Why does the Charge 2 not come with a USB dongle?

[MeanDean]

why in the hell does this not come with a dongle ? how frustrating to buy this product and begin to set it up ...only to find ..oh wait .....there is no dongle.?   wtf are you thinking .....so now how do i set it up ...this is my first purchase ..and with stupid thinking on fitbits part they don't ship all the hardware to set the watch up...?... this is so stupid ...i almost threw this piece of crap in garbage .....i would have if it didnt cost me 200 bucks ....Not happy .......

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[AnonymousAl]

I can't complete the setup...

Windows 7 (I don't like Windows 10!), I do not have a dongle, and even when I have the fitbit connected to the computer using the USB cable it is not completing the setup. Truly absurd that I now have to go through the steps of calling to ask for a dongle. It would be sooooo convenient if I could complete setup with the device connected via USB.

[onefield]

Fitbit does not ship what you need (dongle/) nor do they tell you you have to ask for it. You are right that Microsoft 10 is a garbage upgrade but Fitbit harasses you to upgrade rather than ship dongle. I used an old dongle I had to activate rather than upgrade (bs) to 10 from 7. I wrote to Fitbit customer service and waited patiently as a bot patted me on the head. Good luck

[Schimpf]

I totally agree with you! Then, after about a year and numerous bands that
kept breaking, we had to give up using the Fitbit. Just a poor product, in
my opinion.





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[Rich_Laue]

Since Win7 is barely supported anymore by Microsoft, those that run Win 7 are diminishing every day 

@Schimpf you could spend $8 / 10 and get a band from Amazon. 

[Schimpf]

Yes, we did that twice and Fitbit replaced once. Still broke after being
worn several months.





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[Voltaire53]

My wife doesn't like W10 either but W7 is no longer supported for security by Microsoft so she just upgraded and set it to 'look and act like Windows 7' mode

[Voltaire53]

I presume Fitbit's logic would be "If we ship with dongle and charge (even a little bit) more, then people will complain 'I never use it with my PC, just my phone, why I should I pay more because other people aren't up to date?" - the same logic as why 3D TVs are no longer made... the price increase was only about £5-£10 but for the vast majority who didn't use it, it was "Why am I paying for something I don't use?", *assuming* the 3D additional cost was signifcant.

[PureEvil]

@Voltaire53,

I don't believe your characterization is necessarily the case.  There are many accounts of folks simply contacting support asking (politely) for a dongle and Fitbit will ship them one free of charge.

I'm sure Fitbit has the numbers on which accounts sync through which method (mobile app or dongle) and I imagine that there are very few people that sync through the dongle (and Fitbit Connect).

When Fitbit shipped their older trackers with the dongle, there was some confusion as to which pieces did what?  Once all smartphone platforms allowed for mobile syncing there (and the vast majority of folks synced that way), including the dongle in the packing was actually a disservice:

• Created confusion and frustration; new users didn't know which charged and which synced...  they didn't want to take up two USB slots...  more clutter to track... etc.
• As you mentioned, cost users more money (price of dongle, package design, etc. )

Trust me, I have answered a number of these threads myself.  While I understand that there are a number of folks who are still adversely affected by this, I think this is a net positive.

And incidentally, to put it in perspective about people being up to date, Windows 7 is as old as the iPhone 3GS (2007).  Do you know of anyone who still uses an iPhone 3GS?  I don't.

I hope this helps.

[WCFWCF]

I didn't have a clue that when I bought the versa 2 that it was not complete - no dongle.  My workstation does not have bluetooth.  You pay that much and get nothing.  What a waste.

[SonierJ]

Sent from my iPad

[Rich_Laue]

@WCFWCF simply go out and buy a $10 generic 4.0 Bluetooth dongle. 

[PureEvil]

@WCFWCF,

As @Rich_Laue suggested, just buy a conventional bluetooth dongle...

Or if you contact support and chat with them nicely and calmly and explain your situation, they'll likely send you one free of charge.

You probably spent as much time searching for this thread and writing a post as you would've spend chatting with support and have them send you one.