Review: LG Watch Sport

I’ve had the LG Watch Sport for about a year, and a while back it started acting up.

What kind of problem? See for yourself:

As you can see, there’s a white patch on the upper part of the watch face. It doesn’t really affect usability, but it’s annoying, so I figured I’d try to get it fixed.

It had been less than a year since I bought it on the Google Store, so I thought I’d try my luck with support.

My first thought was to contact Google Store’s official support, but I found out they don’t handle smartwatches at all. All they have is a link where you can submit your problem, and then you get a phone call in English…

Naturally I filled out the form in Chinese, thinking they’d hook me up with a customer service rep in Hong Kong or Taiwan. Nope, still English.

The English requirement isn’t high, though — you just need to explain your problem clearly.

But here’s what really pissed me off. I explained the following three points to this idiot clearly:

1, I bought it on the official Google Store website. 2, It genuinely has a problem — I can send you photos so you can see the screen issue. 3, I’m willing to pay the shipping to send it to the US for repair.

And this idiot replied: “Ah, sorry, I’m a Nexus device support rep. Your watch is made by LG, so go contact LG!”

Are you fucking kidding me? Why didn’t you say that in the first place!

Eventually I found LG’s US website:

https://www.lg.com/us/support/repair-service/schedule-repair-us

Submit your device problem… and your repair request.

Then I got a reply from LG:

The gist is: your device was sold in the US, so it can only be serviced within the US, and you need a US address to receive the repaired device. Then I asked if I could ship it to a friend in the US and have them mail it back to me after repair. They said yes.

I don’t know if a package forwarding company’s address would work, but it’s best to have a friend’s address in the US. Everyone’s got some classmate or whatever in America these days, right?

After that, LG sends you an email with a PDF you need to print out, sign, and ship along with the watch.

When you print it, don’t forget to also print a description of your watch’s symptoms.

Next up was the shipping problem. I tried SF Express first, but they rejected it.

Went straight to DHL, and they quoted me 300–400 yuan. Holy shit…

Then I found out you can use a “consolidation company” on Taobao — just search and you’ll find them. They act as a forwarder within China and get discounted shipping rates by leveraging their bulk volume. I shipped mine to the US via them, then DHL took over, and it cost about 150 yuan.

After that, you can check the repair progress on LG’s official site:

https://www.lg.com/us/support/repair-service/track-repair

You’ll also get an email with a direct link to check.

Repair took a week, even though they said two weeks officially…

Once fixed, they ship it to the US address you registered. My friend received it, then sent it back to me via international small packet…

And no customs duty, thankfully.

The watch came back in perfect condition, problem solved. LG’s records said they replaced the screen.

That’s basically the whole process. The long and short of it is: find a way to ship it to the US, then find a way to ship it back. I don’t know if a forwarding company’s address works, but having someone you know in the US is your best bet.

Hopefully this helps anyone who bought stuff from the Google Store like I did.