My experience with Charge 5

[tonydavid]

Hi Community....I purchased a Charge 5 two years ago today for my son's birthday and it stopped charging about a month ago.  I contacted customer service and tried all the troubleshooting tips.  However, nothing would get it to charge.  I have asked for a replacement but Fitbit said since it was out of warranty all they could do is offer a discount on purchasing a new one.  I have been a Fitbit customer for 7 years, and I have purchased Fitbits for both my sons.  However given this bad experience, I am very reluctant to purchase another Fitbit.  I am going to share this experience everywhere I can to warn people that their Fitbit may not last very long.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[PebblesRoxOn]

This is also my experience and from what i see in the community, the experience of many fitbit customers. Keyword being MANY!!! 🤬🤬🤬

I agree with your summation. 
Not worth the price they charge for it! The paying customer needs to be let know the situation! Absolutely!🤬

[Jimmyww]

I have had exactly the same experience!  My charge 5 actually stopped working about 13 months after purchase but started up again randomly a few days later so I kept using it.  Now less than 2 years from purchase it has stopped completely.  I can’t even be bothered to contact Fitbit because they were so difficult to deal with the first time it stopped.  I’m going to find a better company.  I’ve been with Fitbit since 2017 

[Godo1960]

I have had a Fitbit since they started back whenever.  I to bought a Charge 5 in November 2022 and it just stopped working less than two years later.  Now that we're hooked on the silent alarms, 250 hourly steps and the 10,000 steps per day thing it really aggravates me not having that.  GRRRRRR!

[__Gianni__]

More or less the same story here. 
As being an owner of the Charge 5 for 2 years and 5 months now, it is already my second one. 
I never shower with it, i never submerge it in water, but everytime I sweat (during running) the watch dies. I was able to dry it many times, but now it’s dead…

If this shoulf happen with one watch, you could call it coincidence. But as this is already the 2nd… I think it’s just bad design. 

[Anntts]

I've had it with Fitbit.  I've had a Fitbit since they started and keep upgrading.  However, in the last several years no matter what version of the Charge tracker I have, it always stops working within a month of the warranty expiring.  And suspiciously not long after they force an update.  Then they send me an offer for money off on a new one.  I'm done with playing this game.  Company hasn't been the same since Google took them over.  The changes to the app make it harder to read the info at a glance.  There are so many comments about this on the forum and Google's answer was basically we don't care if our customers don't like the changes.  Guess they never heard the saying "if we don't keep our customers happy someone else will."  I'm switching to Garmin as of today.

[Rosy08]

Agreed the quality is not so good. I bought the charge 5 about two years ago as well. At nearly the year mark, I think maybe within a month of the warranty expiring, my charge started dying quickly. Thankfully, I was able to have Fitbit replace it. However, now on this second one I'm at about a year of having it and it's starting to drain battery fast again. I'm lazy and don't even workout so I don't put a lot of extra use into it that would drain the battery. This keeps happening with every watch I get and I'm tired of it. I wish they would listen to their customers because it seems like we're trying to be pretty loyal and keep upgrading even with all the issues. It's been worse to use the app ever since the Google takeover too, which honestly I thought would help improve things.

Edit: adding that my watch is now dying but even though I have notifications on I don't get any telling me the battery is low anymore. I'll just randomly wake up to it dead. 

[Sarahd888]

I have been a user of Fitbit since December, 2022 and I am on my 3rd and last.  I have invested too much money on something that seems to last (for me at least) only 6 months.

[tefr]

I've had two Charge 5's that died shortly before the warranty, so both were replaced without extra charge to me. I'm on the third watch at the moment and it's giving signs of dying (displaying my heart rate as 88 despite being 170, for example).

[Godo1960]

How long is the warranty? I bought mine in November 2022.


Jim Godesky

[Rockspooch2012]

I’m going on my 4th Fitbit. It’s becoming more and more evident these things aren’t built to last. With the amount of money I’ve spend replacing them, I could’ve had an Apple Watch. I won’t be going back.