Charge 5 experiences/reliability

[KingAndrew]

Looking for thoughts on Charge 5 reliability or your experience so far.

I bought Versa 2’s for my wife and I a little over a year ago. Hers had one warranty replacement and I should have done one for mine several times but have since missed the window. I had several charges through the years with no issue, but the Versa was an absolute trash product. 

thank you 

[Teigh]

You were exactly correct… except I had to escalate past the assumed “chat bot” that offered nothing, to get to someone offering a replacement or 35% off a new device. 
I opted for replacement, and it works, but the bracelet clasp keeps failing. So now I’m left wondering what will happen first; will it fail or will I lose it on the trail. 
I’ll be reaching out about the clasp, but not hopeful. 

[BramBlenk]

I thought I would add my voice to this unhappy group. I started out with an Inspire, but it failed a couple of months after the warranty expired and Fitbit offered me a 35% discount on a replacement.  I chose to upgrade to the Charge 5 instead, and it failed within 10 months.  Fitbit replaced the device under warranty, but it also failed after only 11 months, and now customer service refuses to replace it, offering another 35% discount instead.  They claim that the warranty expired in July of 2022, which is the expiry date of the original Charge 5 device.  The replacement was shipped on July 31, 2022, so the one-year warranty on that should still be in effect.  After 2 chat sessions and a number of email exchanges with CS (in which I included the emails I received from them showing the date that they shipped the replacement device), all I got out of them was that the warranty is expired, and now they no longer respond at all.  What a crap company.  I have no idea why Google would want to associate themselves with them.

[shimsim]

@MontesJr you did well with just 2 defective devices, I had 4 within 18 months, longest one lasted just 6 months. Like I have been saying, if you take the discount, might as well consider it a hardware subscription because its just a matter of time before the next one fails.

I would have a different opinion if Fitbit took the time to address these failures but neither publicly nor privately would they explain or even acknowledge anything was even slightly unusual in having so many devices fail on me. There is no good way to explain this high rate of failure but lots of bad reasons to explain why Fitbit has remained silent on the issue.

[croserb]

Do not trust the readings from the charge 5. It is not correct information. 

I also have respiratory issues. My Fitbit did not pick this up. In fact it gives you praise for earning Zone minutes when your heart is racing. 

While in hospital recently I compare the readings of the hospital monitors to the Charge 5. Very different results. I see why Fitbit have disclaimers that this is not a medical device as most of the readings are fabricated.