Sense dead battery

[Endao]

I am now on my third fitbit sense. On all of them, the battery has died. A fitbit employee on the phone even told me there is a problem with the battery on the Sense. I have several times requested a refund. Flat refusal.  I guess they will propose sending me another. What is the point of continuing to send out products that don't work!! Anyone know what i can do now in this situation?

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity. 

[Guy_]

Hi,

It is unlikely the battery is a problem - they are fairly reliable.

Instead check the 4 pins on the charger. There are problems with some of the Fitbit charge cables. Thats assuming the watch contacts are clean.

You can check this  by plugging the charger cable into a PC. Connect the watch to the cable and if the PC announces a device it should be charging.

[Endao]

The problem is, I am plugging into the PC or any other USB and the watch is not charging. I have had two others which had exactly the same problem. When I talk to support, they can see what the problem is...they just won't do anything about it, except offer to send me another. i would like a refund, this product is clearly defective.

[Guy_]

Hi, they often send out refurbished ones, best to insist they send you a new one.

There are many that work fine.

[Endao]

This is possibly true, but 3 n a row, all with the same problem? That is very shabby.

[lablover55]

Just a thought, but my other sense that I thought died a few days ago, 'sprung to life' again. See if that happens and put it back on the charger. A very defective product.

[Guy_]

@Endao  The refurbished ones may have suffered the same problem with someone else but in all probability it is the charger that is faulty more than the watch.

As @lablover55  says, sometimes its necessary to charge for 24 hours for them to wake up. But difficult to know if it is charging if the supplied  charger cable is defective.

[miq3l]

Have a look here:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Sense/Sense-broken-charging-cable/m-p/4737832/highlight/true#M16696

You'll see a picture of the charger pin recessed into its hole.

[Odyssey13]

@Guy_  you can't insist on getting a new one, if it's not available - warranty & return information

[Giampi71]

I'm with @Guy_ here to point at the charging cable as the possible culprit.

Fitbit support should send a new charging cable, available here.

[Kathyss]

This happened to me too. Originally I had a surge, which died and they offered me a sense at a reduced price. This one worked for about a month and suddenly was dead. I worked with support, tried all kinds of things, but could not get it to work. They sent me a replacement. This one lasted about two weeks and suddenly would not charge. It had about 15% charge but steadily decreased until it died and would not even restart.

I requested a new cable, thinking that was it, but no dice. I also had switched to a new pc for charging thinking maybe a surge from my old one was causing a problem. Today I requested another replacement. I am getting a little stack of these in my drawer. 

I asked if i could send them back to see what is causing this. No reply. One thing I remember hearing in one of these forums is not to let it discharge completely and I asked the support person about this. They just said don't let it go below 20%. They didn't say this CAUSED the problem but who knows.

I really thought about just abandoning fitbit altogether and going with Apple, but thought i would give it one more try.

[Endao]

Hi, it took me about 2 months of attacking them on every platform but I eventually got a refund. Bloody company!!!!

Enda O’Dwyer