Versa doesn't turn on

[Hurikane7]

Disappointed...I purchased a Fitbit Versa for Mother’s Day as a gift for my wife. She planned on tracking her steps in New York. It quit and never came back on...77% charged and confirmed by customer service. Call in and fallowed all the steps, but nothing. Customer Service said they after they received the Versa back it would be overnighted back. Sent back May 23rd, confirmed it has been received June 6th, and it’s our Anniversary today. My wife has been asking me to no longer order anything direct because they is no accountability. I’m frustrated and very disappointed.

Moderator edit: added label

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[Rich_Laue]

I beleive that there is plenty of help and Customer Service does their best to help customers. 

The problem i see when it comes to replacement units, their hands are tied by Fitbits policy .

The unit gets sent back

The sender gets confirmation that it was received

The message does not get back to support and the tracker gets lost in the warehouse. 

A separate address just for returns are needed

Better yet, with a return, at least in the USA 

The replacement should be sent out .next day. with instructions to pick up the old one .

You get handed the new tracker, as you hand them the old tracker. 

No box on your part is needed. 

This would go a long way .

[Hurikane7]

I received the confirmation from Customer Service of the date the Versa was received back, and it seemed as the Rep was trying to hide the watch was not being sent back overnight as promised because it is the 12th? Why would Customer Service lie about the warehouse receiving the returned watch?

Sent from my iPhone

[Rich_Laue]

Did you ask for your case to be ejaculated? 

[kprather88]

I agree--my screen died. They wanted me to take a video to prove it.  Then I am supposed to send it to them--could take 5 days AFTER they receive it to send one back.  I explained that their old Fitbits were sent--then we sent ours back-they said service for higher end models is different. Different = Harder.  This is ridiculous. Their expensive watch DiED and now I have to video it--and send it back and wait up to 10 days for a replacement--really? I need to look at service for other high end smart watches-Fitbit is not meant to be in this market.

[Jayelo]

I agree. When my Fitbit died less than a month of use the process to have the case handled and then to see if they needed to replace it was ridiculous. Videos needed to be made and emailed and all these useless testing had to occur in order for them to realize that my Fitbit died. Plus, their agents are not familiar with the devices. Then I get misinformation about their shipping procedures. And the length of time for them to ship back my Fitbit, get to the warehouse and get it looked at and to ship it back was also a ridiculous amount of time. I don’t feel comfortable sending my $200 device that they made which broke down in less than a month to them and do the waiting game while I’m out $200. Who knows if I’ll get a refurbished one or a new one or ever get one sent back. Good thing I went back to Best Buy, exchanged it for a new one with no hassle and within 3 days (they were out of stock). Never will I ever buy directly from Fitbit ever. If I ever get another Fitbit. 

[MikeC17]

Totally agree. I just went through their whole online messaging system and they were terrible on it and it eventually cutout and they didn't reach back out to me. I then phoned them and they we're still awful and the phone "cutout" as well. I sent them images of my Versa through email which got a big scratch across the screen after only days of use, the screen is apparently made of the same thin plastic they use on lottery tickets.

They refused to do anything for me except offer me 25% off a new fitbit. Ya right! I'll never be buying another fitbit. I'll be selling the one I bought on craigslist.

I heard horror stories of friends that bought fitbits over the past few years and just figured they would have improved over the years and that their products would have improved. But I was wrong!

[MikeC17]

I bought mine online and they start the 45 days from the moment you purchase so you lose 2 weeks in the mail!!!! They're unbelievable. Definitely DO NOT buy online!

[Jayelo]

@MikeC17 Wow! That is awful!! 

[meresydotes]

 They will definitely give you a much harder time during the 45 day return period. Here's my story:

I bought my Versa from Amazon and received it on release day. After the firmware update (I think), it started restarting itself overnight. I did all the troubleshooting steps Fitbit wanted - factory reset and so forth - and they wanted to replace it. But they wanted to do their standard method where I send it back and they don't send a new one until they get the "old" one back and the whole thing takes a month because they use slow boat shipping. It had been 31 days, so I called Amazon and they replaced it for me.

The same thing kept happening with the replacement. I did a factory reset with that one and it kept happening. And they kept telling me they wanted to replace it, even though I already had a replacement that didn't fix the problem. And they kept insisting they needed the old one back. I didn't want to do that. The one I had was functional, but it had what was clearly a firmware bug.

Then, at exactly 45 days, I called support about it and they said they were going to send me a replacement, no need to return the old one at all; nevermind that the replacement clearly wasn't the solution, but whatever. I figured I could switch to a silver one, since I regretted buying the black one, because I found it too Vaderish. And that same day, I got an email from chat support again telling me my only possible solution was a replacement and they needed the one I had back first.

I got the replacement after like 10 days - slow boat - and could barely install the Fitbit bands and couldn't install most of my 3rd party bands. I called them up expecting to get laughed off the face of the earth. Instead they said there was a known issue with some of the replacements that the bands weren't installing and they were going to OVERNIGHT me another replacement.

So now I'm on my 4th Versa and I have two extras. The replacement replacement crashed last night at least once and probably twice. I'm probably going to have to factory reset it. Then contact support AGAIN and hope maybe they might possibly want to work on a bug for once.

The moral of the story is, if you can wait out your 45 day return period, the replacement process is much more flexible. But Fitbit still isn't interested in fixing bugs.

[MikeC17]

After 45 days they will do nothing for you.

[meresydotes]

@MikeC17 After 45 days, you can't return it for a refund anymore. So they don't mind if you have more than one, since they won't refund any of them. Like I said, I've got 3 of them right now. I had the same thing happen when I had a Blaze - it had a bug, I called, they insisted on having the old one back first until 45 days had passed. Then they just sent me a new one. Which still had the bug. So I had two with a bug. But it was nice to have backup. Especially when one of them got a ding in the screen.

[MikeC17]

They're saying it's after 45 days for me and all they have offered me is 25% off a brand new fitbit. That's an insane option, I don't even know why they would offer that. Embarrassing customer service.

[meresydotes]

@MikeC17 Oh, I see, the problem is a scratched screen. That really sucks. I agree that they shouldn't advertise how their devices have tough Gorilla Glass when anything that is sitting on your wrist is going to get banged around and even Gorilla Glass scratches and breaks.

I got an Ionic (yes, I'm stupid enough to buy all the Fitbits) and scratched the screen within the first week. Because I bought it from Amazon, they replaced it for me and I learned my lesson and the very first thing I did when my Versa arrived, before charging and setting up was install the screen protector.

What you can do is wait for some bug to manifest, then complain about that. They'll probably send you a new one so they don't have to fix the bug. Then you'll have a new one without a scratched screen. And you'll put a nice glass screen protector on it first thing, I'm sure.

[MikeC17]

They should just make the housing out of better materials and include a screen protector. Why cheap out on that!? Why go through all this to save under $5 dollars of material. I would have paid $50-100 more for a better product that didn't get damaged immediately. They might as well pre-scratch it before they send it from the factory.

[meresydotes]

@MikeC17 That I can't answer for you. They really should at least tell people to get a screen protector. I guess your phone manufacturer doesn't have to tell you and doesn't have to provide one. But your phone isn't meant to be swinging off the end of your arm 24/7 either. I don't know about you, but I walk into things. A lot.

[GreginJaxFL]

After dealing with Fitbit's customer service in the past, I always buy locally, like at Best Buy, so you can return instantly!

[indianwin2001]

I bought an Ionic from Best Buy with Extended warranty in October of last year.. By Janaury of this year I realized all the problems.. Returned it to Best Buy under warranty-- They exchanged it for a Garmin VA3---no questions asked----I advise everybody to take that route as I basically used it as a tryout--- BTW I love the Garmin