Yesterday after a workout, the screen on my Charge 5 wouldn't turn on. Sometimes this happens, so I plugged it in to do a reset. I was hearing vibrations when I did the reset but the screen wouldn't turn on. I searched the forums and saw a suggestion to do the long reset (hold button for 15 seconds) and change the clock face. This didn't work, so I contacted customer service, who walked me through several trouble shoot methods that involved updating my phone, forgetting the Charge 5 from my phone entirely, wiping the Charge 5 of my information, and then reconnecting it to my phone and the app. Screen came back on, but I couldn't switch the clock face- kept getting an error saying the app couldn't connect to the watch. While the rep was looking for a different solution, the clock face randomly changed while I wasn't touching it or my phone. So I figured- great! Problem solved. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
When I disconnected the Charge 5 from the recharge cable, it was at 100%. An hour later, I raised my wrist to look at the time and there was the low battery warning and it was less than 19%. I have all notifications off and the GPS set to dynamic- I literally just use the Charge tell tell me date/time and track steps and workouts. I contacted customer support whole told me to charge it to 100%, disconnect, and then sync frequently with the app until the battery completely discharged. I did this and the battery was dead an hour after disconnecting.
I contacted customer support to follow up on this, and the person I chatted with checked the warranty status. I purchased the Charge 5 12/26/22 from the Fitbit Store on Amazon- an authorized seller. After sharing a screenshot of the purchase, I was told:
"After reviewing your account, we found that your product was purchased through an unauthorized reseller and is not covered by our warranty. For details on our return policy, visit www.fitbit.com/returns.
The warranty covers Fitbit products purchased directly from fitbit.com or an authorized retailer. We advise contacting the seller from whom you purchased the product for further assistance. For a list of popular authorized retailers, visit www.fitbit.com/wheretobuy."
If you go to that last link (/wheretobuy) you'll see an Amazon logo that hyperlinks to the Fitbit Store on Amazon. And if I go into my Amazon purchase history to when I bought the Charge 5, and click the link to the seller store it takes me to...the Fitbit Store on Amazon. The customer service rep assured me that they would take this to their "higher team" to review. Two hours later, I get this email:
"It's been a pleasure chatting with you today regarding your Fitbit Charge 5, which isn't holding a charge, and we'll be glad to continue assisting you.
We appreciate your efforts in troubleshooting with us.
After reviewing your case with our higher team, we found that your product was purchased through an unauthorized reseller and is not covered by our warranty. For details on our return policy, visit www.fitbit.com/returns.
The warranty covers Fitbit products purchased directly from fitbit.com or an authorized retailer. We advise contacting the seller from whom you purchased the product for further assistance.
For a list of popular authorized retailers, visit www.fitbit.com/where-to-buy. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding."
Frustrated by the fact that I've done everything I'm supposed to- bought from an authorized Fitbit retailer when it cost more than if I'd gotten it from some other seller; contacted Fitbit's customer service repeatedly and spent hours on hold or on chat- only to see Fitbit gaslight me by telling me that the seller I bought from wasn't "authorized" so they can get out of honoring their own warranty, I contacted customer support for a 5th time last night. I recapped everything that's happened- AGAIN- and was told that the rep needed to take the matter to the "higher team" to review. Sure enough, two hours later I get another form email with the same canned response:
"It's been a pleasure chatting with you today regarding your Fitbit Charge 5, which isn't holding a charge, and we'll be glad to continue assisting you.
We appreciate your efforts in troubleshooting with us.
After reviewing your case with our higher team, we found that your product was purchased through an unauthorized reseller and is not covered by our warranty. For details on our return policy, visit www.fitbit.com/returns.
The warranty covers Fitbit products purchased directly from fitbit.com or an authorized retailer. We advise contacting the seller from whom you purchased the product for further assistance.
For a list of popular authorized retailers, visit www.fitbit.com/where-to-buy. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding."
Infuriating. I've been a regular Fitbit customer for seven years and have purchased every version of the Charge, sometimes two of them (the Charge 4 screen tended to go dark over time, so I got at least one replacement so I could see it in the sun), and even convinced my mother-in-law to buy one when she was looking for a fitness tracker. I'm caught in an ouroboros of suck as I contact customer support to find out why my purchase from an authorized retailer doesn't meet the warranty stipulations>the rep tells me they "understand" and will escalate immediately to the "higher team">and two hours later I get an email telling me I bought from an unauthorized retailed, with a helpful link to a list of authorized retailer that happens to include the place I purchased from.
If you made it this far, bless you. Consider other fitness tracking companies. Since Google bought Fitbit, customer service has nosedived. I understand that sometimes things break- that's not why I'm upset. I'm upset because Fitbit is refusing to honor its own warranty; gaslighting me about where I purchased their product; and refusing to explain anything to me.
One final point of frustration- this "higher team" that the reps I chatted with kept referring to is completely opaque. Three different reps referenced "higher team" but refused to share any information about them- is it possible to talk to someone on the team? How can I reach out to them? How does one appeal a determination? It feels like a BS cover for individual reps who make a determination on something that doesn't really have any oversight or accountability, in the same way that you imagine a car salesman tells you "I'm going to have to ask my manager if I can give you this price" before they walk out of the room to get a drink of water and come back a couple minutes later saying "good news, I talked to my manager and he said..."
Beyond frustrating!
Moderator edit: clarified subject.
