Samsung UK Say PowerBot K9350 Is End of Life?!

I bought a Samsung Powerbot VR20K9350WK/EU <- the MOST POWERFUL vacuum robot on the planet! in January 2018. I was so happy about this! My mother is ill and cannot get the cleaning job done herself around the house anymore and I barely have time to visit them so I thought it would be the perfect present for them! My wife was against the idea mostly because it was way too costly device. I was determined after reading a bunch of reviews online.

Besides, I am an online marketer myself and I happen to run a big tech website project at present, so I thought it would be great if I can give this device to my team and publish a review on our website and youtube channel. We usually review laptops and computers, but I wanted to turn it into a more versatile niche. Actually I got so excited about this, as I really wanted to invest hard into this tech site and make it in the top tech news/reviews sites online, even surpassing cnet one day

So I got the product, went over the instruction manual very carefully and started using it after it was fully charged. I've registered it online and everything, lift the chairs and obstacles out of the way and make the mapping of the house. It all worked perfectly fine as the house has no floors and it is really large, but has simple design. The powerbot was doing it's job perfectly without any significant issues. I was so happy this was working! It was all too good to be true.

Until one day, after only two months the powerbot started sounding weird. It was like something is broken. We did the regular maintenance all according the manual and watched it over like a little child. We were nothing but excited these two months and so I we were cleaning it regularly and looked after it. Besides, it was set to clean the whole house every week, not every day.

So I switched it off and started inspecting where the issue might be. It seems like the brush has somehow melted the plastics with the mechanism that keeps it spinning. By the looks of it, a simple brush replacement would fix the issue, but this shouldn't happen on a two month old top of the line device that was maintained properly and ran only on laminate.

I took some pictures, went to samsung UK chat for support. I explained the issue and to my surprise a replacement was approved so quick and easy without even letting me finish explaining the issue. Hmm I thought, this is great, that's the kind of support I initially expected from a company such as Samsung, nice! So I sent my address and they told me they will dispatch a replacement brush as soon as possible. Two weeks passed, no brush and no contact. I started getting desperate. I reached out to them again, they apologized and said I should get the brush in a week or so. Then two more weeks pass, nothing. I have a chat with them again, they talk to some upper manager and ask for my details again! I got angry at this point, but thought, okay these things happen sometimes and provided the details again. One more month has passed, no one has contacted me about it. This time I was furious! I went back to the same chat and explained the issue over and over again. After a few days of reaching and chatting about it, they told me that they didn't have any replacement brushes for this model available hence why they couldn't dispatch one. I was furious at this point as my powebot was in the corner of the room all this time, gathering dust (yeah I know it is what it is supposed to do, but all across the house, not in that specific corner). So the representative told me they will forward the issue to their Samsung DNCP and they will replace the unit for me! I think to myself great, I had some suspicions that the unit might be defective as well and not just the brush, so maybe this would work even better for me at the end. I agreed and waited for their email again. About three weeks pass, no email, no response. I reach to them again, they say they will email not to worry.

Then I receive the email from DNCP. They say the unit is End of Life!?! What?! I waited for like 4 months only to learn it is EoL !? How come it is EoL when they marketed the product during Black Friday and New Years Eve as the most powerful vacuum cleaner bot in the world!? They still market it on their websites and the model is manufactured in 2017 !! And it doesn't end here. They said they cannot replace it and do not have brushes in stock either for this model because of it being EoL. They could only offer depreciated refund. DEPRECIATED refund! After waiting for months for their reply, I get a depreciated refund as the only option. I called them out about waiting for them to contact me all this time and that I didn't want a refund, I just want to make this unit work! All I needed was a replacement brush! I exchanged a couple of emails, asking more information about it and begging for a different solution, but all I've heard from them was the same template email all over again. Excuses and more excuses.

I really didn't want to publish a review like this with so many negative stuff about the unit as my first powerbot unit review. I really prepared for more content, and wanted to include a complete buying guide, tips and advice regarding this powerbot. Now I am left with no choice, but to publish something that will probably affect negatively the whole vacuum robot product line. I will probably have to include all of these emails back and forth in it so I can show future buyers what they get as a bonus with the MOST POWERFUL vacuum cleaner robot in the world!

SHORT VERSION: Bought a Samsung Powerbot K9350 in January, brush got broken in March with very little usage on laminate. Reached for Samsung Support, was ignored and postponed for 3 months then offered a depreciated refund as the only solution because the unit was EoL. Will have to publish a bad review on our tech site/youtube channel instead of a full featured review because of this.