I’m a Fitbit user for over 12 years - started out with the Fitbit One clip on back in the day and have bought a new device roughly every 2 years as the features improved. I’ve had my Fitbit Sense just over a year and have been a premium subscriber for several years. Up until about 3 months ago I was a huge fan and recommended Fitbit all the time. But I’m a very dissatisfied customer now. Reasons:
- I can’t wear it in the water - despite the fact that it is supposed to be a swimming tracker, my first Sense bricked when I wore it into the sea so not risking it again.
- Hill tracking has gone haywire on it for the last two months - it is tracking floors when I’m asleep. I’m a hillwalker so this is a real pain and has screwed up my year goal. Seems like it is a problem with the sensor which can’t be addressed.
- My screen got stuck on the dreaded loop three weeks ago. I managed to restart it and bring it out of it but I can see from others experiences that the likelihood is that this will happen again. The big issue is that Fitbit won’t acknowledge that this is a software problem caused by them. Offering a small reduction on a new device isn’t good enough and is a shoddy way to treat customers.
- The new app is badly designed, I have to manually open each tab if I want to see my weight, health metrics and sleep tracking etc.
- I also have privacy concerns about the ‘always on’ tracking and google.
If I’m spending £250 every couple of years plus £80 a year for Premium I expect everything to work without me having to put time into starting and restarting etc. I’m going to stick it out til my premium subscription finishes (or the Sense bricks, whichever comes first) and if things haven’t improved, I’m off - most likely to Apple.
I’m genuinely sad to be considering leaving the Fitbit eco-system, I like the watch and loved the old app for its easy usability and seamless integration. I know it’s unlikely that anything much will change as a result of writing this but I’ve been a customer for long enough that I don’t want to break up without an explanation. I am also pretty sure I’m not the only one in this position.
