This is not OK fitbit, you must fix Blaze now!

[ajea]

Just check this forum, it's full of issues, questions and requests. The Blaze is NOT a finsihed product. You will lose this game if you not allocate resources to take care of this NOW. How about a developer blog so the users know what's going on? And stop resolving requests that are not implemented. Even if you don't care about ordinary users you should know that there are all kind of people hanging around here.

Time to get this right before the next apple watch is released.

[David8732]

Forums are generally a place for people with issues to vent. I'm a photographer you should go on dpReview for example. You would think that every new camera released was the spawn of the devil.
What are your specific issues?
I dont think any device will ever be perfect. But for £160 (UK) I have a brilliant device, a beautifully made thing, and an app which can basically do everything apart from cook my tea.
I think it's remarkable how Fitbit actually make a profit selling something so amazing for so little.

[racertempo]

---

@David8732 wrote:
Forums are generally a place for people with issues to vent. I'm a photographer you should go on dpReview for example. You would think that every new camera released was the spawn of the devil.
What are your specific issues?
I dont think any device will ever be perfect. But for £160 (UK) I have a brilliant device, a beautifully made thing, and an app which can basically do everything apart from cook my tea.
I think it's remarkable how Fitbit actually make a profit selling something so amazing for so little.

---

Agreed, no specific issues were given by this thread.  Just saying "fix it" is the easy thing to say.  I bet if you look on the apple watch forum you would see people having "issues" as well.

[SunsetRunner]

The same items that people have mentioned from the beginning have not been fixed. In fact Fitbit has not issued a single fix as of this date.

[David8732]

Why did you buy it then? I researched it lots, it's pretty easy to find reviews online.
I knew it wasn't waterproof, I knew the alarms had to be set on the app, I knew the HR monitor wasn't as accurate as a chest strap, I knew there were only four clock faces, I knew that it has no GPS and I knew that as a new product there would be bugs.
Of course if people have a faulty one then that's different and understandable, but the moaning on here is nuts.
It's a bloody £160 device that is amazing not a £20k car.

[SunsetRunner]

---

@David8732 wrote:
Forums are generally a place for people with issues to vent. I'm a photographer you should go on dpReview for example. You would think that every new camera released was the spawn of the devil.
What are your specific issues?
I dont think any device will ever be perfect. But for £160 (UK) I have a brilliant device, a beautifully made thing, and an app which can basically do everything apart from cook my tea.
I think it's remarkable how Fitbit actually make a profit selling something so amazing for so little.

---

I somewhat don't agree. Because some of the complains are actually not small issues. Fixing these problems is not to make the product perfect, but to make is useable. I don't think weak vibration is inperfect, it renders this device useless. Since the day I switched from Charge to Blaze, I couldn't feel the alarm any more. It can't wake me up as it should, but other fitbit older products can. The list is already long, so I won't add more.

Fitbit is making a wrong decision by flooding the market with so many different models of incomplete product. They need to focus on less models, and improve the quality of the device & app.

[David8732]

And I disagree with you. My vibration sometimes sh*ts the life out of me.
As I said faults are understandable and it's not right. But the bloody morning on here is depressing.

[racertempo]

---

@SunsetRunner wrote:

---

---

I somewhat don't agree. Because some of the complains are actually not small issues. Fixing these problems is not to make the product perfect, but to make is useable.

---

The problems might be small issues in terms of the % of users experiencing the issues.  Yes, the issue a user has might prevent the Blaze from working at all, which is a huge issue for that person, but not the product in general.  Any and all electronics have bugs and specific individual ones that might not work, that is why support is there.  Based on the sheer number, it seems pretty low.  To use a broad-brush to paint the blaze as incomplete is just an over generalization.  

[AngelaMa]

Hello everyone! Hope you are doing great 😉 @ajea what issues are you experiencing with your Blaze? Have you tried any troubleshoot? @David8732 ,@racertempo, @SunsetRunner thanks for sharing your opinion just keep in mind to use good network etiquette and spread the wealth

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂 

[NiTRoX624]

The Blaze does have its issues.  There is no denying that. 

It is worth more like $129 and not $199. 

[Lordrobs]

I think research is the key as has already been mentioned.

The product I 'want' isn't available yet (a smart watch fully compatible with iOS, Windows and Android as my phone is whatever my employer issues me with, fitness tracking that works with MyFitnessPal and Strava, Sleep tracking, time display, smart enough for work) so I researched and went with the Blaze despite the fact it doesn't meet all of my criteria because it came closest to it. In the end I had to make a decision between the 'smart' aspects or the fitness tracking and I decided the latter was more important.

As for the complaining... this is the internet, it is what it is for 😄 I think people can over simplify things though like "give customers the ability to create their own watch faces". So most fitbit customers have the ability to design graphics and code? Or do you really mean you want Fitbit to make a piece of software that has a range of customisable options, graphics and font styles so the user can simply drag and drop their creation into reality. The latter is obviously a much bigger implementation than simply making the software open source.

I hope there will be additional content and features but I'm happy with what I have for now and my own personal gripes were all well documented before I bought it.

[SunsetRunner]

Has Fitbit issued any updates giving us any of the features that we have stuffed in the suggestion box??? Could maybe the Fitbit people here find out if this is ever going to happen of is this it?

[Rich_Laue]

Personally I feel Fitbit is doing a good job, as for the price, it is selling, so somebody thinks out is fair.

I agree on that three are some bumps, once or twice a month I might need to restart a tracker or 2. Most of my problems are with the phones BT and this might be symptoms of any number odds things, usually turning of and on works, in fact the Fitbit App will occasionally do this for me.

About feature suggestions

An example of what I find interesting, for a couple months last year the big topic was we need Quick View, with way over 1000 votes it was implemented.

Immediately the complaints came in, "My tracker is freaking out", "my wrist is always lighting up, it keeps me awake", "Who thought of this stupid idea", "How do I turn it off", "It's distracting".

The stopwatch and countdown timer was added, no one ever mentioned that there should be a lap function. First complaint was, Who thought of adding a stopwatch without a lap function". Never mind that the stopwatch laps would not be saved, requiring a person to carry a paper and pencil.

Now will it be possible to please somebody all the time? I doubt it, much less everybody...

[FelixFive]

Like many of you, I've used my fair share of techno-geek-fab electronic devices. 

Fitbit's devices are among those that are the most frustrating because of the variety of issues that crop up, whether 'as designed' stuff that proved to be a poor design, or those features that didn't seem to be adequately beta tested prior to release, or algorithms that aren't quite calibrated enough, or unavoidable anomalies "that happen" yet became more persistent and consistent in their appearances.

I like many others try to fix all these things first, all the troubleshoots three-times, then contact support, and generally told to retry all the troubleshoots again, and ultimately, may achieve a fix or work around or receive a second (or third or fourth) device under warranty or perhaps I just discontinue use.

When Fitbit decides to make changes, fixes, reorganized the dashboard, perhaps throw-in a "top request" such as Quick View, there is generally no notice given to the users of  these pending changes, what the changes are, when to expect them via firmware or software update, how to use the new features, where to find dashboard information that was reorganized or worse, removed.

When Fitbit touts via many marketing channels the "fitness first" aspect of their devices, and imply that their devices are more than digital pedometers, we the customer generally and rightly expect that a product roadmap is in place, created by their 50+ Ph.Ds and other fitness rocket scientists, and that they have judiciously thought through the needs of walkers, runners, cyclists, swimmers (not!) and have created an adequate enough set of reliable and working functionality for a fitness first demographic. 

That a wide variety of issues are persistent across the history of their devices, and the associated eye-balls deep frustration and time spent trying to just get the device to work much less use it and heaven's forbid, trust the data, really shows a persistent and systemic failure in their product development and manufacturing processes.  In fact, a 3+ year lead mechanical engineer recently stated on Glassdoor that there is "no defined development process".  Really??

All of these issues are often discounted, dismissed, deflected, or justified by a few vocal Fitbit apologists, (and I honestly believe some are actually employees, and I chuckle when the thumb's up vote one another's keen insight ), well-intentioned but ill-informed support, and they'll often state how the community board angst - all the issues we're having -  is not representative of such a huge Fitbit user base who must otherwise be completely happy if they are not posting their issues, entirely missing the irony when these same apologists then also state for a simple expected function like stopwatch, "hey, good idea, log it to the suggestion board".  You mean the suggestion board showing 500 votes for an item, a one tenth of one thousandth percent or less representation of the huge Fitbit user base who gets to decide on expected and important features?  I daresay Fitbit's product roadmaps should have already included many of these "requests" as part of the product strategy and for their products' target demographics.

Sigh.

[racertempo]

My wife and I can stand next to each other and send a text and it shows it was sent from my phone and received by her,.....yet it does not show up.  This happens frequently, I don't know if it is the fault of her phone, my phone, Sprint, or one of our connections.  These phones are 3-4x more expensive then my Fitbit, but I don't register a complaint every time something goes screwey with my phone.  My windows tablet does some weird things as well that often requires a reset.

My only point is that if you expect any electronic device to work 100% flawless all of the time you probably have your heights set too high.  The ChargeHR phone call notificaiton, and app crashing when entering the "workout" section were overwhelmingly angering to me.  However, my options were to stop using my Fitbit and going with a competitor, or just deal with it.  I am thrilled that my Blaze has worked correctly about 95% of the time, so that is an improvement.

Everyone is entitled to the option to either return their Fitbit, or not purchase a fitbit next time.  If enough people do that then Fitbit's problems would be much bigger than a few bugs.  However, being angry about things like, "it is not waterproof", "I did not know it had no GPS", or "it needs reminders to move" may all be nice ideas, however, the device never had those things and were not marketed as such....so being angry that Fitbit won't "listen" and do "what we want" is just rediculous.

ANY problem with an advertised feature not working correctly, such as notificaitons, are 100% legit complaints.  Unfortunately a large percentage of complaints on here are about things that were not a part of the phone, like the "reminder to move".  Fitbit has no duty or responsablity to add that feature, and you knew it was not there when you bought it.....if you did not know, then you did not do your homework.

[Jvee]

I can honestly say I could care less about the Blaze having a GPS or being waterproof. I simply want it to give me an accurate step count! I find it very frustrating. Some days the count is off by 25-30% ...sometimes more. I like seeing an accurate count ...it motivates me. It is a visual cheerleader. Seeing that number makes me want to work harder. When I am robbed of my steps (even if it is only visually) ...it is really frustrating. The BASIC function of this product is to measure and count our steps. I don't feel like the blaze is following through with that aspect. It is very disappointing.

[FelixFive]

@Jvee Agreed, they've jumped the shark on their basic core competency of step count, back in the Ultra days "relative accuracy" (the positive spin to "predictably inaccurate") was fine so long as it was consistent. The Blaze is inconsistently unpredictably inaccurate.

If you want a good device then buy the One. If you want an iconicaly cool relatively good device, find an Ultra.

The Force fiasco, the shoddy Flex bands design, the Charge/Surge band-that-can't-be-replaced quackery, and the step count issues among the current product concerns sadly leaves me thinking their heyday is in the past, but I still hope to be surprised with a breakout new product that loyalists since 2011 like me are hoping for. It doesn't need to bake bread, just be of a fitness-worthy caliber and do what it promises to do and skip the 3x troubleshooting thank you very much.

[bbarrera]

sure feels like band-that-can't-be-replaced quackery was to juice sales of 2016 trackers. I sit at a desk and walk or ride a bike, yet my 3 Flex bands only lasted 4 months each? Force band blew out in 6 months, I held on for 9 months before sending back on the recall. Surge band has a lot of complaints due to cracks near screws, leading to condensation and replacement - and once warranty expires you get to pay for the replacement.

[AngelaMa]

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Fitbit Community @Jvee! 🙂 It's great to have you here. @NiTRoX624, @Lordrobs, @SunsetRunner, @Rich_Laue ,@bbarrera, @FelixFive, @racertempo and @Jvee thanks for taking the time to share your feedback about your Fitbit experience. Just remember to follow the Community guidelines and spread the wealth! 🙂 

Thanks for stopping by! 😉 

[Jvee]

@FelixFive that is really good advice. Thank you. I am looking into both the One and Ultra. (Leaning more towards the Ultra.) I may keep the Blaze in hopes of a firmware fix. If that is even possible. Anyway ...thank you.