On November 5, 2022, I purchased a new Fitbit Inspire through the Fitbit Veterans Promotion Storefront. The landing page for the Fitbit Veterans Promotion Storefront stated that with the purchase of a new Fitbit device at special discounted pricing, I would receive a one year subscription of Fitbit premium after activating the device. I received a receipt via email from Fitbit showing the purchase of the device at the discounted cost. I received the device and activated it on November 10, 2023, at which time I received a screen on my Fitbit app stating at the bottom that, “As a member of Fitbit Veterans you have access to Fitbit premium until November 10, 2023.”
Fortunately I took screenshots of the veterans promotion storefront, my email, and the screen on my Fitbit app stating that the subscription was good through November 10, 2023. On May 21, 2023, I woke up to find that my Fitbit premium subscription was no longer working. After trying several times to log out and then back into the app I was still unable to access the subscription. I never received any notifications that my subscription was ending, and I expected that it would go until the full term I was promised on November 10, 2023. I contacted Fitbit support on May 21 and explained the problem. I was told to send my screenshots via email to Fitbit support and I would hear back from somebody soon.
After waiting a week and not hearing anything back I contacted Fitbit support by phone on Friday, May 26. I ended up spending 40 minutes explaining everything and being put on hold numerous times, only to be told to call an 800 number which the support person told me was a division within Fitbit that handled the veterans program. While on hold for the fourth or fifth time, I decided to Google the phone number that the support person had given me. It turns out it was the main switchboard phone number for The US Department of Veterans Affairs! I told him that and said that I did not believe the main number at Veterans Affairs would be able to help me with this problem. I was also told that I would need to contact my insurance company. But I did not buy this Fitbit nor receive the subscription through the VA, nor through my insurance company. I simply bought it through the Fitbit veterans promotion storefront. In the end I was told that my Fitbit subscription showed up in the support computer system as still active, so I should still be getting it, and the only way I could resolve the problem was to take it up with Veterans Affairs. I knew this wasn’t going to work, but I went ahead and called that VA number I was given. Obviously, the person at the other end of that line had no idea what I was talking about and said that she knew nothing about getting veteran subscriptions to Fitbit premium reinstated.
I ended up calling Fitbit support again, but through a different way, using the phone number, rather than going directly through the app, thinking that I might get a different call-center. But I’m not sure if I did. This time I spent 57 minutes on the phone, for a total of 97 minutes on the two calls. This person at support told me that he could see all of my screenshots and agreed that my subscription should be reinstated immediately, but that his department could not do it. So he put me on hold and said he had spoken with someone in a different department who would be able to reinstate my subscription. He said that I would hear back from somebody, but they can only communicate via email. I said I was pretty nervous about hanging up and just waiting around to hear from someone via email again, but he assured me somebody would, and said that it could possibly be as soon as May 26. On May 27, 2023, today, I received an email from Fitbit support once again stating that they could do nothing for me after looking at all of my information, and that I needed to call Veterans Affairs. Clearly whoever I spoke with the second time on May 26 did not communicate in the system that he had sent my issue higher up and that it was being handled. Either that, or the person he sent my case to was the one who was now telling me to call the VA, which makes no sense at all.
I am very frustrated at this point, and my problem is not being escalated. I feel like I am hitting a brick wall and keep being told to call the VA, who clearly cannot help me with this. It should not be difficult for Fitbit to look at those screenshots and see that I should’ve had my subscription through November 10, 2023, and reinstate it.
It seems as if something shady is going on here with free subscriptions being promised to people and then taken away early with no explanation, and no attempt to rectify the situation for the customer. I want to make a complaint about customer service and be able to get this issue resolved, but when I look up how to make a complaint about customer service I am just given the email and phone number for customer service. These are the people that I am having the problem with, though. So how is that going to work?
Obviously, I am going to continue to reach out to Fitbit and attempt to find someone higher up the chain of command at Fitbit or Google and figure out how to get my complaint heard. But in the meantime if anybody has had this same situation or similar happen to them I would appreciate any advice that you have on how you handled it, or if you had any luck.
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