Polar repair help?

Triathlon Forum
1

I sent in my watch for a battery replacement and got a back a repair estimate upwards of $50 that includes and new case and wristband. I don’t want a new case and wristband, but I seem to have 2 options with their customer service 1) pay online for the full estimate 2) go into an automated phone maze where i can leave messages but not talk to humans

does anyone know how i can talk to a person regarding my repair?

-michael

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Bump for the polar rep
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you must navigate all the options and eventually you will get to a human, there is a recording telling you that it is better to leave your message or follow the online instructions, screw the recording wait a few min. it takes time but when you finally get someone on the phone they are GREAT! Last year they had mine in 12 days including mail time! I’m sorry I lost the contact info, but I do remember it was a 15min pain to get to someone but the reward is worth the wait, they are very good.

Good luck, and be patient, also there is a guy from Polar that posts regularly PM him he is also very nice and helpful

4

Shame its not like the Polar UK service folk - they ring you to discuss the options
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5

The Polar guys are awesome. Get through the voice mail maze and it is well worth it. There is a Polar rep on here. Can’t remember exactly but something varta something. Do a search and pm him maybe.

6

Maybe this guy can help you.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?username=wvarta.PolarRep;

7

I’m dreading the 15min of the automated phone hell as well. Just got a response email from Polar customer service (automated no less!!) about my 725x I sent on last week & was quoted $199 for repair $207 inc shipping! WTF no explanation of service just repair cost! A new one on EBAY is only running $270.

The unit went blank for about a week, then mysteriously reappeared. When I tired any functions the screen faded out again. Finally went blank again then reappeared as “memory failed”. No reset, no up/download from the computer, nothing…and this was a week before IM Fla. Freaking out was an understatement!

8

Sorry ST’ers, I was off the board for a few days. I am not sure where I can be of service, I am in Sales(NY/NJ region). PM me and I will give you a contact name for a direct person(human)

9

I had a similar situation with Polar a couple of years ago. I sent my S725 in for a battery replacement and got a quote back for over 200 dollars. I called and they told me it was a faulty altitude sensor. I’d only had the watch a bit over a year and it had not been used much. In my conversation with one of the Polar employees I basically told him that the altitude sensor never worked (it’s barometric pressure based and I just thought it was unreliable not that it was faulty) and that, I thought, Polar should replace it under warranty (which had just expired). They said they would not do that so I wrote a letter. I never heard back. I know Polar makes a good product but my experience with their customer service was not positive. I use a Garmin now.

10

I’m sorry, but you are critisizing Polar’s customer service because they wouldn’t replace your out of warranty unit, even though you had problems with it for a year?

11

No help offered here just relaying a good experience with them after hearing about many negative.

Sent my entire 11 mo. old unit back (RS200, basic model). Within a week I rec’d a new transmitter and they replaced the battery which they weren’t obligated to do.

Hopefully this one lasts longer than the other but no complaints w/ customer service.

12

In a word, yes; I am criticizing their customer service. First of all the watch was only just out of warranty (maybe a month or two). I explained to the customer service rep that I talked to that the altitude function (the one they wanted to charge me a couple hundred bucks to fix) never worked. His reply to that was that I should have sent it in during the warranty period. My reply was that I did not know that it was broken because I figured that the altitude function on the watch was just unreliable. I was frustrated to the point of writing a letter to the company (which I never do) to try an explain the situation. I never got a response. It’s my feeling that in business you need to at least respond to a unsatisfied customer even if to say that you’re out of luck.

When I bought the 725 watch it was pretty much the best heart rate, cadence, speed, altitude watch that Polar made. It was not cheap. So if I’m the guy at Polar figuring out if I’m going to honor a slightly out of date warranty on a watch I’d have to ask myself, who buys this watch? Is it some couch potato who works out only one week a year after the new year or is it someone who takes fitness seriously and wanted the best watch on the market for giving him data that he needed to log his fitness. I think the answer is pretty clear. So instead of fixing a watch that probably would have cost Polar a few bucks in labor and parts to fix and satisfying a customer they choose to do nothing and here I am on Slowtwitch telling everyone about my experience. I’m not saying Polar makes a bad product but they could have handled this situation a bit better.

13

Hi Everyone,

First let me just thank everyone for sharing their experiences with Polar Support. Good or bad, we always appreciate the feedback and use it as an opportunity to improve.

I’ll just take each point line by line, and hopefully resolve any current and future issues… So here goes:)

  1. In regard to our phone system - Our IVR has been looked at and almost chopped in half within the past 3 months. We actually brought in outside consultants to make sure it was easy to use and wasn’t a complete PITA… Personally I don’t like pushing buttons to talk to people, but in large businesses(especially manufacturers with many products) some sort of phone tree is required to make sure you are helped by the BEST possible person in the call center. We tried to make it as little button pushing as possible and based on this post I will look at it again!
    Once you get past the phone system we have many reps, on both the technical side and customer support side that will do everything in their power to make you feel like family. After all…you are:) And the hold time in the call center is 97% of the time below 1.5 minutes. That is a fact.

2)We are very fair with the Polar warranty. And when I say fair I mean ALWAYS looking out for your best interest. If something is outside of warranty we are always willing to work with you with options. Our goal is to KEEP YOU TRAINING.

140Ironman6 : Do me a favor and PM or email me your contact details. Name/Address/Phone number…etc… I will have the call center forward me your complete service history and I will listen to each call/email with the Supervisor. If I feel in any way/shape/form the interaction was not fair I will take immediate action and restore your faith in our product.

3)TS - If the issue has yet to be resolved please contact me.

If you ever have any questions at any point visit the following page : Click here
That has our phone number, email address and a LIVECHAT button. During working hours you can reach us by phone and chat, afterhours email us or leave a message. The wait time for chat is 13 seconds, and you are instantly in touch with someone directly in our HQ that knows everything about our product. Our helpdesk gets to 90% of emails the same day, the more complex emails may take 24-48 hours.

It looks like a great group of people here on ST, I may add this to my forum loop. We also have our own forum @ polarusa.com… Feel free to drop by.

Happy Holidays ST’ers.

-Chris @ Polar USA

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Chris, I just wanted to chime in to also give another positive experience with Polar service. My wife has a S625x that a button stopped working on. I sent it in hoping for a cheap fix but expecting the cost to repair would probably cost to much to warrant a repair over buying a new updated version. I also sent in the foot pod and the heart rate strap to make sure everything still worked correctly together. Even though the repair took a little longer than expected Polar kept me updated every step of the process. The s625x was sent back fully repaired and all I had to pay was the initial shipping cost. Unfortunately they forgot to send back my coded hear rate sensor, but that was corrected with a phone call and a brand new one was sent to me about 3 days later.

15

My personal experience:

Hope my RS800SD runs smoothly so I don’t have to verify your new IVR. Last time it was a pain, but the guy who helped me was so cool, he even gave me a phone to contact him directly to avoid the phone maze! that was cool. He got my unit fixed in no time, only problem is he forgot to use the pre-paid overnight UPS service I sent, but how can I complaint, when I called the second time the unit was already in the mail and it got here the next day.

Yes you are fair and more, I sent mine for a foot-pod problem and got new bands, new batteries all over, man that thing came back better than new!

And now my letter to Santa:

Polar pro trainer 5 is great, is there any chance you could include a way to sinc it with polarpersonaltrainer.com?

We need a chest strap that works for swimming, many treads on the subject the last one here:

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=2134128;search_string=hr%20swim;#2134128

Thanks and welcome to ST.