FitBit Ionic - 1Y7M - First time in pool and now no longer charging

[TheLuckyRoll]

Bought a Fitbit Ionic the month it came out; waited to find a replacement for the Surge I had for years.

Loved the watch, used it everyday. Showered with it; no problems.

Last night decided to go into a pool with my friends, 30 minutes max. Battery was close to dying because I had biked all day with GPS on. Left it to charge overnight, nothing out of the normal.
Woke up this morning to it reading 0%.

The device does understand the charger is hooking to the back but not supplying a charge. I've held the left button and the lower right repeatedly, waited several minutes and tried again with it plugged in. Nothing.

Closer inspection on the back I see there is condensation inside the sensors! This was the first time I'd ever taken it to a pool. Chat with support, they offered me a new one for $150. Basically the item is advertised to be "water resistance up to 50M" but the first time in a pool killed it. Been with Fitbit since Fitbit Flex 1. Not happy considering how long I've been a consumer of Fitbit products; I expected better.

[YojanaFitbit]

Nice to see that you're digging into the Forums @TheLuckyRoll, let me give you a warm welcome to our Community.

We're glad to see you around, sorry about the issues with your Ionic. Thank you for the thorough feedback about customer service and Fitbit devices. This has not gone unnoticed, your comments are very important for us.

We don't want to create frustration in our customers, since Fitbit has been designed to provide motivation and help you to reach your daily goals to success. Please know that we provide feedback to our team based on community posts and we are always working on improving our devices and overall environment based on what you share here.

One more thing to mention is that you can always read the Returns and Warranty policies from Fitbit, so you can have a better understanding of the response they provided you. If you have additional questions in regards of your options, please feel free to contact them back to get more information about it. Fitbit as any other company have policies to follow through. And while customer satisfaction remains our number one goal, the demands of running a global business require that we enforce our warranty consistently.   

I'll be around in case that you have additional questions and thanks again for your participation in the community!

[TheLuckyRoll]

I appreciate your prompt response.

I've left the watch in a bowl of sealed rice for about 24 hours. It now charges but I can never trust the device in water again even though it has been advertised to function within 50M. It tells time, sure, but I cannot be sure what functionality is lost until I further use the device. If the device had failed for any other reason I would have taken this better, but failed because I took it in a pool once - a flat out defect.

I am disappointing that I was not offered a "pebble" as a replacement. I am sure if you view my account you will see how far back I've bought into Fitbit devices. I've convinced my family and friends to buy into the devices but I can assure you I will be looking at other brands going forward and dissuading others from purchasing.

Either begin a repair process for your most expensive product or stand behind it when something like this happens.

[Vincywife]

Wow, I just posted the same thing right before I saw your post.  I've had mine for almost two years too...now I'm wondering if there is a kill switch to make you buy a new device at some point???? LOL

[TheLuckyRoll]

Try the submerge in a bowl of rice trick for a day, it at least got mine to
charge and took away the condensation spots on the sensors. But now it
won't sync with my phone. I might try to reset my Ionic.

[Vincywife]

I wish I had thought of that before I sent it off for repair.  I had an extended warranty.  They won't fix it and are sending it back...it's probably dead for real now...lol...sighs. 

Good luck with yours though!!!!!!

[YojanaFitbit]

Thanks for getting back @TheLuckyRoll and @Vincywife. My apologies for the delay

We appreciate all the efforts you've done to help your Fitbit Ionic, sorry about all the inconvenience with your devices. In this cases, it's best to check with our team since they are in charge to review warranty options and check what happened to your Fitbit devices. Thanks again for sharing this information and please if you have more questions about this keep communication open with our team. They will be glad to keep assisting you. 

I'll be around. 

[TheLuckyRoll]

I do have an additional update, unfortunately it is not better news.

Yesterday the device began to lose some of the sensitivity to touching & swiping the screen from right to left. It would only accept a slower deliberate dragging motion, really awkward movement. Towards the end of the day I decided to try to remove some of the unused apps on the device by removing them on the Fitbit app on my phone. Thinking this would help because I'd have less to swipe past. I looked over at the device to see if it had updated and it only showed a steady blinking Fitbit logo. I've tried pressing and holding the buttons to reset the device but that seems to have no affect. I've put it back in rice and sealed the jar but I think the damage is done.

Seeing this has happened to others does not make me want to invest another $150 to $280 on another Ionic or even a Charge 3.

[Vincywife]

Sorry to hear it, I got mine back from Squaretrade a few days ago and tried the rice...it's still dead...WELP!  In the meantime my new Garmin VA3 Music blows ionic out of the water...too bad it won't sync with Fitbit….the Inspire seems to be ok just to stay in the Fitbit ecosystem….it was decently priced I guess @ 69 bucks without the heart rate monitor.  I'm only staying with Fitbit because the Inspire was affordable and I still like the step challenges with friends, and you can clip it like the ONE they had many years back.. I don't have to wear two watches on my arm again after all...

Cheers to you and anyone else in the same predicament with the ionic!

[RicardoFitbit]

Thanks for your replies and updates @TheLuckyRoll @Vincywife, I'm glad to continue assisting both of you. My apologies for the delay in responding.

I would like to let you know that Fitbit is always striving to improve our customer's Fitbit experience with our products and services. We appreciate all of the input we receive from our Community Forums because such information help us to evaluate our procedures for future cases. Thank you for the feedback provided, your effort and patience with your Ionic devices. 

Let us know if you have any additional questions and we will assist you with them.