Voluntary Safety Recall of Fitbit Ionic Smartwatches

[FitbitCommunity]

Fitbit, in conjunction with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), announced a voluntary recall of Fitbit Ionic smartwatches, which the company introduced in 2017 and stopped producing in 2020. The battery in the Ionic smartwatch can overheat, posing a burn hazard.

The health and safety of Fitbit users is our highest priority. We are taking this action out of an abundance of caution for our users. We will offer a refund to Fitbit Ionic customers.

This voluntary recall is specific to Fitbit Ionic devices. It does not impact any other Fitbit smartwatches or trackers.

If you have an impacted Fitbit Ionic device, please stop using it and visit our webpage where you’ll find:

• Answers to common questions
• Information on how to receive a refund 
• Access to a special discount on select Fitbit devices, bands, and services, if available in your region, for a limited time.

[runnerlife101]

Hello! I've received the refund kit for my Ionic and understand you don't send back any accessories you've purchased after the initial purchase or the original charging cord.

However, do I need to send the original bands back with the watch for the refund? Thanks!

[Odyssey13]

@runnerlife101 they just want the Ionic pebble part, not the charger or bands.

[Holty]

Thanks, for the helpful info, but I don’t  want a virtual cc or to pay ‘inactivity fees’ so I am not happy about this being set up by Fitbit without informing me. Such a frustrating way to do this. So concerning to so many people.

It’s not a scam but it is a rip off of Fitbit to set up a refund for a card that then charges for inactivity…what a cheek! I am very reluctant to do this. I would like a PayPal payment instead but now don’t  think I can. 

[runnerlife101]

Thank you! One other quick question: after doing the factory reset of the Fitbit Ionic, what's the best way to power down before sending it in the mail? I noticed it stays on that same introductory screen after a factory reset.

[Odyssey13]

@runnerlife101  don't think it matters if you power it down or not. It's not going to be used again.

[TazzaR]

Is this a scam?  I'm in exactly the same situation - received a discount code but nothing about refund and its been 5 weeks.  promised 3-6 weeks, maybe its all about getting Ionic owners to buy something else, rather than providing the refunds.

[Satheesh5381]

In India,

Got refund from Paypal on Mar 30, didn't work when contacted Fitbit chat support they asked me to contact customer service.

Customer service didn't work (call gets disconnected after IVR), then again went back to Fitbit chat support, again registered a case and got a reply to contact customer service.

Looks like Fitbit stuck in some kind of event loop

Tried all these possibilities and now fingers crossed

Fitbit chat support-> Fitbit customer service number -> Twitter -> Chat support -> customer service -> Twitter 

[Sarathsanjay]

Same for me. I got refund to google play. Which is of no use. I contacted Google customer support on this but they don't have any proper answer and they told me to work with Fitbit

[LaurenEG]

I live in Ireland as well. You should have gotten another email from Fitbit after that one saying they verified your account, have disabled your device and will issue the refund in 3-6 weeks. 

This email has the link for the discount. I don’t know how to attach photos to show you but did you verify your account in step 1? I had let my page time out and done it using the link in the first email then got the second one the following day. 

I just searched ionic in my emails and both came up so you can try that, check your junk folder and if you never got one then contact Fitbit because I did mine on the 12th so you should definitely have yours by now 

[bart.5526]

i choosed to get a pre paid mastercard, can someone tell me exactly how am i supposed to get it after having the email with the redemption code ? also, since it is a virtual card, can i add it to my revolut account for exemple ? or my paypal account to get the money from it without spending it in useless online shopping ? thanks for answering, i am really looking for help from someone who already got the refund with mastercard ! thanks !

[Hutlou]

My ionic has now been disabled I’ve had a email about my discount for a new Fitbit 40% off new device but had no word of a refund 

[livinginanut]

Hi LaurenEG, thank you so much.

Yes I verified my account and my Ionic was disabled but nothing has
happened after that at all. So I guess my account hasn't been verified yet
seeing as they didn't send a confirmation email.

Very frustrating. If I had known, I guess like most of us, I'd have waited
for all of this to die down then do it.

I contacted the support messenger and they told me to contact the dedicated
helpline, and I scrolled to the "Ireland" one and the number is for London,
like a lot of other counties I then saw! They want me to call London at
crazy rates to try to find info that I should've gotten weeks ago? What a
mess.

[Simon_ST]

Appalling experience with Fitbit. Get the impression Fitbit just want to wash their hands off the recall after they have obtained your consent to disable the Ionic and indemnify themselves. My understanding is the consent and offer of indemnity is revoked if Fitbit does not fulfill their promise so let's see. 

Registered for refund and had my Ionic disabled on 8 March but did not receive a confirmation email with discount codes so I can have my Ionic replaced. After weeks of being told to wait, was finally instructed to contact a third party agent handling refunds located in the UK by phone (no email option). This is not good for me as I'm based in South East Asia so I contacted Fitbit live chat again but they said there was no other option and quickly ended the chat. Utterly speechless. I am not going to pay for the international call costs and waste more time chasing for discount codes just to remain with the Fitbit ecosystem when these guys obviously couldn't care less about markets outside of the US. 

[Himu11]

@Simon_ST This is exactly what is happening with most of us in India too. Pathetic way of doing a recall showing no intent to refund the users even after disabling the syncing of rhe watch.

[OwnTooManyBits]

Fitbit recalled the “FORCE” tracker 8 years ago and the company that handled the refunds for $140.00USD was still processing trackers 7 years later. I do not believe Fitbit is going to allow this “IONIC” recall at 299.00USD to last as long.

[Bianca100]

For the refund you need to be patient for some weeks. I have had an email. That they have refund the money to a credit card and that I can login. But I have done al the steps but I can't login to that credit card part. So I still have no refund.

[livinginanut]

That's it! It seems on this thread mostly the US talking about how they got
it sorted. Surely the US market isn't larger than the entire rest of the
countries they are sold in combined?!

[Satheesh5381]

@Simon_ST 

Agree, Indian customers are also facing exactly same issue.

They issued Paypal refund but when we click on it, it says it no longer exists.

Wretched response from Fitbit chat support, I have even tried calling UK numbers but call gets disconnected after IVR.

Have already spent 10$ just to listen IVR response 😞

[ShaunOR]

---

@livinginanut wrote:
Hi LaurenEG, thank you so much.

Yes I verified my account and my Ionic was disabled but nothing has
happened after that at all. So I guess my account hasn't been verified yet
seeing as they didn't send a confirmation email.

Very frustrating. If I had known, I guess like most of us, I'd have waited
for all of this to die down then do it.

I contacted the support messenger and they told me to contact the dedicated
helpline, and I scrolled to the "Ireland" one and the number is for London,
like a lot of other counties I then saw! They want me to call London at
crazy rates to try to find info that I should've gotten weeks ago? What a
mess.

---

Have you tried going to the following link, entering your details to then get the discount code sent to you?

https://myhelp.fitbit.com/s/devicediscount

If Fitbit have disabled your device, then I'd say that they'll be processing your refund in the 3-6 week time period they stated. 

[Jane2468]

I’ve heard nothing, was waiting for refund to buy a replacement but have now lost faith in fitbit