Oura Ring 3 Generation Failure!

health

Dec 12

There are some moments in a well-worn life when you don’t want to have to be forced to take the next, fateful, step off the pyramid and into the pitfalls of death; but now I fear, is the time for that tasking in finally reviewing the Generation 3 Oura Ring.

The ring appears to be okay — if not generationally short-stepped feature-wise because of technical delays — but dealing with Oura support has been absolutely madding, and disappointing, and there’s no need whatsoever for that sort of intentionally produced cruelty to be cudgeled against their most loyal customers.

As I’ve stated here in the past, my cardiologist loved the data my Gen2 Oura Ring, produced; but now time, and truth, are not on the side of the Oura Gods, and while I won’t dig into all the details of how my wife and I were disappointed with our new Oura Gen3 rings, I will share with you now a single datapoint for your evaluation: How Oura treated my wife, who had an out-of-the-box DOA Gen3 ring charger.

Here's the update on my wife's Gen3 charger flashing red and never working out of the box. DOA.
Nov. 18. Ring arrives but the charger flashes red. My wife reports the problem to Oura support. They want her to make an extended video proving the problem. My wife refuses to comply because their steps are, in fact, dangerous in employing a second USB device and "touching it" to the defective flashing unit. Oura says they will forward her non-compliance to the warranty department for them to decide if her DOA charger is covered under their warranty or not.
Oura Support puts her in a :blackhole: for 10 days as she inquires about a replacement charger.
Dec. 1: Oura CEO resigns. My wife, once again, asks for an update on replacing her defective Gen3 charger.
Dec. 3: Oura responds saying her replacement Gen3 charger is getting "expedited warranty replacement" and that once she has the replacement charger in hand, they ask that she return the defective charger for "technical inspection." A prepaid UPS shipping label is included in the reply.
Dec. 8: Oura pings my wife asking why she hasn't returned her defective Gen3 charger. My wife responds she is waiting for the replacement charger to arrive. She requests a tracking number for the shipment.
Dec. 9: Oura responds and says it will be 2-3 weeks before a replacement Gen3 charger can be shipped.
Analysis: If my wife were not able to use my Gen3 charger, she would be unable to use, and charge, her new Gen3 ring, for at least 6 weeks. We are discouraged by Oura's lack of proactive support in remedying this situation. Every conversation with Oura support changes the tone and topic of the problem and some other tactic is thrown into the mix to delay resolution.

With that sort of dedicated, and ongoing, non-support from Oura Support, and their clinging disinterest and disinfected distancing in trying to get this problem resolved, one cannot stand forward and promote any good notion of the Oura Gen3 Ring because, if there is, or shall be a problem, you cannot rely that Oura will step forward and do the right thing.

Who knows if Oura will actually — or not — offer all the technical advances in their ring advocacy that they promised to early Gen3 buyers, and future purchasers; but I argue today none of that really matters now, because, in their essence, Oura cannot be trusted to do the right, moral, thing in the end, thus placing the totality of the trusting human condition in peril, while also betraying the pinnacles of joy. Overstated? Sure, and never. Who knows? We’ll never really know, except for exactly one thing:

Buyer beware!