My experience with Charge 5 and Customer Service

[chablanc]

I've used Fitbit since 2015.

I had a pleasant call with a service representative a moment ago.  He will forward the failure of all the actions taken to restart the Fitbit.  None were successful.  My Fitbit 5 is far outside of the 1 year warranty.  He would send my complaint to Management and told me potentially a discount might be offered.

With Google having billions of dollars available for research and reinvestments as well as a gross profit margin of over 35% they would not feel any pain to provide more than a 35% discount.  Google is now under investigation by the government for monopoly of markets.

If another Fitbit model cost more than the price of a Charge 6 the appropriate offer is to offer a free Charge 6 or take the retail sale price and apply it as a discount to a new device that will receive long term support by Google.

I might have considered a Fitbit 6 but this failure and lack of future Fitbit 5 upgrades and support by Google has prompted me to look at other technologies.   

My Charge 5, like many other users, started having a shorter run time until I had to charge it everyday.

Other products have over one week of run time.  I'm waiting for a response for Google later today.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[MarreFitbit]

Hi there, @chablanc. Welcome to the Fitbit Community Forums. Thanks for bringing this to my attention and for the troubleshooting steps you've tried. I'm sorry to hear that your Charge 5 has stopped working. We‘re taking your comments and sentiments in regards to our products and services into consideration.

Thanks for your question about why we offered a discount towards a new Fitbit product instead of a replacement of your existing Fitbit product. Our limited warranty provides repair or replacement of products that have a defect while still in the warranty period. Your device is out of the warranty period, and therefore is not eligible for repair or replacement, but we want to offer you a discount to thank you for your loyalty to Fitbit. For more information about our warranty, see fitbit.com/legal/returns-and-warranty.

Even though I truly appreciate you took the time to come here and express your feelings towards your experience with your Charge 5 and also want to find a resolution to your issue, my best advice is to keep the conversation with our Support Team. Note for this kind of inquiries/cases/process, there's not so much we here in the forums can do for you as this is something that our team handles based on our policies.

Thanks in advance! 

[michelle-marie]

My Charge 5 has issues too. Doesn't always record my Sp02. Support makes you do the reboot uninstall reinstall yada yada yada. Then acts like we're good. Ridiculous. Why would we use a discount to repurchase from the company who is obviously having issues with performance? Google/Fitbit obviously patronizes it's customers in Support. Obviously another case of a corporation too big to worry about whatever concerns a customer has. All they have to do is read the posts in the community to know it's a systemic problem and not an individual watch problem. 

[jwilliamsr9]

Welcome to the dead Charge 5 club..  mine has been dead for a few months now , done went through all the "fixes" with support, even had to send them a video of me doing the reset...  mine wont charge , blank screen and just buzzes when plugged.. all down to the 35% discount and worry you're out of warranty.  If you noticed everyone gets the same old cookie cutter "excuses and  fixes" that is just their way of covering their tail... and make it seem like they care,.. they don't  !!!

[jwilliamsr9]

Oh I forgot, the app keeps ending me updates on my progress , how many steps , hows my sleep ,,,  My Fitbit has been dead on the kitchen counter for months.. 

[louie2251]

Mine died July 28.2024, I’ve had no success from fitbit support or forum - it’s disgusting the service 

seems to be a trend with the Charge 5 all of sudden dying they offer discount on new item if not in warranty…sounds a bit like Apple all over again - oddly

really unsatisfied 

[louie2251]

Any idea how we contact Fitbit support - I attempted email and got auto reply they no longer do email support 

[michelle-marie]

If you go into chat support you can ask for a phone # for a person. I did & called..it just seemed to repeat the same actions you've probably already done & more than once. Sadly I have come to realize that they simply don't care. Maybe you will have better luck. 

[Odyssey13]

https://myhelp.fitbit.com/s/support?language=en_US

[louie2251]

Oh yes spoke with rep on a rushy phone call

got a charge 5 about 2 years ago, the device had to be replaced last April 2023 then now again so no warranty just under 3 months past a year - terrible should be replacing these expensive devices each and every year 

Just to get offered a discount on a new fit bit which will still cost me 170.00 cad, not sure but with everything rising in price this is now bottom of totem pole as wayyyy too much competition out there at lower cost 

I’ve been a customer for as long as I can remember at least 10 years 

do better Fitbit!

[louie2251]

Should say SHOULD NOT*  be replacing these devices each year