Smartbud® - Smart Ear Cleaner Reviews 

When writing to this company, James as it appears seems to have no clue whatsoever. Be warned, the tips are now being made of plastic, reason the metal is rusting so not using a medical grade metal. The tips I paid for as shown on their website arrived, both plastic and one missing the end tip cover. I’v complained and James just keeps coming back with excuse after excuse. I’v given them 7 days to resolve and if not I will just give it to PayPal to sort out, it’s not about the money but the principle and based on others who have had trouble I hope more people take the matter to the next step by getting their payment company to force the refunds. Either sell goods of quality or don’t bother.

Item not delivered since May.

James has promised a refund on countless emails but it never comes and he just keeps giving the same standard response that it has been escalated.

I placed an order for replaced smart bud ear replacements in August this year after a month I still hadn’t received product, I contacted their customer service via email asking for a refund, it’s now 18th November after numerous emails with a variety of excuses from them still no refund, blaming banks, as much fun as walking in LEGO is amongst some of the excuses disgraceful responses not helpful and still no refund.

Paid for replacement tips, supposedly to arrive in 2 days, that was on October 22nd, now November 16th. and no item delivered. Despite sending a screenshot of the order number and reference number, there is no sign of a promised refund.
Beware dealing with this company. Need to claim from my credit card company now. Waste of time and money.

Placed an order in August 25 for new ear tips. Chased numerous times without a response. Went through my method of payment and have been refunded.

To be clear, the product, if it works, is good. However Smartbud as a "company" is not. There is no customer service at all. I often read these and think some people must have been unlucky, that is not the case here and I'll explain. My device was defective and broke within the first couple of months, I first emailed them about it 6 months ago and despite having an extended warranty have not had a single response attempting to resolve the issue. You can email but you get a combination of three different responses that are mail merged including- we're sorry have 20% off a new one, please send us a video of the issue so we can help resolve, we are reviewing the issue- and repeat. There is never a response indicating an attempt to fix or refund the defective device. I've emailed in excess of 20 times. I tried to escalate through the company, including labelling an email as a formal complaint, but they are a subsiduary company owned by some sort of large multinational with no customer facing access meaning you have no other access option other than the customer services email. This means that if you get a defective device, which you can see myself and many others have, and you bought through them, even with an extended warranty and even with the consumer rights act, they will not respond and you will not get a repair, replacement, or refund. This is clearly intentional, and you can't do much about it as the value is too small to take to small claims court. A complete scam of a business designed to prevent you accessing your legal rights of purchase within the UK. Do not buy from them.

The products work ok (I have 3 of their ear cleaning products) but they’ve failed to deliver a fourth and won’t refund the money.

It’s been 5 months, and they just keep saying there’s a problem with the port authority that will be fixed “shortly”.

The customer service is atrocious and they even seem to enjoy deliberately antagonising me in their messages.

Like many others have said it’s a scam or something is going wrong with this business!

I ordered beginning of September - nothing ever arrived, since then I’ve chased 10 times for a refund. Been fobbed off and lied to at least 8 times.. telling me there has been a problem with the refund - what rubbish they just had not refunded .. horrible lying scam company

Ordered the product nearly 2 months ago, no product received. Company emailed me with the error and offer of a refund, a month later still waiting for the refund, emails are word for word repeating each other. No product and no customer service, starting to sound like a scam .. .avoid!

I ordered a Smartbud classic on 23rd August 2025 and still haven’t received either a refund (requested weeks ago) or the product itself. I have sent so many emails to their customer support email address and just keep getting fobbed off. DO NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY!

Honestly the product is great however when ordering replacement heads I ordered 2-3 months ago I am yet to receive them.

Multiple emails with reassurance they would send the product however still no luck, i have as a result requested a refund today.

Really disappointed as like I said the product is great.

Don't order from this company. I placed an order 10 days ago. And still no product has arrived, and I've not had an update. I've emailed several times and have had responses from James, who just says "I am sending the received information up the ladder for further investigation. Please do not worry, the issue should be resolved soon." I've since done a search and have come up with the following information. The UK registered company is SMART BUD TECH LTD, company number 14488505. It was incorporated on 16 November 2022 and was listed as dissolved on 27 February 2024. So it looks like we're dealing with scammers here folks. I'm taking this issue up with my bank now. PLEASE AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

My order was never dispatched. Smartbud eventually processed a refund, but money never reached my account. I'm now trying to resolve the issue with my bank.

I had bought an item from smartbud in the past which arrived and worked. However, it seems from recent reviews that other people are also now having the same issues with this company.

Seems to me that this company has gone to pot. I'm still waiting for a refund for an order that Smartbud cancelled on me, after taking the money from my account. I've had many, many copy and paste replies from customer 'support' and no sign of my refund over a month later. Same old tripe about the refund being stuck with the bank (not my bank) and that Smartbud can't force the issue, which should be resolved within 2 or 3 days. Their Facebook page hasn't been updated in about 2 years and the website link on it doesn't work. Recent poor reviews suggest that this company should be AVOIDED. I'm now dealing with it through my own bank, and if that doesn't work, I'll be using my Consumer Rights and making an official complaint to the appropriate authorities.

No products sent for nearly a month, despite me chasing them up three times. Eventually received a reply where they tried to gaslight me into pretending they had responded "As mentioned in our previous message, due to high demand, we are currently out of stock. I think the previous message landed in your spam folder" - no messages in my spam folder from this company at any point. Eventually elected to request a refund as there was no progress. Was told "Your order has been cancelled. You should receive the refund in your account within 2 to 3 business days." Now two weeks on from that message with no sign of a refund. Was quoted this utter nonsense: "When the refund was processed, instead of going directly into your account, the funds were held by the bank in a pending state. This is rare, but it does happen occasionally. I am sure you might have experienced something similar in the past. We are in contact with the bank, and there are two possible outcomes. Either the funds are transferred to your account or the transaction is reversed. If that happens, we will reprocess the refund." Fairly certain the whole thing is a scam. Would not recommend.

Customer service is horrible. I was shipped a package and 10 out of the 12 peices missin. I asked for either the missing items to be shipped or for a refund. They have been saying for 3 weeks now that the issue has been “escalated “ and then they claimed the original package was delivered okay so will not provide further support . You cannot get anyone on the phone. Otherwise love the product, but the company is horrible.

Very poor build quality. My Smartbud Blackhead Pro stopped working after only a few months of use. The company refused a refund because it was outside their 90-day warranty period. I reminded customer service that under the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015, products must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, and last a reasonable amount of time. A device failing within a year clearly doesn’t meet that standard.

Hopeless. Great looking product but it never arrived. Some communication, all friendly and upbeat, promising that once there was stock available again, it would be on its way. Months later, given up. It looks like it's a lottery as to whether you receive the product or not, but I would seriously think twice here because even if you do actually receive the product, the customer service is very hit and miss and I certainly wouldn't be relying on them in the event of any issues.

Have been using these products for a while and they work well. However, after ordering some replacement ear tips 2 months ago I am still yet to receive them and have heard nothing from Smartbud. I have emailed the customer service address with no response at all.

DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY! My item became faulty within 6 months of purchase. They do not back up their items with any significant warranty and are extremely rude when trying to claim. Any company that only warrants their products for 3 months for an electrical item should ring alarm bells! I wish I had known this before I bought from them.