Fitbit Products and their NON "Fitness-For-Purpose"!!

[WGP123]

I first started using Fitbit products when wearables began to emerge as a market. It wasn't long before all my family members had one. I even became an advocate for their use! Unfortunately, I discovered that "fitness-for-purpose" wasn't something Fitbit gave much consideration to. The Surge strap I had failed not long after the warranty period and ALL FIVE Fitbit watches of other family members suffered similar fate, some having underwent only small periods of use. At the time, the Surge was their top-of-the-range, FLAGSHIP Product and their response to me was to give me a discount so that I could purchase an Ionic. Suffice to say that I was NOT prepared to purchase a new top-of-the-range Fitbit product if I had to throw away a perfectly good Surge just because of a broken strap! In reality, the solution offered by Fitbit was to spend even more money on their newest Flagship product....all because of a simple broken strap!!!! After no joy with Fitbit in getting a replacement strap, I discontinued using Fitbit products altogether. Two years later, neither I nor a family member had a single issue with the competitors products we switched to. I recently found a source to purchase a new Surge strap (not Fitbit!) and have started using it again but I certainly won't be purchasing or recommending a new Fitbit product after all the previous widespread experiences. People shouldn't confuse warranty and "Fitness-For-Purpose". It's perfectly reasonable to expect a top-of-the-range product to last longer than a year, granted some may fail due to heavy use within than time and that's to be expected. But my experience with Fitbit is that it's the norm for their products to fail when just out of warranty, something I don't experience with other companies. Given my experience in designing products, researching materials and bringing products to market, Fitbit have poor design and use materials which are NOT fit-for-purpose, based on my experience and family experience. Granted this was back in 2018, they may have improved but reading the forums and seeing what I see, there has been little or no improvement that I can see. Fitbit converted me pretty quickly from being an advocate of their products to NOT RECOMMENDING their products....pity as I enjoy using my Surge again now that I finally got a replacement strap from someone else! 

[Williger]

I'm unsure if you're just ranting or need help installing your replacement band ... 

Welcome back to Fitbit. The app probably changed since your last usage but should be familiar and it sounds like you're getting some fantastic value from the Surge, which was circa 2015 or something. Most devices using lithium polymer batteries will fail within 3-4 years, though like your watch and my amazingly still running Bluetooth headphones I'm enjoying right now, there are certainly exceptions. How's your battery lasting now? The bands for the Surge do break, it's a design issue they've not repeated in subsequent trackers, and most of the newer ones are purposely designed to make it easy to swap bands at whim. 

Fitbit never officially released a repair band for the Surge, when the bands broke, they'd send a complete new tracker with an intact band within warranty instead of a replacement, perhaps due to the clasping design which not everyone would easily be comfortable replacing themselves. The aftermarket bands available are diverse in selections, including drop-in replacement silicon ones without needing tools (after initial removal) to some pretty cool designs and colors.

Given the experiences you and your family have had with trackers, perhaps consider one of the Squaretrade warranties that covers periods past those provided by the manufacturer. They even have some with damage protection. I buy them sometimes, though admittedly, the only watches I've had fail are ones I never got it for. Admittedly, I had a 2-year extended warranty on my Surge I'd not taken advantage of when it failed (hadn't realized it went 2 years past the original warranty when mine broke). I'd ended up learning how to fix them, from replacing batteries and screens or whatever. It's a great little tracker and DIY repairs are rewarding.

I'm unsurprised and glad Fitbit encourages upgrading. They need to stay in business. I'd rather they hit us up on the front end for buying new trackers than on the back end charging to use their app as a service. I regularly buy new Fitbit products to try and enjoy, though often find myself diverting back to older models. Speaking of Ionic, I'm wearing mine now. The thing is amazing and gets a week of battery, vs. my Versa that lasts 3-days. My Surge gets around 3 days with a 120mAh battery and going to try a new 160mAh I picked up recently and see if I can get back to 5 days like when the tracker was new. Fortunately, in your case, it's just a band which is relatively easy and even better yet, you got it as a gift from your friend. If you have questions about installing it, please ask. 

You've made a powerful recommendation for the Surge when mentioning it's still rocking 5+ years later, despite saying you don't recommend them. This forum is engaged by users, Fitbit may peek in here sometimes with moderation but if you'd hoped someone from their marketing department reads your post and says "Oh no, we're missing out on this person's referrals", it's probably not going to happen, however, there is a forum for recommendations on products and new idea suggestions where you can share suggestions on improvements.

Fitbit no longer supports this device, they, fortunately, allow us to use it on the app and this forum has many helpful people so ask for what you need and maybe bring those other five trackers back to life for your family to enjoy. Remember to transfer over the NFC sticker from your old band when you do the replacement. Keep on stepping!

[Kazoo51]

What does the nfc sticker do and what happens if I don't transfer it?  I have screwed everything back together and can't get one screw out to put the sticker in.