FitBit

I am a Registered Nurse. I need a second hand on a watch to preform the duties of my job. I started a return process on the first day of my 2 week vacation fully expecting that I would have my replacement Versa 2, which had a pixilated screen, before I returned to duty. I am sad to say that that my assumption for a quick return was foolish. I should never have trusted Fitbit.

After a couple of days of exchanging emails and sending pictures of my defective device, I was finally given a return mail label. I mailed the device out exactly one week ago and have been tracking it through USPS. According to the tracking, it was delivered to FitBit. I called today to find out that FitBit knows exactly where it is but won't have it in a specific location to begin return processing for another 5 days- the exact day that I return to work where I need a second hand. I am told that there will be more email exchanges and then maybe, just maybe, if everything goes perfectly well, I will have a device by the end of the following week.

Well, that just stinks. I cannot work as a nurse without a watch with a second hand. I asked for a refund because I could use that money to buy another Versa 2 from Amazon and have it delivered tomorrow for $60 less than what I paid 3 months ago at Best Buy. But NO! I can't have that because I bought it at Best Buy. FitBit knows where the device is but, no, they can't give a refund or send me a replacement for at least another 5 days.

So, I have to go buy a watch with a second hand. The Versa 2 was defective. The return process is lengthy, confusing and ineffective. I was offered a watchband for my inconvenience which is poor compensation for my inconvenience and out of pocket expenses for a new watch.

No matter how good a product might be ( I wouldn't know if Fitbit is actually ever good and never will know because I never will try to purchase a Fitbit again), a bad customer support experience will ruin it all, and I don't think mine could have been worse.

I pre ordered the versa3 for my fiance's birthday. It was due to ship by 25th September. They tried to take payment from my card a couple weeks after o placed the order and by that time I had insufficient funds. I topped up the card right away and followed the steps on the Fitbit website to proceed with the transaction.

The transaction never came. I got in touch with Fitbit support twice and both times was promised it will be shipped tomorrow or I'll get a shipment date tomorrow. Never happened.

Third time ingot in touch if decided I had enough. After a lengthy conversation the agent agreed to cancel the order since they missed the shipment date and couldn't give me a new shipment date. Life went on.

On the 7th November, I get DHL shipment notification and my card is overdrawn because I've been charged for the FitBit Versa 3 which I cancelled around 6 weeks ago.

Fitbit support are useless, try to put the blame on me because I can't cancel beyond some period. Ultimately saying I need to return the product to them ( at my expense) and "rest assured" they will process the refund by their laws.

I'm hesitant to even return the watch now because I don't believe I'll even get a refund this year!

In the meantime, my order link doesn't work anymore. I can't access my Fitbit account and the server is so slow it's ironic for a fitness tracker.

PS: I wound up buying my fiance a Garmin for his birthday, he's very happy with it.

Coming in hot with the awesome news that my Ionic has official died on me, along with many others in the world. The best part is that my watch is only 2 weeks out of warranty (which need I mind everyone FITBIT didn't allow stores to provide a store warranty)and I was offered two options. One being a email from a head honcho, so they say, that doesn't do customer service on the phone only through email. Then, it gets better, a measly 25% off coupon, which expires in 30 days, to buy yet another failure of a watch. I spent 2 days talking to customer service to be told my watch has already been replaced, which was false. Finally, got ahold of a supervisor (Kelly T) who told me that she has done everything she can do and there was no one else I could talk to above her, unless I wanted to email. The way she spoke to me was as if I was talking to a computer and every time I spoke she was always trying to speak over me. This watch meant a lot to me seeing it was my first year anniversary gift and now $300 has gone down the drain just to be told sorry as FITBIT becomes a little richer. I can honestly say this is not the first Fitbit watch I've owned and have always loved my FITBIT, until now! Customer service was horrible and very much all trained to tell me the same thing and that maybe I should buy another. I hope this reaches everyone on the market when making a decision on what kind of watch to buy. I will never buy another FITBIT product again. Although, I will thank BestBuy for being so considerate on how awful FITBIT customer service was (as they heard the whole conversation) and offered a gift card to help a little. It wasn't much, but seeing they couldn't do anything about the product failure they tried to compensate for the disappointment FITBIT has given me on something that meant so much.

My original Versa was a gift. I relied most on it being waterproof and tracking my aerobic activity in the pool. It died 6 months in. I reached out to customer service and went through all of their hoops to prove that it really didn't work before they would send me a replacement. The replacement worked for 7 months and then it died.

At this point I was *really* disappointed in the device but I did what I had before and reached out to customer service. I explained that this was the SECOND Versa that had stopped working. I was hoping that it would be replaced so at least I would have something to use until I could find a reliable replacement but I was told that the ORIGINAL device was no longer under warranty (duh, and I no longer have the original because it malfunctioned and died). I was completely gobsmacked that this was their response! Then after complaining about how asinine it is that they would not replace it they offered me that stupid 25% discount off of a NEW device. I had to remind them that the device I currently had was considered NEW and should still be under warranty considering it REPLACED a NEW device that was under warranty when it died. They put me on hold and then came back and offered me 50% off a new device but the offer expired in 30 days.
I seriously contemplated purchasing a Versa Lite (I need swimproof) but I just couldn't convince myself that it was worth giving them my money without having the assurance that I was going to get a product that lasted longer than 7-9 months.

I will be purchasing another manufacturers device (very few are water proof beyond a shower) and it will be for a fraction of the cost, so at least if it doesn't last long, I'm not out $180.

The Charge 3 works well at motivating me to move more and stay hydrated. That is why I rate it a three. Mostly the device works well. The software disappoints. Seems like not yet ready for beta testing, let alone be the app for third generation product. Without the software, the watch doesn't do much, and can't be set for anything.

Sleep tracking: Doesn't work if you get up during the night to pee. It needs at least three continuous hours to even record that you were in bed. Get up less than 3 hours after going to bed, or within less than three hours of getting up for the day, and your sleep tracking will be off by hours. So forget useful info about REM, light, or deep sleep when you can't even get total hours in bed.

Heart rate monitor: Typical of wrist heart rate monitors, it will sometimes not record your heart rate. For me, this happens when my heart rate is highest, as in beating hard out of my chest. I have the bands as tight as is practical and safe. I think this is typical of all wrist watch heart monitors.

Records "steps". I do not try to correlate this to actual distance, or even true number of steps. I take it as a measure of activity and try to hit the number each day. Good motivation. The software warns that if you don't swing your arms while on treadmill it won't count the steps accurately. Swinging your arm while seated eating chips may or may not count as steps. I haven't checked yet. (Who looks at their watch while enjoying chips?)

Records flights of stairs pretty well.

Records periods of activity when standing playing vigorous VR games. (Swinging arms, moving about, elevated heart rate.) Does not record Tai-Chi as activity (not enough impact or heart rate I guess)

Software Suggestions:
Link for User Manual on top level menu screen. Currently hidden deep, 3rd screen after clicking unlabeled link.

Link for setting alarm -put this on top level menu screen (currently three screen deep). Also provide the link to set alarm where sleep goals are set. ( I enter that I want to get up at 6:30 AM, but no place on that screen to set the alarm.)

Replace the little photo holder spot in upper left with the word "Menu". That is the function of the link there. Label it accordingly.

Provide better table of contents, under a "MENU" link, or index for finding things.

Ability to manually edit everything that shows up on the dashboard. If fitbit wants to flag manual edits, for those in "competition", fine. Flag manual edits, but allow us to make corrections for things this device records wrong, doesn't record, or I manually entered wrong. Frustrating to not be able to delete an accidental double entry for water, or type in a more correct number of hours for sleep.

Log for water entries should show the time each entry is made, in addition to the amount. That's how logs work. Was that last 24 ounce entry from lunch or did I forget? Can't tell when the log won't show time of entry.