Feedback about Ionic - My experience

[TimothyComer]

I purchased my Ionic in June of 2019. Clearly there was either a manufacturing error in these watches or there was something wrong in the latest update. Who knows, no one can tell you. It cannot Sync for seemingly at least a month or two so no that' it's unresponsive it will not even factory reset. There is nothing worse than a company that will not stand behind their product. If you're fooled into thinking standing behind the product includes talking about a warranty in your conversation then you're standing behind the warranty, NOT the product. Your company, that has discontinued the Ionic may have their reasons, but I can tell you that you've lost a lot of future customers by not helping the folks who bought your most expensive watch find a reasonable path to the watch that replaced it, out of warranty or not...This semi-expensive watch tracker is less than 2 years old. Very disappointed!

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[RicardoFitbit]

Hi @TimothyComer, welcome to the Community Forums. 

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and personal experience with your Fitbit device, I understand your situation and how frustrating this matter can be for you. I'd like to let you know that we are always striving to improve the Fitbit experience with our products and services, therefore, the feedback that's shared here in the Community Forums is always appreciated and really helpful for us to evaluate our procedures and make sure that we are delivering what our users want and need.

For a better understanding of our warranty policies, please check them out here. 

Let me know if you have any additional questions, I'll be around.

[TimothyComer]

Ricardo,

I appreciate the reply. As I stated above I have an Ionic that will not respond to restarts or factory resets (I'm sure power may be winding down as well as in this condition i cannot tell if it is charging when plugged in). Current state: after trying to restart and then factory reset the watch, which is in perfect physical shape, all it shows displays Data not cleared, Sync and try again, but it has not been able to sync for a while (a month or so), so my assessment is the last update messed up the normal function of the watch and impaired its function. Can you offer help in regard to repairing/ restoring normal function to this formerly top-of-the-line Fitbit Watch? I've done all the button holding, etc. that I've found among the help files. Appreciate any help toward fixing this situation. 

[RicardoFitbit]

Your reply is appreciated @TimothyComer.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention and for trying some troubleshooting steps before posting over here. Let me share with you that the reason why your Ionic is showing the error message described in your post is because the firmware update procedure of your device wasn't successfully completed. That said, I recommend you to learn more about how to update the firmware version of your Fitbit device with the information that's specified on this help article. Then, please move forward to the troubleshooting steps that are specified on: Why can't I update my Fitbit device? and let me know how it goes. 

I'll be here if further assistance is needed.

[TimothyComer]

Ricardo,

I appreciate your second reply. I guess when I mentioned the error the watch was showing in my last comment that may have directed attention away from my first message where I said it was unresponsive to begin with (dead mostly, but it has at least some power as it shows the logo, but will not start and can't tell if receiving any recharging, thus it can't restart or set to sync and receive updates) The only way I was able to get something to show up other than the logo after dozens of tries to start it was to attempt a factory reset via holding a combination of the side buttons. Only after this is when the watch began showing the failure message I mentioned in the other comment. It is suspected the watch got hosed the last time it successfully received an update, which is likely one of the last times it successfully sync'd with the phone. So, my troubleshooting begins at not being able to start up the watch after it shutdown, which is usually due to low power as it hadn't been holding the charge like when it was new, but obviously this time something was different. It hadn't been able to sync with the phone for about a month or so (January) prior to this issue. Please help if you can. I'll be happy to sell the watch back to Fitbit R & D engineering as I would assume they would like to know what could have happened with the firmware to render a nice tracker watch useless. But, again thanks in advance for any help in restarting this watch. 

[TimothyComer · Accepted solution]

I do appreciate RicardoFitbit replying in an attempt to offer help, but alas the main problem of not responding has not been addressed. I remain Very Disappointed that there is no clear cut way to recover a top of the line watch (at the time of purchase) that has become unresponsive reportedly due to an update in less than two years of ownership. In my original post when I refer to standing behind your product one can infer that I might have experience from years past when a companies product failure was due to something in manufacture or supply chain materials said company found a way of making things right. How did they do this? They would acknowledge that there was a problem and in a case where a model has been discontinued, similarly to the Ionic, they would offer a way for the customer to receive "value" for the lost usability of said product by offering a similar top of the line product less the remaining retail value the customer lost. Warranties just make a line in the sand and do not represent a company backing it's product. This case where some software (3rd part supply chain?)  hosed up an otherwise great electronic product is a perfect example that Fitbit could use to extend the likelihood that a customer would consider buying the brand again.