Versa not tracking my stats accurately

[Tempestina]

Hi group, I bought a Versa over the weekend, SE Lavender. Got it all set and ready to go for my Monday morning and was really happy with the interface and aesthetic of the watch. Wore it to bed Sunday night and it seemed to track my sleep properly but after years of happy charge 2 ownership I have to admit I didn't pay much attention to stairs or steps on waking as my charge would have shown negligible ones as, you know, I'd been asleep. I drove to the gym, about 15 miles over pretty smooth and flat terrain on a motorway and did my workout without paying the stats too much attention in the rush to get to work. When I finally sat down at my desk with time to sort through my workout stats I had 4500 steps, which is my daily target!! And 21 floors. About 2200 steps and 0 floors would have been right. I've read all the forums and it seems I'm not alone and Fitbit will blame damp, wind, or my stiff transmission on my car. I drive an ST, it shifts like butter. The motorway is pretty smooth if I'm correct and they mean stiff suspension and just don't have great English. I can't avoid wearing a fitness tracker outside where it's occasionally windy and damp. I can't avoid driving my car nor will I be wasting my time to use a third party app every time I drive to make a £220 product work correctly. My question is, does anyone have a Versa that doesn't behave this way? Did those of us who are unhappy get a faulty one or are the content people just more easy going towards quirks and work arounds? Is it worth exchanging it and trying again? Because right now it's all boxed back up and factory reset to go back and I'm thrilled I bought it somewhere with a straight forward return policy rather than directly from Fitbit. So, any happy people who don't get fake data without wasting their own time to work around Fitbits problem able to weigh in?

Moderator edit: added label

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[Tempestina]

No one on the forums has a versa and doesn't have phantom steps/stairs and is happy with the product? I was really hoping someone would say you might have a dud it would be worth trying again :(.

[NellyG]

I am very happy indeed with mine! ☺

[Tempestina]

Do you get ghost readings and just don't mind or does yours not do that?

[WendyB]

A lot of things like wind and weather will effect floors. But I just ignore it when it happens

My steps have always been accurate

[GreginJaxFL]

If you read the forums MANY are having similar problems. 

[Tempestina]

Yeah, I have read them all, but tbh I'm the same, I only go on forums when I have something to complain about, I rarely go on to say I love the product. I was hoping some people might chime in saying that many people them included have products that function properly. The fact only two moderators have come along to say they love the product is a bit of a concern but I'll assume I got a really duddy one, exchange it and try one more time, hoping to perhaps get one produced a bit later in the run that might be a bit better. I know, wishful thinking but other than that it's wait for Charge 3 and hope it's not just the same as Versa as it's also water proof. But for reference, my Charge 2 worn today counts 5k steps which is correct for a bootcamp morning, and 0 floors, which is correct for what I've done today. My motorway journey didn't give me 21 floors climbed on Charge 2 like it did yesterday, and it's windy as chuff, but I didn't get any floors or steps for that either. So fitbit clearly can make a product that works right. I just don't understand why they want people to look the other way when their more expensive newer stuff needs third party apps to work around their inaccuracies! 

[LinhNg]

I have to say that ... DISAPPOINTED

[DramaQueenDiva]

Mine is usually dead-on accurate.  The only time it's not is when it freezes when counting steps/floors.  

You need to give it more time to get to know you.  Any Fitbit product (and from what I've heard, most fitness trackers) will be off on the first day.  They're automatically measuring stride length and other stats.  Usually within the first 2-3 days, it will be more accurate.

[Tempestina]

I'm sorry but I really don't think it needs to get to know me before it
stops counting 8 flights of stairs because I was driving a car. I've
downloaded drive bit and I'll try to remember to use it for the next few
days and see if I can live with it but I don't think it has anything to do
with it not knowing me well enough. It also doesn't automatically measure
your stride. You can tell it your exact stride if you know or it will use
an average value based on your height and gender.

[StandAndBeTrue]

I had the same problem. I returned it (I bought it from Amazon and they were 100% cool) and got another one. 

I feel like with this one the steps and such are more accurate, but I constantly have sync issues and no notifications. I have a Samsung Galaxy s9 and just chalked it up to non-compatibility (which is ridiculous that I even have to say that, how do you even release a product that doesn't work with one of the latest and most popular devices on the market), and went back to my Charge 2 for a few weeks, which has always been flawless.

I read Monday of this week that the Versa is now compatible with the s9, so I'm trying again. So far, sync issues aplenty and no notifications.........grrrrr.

So to your point, yes it's probably worth swapping it out for a new one, but at the same time, that's definitely not a guarantee that you won't have the same issues or other ones. 

It's so frustrating. Thinking of just selling mine online and trying again with the Charge 3.

[Tempestina]

I bought mine at Argos and she did look at me funny but she did exchange it. This one counted 8 flights of stairs on my commute in this morning but no false steps. It only gave me basic sleep data last night though, blaming might have struggled to get a heart rate but it was in the same place on my wrist where it was getting a heart rate at bed time when I woke up. If it keeps giving me basic sleep unless I manual tell it I'm going to sleep on top of the other quirks I'll be taking this one back and saying it's doing the same inaccurate things as the old one and I'll wait for Charge 3 to give that a try. I'm not having a £220 item that does things markedly worse than my 2 year old, half the price Charge 2.

[Mona777]

The Versa does not accurately track your steps, calories burned, miles walked, or stairways climbed.  I tested the Versa against a pedometer for four days after it arrived on Monday, 11/26/18.  The Versa increased my steps walked when I combed my hair by 200 or more steps and when I taught college classes, by hundreds of steps.  It also greatly increased my steps when I walked to class with my rolling laptop bag.  The movement of your wrist (not the expected swinging of your wrist while walking) greatly increases the amount of steps recorded.  The calories counted feature does not work at all.  It records your basal metabolic rate, so even breathing increases your calories burned.  If you want an accurate estimate of how many calories you are burning while exercising, the Versa will greatly disappoint you.  The Versa appeared to accurately record the time that I engaged in moderate exercise of greater than 10 minutes and when I walked greater than 15 minutes.  It was advertised as only counting stairways climbed when going up the stairs.  However, it missed counting stairways going up and sometimes counted stairways going down.  It also counted as a stairway when I walked up an incline to reach my car in a parking lot.  The most concerning aspect of the Versa is I started feeling a burning sensation on my wrist after wearing it for four days.  I took it off when I combed my hair to avoid it counting extra steps and a few other times for the same reason, but for the most part wore it for most of the four days.  By day four, I felt a burning sensation under the green LED light that reads your heart beat.  That's when I sadly decided today to return the Versa before I received a skin burn like some other Versa reviewers noted on other review sites.   The best things about this experience are it made me drink more water because I liked seeing the glasses fill up on the Versa watch and it gave me an incentive to exercise more because the Versa provided motivating feedback.