Charge 5 stopped working and is out of warranty

[PocketWeasel]

Some years ago I bought a fitbit.  It stopped working.  After a bit of hassle fitbit agreed to replace it.  I paid a little extra and upgraded to a better model.

Now the replacement fitbit has also stopped working.

When I contacted fitbit today, they told me that the new device was out of warranty, because - get this - the warranty they gave was from the purchase date of my original fitbit. The one that broke. Not the one I got (and upgraded) to replace it.

This is ridiculous.  If you have a warranty it should be for the device you've got, not for the faulty one it replaced. 

Why am I being penalised because the previous one stopped working?  If I bought the second one myself it would be under warranty, but because it's a replacement, all I hear from fitbit is "tough luck, it's out of warranty" and they try to wash their hands of the whole thing.

To say that I'm annoyed at this company would be an understatement.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[PocketWeasel]

Some years ago I bought a fitbit.  It stopped working.  After a bit of hassle fitbit agreed to replace it.  I paid a little extra and upgraded to a better model.

Now the replacement fitbit has also stopped working.

When I contacted fitbit today, they told me that the new device was out of warranty, because - get this - the warranty they gave was from the purchase date of my original fitbit. The one that broke. Not the one I got (and upgraded) to replace it.

This is ridiculous.  If you have a warranty it should be for the device you've got, not for the faulty one it replaced. 

Why am I being penalised because the previous one stopped working?  If I bought the second one myself it would be under warranty, but because it's a replacement, all I hear from fitbit is "tough luck, it's out of warranty" and they try to wash their hands of the whole thing.

To say that I'm annoyed at this company would be an understatement. 

[Odyssey13]

Hi @PocketWeasel  warranty information is here - click to read. "Some years ago" might be too many years for the warranty to have been good. Warranty is one year (US) and two years (some European countries)

[PocketWeasel]

The new one is within the two year warranty but fitbit won't honour it because they date the warranty from when I bought the first one in 2021, the one that also stopped working. 

This is what annoys me.  The warranty date applies to an old and defective device, not my replacement one.

[Odyssey13]

It's been their procedure for many years, so I'm not sure what you can do. Sorry this happened.

[PocketWeasel]

I'd like them to apply a warranty to the device I bought, not the old one
that stopped working.

If they keep doing this, then at some point I'll presumably owe them money
if the next one doesn't work because we'll be in negative warranty.

[Niecy17]

I'm having the same issue. Tech support has not gotten back to me yet. They said they would within the hour yesterday, and nothing yet. I am a paying premium member and it seems that they would treat us better than this. My Fitbit Sense 2 died 8 days after the warranty expired. All they seem to want is more money. These units may be planned obsolescence. 300 dollars is a lot to shell out for one year's use. 

[PocketWeasel]

The tech/customer support has been very unhelpful to me.  Despite the fact that I upgraded when my last fitbit died so I actually spent my own money on this one.  

There is no care for the customer whatever.  I've been communicating with support for the last 16 hours.

If I need to buy another fitness watch I can 100% guarantee it won't be a fitbit.  Not now.  I was happy with the charge 5 when it was working, but after my experience I'm going to make a point of telling people to avoid fitbit as a brand. 

Two of them stopping working in three years is very bad for the money I paid, and the customer care has been appalling.