if you don’t have a repaired or replacement watch by a deadline you set - 1 week seems reasonable to me given the time already passed.
Just be aware that if you bought your watch via the Suunto website, your sales contract might not be with Suunto but an intermediary - that’s the case in the UK where I live but I don’t know if that’s true everywhere or a UK-only thing within Europe because of Brexit.

ChrisA

@suunto2023user In Germany you could set them a deadline until after which you wont accept further waiting (and given that you already waited for 8 weeks that could be a very short one). If they won’t get it repaired until this date you could not only ask your money back, but even buy a new one from another retailer and if it’s more expensive Suunto would have to pay the difference. That’s all of course very cumbersome and very disappointing.

Snokdibok

@Ludoeee3333vicTeeeeheRunner
Problems already the first day with my 9 peak pro. i obviously got an older stock model with the usual firmware problems…stuck in an endless loop trying to set a firmware update back, no chance to do anything about it. thinking about it the watch has 2 major weaknesses. please stop bragging about akku performance if the gps has to be used from a handy. it’s worthless, becaus all depends on the handy. the second weakness obviosly is the bluetooth/data connectivity. this mess has to do with data stack overflows…the watch is basically useless like this. i will try to send it back, but this is exetremely disappointing.

Egika

@Snokdibok
Welcome to the forum!

are you sure you are writing about the S9PP?
As this watch is never using your phone GNSS to acquire the position.
Plus I have no idea what your assumption about a stack overflow in BT communication is based on… This is pure speculation.

If you are experiencing an issue with your watch and if you are looking for help in this user forum, it is a good idea to describe your problems. What are you trying to do and what happens instead.
There are many extremely helpful people her in his forum.

Cheers