Alright. I'm stuck here due to the storm and the I haven't been able to return the scale because the store is closed. So I'll provide additional information per your request.
Let's begin.
Wi-Fi connection. Do you guys realize that you are selling this device to regular people and not network engineers, right? So when you say that it will connect via Wi-Fi, people expect that it will work out of the box with their home routers, many of which nowadays offer dual-band (2.4GHz/5.0GHz) channels. To set the record straight, this scale WILL NOT connect to a 5.0GHz Wi-Fi network. That fact is for customers to discover *after* they've bought the scale and try to set it up at home.
I set up a dedicated 2.4GHz channel just to connect this scale. I had to set it to "legacy mode" so it would support 802.11b wireless mode, which is what this scale expects. Wi-Fi signal where the scale is located is pretty strong (as in all available bars). Opened the back of the scale and pressed the button for the Nth time to pair it to the network. The scale pairs. Yay! I step on the scale, and it gives me my weight, body fat %, BMI, and shows my profile avatar.. I step out. Then it appears to be syncing to the Fitbit network... only it doesn't. I see a network error (can't recall the exact message text, the scale is in the box and I'm not going to go through the hassle of setting it up again). Sometimes it'd sync, sometimes it wouldn't. Sometimes I'd recognize myself and display my avatar, only not to sync. Sometimes it'd think I was "GUEST". Again, sometimes it would sync up, and sometimes it would not.
Which got me thinking. Why in heck does it need to round-trip my info to the servers which are who knows how many hundreds/thousands of miles away to then download that info to my phone app? Why not just sync to my phone, which is a couple of meters away from the scale, and then from there sync that info from the app to the servers? Why not give me that option (to sync to my phone via Bluetooth)? Which takes us to the next topic: phone hotspot.
I have an iPhone XR. I set up my hotspot. The scale sees my hotspot wi-fi... I try to connect... it won't. I Google-Foo and discover that people are having problems with hotspots that are not one word, have spaces, special characters, etc. So I rename my phone something like "myPhone" and use a very simple password. Piece of cake, right? I fire up the hotspot, and the scale sees it and connects! Yay! I go through the weighing process again... and it's the same deal. It won't sync to the servers.
More Google-Fooing shows that there are many people getting frustrated over this, having to reset their scale's Wi-Fi connection trying to get it to work, complaining about Fitbit's support, etc., etc.
And I came to the following realization: Why the heck do I have to be fighting this product? Tech is what I do for a living (I'm a software engineer), and I've been doing it for 25+ years. I'm sure that if I set my mind to it I can come up with some sort of workaround, as long as the product is sound enough to work. I could even go out and buy a new 802.11b dedicated router just for this scale. But why? This should just work, like a toaster, or a blender. It's a scale for goodness sake!
At the bare minimum, why doesn't Fitbit just say, "look, we've tested this product with the following official list of routers, using *exactly* these settings; do this and keep your sanity, otherwise you're on your own".
Maybe this particular unit is defective. I read about this when I was evaluating the product... I took a gamble but I lost. Now that I hit the jackpot and did further research it seems to be too common of a pattern: Fitbit *knows* about this and it's been going on for years. Fix it and you won't have unhappy customers like me going around and telling all of their fitness friends how this scale sucks.
So, that's that. No I won't be doing further troubleshooting steps, so don't bother asking me more questions. The scale stays in the box and it's going back on Thursday or Friday. You only had one job: get my numbers and give them back to me. I paid for that. I'm done.
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