Venu HR low readings

I just got my Venu Wednesday this week. The pulse monitoring seems to be inaccurate. It's around 15bpm lower than my actual pulse when measuring the pulse in my neck with my fingers and using a timer. Also inconsistent when measuring with the finger pulse reader on my Samsung Galaxy S9+. I'm wearing the watch as tightly as I can without causing discomfort/pain, so it's not that it's too loose or in the wrong position. Not sure if the update has affected the accuracy, The flight of stairs climbed and step counter are completely wrong also. I had the watch turned off and placed on a desk overnight and when I turned it on in the morning, it said I had already climbed 3 sets of stairs and walked 600+ steps, which obviosly wasn't possible. If this is not fixed quickly, I will be sending it back for a refund as I did not pay £300 for a useless device! I'm really angry right now.

Perhaps you have a faulty device, mine certainly does not give overnight steps/flights of stairs. Although I do get false flights throughout the day, especially if it's windy.

As for the hr monitor, I read somewhere that it takes the watch a couple of weeks wear to learn you and give more accurate hr readings.

Not sure if this is the case, but mine certainly used to read much better than it does now.

Yes, having the same issues with the Venu. One of the recent patches screwed it up.

Yes definitely happened recently. As everything depends on the heart rate, stress, body battery,  calories etc, it renders the watch useless. Hopefully the next update will rectify.

Hmm, I spoke to a Garmin customer service agent on the phone yesterday about my device being 15-30 beats off my actual pulse rate at rest (compared to my HR measured manually or with the HR monitor on my phone). This is my first smart watch/fitness tracker, so I asked if this was an expected margin of error or a faulty device. He said the watch should provide readings that are actually more accurate than taking your pulse manually or via the HR monitor on a phone as it measures blood volume rather than beats per minute (googling says that taking your HR manually is the most accurate method aside from a chest strap/ECG, so not sure what to make of that), but that 20 beats per minute difference is not normal and indicates either that the watch is faulty or that there is something about me that is causing the watch to give an abnormal reading. He said it was only happening to one other person, but this thread is suggesting otherwise?

I have been offered the option of returning the watch and getting a replacement. However, this is a hassle and if others are experiencing the same problem and it's a firmware issue then is there any point in doing so? Is this something Garmin are likely to rectify quickly if it is a firmware problem? I've had the device a week. I don't want to keep something so inaccurate as it's too expensive. if this is something they were going to fix quickly with a patch, I would consider holding on to it if a replacement is just going to do the same thing. Although if it is something they are not going to fix quickly then I would rather just send it back for a refund without bothering to order a replacement as 20 beats off is crazy!

I don't know what to do. It would be good to get a sense as to whether this is happening to everyone/a lot of people and therefore if this is something Garmin will sort out and the time frame that may happen in. If it's not happening to many people then that suggests it is faulty and I'll go ahead and send it back and try buying another one.

The customer service agent did mention that the watch takes a couple of weeks to get to know you and adjusts, but wasn't specific as to whether this included the HR monitor (surely not?), or just the stress/sleep/body battery aspects. I said, since I've only had the watch a week, is it worth waiting another week to see if the HR adjusts and becomes more accurate before returning it and he just said it was up to me...So yeah, not sure what to make of that.

I have heard before that yes the watch takes a couple of weeks to "learn you", however I' ve been wearing mine since it was released and it used to be much more accurate.

It was only after a recent update that the problem emerged. Seems a bit unlikely that my watch is suddenly faulty or it suddenly can't read me.

Garmin do this often with updates, fix something and break something else.

A few months back an update resulted in the hr optical lights refusing to switch off when the watch was removed. I contacted them and was told my watch was faulty and I should send it back for a replacement only to find the replacement was the same!

Eventually fixed with another update after numerous complaints.

So don't think I would get a replacement.

I think getting them to realise there is a problem is the difficulty.

A future update will probably improve the hr performance but this could take a while.

Yes, mine was really great for a long time. Months. Then about 4 weeks ago, HR tracking became wildly inaccurate. This is a firmware / software bug.

Exactly, wasn't even an HR update. Something's gone wrong.

I'm wondering if it's a faulty device. After reading your post, I decided to double-check my Venu's HR. I used a second device as well as my fingers/timer, and it was within 1-2 BPM. I even tried it while wearing it at different places on my wrist and it was the same.

Mines is mainly ok when resting. It's when I am doing an activity it's ridiculously low. Definitely happened after an update about 4 weeks ago. Seems to like to default to 88bpm no matter the effortCould save myself a lot of cash and just write 88 on my wrist