Charge 5 black screen

[Parkfit1921]

In April of 2022, I purchased a charge 5 to replace my versa 2.  Biggest mistake ever.  I have been a Fitbit user for years but will no longer be after this experience.  The charge 5 stopped working in September 2022. After much troubleshooting with no resolution, customer service replaced the charge 5.  All was well until a few days ago when the same thing happened. Black screen.  I tried reset using multiple cables and blocks. I cleaned contacts with alcohol and placed on charger for 30 minutes.  Nothing restored it.  Customer service told me that this product was no longer under warranty even though this replacement product is only 7 months old. 
I am very disappointed that neither charge 5 lasted more than 7 months and even more disappointed that when the 2nd one died at 7 months, I was told that it was no longer under warranty and that they would offer me a 35% discount.  If a product cannot last even a year, a company is okay with offering a discount to buy another product.  No thank you. I will be purchasing a watch from another company. I could not leave this community without passing this information along. 

jennifer

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject and word choice .

[Talahthas]

Welcome back to the Fitbit community, @Parkfit1921!
Sad to hear about your issues with your Charge 5. I really can understand your disappointment. But we all have to be aware that such devices are mass produced to keep prices in range for customers. This goes for almost every manufacturer on the market. So there might be faulty production runs for example.
I've been using Fitbit devices for quite a few years now. And I have "sold" lots of Fitbit devices to customers, friends and family. I myself had a faulty Blaze and a defective Versa. My Blaze had been replaced because it was covered by Fitbit's warranty. Concerning my defective Versa I thankfully accepted Fitbit's discount for buying another device. That's something not many companys do offer. Why I know this? Because besides owning and using my Fitbit devices, I've been using wearables by other manufacturers over the years and have experienced the same with each and every company. With the exception of Fitbit's 35 percent discount. That's a rarity.
So one may think if you're buying a device for double or three times the price, reliability of those products would get better. Well, not really.
I have worked for quite a few years as the service leader at one of Germany's largest official Service Providers at that time for that company with that bitten fruit. And if I would tell you how many fights with that manufacturer I've had to fight in favor to customers who came to us with defective high priced devices being just a short time out of their warranty you wouldn' buy any product by any company any more. It was quite a bit of work for my team and me to keep our customer satisfaction level to constantly above 90 percent.
In the end it's the overall experience that counts. That's what kept me coming back to Fitbit again and again.

[Parkfit1921]

I do understand however, the replacement product that they sent is still in warranty and should be replaced for free.  Not a discount!!

[Talahthas]

Replacement modules usually count as spare parts, thus having a warranty period of 6 months, @Parkfit1921.

[Parkfit1921]

Actually in half that time!!

[Parkfit1921]

Well that is not best practice as far as I’m concerned.  

[AlissaV]

Bro are you for real? You’re trying to defend Fitbit for not upholding a warranty when their product dies in under a YEAR!? You’re trying to  tell me that Garmin and apple aren’t replacing defective products if they die in under a year? Friend, you’re grossly mistaken. If Fitbit is making a defective product, fix the problem and replace the defective product. They’re losing money because they have to keep replacing a defective product, not because of their mass production. That’s just common math.

[shimsim]

We should all be posting in the same place, so many people are having issues with the Charge 5 but we are not using the same tread. Can you share here - https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-5/Charge-5-experiences-reliability/td-p/5094537

Or if you have a better thread let me know and I will post on that one

[DaBahr]

Thank you for this info.  As the same thing and the exact same time frame as OP, I already knew my mfg was already used. 

Very odd timing wises, especially because I was prompted to do an updated as the battery just started to fast drain

[shimsim]

I know many people are connecting their issues to the firmware updates but I can tell you that for me, all 4 failures had no correlation to the firmware or updating them. I think each one was on a different version at the time it died and the 4th device has been running on the newest firmware since I got it and it died after approx 6 months, so if anything the current firmware gave the longest life.

I also doubt Fitbit is in any way coordinating failures (no built-in obsolescence), I very much put it down to poor QC, being supplied or sourcing poor quality components (my money is on the battery) or some issue with the design of the components that is causing premature failure (like an internal connection or PCB layout).

Regardless, it should not be on sale because it's seriously flawed in terms of reliability. 

[Parkfit1921]

Please stop changing my post title!!  This is not your post therefore you should not be allowed to change.  I should be free to post as I want my title to be. That is very disrespectful for you to change it

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi everyone, and welcome to the new members.

Thanks for letting us know about your Charge 5 and the steps tried on your own. This isn't the type of experience that we want you to have and I apologize for this situation. Fitbit constantly works to improve our devices and their performance, and the input from our members is of great help to make that happen.

Because you already got in touch with our Support team, I'd recommend replying back to them if you want to receive more information about your case, or the resolution you received. You can always start a new interaction via chat or phone by clicking here, and please keep in mind that every case is handled based on our Warranty Policy.

@Parkfit1921 In regards to your other question, let me explain that a thread title can be edited by a community moderator to make it relevant to the topic under discussion. Nevertheless, I appreciate your feedback on this.

[Kek02]

I am in a very similar boat however my original randomly stopped worked just outside the one year warranty. In my opinion the 35% off is actually a bit of a slap in the face.  One of my favorite parts about it is that it can’t actually be combined with any other offers or promotions which makes the code completely useless on Fitbit's website… so you might as well just go to kohls and get it for the same price plus kohls cash). That being said, it does appear that Fitbit is aware of this particular issue with the charge 5 yet doesn’t seem to be working with anyone…it’s almost like they are knowingly producing something that they know will randomly fail just outside the warranty window. Sounds fishy doesn’t it? Looks like there is a whole slew of individuals in this same boat. 
I was incredibly meticulous with the care of my device. I went to restart it the other day and it never came back on. 

Anyone found a more reliable alternative? 

[shimsim]

I doubt you will find any alternative device that is less reliable, the real question is how invested you are in the ecosystem and if the functionality and user experience will be comparable. I have read many people understandably switch to the usual alternatives but I've been a customer for many years, like the product (when it works) and still hope that they come clean and address this.