Device failed after July 2019 update, customer service fail

[Masteef]

WARNING to all users: if your Ionic updates automatically and then crashes, you will NOT get any support if you are out of the warranty. Just by chance, mine happened to do this 15 months into ownership, and the warranty is only 1 year. 

To be clear, the device has been working very well for the past year. However, just last week it updated, and when it did, it just crashed. It would intermittently boot up but not respond to any buttons, and eventually this devolved into it just not responding at all. When the software from your own company results in a crash and defective device that doesn't respond to a reset of any sort, there should be another answer from customer service besides: I'm sorry, here's 25% off another full price brand new device that may in fact do the same thing in another 15 months. 

[Randy12345]

i think this just happened to me today. My Ionic won't charge and i did all the cleaning that was posted to clean it. i tried another charger that i know works, used to charge my wife's Ionic. This happened with my last Fitbit and i won't buy another one if it won't take a charge.

Randy

[JJH1534]

I have also had issues since the weekend and mine will only sync when charging and at 99% and only for a few seconds. Otherwise it will not connect to wifi.  It is now loosing approximately 1 hour in every 24 hours.  Having issues with the heart rate also.  It still reads a heart rate even when I don't have the Fitbit on.  My current Ionic is a replacement for similar issues I had last summer when my original Ionic was still under warranty.  Since it appears this replacement is no longer under warranty and Fitbit doesn't seem to be to concerned - all they keep saying is to sync to fix the issues, but can't seem to grasp the fact that I can't sync, my next one will be an iWatch which will be dependable.  Just as a side note, I originally had an HR which had to be replaced 3 times in 4 months.  Guess I should have learned my lesson then but when I purchased the original Ionic it was being advertised as being waterproof only to find out after the purchase that it is only water resistant.  Guess I should have just bought the iWatch then since they were both in the same price range.  Very disappointed to see that $400 only gets you 1 year of a working device.

[msbs]

Just had the same experience last night. An Ionic that worked perfectly, a Fitbit app that asked to update (with the warning "you won't be able to go back"?), followed by my device becoming unresponsive, trying to reboot, doing inconsistent sleep measurements, and draining the battery. Contacted costumer support and the best I got was that I was out of warranty because it's been 18 months. Warranty is 1-year for the US and 2 for Europe, suggesting the company's goals are to comply with the local law and not to provide the best costumer experience. The best "resolution" I got was a discount on new devices. It seems as if it's a tactic to force costumers to purchase a new device and keep hemorrhaging money into their company. It's unacceptable.

[JJH1534]

So sad.  I am beyond disappointed with Fitbit in regards to this issue.  At the time of purchase the price difference between the Ionic and the iWatch was minimal.  Guess I made the wrong choice.  I've packed it up with Fitbit and I am now waiting for the new iWatch to come out, most likely in September and I will be purchasing the iWatch.  Seems to do everything the Ionic did plus more and most likely better.  

What really ticks me off is that it really appears to be the Fitbit updates that are causing the failures and nothing that the customer is doing.  Fitbit just won't acknowledge this. Had we all lived in Europe they would have still been under warranty.  Another unjustice!