Reasons for returning the Ionic

[Elizabeth2222]

I am really frustrated with my Ionic right now. Here are a few problems I am having:

I have to manually enter each exercise I start or the Ionic will not record them. Steps/heart rate is recorded, but the exercise itself is not. For instance, today I used the elliptical machine at the gym for 80 minutes, and the bike for 20 min. Everything was recorded correctly, although I think the HR was too low (but that's another topic).

Later today I went on two walks in the park. Neither were recorded. My HR and steps were, but the activity was not. I walked consistently for 20, or more, min each time without stopping.

I really don't think I should have to stop.....enter in an activity.....and then remember to stop the recording when done. I thought the Ionic was supposed to pick up activities????

Another problem I am having is that my watch face will not turn on when I flick my wrist. This happens about 1/2 the time and is really frustrating when I am exercising and I can't just look down at my watch. When this happens, I have to tap the front of the watch at least 5 to 10 times to get it to turn on.

I am planning on returning this watch and purchasing another.

Anyone else going through the same frustrations?

[Denodan]

May work for running but no cycling. Never have had it recognise automatically when i cycle

[Denodan]

May work for running but not cycling. Never have had it recognise automatically when i cycle

[Haz11]

You should raise the issue with fitbit support (ideally speak to them over
the phone). Give them the opportunity to replace the watch for you before
you go hunting for another device...

[Denodan]

Any new products in the electronic world is bug ridden. This is a brand new model so expect bugs and a whole new operating system from the ground up.

You expect no issues dont buy brand new models.

Same applies to computers, consoles, etc. Take them some time to fix the bugs.

[bbarrera]

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@Denodan wrote:

Any new products in the electronic world is bug ridden. This is a brand new model so expect bugs and a whole new operating system from the ground up.

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No. Some products, including Fitbit products, are launched when they are ready and not "bug ridden."

I've owned Fitbit products that were purchased at launch and they performed very well, with very few bugs.

Agree that in the case of Ionic, it has both new OS and new hardware.  

[Denodan]

Well not the ionic. All reviews says while its good its full of bugs.

They bought out pebble smart watch and using their and fitbit techs to make something completely different than the normal fitbit, its not your regular fitbit but a total new direction and a totally new product from fitbit.

So its far from the normal fitbit products.

[bbarrera]

Agree, -some- new products are buggy at launch. Not any/all, just some. 

[Elizabeth2222]

I'm sorry, but a product should not be launched until the bugs have been worked out. There is no excuse for taking money from people when the product was not ready to be released. I can see having a few problems, but the Ionic is riddled with problems.

Why not work these out and THEN launch the fully tested product???

[SunsetRunner]

The thing about a lot of bugs is that they don’t surface until used on a large scale. I’ve not had any problems with the setting up of my Ionic (which I’ve had to do twice following a warranty claim on the screen) and everything else is, for me, working as expected, so far.

[rfjouben]

Although new products may have some bugs not ever user is going to have the same experience. For example some people had issues with set up, some with syncing and some the issue presented here of not detecting workout. I have had none of these issue but have a problem with my headset timing out after 30 minutes which I was able to find a temporary solution for till they program a fix.

There is a good video on smartTrack here https://www.fitbit.com/how-to?video=smarttrack i actually just looked at my settings and I only have auto recognize on for walking so have you adjusted your settings?

I found that if i turn my wrist to slow the Ionic does not come on. I guess that is why they say flick the wrist. 

The important thing to remember is that if you are going to buy the first generation of any product you are going to be beta testing the device for the company which some people, like myself, do not mind because they adding to the product development and realize that the cutting edge is often the bleeding edge. A lot of people comment about Apple and how great their products are but every IOS update I have ever installed has bugs. If someone is not willing to put up with a little of the pain that come with new product development maybe the should wait for a later generation to come along where these issues are worked out.

[Cubicalwarrior]

My issues have been the following. 

1. No App Store. Should have been available at launch. 

2. It keeps saying I’ve hit my daily goal when I haven’t. That’s annoying. 

3. Fitbit pay doesn’t support any cards that I use. 

4. Have to reboot it every few days to get the either the HR accurate or the step counter to work correctly. 

[SunsetRunner]

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@Elizabeth2222 wrote:

I'm sorry, but a product should not be launched until the bugs have been worked out. There is no excuse for taking money from people when the product was not ready to be released. I can see having a few problems, but the Ionic is riddled with problems.

Why not work these out and THEN launch the fully tested product???

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Welcome to the millennium and agile development philosophies.

[Denodan]

Yes in an ideal world tgat would be the case, but today these things are so complex, if you waited for the bugs to be fixed they would be released.

It happens all the time, bring out a new game full of bugs and gets patched. Xbox one and Playstation 4 full of bugs. Any new PC graphics cards  ig issues. All cutting edge tech has big issues.

[bbarrera]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:
Welcome to the millennium.

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Nah, thats just a convenient excuse to not hold a company accountable. The question now is how fast Fitbit will respond, the Ionic has been shipping for a month. 

[SunsetRunner]

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@bbarrera wrote:

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@SunsetRunner wrote:
Welcome to the millennium.

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Nah, thats just a convenient excuse to not hold a company accountable. The question now is how fast Fitbit will respond, the Ionic has been shipping for a month. 

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It's not an excuse. it's a reality. Don't think for one second that I like it. I've done enough IT quality assurance testing to know this has been the case for decades. Complex development takes ages to iron out bugs.

But please go ahead, hold the company accountable. I hope you didn't tick the "I agree" box when you installed the software ;).

[datalore]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

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@bbarrera wrote:

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@SunsetRunner wrote:
Welcome to the millennium.

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Nah, thats just a convenient excuse to not hold a company accountable. The question now is how fast Fitbit will respond, the Ionic has been shipping for a month. 

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It's not an excuse. it's a reality. Don't think for one second that I like it. I've done enough IT quality assurance testing to know this has been the case for decades. Complex development takes ages to iron out bugs.

But please go ahead, hold the company accountable. I hope you didn't tick the "I agree" box when you installed the software ;).

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I think most people with a software background would agree that Apple has one of the best software development teams on the planet. They release software with bugs. Some things you simply can’t see until the software is in the wild. Having said that @bbarrera has a valid point about what fitbit does now. I don’t blame them for releasing buggy software. If they don’t get critical bugs fixed soon they should be blamed, 

[WavyDavey]

Was I the only one old enough to remember the 4 versions of Windows 95 it took to get it to work properly? I think Windows 98 was just about out by then, which also needed another version to correct numerous bugs.  Microsoft is valued at over 400 times Fitbit's.

How people feel about bugs is one thing, but expectations that they would be fixed within a few days or weeks doesn't seem in line with normal software practice.  It would be nice, and a few companies can pull it off, but I'd suggest it's more the exception than the rule.

Apple is an exception because they keep a tight reign on development.  The company is also valued at over 500 times what Fitbit is, to give you an idea of the resources available for each company.  

[SunsetRunner]

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@datalore wrote:

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I think most people with a software background would agree that Apple has one of the best software development teams on the planet. 

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LOL most dev's don't care about operating system wars. They like the dev tools supplied. It's all about tools and customers who consume the end product. Apple sadly is quite lacking in good tools compared to elsewhere, but they certainly have some of the best consumers who want to spend their cash over whatever they feel is cool or something. Sadly  Apple is one of the strictest and annoying regimes when submitting software to their store. Dev's aren't really susceptible to marketing unlike most consumers either, they prefer to leave it to the fan boys (of whatever OS you choose it to be!)... computer are computers. It's like... whatever.

[SunsetRunner]

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@WavyDavey wrote:

Was I the only one old enough to remember the 4 versions of Windows 95 it took to get it to work properly? I think Windows 98 was just about out by then, which also needed another version to correct numerous bugs.  Microsoft is valued at over 400 times Fitbit's.

How people feel about bugs is one thing, but expectations that they would be fixed within a few days or weeks doesn't seem in line with normal software practice.  It would be nice, and a few companies can pull it off, but I'd suggest it's more the exception than the rule.

Apple is an exception because they keep a tight reign on development.  The company is also valued at over 500 times what Fitbit is, to give you an idea of the resources available for each company.  

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Windows 95/98/millennium edition was simply the stepping stone to get DOS/Windows 3.X applications moved over to the Win NT platform (Windows NT/2000/XP etc). It was a hybrid by design, designed to be jack of all trades and plagued by complexity. Still DOS games on it were excellent and it achieved it's purpose, everybody jumped on NT.

[datalore]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

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@datalore wrote:

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I think most people with a software background would agree that Apple has one of the best software development teams on the planet. 

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LOL most dev's don't care about operating system wars. They like the dev tools supplied. It's all about tools and customers who consume the end product. Apple sadly is quite lacking in good tools compared to elsewhere, but they certainly have some of the best consumers who want to spend their cash over whatever they feel is cool or something. Sadly  Apple is one of the strictest and annoying regimes when submitting software to their store. Dev's aren't really susceptible to marketing unlike most consumers either, they prefer to leave it to the fan boys (of whatever OS you choose it to be!)... computer are computers. It's like... whatever.

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The point was from a pure software development standpoint Apple is great. The comment wasn’t about dev tools where I actually agree with you. The point is there is no bullet proof software. I write software for a living and I’m making the broader point that even talented teams don’t catch every bug.