Make “premium” features free

[NSJS]

Dear Fitbit, 

Until recently I have been very impressed with the caliber of Fitbit products. That was until you started providing features that consumers have to pay extra for. When I spent AU$270 on my Fitbit Charge 3, I did not expect to have to pay an extra $80 per year to utilise its features. This is a view that seems to be reflected widely in the Fitbit community. 

My suggestion is that Fitbit stop charging its loyal consumers for features that ought to be included in the purchase of the Fitbit device. The purchase price of a Fitbit device ought to include all features present and promised within the device. For example, if and when Fitbit finally releases the SPO2 feature it promised when we purchased the Fitbit charge 3, I expect that to be a feature that I can use without additional payment. 

I look forward to hearing your feedback on this proposal.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @NSJS. Thanks for taking the time to share this idea, and why you'd like to have it in the Fitbit app. We look forward to hearing what other community members think.

[GuyFit]

I have a similar, but slightly different issue....

For the past 3 years I paid a yearly subscription for Fitbit Premium (NOT Fitbit Coach). The only feature of this I used regularly (daily) was the Food Report section. I was still happy to pay for this, it was not a lot for a year. This year my subscription expired (without any notice) and I was unable to reactivate it. The webpage directed me to Fitbit Coach and I mistakenly signed up for this premium service as I thought that it had just been re-named. I then discovered that I still did not have access to the old Premium features. After phone support (unable to help me) and then having to call again and some emails I am told that this has been discontinued. I got a refund for Coach Premium because it's not what I wanted but I still do not have access to the information I need and have been using for 3 years. 

To give no notice of the inexplicable withdrawal of this service was unacceptable and for there to be no explanation online as to why I my payment would not be accepted to continue the subscription is also very bad practice. To have a link on the webpage when access was denied to the old Premium features that directed users to Coach, which is not the same thing, was a also huge mistake. 

The Premium tab has now disappeared from the dashboard. I am left now without access to the information that I have used for 3 years to track my nutrition. I can see only one day at a time and no summary with weights in grams of all the items per meal and per day, with averages at the bottom. I would even pay for it, but I can't. It's gone.

This leaves me looking elsewhere for a tracker that has a better app and web dashboard to keep all my information in one place. I do not want to have to use a different app for my food, I liked the integration with the Fitbit app and dashboard. This is a step backwards for Fitbit and you will lose my custom if you do not address this shockingly bad (and badly managed) decision.

In relation to the post I am commenting on, YES Fitbit, make these features free of charge and make the old Premium Features a standard part of the dashboard. Or at least allow us to have the choice to pay rather than removing features from the website without any notice or explanation and providing no alternative. 

[GuyFit]

PS I am not, and never said I was a jogger??

[mmellowmushroom]

Disappointed Disgusted & P😤😡😡🤬🤯off

I’ve compared (other FitBit models and the competition), purchased, utilized and upgraded FitBit for years.

Got hooked on weight training my senior year in high school going so far as training to compete in body building prior to having 2 children & continued working out while I raised them. As I “matured”, it wasn’t so much my body & fitness I developed a concern for but rather, my sleep; both quantity and quality and how it seemed to deteriorate as I aged.  Enter Smart Alarm apps on my (then Android) phone. As I learned that not only the time at which I woke but also the sleep stage during which my wake-time occurred had a considerable impact on how I felt that day, I made a commitment to real sleep improvement.

During the process of educating myself on sleep health, I stumbled into my doctors office one day with a whole host of “odd” complaints that made no sense to me.  Apparently they made sense to her because by the end of that week I was scheduled for three sleep studies which resulted in a severe sleep apnea diagnosis 😱! But how could this be?! I wasn’t overweight, I ate right and was in great shape, did not drink or experiment with drugs, and knew not a single relative with sleep apnea! Enter a shiny, new CPAP machine and, soon after, a (rather archaic in today’s comparison) FitBit.

I turned first to FitBits tutorials and articles (still limited at that time but included lots of references and hyperlinks to further info!) to educate myself. I was experiencing improvements in sleep, which created a positive impact on my health and daily life but the limited capabilities and features of FitBit at that time required additional mobile apps to augment FitBits data and capabilities. So what does a loyal customer do? I began making recommendations for FitBit Features that would allow my “loyalty” to FitBit and, the elimination of all those “other apps”.  Slowly but surely FitBit progress was made.

Though a project manager with a large construction company, I am a computer science graduate so, I am obsessed with “Tech”. Impressed by my FitBit over the years, I’ve remained keenly tuned-in to the future of FitBit through my “go-to” tech “informants”: CNET, Gizmodo, techRadar, Reddit, as well as the Wareable site and FitBits own announcements and webinars.

I upgraded devices a couple times and have witnessed FitBit come a very long way. I have been impressed. And loyal.  And I really mean loyal!  About 3 or 4 years ago I upgraded (in my personal opinion) from Android to Apple and fell in love with iPhone. Two months ago I went into my mobile carrier to upgrade my iPhone. It was around Father’s Day and since I am a caregiver to my elderly dad we were offered a BOGO on iPhone & the opportunity to purchase the Apple Watch at PENNIES on the dollar! For immediate advice and additional guidance towards a decision I called my son; an educated, avid Apple/Mac enthusiast, IT Security professional with the regional hospitals’ Health System here. He highly advised that I take full advantage of the Apple Watch offer.

After a short debate with both my son and the mobile agent, and even FURTHER negotiation in the Apple Watch price, I declined; loyal to FitBit, how far FitBit has come, and and the life-changing (seriously!) effect its use has had for me.

Today, I fully and completely with my whole heart regret that decision.

After all these years of loyalty, “standing by” and holding-out for the next big FitBit feature/device, making /participating in voting on feature recommendations, helping others in the Communities, device upgrades instead of “switching”, etc., etc., etc., ...................

I’m told I will need to

PAY

for a PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION

to receive FURTHER data and insight I have

MADE FEATURE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR,

HELD OUT for, waited ever-so-patiently for!?!?!?!?

The ONE, SINGLE element that made me a LOYAL Fitbit consumer is now the very reason that I would rather download and augment with additional apps than be told I have to PAY for what I’ve been begging for.

When I tell you I started crying when I read the paid “Premium Subscription” requirement for the additional sleep features - I mean - I literally started crying. Like a Doctoral student whose thesis idea was stolen and used by another.

I’m sick to my stomach.

Seriously FitBit?

Are you all really ducking serious?!

[DavideFitbit]

Hi @mmellowmushroom, thanks for sharing your experience with the Fitbit device and for taking the time to share your feedback about the features included with the premium subscription that require a payment, this feature suggestion already exists so I’ve moved your post here as it is currently under "Reviewed by moderator" status. This helps maintain the Community and the Feature Suggestion board more organized. 

Thank you again for sharing your comments about this.  

[skztr]

I have been buying fitbit devices not only for myself, but for members of both my immediate and extended family, for years, because I like these devices so much.

But the app has now started to include advertisements. Advertisements for a "premium" fitbit service, which is ostensibly used to provide full access to the features I have already paid for.

Until this is fixed, and FitBit stops double-charging just to see the metrics that I've already paid to collect, I will no longer be purchasing any FitBit device.

This is an absurd additional charge to add to an already-premium-priced product.

I have already been on the fence for a while now, because while the mechanics of the latest trackers seem great (more-accurate step-tracking and heart-rate tracking, I remain a big fan of the technology itself), the UI has been lackluster, and the app either stagnates or gets worse over time. I've long-since stopped using the FitBit app itself for features such as calorie-tracking, for example, because it just isn't a very good app.

Now, on top of providing a lackluster experience, FitBit wants to charge extra to add the features which it should have had already? The hope that improvements will eventually be added has kept me loyal, but it turns out that ~£150 per device is apparently not enough for FitBit to provide no only a device, but resources to use them effectively.

[mmellowmushroom]

I positively HATE getting a soap box but sometimes you just gotta fight for what you feel is right!

👉🏽👉🏻👉🏿👉BE HEARD👈👈🏼👈🏿👈🏻

:light_bulb::light_bulb:FEATURES & SUGGESTIONS:light_bulb::light_bulb: :cross_mark::heavy_check_mark::heavy_check_mark:VOTE:heavy_check_mark::heavy_check_mark::cross_mark:

I’m hoping I can convince/motivate as many as possible to start voting on Feature Suggestions. My hope is that if enough of us put a voice out there - FitBit will listen. 

FitBit has decided to roll out a PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTIONto make us all

:heavy_dollar_sign::heavy_dollar_sign::heavy_dollar_sign::money_bag:PAY :money_bag::heavy_dollar_sign::heavy_dollar_sign::heavy_dollar_sign:

for the very features many of us have not only made the :light_bulb:feature suggestions for, but also :heavy_check_mark:votedfor, 🙏🏼beggedfor and most importantly - what we purchased FitBit for, remaining 😇loyal🐶as these features were put into development or rolled out on select(upgraded versions) devicespatiently awaiting our turn. I don’t need a bigger bobble, more technology, a fancier version or more robust performance... just SIMPLE features from FREE apps that we have been augmenting our FitBit with. For me it’s Sleep notes, smart alarms, etc.  these are FREE APPS!!!!!!   Forcing me to pay for a PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION or forcing me into upgrading a perfectly working device (my 3rd FitBit by the way) as a way to get these features is bad business and just not right.

Is it a way to make money, to get ahead of (Apple. Garmin. etc)??  I WILL NOT SPEND THE MONEY ON AN (another) UPGRADED FITBIT DEVICE OR A FITBIT PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION- if that’s what FitBit decides then -I WILL PURCHASE AN APPLE WATCH TO GO WITH MY APPLE PHONE!

[katsrevenge]

Please remove the paywall between our data (sleep data) and ourselves. That kind of data is why I shelled out the money for an upgraded fitbit! I'm now worried about what other data might go behind a paywall in the future! Thank you.

[SunsetRunner]

I agree with this 100%; customers who have already purchased the hardware should not be required to pay additional money to view the basic metrics collected by that hardware. Sleep time, sleep stages, heart rate, motion data and spo2 data (which I expect will be utilized at some point in the next five years), at a minimum, should be included with the purchase of the device. Other hardware manufacturers provide this data at no additional cost. It's completely unacceptable to force us to pay to view any of this.

I can see an argument being made for charging customers for a deeper dive into the metrics such as analysis of the data and insights about the results, but c'mon! Forcing us to pay extra just to have our sleeping heart rate graph buried in some obscure section of the sleep pages in the app is completely unacceptable!

[DavideFitbit]

Hi @katsrevenge, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback about having all the sleep information available without having to pay for the premium subscription, this feature suggestion already exists so I’ve moved your post here as it is currently under "Reviewed by moderator" status. This helps maintain the Community and the Feature Suggestion board more organized. 

[KatShip]

I agree, it is completely ridiculous that we are paying hundreds for a fitbit and now we also need to pay to use the app. Talk about money grab. Definitely wont be buying a other Fitbit again unless the app is free

[Annabel291]

It is an outrage paying for a device and then not being able to access the full capabilities of the device..... why don’t I just buy a cheaper version? Serious consideration once my current one dies.

Do not like subscription based. Would rather pay more on an initial device. Plus I should not have my use of the app penalised with what is now a sub standard interface because I’m now being told on everything I’m “missing out on”. 

1. The service should be free

2. If it isn’t free I shouldn’t have to see it all the time

[LuckySixes]

i thought I'd do the premium trial to see my sleeping resting heart rate (something other manufacturer's provide for free) and the steps you have to go thru to see it are completely aggravating. 

I highly doubt I'm going to continue. Also why are we paying for this data at all ? 

[Tessa_]

I, too, find it ridiculous that we would have to pay extra for these features. I actually pay for Fitbit Coach (which to some extent makes sense to me, as it should function like a personal trainer and that is expensive too) but as soon as I saw that there was another subscription needed for some (very basic!) features, I was seriously shocked. The devices themselves are not very cheap either, so the app should be free at least! The Guided programs would be very interesting to have. Fitbit devices claim to "help transform people's lives" , which at this point, you have to pay extra for. That's simply outrageous. 

[LuckySixes]

As an added kicker the additional data you get with premium is hard to access because the user interface is so horrible. 

[SunsetRunner]

If the push to move normal data behind a paywall continues, this will be my last Fitbit.  I'll buy an Apple Watch this year.

[JD_K]

Great app, great fitness tracker, mediocre smart watch... Adding a paywall to what would actually set you apart from your competition is not the best business model.

Goodbye FitBit ☹️

[SunsetRunner]

Dont want me post here.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @SunsetRunner, thanks for taking the time to share your suggestion about having the option to have Fitbit Premium without additional cost! I've moved it into a similar suggestion. We rely on feedback like yours to help us develop products and features that we know our community wants to see. If your suggestion receives votes from other customers and gains popularity, it will be shared internally with various teams at Fitbit. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

Watch this space for status updates! In the meantime, try visiting our Lifestyle Discussion Forum to talk with other members about all things health and fitness.

[SunsetRunner]

Just delete this. You moderators should ask before doing such a thing. Also you should be as vigilant with sharing info found here as you are with moving posts. I spent hours writing that

[GuyFit]

Can I point out that my post is about the old premium features that were
accessed via the webpage. That has been discontinued and even any of the
new paywalled options do not replace it or give access to the same data. I
used (and paid for) that data for 3 years and then it was withdrawn without
warning or explanation. Now the data is not accessible at all, even with
any of the new 'Premium' options. You confused us and ultimately blocked
access to vital data. The only choice seems to be to move away from the
Fitbit brand. Also, the app is still so slow at times and buggy, just not
good at all.

[SunsetRunner]

Agreed returning this device before 15 days are up on my return policy. Had the charge 3 for 5 days before deciding. Boycott. This company does not want to help people, just make money and it's sad because they were first now I pray they are last and the market is flooded with choices more coming every year.

[SunsetRunner]

Also to the moderator who removed my posting I want you to contact me. I spent lots of time on that and contacted support  before and they reccomended I made the post... email me directly as I wont watch here. Thanks.

To be clear I had a separate post.about people with disability and chronic disease.

[TeaKayB]

It appears there is personal data being recorded by Fitbit but that they're not letting us see unless we pay out more.

Isn't it illegal to collect personal data about me and then not let me see it?

[LuckySixes]

That's an interesting question. Maybe call the Federal Trade Commission and ask.