Feedback about customer support

[pilv13]

Reviews are starting to come in:

CNET preliminary review:

https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/fitbit-charge-3-has-arrived-heres-whats-different-vs-versa/

Unboxing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYCmZrEby2o

Tom's guide review:

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/fitbit-charge-3,review-5818.html

[Blackish]

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@theultrahvybeat wrote:

It feels nice physically.

Software wise you can tell this was rushed. 

Personally I’d urge anyone who hasn’t purchased yet to wait— I wish I had.

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You reported your problem in another topic and asked if anybody experienced the same issues. Nobody has responded and yet you conclude the Charge3 has major software problems and you urge others to wait? Maybe your problem is hardware and not software related?

That said, every fitbit I have owned (Charge hr, Charge2 and Ionic) had their share of problems right after release, which were swiftly ironed out with frequent software updates.

[leduck]

It was definitely a pain to get the device set up, but we got there. I'm liking how it feels and like the nice, firm haptic feedback. I'm also in favor of additional clock faces, but I'm sure those will be coming. It functions quite well now that it's been installed, and I really like the ability to scroll by touch on this watch.

[Cyric]

It does everything it's supposed to do. It counts steps, tracks sleep, connects to my phone's GPS, offers silent alarms, measures heart rate, swim proof, light, comfortable, is not an eyesore on your wrist.

My only personal gripes which I'm sure will be resolved are of course the lack of date and watch face selections and my biggie is the new gray scaled fonts. Unfortunately it's very difficult to read them when outside during the day.

My hope is they offer a way to go back to the static B&W like the Charge had or the ability to crank up the brightness more or some sort of high contrast setting.

[soccersnaps]

Im sure there are a huge number of people who are happy with their devices, most would probably not come here to write. I own an ionic and a charge2 and their both very good. A question i have from reading this thread, with my charge2 i can select the tiles i wish to view on my iphone app, is this not possible with the charge3?  

[SpinSpinSugar69]

Thanks for being honest. I have been on the fence.

[Cyric]

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@soccersnaps wrote:

Im sure there are a huge number of people who are happy with their devices, most would probably not come here to write. I own an ionic and a charge2 and their both very good. A question i have from reading this thread, with my charge2 i can select the tiles i wish to view on my iphone app, is this not possible with the charge3?  

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You can still pick the tiles on the phone app, the problem is with the app tiles that include Exercise, Weather, Relax, Timers, Alarms and Settings... there is no option to NOT show them like you can with the Versa and the Ionic. A lot of people would rather not have the weather and the relax feature... Myself included making one less app screen to swipe through. Not a huge deal for me though.

[theultrahvybeat]

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@Blackish wrote:

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@theultrahvybeat wrote:

It feels nice physically.

Software wise you can tell this was rushed. 

Personally I’d urge anyone who hasn’t purchased yet to wait— I wish I had.

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You reported your problem in another topic and asked if anybody experienced the same issues. Nobody has responded and yet you conclude the Charge3 has major software problems and you urge others to wait? Maybe your problem is hardware and not software related?

That said, every fitbit I have owned (Charge hr, Charge2 and Ionic) had their share of problems right after release, which were swiftly ironed out with frequent software updates.

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Thanks for putting words in my mouth by assuming what I meant-- I really do appreciate it.

I didn't mention my issue with my Charge 3 in this thread because of exactly what you said: I do not know if others are having that issue. It could be a one off on my device. It would have been unfair to bring that up here. Instead, my reason for not recommending the device, and saying it was rushed are the same things others have shared:
1) Watch Faces are limited, can't control what stats to preset on the first screen (ie switch calories burned with steps).

2) No watch faces show date.
3) Can't rearrange the order of the Apps.
4) The screen times out much too quickly

Overall I like the device, but I still would tell people to wait if they haven't bought it yet because it's clear they pushed this one out a little too soon. Not everyone enjoys being an early adopter and coming from a Charge 2, the Charge 3 in some ways feels a bit more limited, albeit a better overall device.

Don't go around trying to score a zinger on people you don't agree with. Someone will eventually just make you look silly.

[soccersnaps]

thanks @Cyric, yes i can see now its not completely customiseable, 

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks for answering my question. Have you already used the silent alarm? Does it wake you up? In other words is the vibration strong enough? I would really like this feature to work properly so that I won’t wake up my partner at 6.00 am.

[SunsetRunner]

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@Cyric wrote:

It does everything it's supposed to do. It counts steps, tracks sleep, connects to my phone's GPS, offers silent alarms, measures heart rate, swim proof, light, comfortable, is not an eyesore on your wrist.

My only personal gripes which I'm sure will be resolved are of course the lack of date and watch face selections and my biggie is the new gray scaled fonts. Unfortunately it's very difficult to read them when outside during the day.

My hope is they offer a way to go back to the static B&W like the Charge had or the ability to crank up the brightness more or some sort of high contrast setting.

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Thanks for answering my question. Have you already used the silent alarm? Does it wake you up? In other words is the vibration strong enough? I would really like this feature to work properly so that I won’t wake up my partner at 6.00 am.

[MySpirit1991]

I asked for the charge 3 for my birthday only because you could swim with it and I swim almost everyday. I love my charge 2 and intend on keeping it. The three is great for swimming and works as expected. However, there is a white line across my screen that will not go away and I’ve had to sync it again this morning because somehow overnight it stopped syncing. The second time took over an hour and I still have the white line. So I may take it back or just use it for swimming.

[Cyric]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

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Thanks for answering my question. Have you already used the silent alarm? Does it wake you up? In other words is the vibration strong enough? I would really like this feature to work properly so that I won’t wake up my partner at 6.00 am.

I have used the silent alarm, it's pretty strong, I haven't used it to wake me up but I'm fairly certain it should be strong enough since it's stronger then the charge 2's alarm and it always woke me up.

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[Reddalewcu]

I agree with the points you have made..especially with the date not on the watch face. As a side note, I upgraded from the Charge HR, and honestly was expecting at least the upgraded features from the Charge 2, with the added benefit of using it in the water when I swim laps. So far Im on the fence as to whether Ill keep this or return it for either the Versa (that I have read has its own issues) or downgrade to the Charge 2. Understanding this is a new product just being released, Im giving it a couple of weeks to see if the kinks get ironed out (Im hoping.)

[Chriq]

you wont be any happier with the Charge 3, it's dimmer in my opinion to the charge 2.

[SunsetRunner]

Got mine on Saturday , and i really like it , the only thing i miss is the clock with date and the battery , i thought 7 days but will be lucky to make 4 , other than that im really happy , sits great on my wrist  very light weight , 

[SunsetRunner]

Thank you!

Verstuurd vanaf mijn iPhone

[vee]

I'm happy!  It has more features; I love the scrolling data. And you can choose to leave a scrolled page open,  nice when you are trying to get the 250 steps. (when I twist my arm I get that screen back until I go back to the watch.) It even added an interval workout to the exercise choices so I can do my run/walks. (always had to choose run or walk). A few minor tweaks (adding some watch faces)  and it will be perfect. I've had one problem that I think they can easily correct in an update if needed. It lost the Bluetooth connection overnight and wouldn't sync this morning. Restarting it fixed that quickly though I wouldn't want to have to do it every morning. 

I was thinking of NOT using it right away after reading all the negative reports here, but I'm very happy I went ahead!

[BobM2]

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@kostax wrote:

• limited clock faces (should have the best of Charge 2, Alta HR + more. Definitely needs date & day of week options). Vote here to get more options!
• would be nice to be able to swipe right from the "home screen" (imagine endless swiping in either direction to cycle through menu items) Vote here to implement this!

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Given that there are feature requests for the Charge 2 (and Charge, and Alta.....) that have more than 1,000 votes with no action by Fitbit (other than to say "tough beans"), and feature requests for the app that go back years, also with no action, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Fitbit to address these. Maybe they'll do something in the Charge 4, so you can spend even more money.

I was hoping Fitbit would at least take into account the requests that have been out there for a year or more and incorporate those features into the Charge 3. Instead, they've taken existing features away. It's official: my next tracker won't be from Fitbit.

[PRT940]

I'm happy with my Charge 3 so far. 

Pros:

- Heart rate was spot-on with manually-measured pulse when I checked (I wasn't exercising, though)

- Resting heart rate last night with the Charge 3 was the same as the previous night with the Alta HR.

- Screen is large, easy to read, and bright enough to see outdoors so far (not sunny here the last 2 days, so I can't tell you what it'll look like in bright sunlight yet)

- Tracker is comfortable and light -- no issues sleeping with it (as long as you disable Screen Wake and set the brightness to "Dim")

- Usability is very similar to the Versa in terms of swiping up/down/right, as well as using the left-side "button."

- Even at the "normal" setting, the vibration is stronger than it was on my Versa or Alta HR.

Cons (Edited 10/10/18):

- Edit: my Charge 3 intermittently fails to track my steps.  I can watch while I'm walking, and the step count will remain unchanged for several minutes, and then not add in the steps shortly thereafter (like other Fitbits I've had). It is costing me at least a couple thousand steps a day. As this is the base functionality of the entire device, I'm going to have to return this one, and hope that other Charge 3s don't have the same problem.

- Notifications required some extra stopping/starting/unchecking-options in my phone and app to get them working. 

- The Fitbit app hung while setting up the Charge 3.  I had to force-close it and restart it to finish the setup.  Still much easier to set up than the Versa was, IMO. 

- I turned off "Screen Wake" via the tracker today when I went to a movie, and when I came out, I could not get the "Screen Wake" and "Notifications" options to show up again via holding the left button.  I had to restart the tracker to get those options to show up again for me. That's a definite bug.

- In the clock faces, some of the content is displayed using a light gray color (instead of white), which makes it a little hard to read (especially outdoors)

- Need more clock face options

[SunsetRunner]

Don’t think it’s as good as the charge 2 don’t like the clock faces & not date on it seems very cheaply made wish I hadn’t bought it now