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.

[Gkels]

Hello Fitbit Community,

I hate to post something negative but I haven't been able to find anyone to help me resolve my issues with this Iconic Fitbit recall.

I live in Canada and completed all the necessary steps to submit my recall request.

was informed I would receive a $450CND Amazon ecard by email.

So far the only successful part of this process is that Fitbit disabled my perfectly working device. 3-year-old Iconic with zero issues.

Like many others, I receive notice this process could take 3-6 weeks to complete.

It has now been 12 weeks with zero replies or recall refund.  I've called the Fitbit Recall Canadian 1-800 number 3 times looking for answers.

Each time I've reached a pleasant person who had provided me with a different excuse for the delay(Amazon issue, the Canadian recall database got deleted, etc) and I would receive a promise to alert their supervisor.

I can't even have my existing Iconic reactivated.

So.... Fitbit community any suggestions?  I would love to hear if any Canadians have managed to receive their recall refund.

[tlcampbell5]

I sent mine in on March 3rd, I am still waiting to receive my refund. Good
luck.

[Ionic_Ed]

Initially, I liked my fitbit and used it all the time. But gradually, I am starting to hate Fitbit company. 
First, requests for product improvements (even the same from multiple users) never get implemented.
And second - this recall is handled horribly. They hired several companies to handle communication, verification and payout and none of them talk to each other.
I called a number of times over the past four months, after sending my watch back and was given misleading information and promises to escalate my case (whatever that means).
I am due a significant amount of money, otherwise I would have given up long time ago -my time is valuable to me as well.

I guess, Fitbit doesn't care about their existing members - only the new ones. Too bad.

[JP_Mul]

People power through social media platforms might force Fitbit to cough up. They were quick enough to take the money when they sold the devices. All these delays in issuing refunds is a disgraceful way to treat their customers. 

[venables]

Same here. My time is valuable and I want what was promised. It is a significant amount of cash.

That won't be spent with Fitbit when I replace the tracker

[VMMage]

@pggadpayle, that is the email address that Sedgwick (the refund process company that Fitbit hired to do most of the recall work) is using to send notifications that your refund is coming or completed.  If the email mentions a virtual credit card or similar, follow the instructions and hopefully you will have the appropriate funds in the virtual card (some folks have found that their card is invalid or has a zero balance).

[Ridthirong]

 

[VMMage]

I'm going to try to explain what I think is happening with the Ionic recall/refund process and why I expect that a lot of people will have to wait a very long time for their refunds. Please note that I'm just an end user of Fitbit products (well, in the past at this point), everything that follows is just guesswork. Sadly, Fitbit has decided not to publish any public information about the recall/refund process problems/solutions, so speculation is all I've got.

I'll start with the one hard number we have -- about 1.7 million Ionic devices were purchased around the world and should be eligible for a refund. Since the refund amount is large, I'll start by assuming that at least 1.5 million refund requests have been submitted. Next, I'll be incredibly generous and say that 96% of all requests have been properly processed by the automated system set up by Fitbit/Sedgwick. 4% of 1.5M is 60,000 requests that need help. Next, I'll say that Fitbit hired additional people for the support team to handle just the recall/refund tickets because the regular support team is kept near 100% busy just handling the usual warranty claims and other issues. And I'll say that the additional support staff can resolve 100 tickets per day (500 per week) for "simple" ticket issues, such as needing to re-send emails that got lost or deleted, and 80% (48,000) of the pending tickets are "simple". This means that Fitbit will clear the "simple" tickets in 96 weeks, which is almost 2 years. Naturally, the people who keep calling to keep their ticket active will get the fastest response.

What about the "non-simple" tickets (12,000)? Applying the usual 80/20 rule, the additional support staff can only handle 20 of those per day (100 per week), and they will mostly focus on the "simple" tickets because they can process more of them. So they will need 120 weeks to clear the "non-simple" tickets, which is 28 months.

If you don't like my numbers, you can play around with them and get a different time estimate, but my guesswork explains why a "6 to 8 week" wait is likely to be much larger.

[Karimamr28]

I was make a reset a factory of my fitbit ionic and it won't to active again , i need a solve, please 

[Cindy1979]

Good idea !!

[Odyssey13]

Hi @Karimamr28  did you send for your Ionic recall refund? If so, it's been deactivated. 

[MustafaAdelAli]

Disabling our devices and not getting our due refund for almost 6 months is unacceptable. Imagining the reverse situation if a consumer pays Fitbit with a cheque but empties the account before they get their money and keeps the product. Will it be OK with only a promise that it will honoured soon but no timeline given?

[Mikeionic]

How long does it take to generally to get my refund in Canada ? I have been without a watch for 5 weeks now and have heard nothing from Fitbit. I called the help number they are a 3rd party and cannot answer any valued question like above. So frustrating ! 

[Mikeionic]

Fitbit should send emails out to the affected users giving them updates . I am without a watch for 5 weeks since the recall ..still waiting. 

[Ridthirong]

Thailand 10weeks pass.

No email.

No refund.

No everything.

Waiting too long.

[Mikeionic]

Why can't this administrator look into the issue and report back ? 

[pggadpayle]

Thanks VMMage for reply, i got the reply and they are asking me to refund by GooglePay - India.

Is it genuine as i have seen lots for fraud in past. 

Please suggest.

[Virybugarini]

Has anyone gotten their refund? I'm about 11 weeks since I returned my Ionic, and no money! 

[prost22]

Yes (I am in the US). Got my $299 refund after I sent in my Ionic, which was working perfectly for 5 years except for the loss of the vibrate function, and I got a new Sense with a 40% off coupon. The $299 came on a virtual credit card; I've spent half of it already (Amazon).

[tlcampbell5]

Turned mine in on March 3rd, still no money. I did get an "escalation
call" a couple days ago. They said that my information is correct and
Fitbit will send my money to paypal but could not tell me how long that
would take.