Difficulties placing the band on Versa

[DailyHandstand]

I wish I had read the board posts about the horrible band-changing design before I bought my Versa.

I thought I'd spend a few minutes on my lunch hour learning about my new Versa. Now I have 1/2 the band off and can't get it back on. This is the original black silicone band, not a 3rd party.

I've read what everyone says but at this point I'll have to just put it away and try when I get home from work. Who thought this was a good design? I'm very disappointed.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[AlvaroFitbit]

@DailyHandstand Welcome! Thanks for being part of our Community! Sorry to hear about the difficulties you are having placing the wristband on your Versa. Were you able to place it when you got home? Ideally you will try a 45 degrees approach or once you have inserted one side of the wristband try using some tweezers to pull the pin and secure the band. You can also check the instructions on our help site that includes a video of the process.

Let me know how it goes!

[DailyHandstand]

Hello, yes, I was finally able to get it back on. I have watched all the
videos and read all the info. Maybe it will get easier with time, but I
can't imagine that I will be able to easily switch bands on this like I
could with the Alta.

[AlvaroFitbit]

@DailyHandstand glad to hear that you were able to place the wristband again. I have personally experienced difficulties with one Versa I was trying out and it did became easier after a few tries. Still happy to see that you are now back on track.

I'll be around!

[ginaboo877]

I am having the same problem.  Trying to put the original silicone band back on my Versa.  Wish I could take this back.  It is NOT worth spending an hour and still only getting half of the stupid band back on.  I am going to tell my friends to stay away from the Versa! 

[DailyHandstand]

Ultimately, I did decide to keep my Versa. Despite this terrible lack of band-changing-ability, I LOVE the Versa. It is just fantastic. I love the different clock faces. I can see the date/time, heart rate, active minutes, and steps at a glance. The display is fantastic. Plus you can add apps like a regular timer, Pomodora (focus) timer, alarms, etc. There are some that don't make sense, like Weather, since you'd have to keep Bluetooth on all day long. I hope that Fitbit will figure out a way to tweak the band in the future. I'm just not changing mine for now. It's too difficult.

[DakobyTako]

I'm also am in the "Love the watch, hate the band" camp. My one suggestion is to try not to get frustrated with the pin mechanism. I was swapping out my band for my workout band a few weeks ago and the **ahem** pin would come out. So I continued to struggle and wiggle until finally the Lever snapped. And when the lever snaps, that band is in there FOREVER. I had to call fitbit for support, they offered to take the watch back and send me a new one. The whole thing took about 2 weeks without a watch.

I have, however, found an alternative to the pin bands. I found a type of band where you slip in the watch and not have to deal with the pins at all. Not able to share pictures at the moment, still trying to figure that out now. 

[DakobyTako]

This band literally took me 5 seconds to put on. The downside? its a third party band and i had to dig thru the depths of amazon to find it. There aren't a lot of selection and I'm hope that by posting the pics here, fitbit takes this design and makes a better looking version and of better quality

PLEASE FITBIT... MAKE THIS

[AlvaroFitbit]

Hi everyone thank you for your feedback regarding the Versa wristband. You can all vote for the idea about improving/changing this mechanism here. The more votes an idea gets the more likely the developers will try to implement it. Also @DakobyTako thank you for sharing the pictures of the wristband that worked for you.

I'll be around!

[Leaaaaa]

The band is a **ahem** nightmare..now I wish I never sold my Blaze and bought this thing!

[Leaaaaa]

You should not have to do all of that!  Tweezers?!

[datalore]

I love the Versa, but man that band changing is needlessly complicated. I hope they change the band replacement in future updates of the watch. While I understand what they were trying to do in theory, it just doesn't work that well in practice. It's simply poor design and an update would be nice on the next iteration of the watch. 

[Beazley]

Taking my Fitbit versa back because I'm the impossible situation with changing the Bands. Now I know why it's called Fitbit. I have a fit every time I try! Giving it up.

[Beazley]

Returning my watch for the very reason of the Bands. Tired of fits over the Fitbit.

[Sensei-D]

Personally, I've never had any problems with changing the band. Maybe my fingers are just a little more nimble, but I know that not everyone has issues with the way it connects.

[N8teGee]

I can change mine in seconds now, it's all about the angle. Once you find the correct angle it's very easy. 

[datalore]

It has gotten easier now that I use the 45 degree angle to change them, but they need to modify this in the next version of the versa. 

[Shmuel2]

I am now sending my cersa back because of the band replacement problem. 

[Leaaaaa]

Honestly after I originally posted my concerns, I was able to get my bands on.  I have not had any issues since.  Now going 6 or more months.  There's actually a method to the madness.  I just wish it was easier! Try using this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDX4bU6AElc

[Shmuel2]

It is too bad that FITBIT didn"t use the Blaze frame design for the Versa. Then all of us buyers wouldn't have so much angst.