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 

[m.gnu.]

I bought two Charge 5 trackers to me and my wife christmas 2021. About six months later her tracker died completely (only logo visible at startup) and my battery life suddenly went down from 10 days to 10 hours. We both got replacements.

Now, a year later, mine is still functioning, but hers has a battery life of just a couple of hours and is practically useless.

[shimsim]

@Parkfit1921 @Blankscreen666 @m.gnu. thanks to everyone for sharing and for anyone else who comes across this topic who has a charge 5 that failed prematurely, please share your experience because it seems Fitbit is not aware that multiple product failures is something that needs to be solved properly and not just by sending replacement ones that also fail but just outside of the warranty period.

[Beks15]

My charge 5 had issues of the screen not turning on sometimes, finally today 13.5 months after I bought it the touch screen no longer works. Customer service wants me to stay with the fitbit family but why would I want to when they don't care about making a quality product? The first charge 5 I got the clasp was broken and it wouldn't hold the wrist band. They wouldn't send me a new one until they received the old one. I trusted them to give me a product that would work and they couldn't trust me to send the product back until they physically had it in their hands. It took 3 weeks to get my new one. And now with the touch screen broken, they just said oh well too bad here's 35% off. I'm sorry but when your product costs $150, it should work oh I don't know, maybe 2 years? 3 years if you're lucky? I'm not looking to replace this every year. I will never recommend fitbit to anyone. I'm already on the hunt for another company. 

[shimsim]

its interesting to think how the industry has managed to convince us that products are good if they last 3 years. I am old enough to remember when a watch could last a lifetime, all you had to do was replace the battery (remember when you could replace the battery, and they were still rated for 50m waterproof and they cost under 100USD). I know people will argue about the functionality ..... sure I am taking that into account. I've had watches from other brands that had GPS, barometers, temperature sensors, etc from 20 years ago that are still working. Something just isn't right when replacements keep failing and the forums are full of customers sharing various other failures all within or just after the warranty expires. 

[MontesJr]

I am also on the same bandwagon. One year and a couple of months and two Charge 5 died on me. First one had a fw update and a few days later was completely dead. Received a replacement and in 6-7 months the battery went form 9days to 1 day and in another one week it completely died, again. Both of them black screen and no feedback from charging cable connection nor from the cable reset procedure. I was luck because my warranty was for 2 years, but after so much time i was expecting FitBit to get a grip on what is going on and fix it already. Guess not. If my replacement will last again for half year or less, sadly i have to find another brand.

PS. I have a Charge 2 that still works flawless.

[Beks15]

You're very right. It's sad that our standards are so low. When it costs them around $20 to make, upcharge to $150, they should have the extra funds to put in the time and effort to make a better quality product. 

[Mainemusic]

I love the features of the Charge 5, but have not found the device reliable. My first displayed a white screen after 6 months. It still tracked everything, but the screen was useless. Fitbit replaced that one. It has now been 7 months with the new one, and it has stopped being able to swipe through the screen options. Again, it keeps tracking, but I am limited in what I can see on the screen. This time Fitbit is offering me 35% off a new device. I am thinking the Charge 5 is not the way to go with trackers. 😟

[MontesJr]

It would be nice to have some stats.(Fitbit is good with stats, I'll give them that) about the return rate of the charge 5. Or how many from 1000 devices have a hw problem. Cause after reading the forum I feel it's close to 90% of them. And that can not be the case.... theoretically. Actually it should be mandatory to have a faulty devices percentage indicator of all things we buy, including cars. It would be mind boggling....

[shimsim]

@MontesJr that is actually a great idea and for sure Fitbit already knows the failure rate but I very much doubt they would allow that kind of information to be disclosed. Based on my own personal experience of having 4 devices fail within the space of 18 months and having 2 friends who also had the Charge 5 fail on them (2 out of 2 that bought one), I would also say that it feels like 90% and maybe over a 2 year period that number is 100%. I would love to be proved wrong, but judging by my first-hand experience and everything I am seeing on the forums, it's shockingly bad.

[MontesJr]

Actually there should be an institution that will analyze the return rate of consumer goods and maybe address the issue in an official way. This product should not be on the market in this state. I feel that we're being cheated by Fitbit/Google with this joke of a product. I mean don't get me wrong, if the reliability of the product would be better, it's a one of a kind fitness tracker. Absolutely amazing....but unfortunately it's not, because of the abysmal reliability. 

[shimsim]

@MontesJr in full agreement with you sir, an independent consumer rights organisation would be a nice thing and yes, when it works, the Charge 5 is great, not knocking the features and functionality, it's really just the reliability that makes this a no-go product.

[4wheelerz]

Very disappointed in my Charge 5. It’s just over a year old but I’ve had trouble with for quite some time. Black screen, unresponsive screen, battery draining too quickly, issues syncing and more. After looking at all the comments/complaints about the Charge 5 and even others, I don’t think I will be purchasing any Fitbit products in the future. 

[Teigh · Accepted solution]

My battery which had been lasting 4-5 days on average started draining in less than 12 hours after the last update. I rebooted several times to try and get it to correct… and now the battery is lasting around 2-3 days. Not great but workable. 
Today, the screen is non responsive, clock is visible, but not able to advance to any other screens, and it drained battery in an about 12 hours again. Because the screen is non responsive I can’t get to settings to try a reboot. This is so frustrating. Any fixes???

[shimsim]

@Teigh Fix is to contact support, go through a set of arbitrary troubleshooting procedures (some of which are going to be pointless at best), and depending on your warranty status, either get a replacement or a discount to buy a new one that will also most likely fail in or just outside of the warranty period. 

As great as the Charge 5 is when it works, it's just prone to failing. I had the exact same failure as you described and read countless others.

[Alex_Lane]

Have you tried plug it in to charge, and then press the button on the USB cable 3 times to reboot it?

[Mainemusic]

While I really liked the look and the features of the Charge 5, having two trackers die at the 7-month mark made me seriously doubt the quality of this particular product. I used the 35% discount Fitbit offered on a new Luxe. So far, so good. I do not like the display screen as much as the Charge 5, but it functions great. Hopefully this one will last. (Still hoping Fitbit can fix the Charge 5 issues, as I still miss that one.)

[shimsim]

@Mainemusic same boat, I do wish Fitbit would acknowledge there is an issue and work openly towards resolving it instead of just pretending nothing is wrong, and sending out replacements that also fail just outside of the warranty period.

[thatbeefs]

I came to this thread after seeing you reply to others in a different thread, and I think you're completely correct about the need to consolidate complaints. Like most, I assumed it was a handful of incidents until digging into it further.

My Charge 5 spontaneously stopped working. I looked down and found a black screen that wouldn't turn on. When I finally got it to turn on, it pulled up the logo and stayed there before going black again. I tried all of the usual support steps, the unusual support steps suggested in the forums, etc. Nothing worked. I contacted support and they ran me through the exact same steps I'd already tried. This included asking me about specific steps that I made clear I had already tried multiple times, insisting I try again while chatting with them. Unsurprisingly, it still didn't work. As with many others' experiences I've read, it stopped working shortly after the warranty ended (15ish months) and so I was only offered the same discount.

It was pretty obvious during the chat that they were working from a script and/or list with zero ability to interact as a human being. Any time I asked about what could have caused the error (to avoid it happening again with a potential future device) or mentioned others on the forums reporting the same issue, the support rep flat out ignored it or responded with a vague and obvious dismissal/pivot. I was then told that I would have to wait for my case to be "reviewed" and would receive a response by email. Literally, chatting with AI is more humanistic than my Fitbit Customer Service experience was.

I received an email shortly thereafter telling me that my device was no longer under warranty and offering me a promo code. I'm pretty sure it was a copy/paste given that it didn't address any of the specific questions/concerns I had as part of my case. It said that I should respond if I had any questions or needed further help. I then tried to appeal to them as human beings (before I knew better) and wrote a nice email explaining my extenuating circumstances in detail (briefly: was a first responder, spontaneously developed chronic/incurable health problems, had to quit without benefits, still enduring a nearly 22-month disability application process, overspent a little to get Charge 5 because I needed a good heart rate monitor and wanted ECG for medical conditions, and that I couldn't afford to buy another device). I asked them not to send another copy/paste email but that I would really appreciate a reply from a human being. I never received a response.

Literally the worst customer service experience I've ever had. To then see more and more reports of similar device failures on the forums, along with similar awful treatment by the company, is frustrating at best.

[shimsim]

@thatbeefs Thanks for taking the time to share your experience, reading it reminded me of how I felt and I believe echoes the experience that many other users have already experienced or are likely to experience if/when their Charge 5 device fails. If nothing you can take solace in knowing you are not alone and my experience was very similar. I had the added insult of having to take photos next to a handwritten letter, presumably because they didn't believe the ones I provided were authentic and of course, no apology was made after the fact, I honestly felt like a petty criminal, as if I have nothing better to do than try to make a false claim for a broken fitness tracker. Truly the only thing worse than the reliability of the Charge 5 has been the way customer support is handled, like you said, I've had more human and thoughtful conversations with language models too.

I do hope you manage to find a good alternative to monitor your heart condition, the Charge 5 would be ideal if it was reliable.

[MontesJr]

  I find it absolutely amazing that after the stories here we have no official response from FitBit/Google. As I said earlier I am on my third Charge 5 in almost two years and the experience with the device was a rollercoaster. We should gather some signatures and start snowballing a letter to make this go wide. It's not normal to have 2 defective trackers and expect the third one to fail outside warranty in a matter of months. I am sure I am not alone. While they just sit there and give you a discount for a new one that will eventually fail in a matter of months.

Unacceptable behavior from a company like Fitbit/Google .