I received a free 6 month trial of Fitbit Premium with a Charge 6 which I ordered on-line direct from Fitbit prior to its launch. The watch arrived later than expected and the free sports band which was the incentive to order direct from Fitbit didn't arrive until the following month. This frustrating situation was the topic of conversation of several users on Fitbit Community in October 2023.
I wasn't aware that the Fitbit Premium subscription would automatically renew after 6 months, using the payment method I bought the watch with. This was no doubt my fault for not reading the small print carefully on purchase.
I haven't made use of the Premium features during the 6 month free trial (and have been a Fitbit customer for around 10 years without needing these features), so didn't intend renewing. I got an email in the early hours of 5th April saying my free trial had expired and a second email with a bill for the renewed subscription. I spoke with Fitbit Customer Services saying I was unhappy that I hadn't received a reminder that my subscription would expire and that payment had been taken. The lady said that normally they do send a reminder and I was promised an email to confirm escalation of my situation and what my next steps should be, but this never arrived. She had advised me to cancel my subscription in the Fitbit app, but this showed I had no active subscriptions, so I couldn't cancel it there. The Fitbit website however showed that I did have a subscription and I was able to cancel it there. I followed this up with a complaint by email to Fitbit Customer Services. I received a fast response but wasn't happy with the reply and my follow up also received a fast response (again, not what I wanted to hear).
The outcome from replies to 2 emails from Fitbit Customer Services is as follows:-
- We don't refund subscription payments (it seems under any circumstances).
- I could have cancelled my subscription at any point during the 6 month period, as I was provided with a link in my order email as to how to manage subscriptions going forward.
- Your 6 month trial starts on the date of the order of the device (so not as I would have expected on the date I received it and link it to my account).
- Fitbit apparently defines a 6 month free trial as 180 days, not 6 calendar months (I don't think they make this clear anywhere and they apologised for any miscommunication). I ordered my watch on 7th October 2023 and cancelled my subscription on 5th April 2024 which by my reckoning is within the 6 month period, but they had already charged me earlier that day and refused to refund my subscription.
Overall not a good customer experience. Hopefully I have now successfully cancelled my subscription (I have an email from Fitbit suggesting this is the case) and I have also tried to cancel it with Paypal and my Credit Card Provider. It is certainly a lesson learned for me and I hope that Fitbit going forward are more transparent with their terms and conditions, otherwise my loyalty will be going elsewhere.
