Feedback about Fitbit Ionic and Fitbit warranty

[Puckmonkey]

My Ionic is just over 2 years old.  The heart rate monitor recently started to act up.  The green light on the underside of the device disappeared periodically and no monitoring would take place (meaning no recording of heart rate, calories burned, sleep quality, etc.).  The HR monitor stopped working completely about a week ago.  I followed on-line instructions for checking HR settings and did both a reset and a factory reset - to no avail.  I ran the device to 0% battery, charged it to 100%, and when I retrieved it from the charger, it was vibrating continuously.  It would not reset - all that would happen is the Fitbit logo would flash periodically while the vibrating continued.  The device quickly ran down to 0% charge (presumably due to the constant vibrating) so I connected to the charger - but now it won’t take a charge (it just sits happily flashing the Fitbit logo).

I contacted on-line tech support - they were responsive and gracious.  After asking some diagnostic questions and reviewing my account, they basically said the device is dead, you’re past the warranty period, and we’ll give you 35% off on a new device.  No explanation of what’s happened, no offer to fix it - just a “sucks to be you”.  Based on what I’ve read elsewhere my situation is not unique.

This is the second unexplained catastrophic failure I’ve had with an Ionic.  My original device failed and was replaced under warranty.  It’s the factory shipped replacement device that just failed.  I love Ionics when they work but they don’t work for long.  You’re basically renting a Smartwatch for $125/year until it fails.  Perhaps it’s time to ante up and get an I Watch - while Apple has issues too, they do a great job of standing behind their products (ie. they actually want to sell you something more than once).

I expected better - particularly after Google got involved.  

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[YojanaFitbit]

Nice to see that you're digging into the Forums @Puckmonkey.

Sorry for the issues with your Ionic. Thanks for the feedback, it's very important to us to have your thoughts in regards our product and your customer support interactions. Fitbit is always trying to provide great products and customer experience. Each scenario is different, but I think that you can use the option available according to your warranty information, as it was mentioned by our support team. 

I've noticed that you already requested a case to give your feedback to our team, they will be contacting your shortly. We don't want to create frustration in our customers. Fitbit has been designed to provide motivation and help you to reach your daily goals to success.

Thank your for your understanding.