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How many others have returned their Ionic to retail or Fitbit for refund?

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‎01-11-2018 03:23

‎01-11-2018 03:23

I received my Ionic 21 Dec 17. 

 

First thing I did was to put it on charge.

 

It then took nearly 3 hours to do the firmware update after firstly 'fighting' to get it to connect & sync to Android app.

 

Right there! Was this the warning this was not going to be a happy relationship?

 

Then the same day 'it self powered down' with the only way of slaving it back to life being to put it back onto charge.

 

This worked the first few times until the last time it died being Sunday 7 January 18.

 

This time though was very different.

 

This time just before it shut down, again with no warning, the Ionic heated up to point it was too hot 'it was starting to burn my skin' so it was quickly removed as I feared the battery was going to catastrophically fail & potentially burn me.

 

Then nothing. Even attempting slaving it back to life by putting it onto charge failed.

 

It was shipped back to Netherlands as per customer services & I am now waiting out on refund Ionic & cost postage.

 

Annoying part for me was use of Chat being prohibitively restrictive to get onto then communications being painfully slow  & my ignored email communications.

 

Chat totally ignored any questions as to cause or reason why Ionic failed and when I asked if FitBit are aware of similar issues to mine - question was totally ignored.

 

Not one of my emails to date regarding Ionic failure have been answered.

 

 

No one likes being fobbed off nor ignored.

 

Garmin Fenix 3 or 5 or Polar V800 is where I am going to. 

 

Blaze, Surge, Ionic and Versa1. I am not a FitBit employee.
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‎01-11-2018 03:53

‎01-11-2018 03:53

Returning my second one today.  Got a replacement first time, getting a refund this time.  Both failed after swimming.

 

Not sure what to buy instead 😞  Gutted that I already gave my Blaze to my daughter!

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‎01-11-2018 04:05

In response to MiniEmma

‎01-11-2018 04:05

I held onto my Surge 😉 Just a 6th sense thing but I am having problems with this not charging too - why I moved to Ionic!   

 

The Polar V800 is tried & tested technology as are the Garmin Fenix 3 & 5 by others I train with.  

 

The fact the Ionic has dropped so quickly in UK pricing from £299 to cheapest today being £229 with FitBit selling it directly for £200 to existing customers just tells you FitBit retailers are trying to get rid of the stock they have.

 

Amazon UK there are more negative recent reviews than positive for the Ionic too.

 

 

Blaze, Surge, Ionic and Versa1. I am not a FitBit employee.
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‎01-11-2018 04:12 - edited ‎01-11-2018 04:15

In response to MiniEmma

‎01-11-2018 04:12 - edited ‎01-11-2018 04:15

@MiniEmma wrote:

Returning my second one today.  Got a replacement first time, getting a refund this time.  Both failed after swimming.

 

Not sure what to buy instead 😞  Gutted that I already gave my Blaze to my daughter!

umm... another Blaze? 🙂

(yeah, might sound funny but you did not gave enough info to go on and allow me to make a purchase suggestion )

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‎01-11-2018 04:56

In response to edit001

‎01-11-2018 04:56

 

@edit001 wrote:
@MiniEmma wrote:

Returning my second one today.  Got a replacement first time, getting a refund this time.  Both failed after swimming.

 

Not sure what to buy instead 😞  Gutted that I already gave my Blaze to my daughter!

umm... another Blaze? 🙂

(yeah, might sound funny but you did not gave enough info to go on and allow me to make a purchase suggestion )


Hehe yes that would be the obvious suggestion and was my first thought also but I think I would almost find it a backward step as there were so many features of the Ionic that I loved, music, headphones, swimming (or not!!) etc.  and even though I found the Blaze fairly comfortable, the Ionic was more so.  I may end up just hanging on to see if the Ionic improves at all.

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‎01-11-2018 05:35

In response to MiniEmma

‎01-11-2018 05:35

Mine's going back. Constant sync issues and a few other more minor annoyances. Real total shame because it really is the ideal product for me. Full story in my "failed to sync after 2 days" thread.

 

I'm looking at a few Garmin products - the forerunner series mostly. The new 645 music, though I'm hesitant to buy another brand new product. Also considering the Forerunner 935 or Forerunner 735XT, though both are a little pricey, don't include a payment feature, and are kinda ugly plastic. The Vivoactive 3 looks nice and is the right price, but per their support forums and reviews, it's potentially just as buggy as the Ionic.

 

I may also go to another fitbit product, although since they don't really have an array of actual smartwatches to choose from, that would mean switching to a "fitness tracker" product instead, and I'm not sure I want to do that, either.

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‎01-14-2018 16:09

In response to dwizum

‎01-14-2018 16:09

"I may also go to another fitbit product, although since they don't really have an array of actual smartwatches to choose from, that would mean switching to a "fitness tracker" product instead, and I'm not sure I want to do that, either."

 

I returned my ionic today for the same reasons you see in these threads plus a couple personal peeves.   I'll leave it at that.  Actually, no, I won't.  I'll add that it's garbage that fitbit only offers the 45 day "trial" for products purchased at fitbit.com.  Thankfully it was effortless returning mine to the retailer (target) - they remarked that they were getting a lot of them back so they weren't surprised at all - but it's still a bad policy.

 

FWIW, my wife was a long, long time fitbit wearer.  I bought her a Apple Watch 3 for xmas.  She hasn't put her fitbit on since then.  I took her Charge 2 as a hand-me-down and will use it until I find a decent android wear watch or fitbit releases a "smartwatch" with a speaker so the interval timer is useful and I can differentiate between my notifications.

 

The Charge 2 is not a smartwatch, and has a lot of limitations, but it does everything that I cared about on the ionic and costs about half as much.  You might consider it if what you're interested in is tracking heart rate and sleep and your workouts.  If you care more about standard smartwatch features and think of "tracking" as a secondary feature, fitbit really doesn't have anything to offer in that space.

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‎01-14-2018 16:40 - edited ‎01-14-2018 16:51

‎01-14-2018 16:40 - edited ‎01-14-2018 16:51

Hi,

 

I had issues with my Ionic in the beginning also. It did not sync with my Sony Xperia XZ Premium, cause this device is not listed in the supported devices, for whatever reason. Sending a question about this to the Ionic forum solved the problem. I now have Fitbit installed on my Samsung Galaxy TAB S3, deleted the app on my Sony and turned off bluetooth on my Laptop. Everything is fine now. Weather is updated as it should be and Hue Lights app, which can turn lamps on/off via your Ionic is working perfectly. so, all in all, the Ionic is for me the perfect device, certainly if you take in account that this the first attempt of Fitbit to make a Smartwatch!

 

kindest regards, kuzibri

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