Venu 3 step counter

I just switched from the Venu 2 to 3 today. I walked what I know to be 2,000 steps and it recorded only slightly more than 1,100. It seems to be doing an approximate 1 for 2 count. I'm running SW version 6.21 which is the latest firmware. The problem seems to only happen when walking fast because I just did a slow 100 steps and it counted 100 steps. I have tried with both custom stride rate on and off and same thing. If I walk fast 100 steps it counts about 75 in a small sample test. The faster I walk the more it lags behind.

Do I have a dud or is this potentially some kind of firmware bug? I asked support this question and they said their watches take 7-10 days to learn. I'm kinda calling BS on that because my Venu 2 straight out of the box worked just fine from day 1.

If anyone else has the Venu 3 is yours experiencing the same thing or is yours working fine?