This is my 3rd defective VAM3 from Garmin in 3 months. This was a brand new replacement for the last flawed watch I was sent. It started having problems the moment it turned on. Through about 50,000 hard resets and updates and changes, I have gotten the watch to where most things work, but NOTHING I do has any effect on getting the wifi to work.
When I try to do anything that uses wifi (attempting to sync a spotify playlist for testing purposes), the wifi says it is trying to connect, and either spins forever until returning to the home screen with nothing achieved, or immediately pops up and tells me there is an internal wifi error. It tells me to check the Connect app for help, but I haven't seen any evidence that there is any help of any kind available, on the app or elsewhere. I've googled everything I can think of, and nothing more recent than 9 months comes up, and nothing remotely relevant.
I've tried, several times, deleting my wifi network from the watch, and re-adding it...but once it is deleted, the watch just flat out can't see any networks, of any kind.
I have added and deleted Garmin Express, from my laptop, home PC and work computer, repeatedly. Half the time, it can't even see the watch when connected.
I can delete everything from my phone and computer, and do a complete reset on the watch, and I MIGHT be able to get 2-3 minutes of wifi connectivity out of it before it bricks again. To repeat, the watch HAS connected to my wifi a couple of times, for a few minutes, so I know the router I have does work. I also had zero wifi problems on my first two VAM3s.
I actually love this watch, if it would actually work, and keep working more than a week at a time. That doesn't seem to be possible, though. I've already gone through the ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE of trying to speak to someone with Garmin customer service three times, and gone through the hassle of returning watch and waiting for its replacement to arrive twice. I've lost untold run data (the second watch I received completely bricked on me on an 18-mile run, so I lost the whole run), and have probably spent exponentially more money on wasted time trying to resolve my issues than I actually spent on the watch itself in the first place.
I am officially at the end of my road here. I'm not sending in for a replacement for a 4th time in 3 months. It's just too much. If I can't get a resolution, I see no path forward other than writing Garmin off as a loss, and recommending to everyone I know to never, ever use this company, for any reason.
