My experience with Versa 4 and Customer Service

[fitdtr]

I wanted to share my experience to highlight what I believe is a gap between policy and fair customer treatment.

I contacted Fitbit support originally because my Versa 4 was experiencing battery drain. At that stage the watch was still usable. I had been using the watch on my own Fitbit account as my primary device for a long period of time before this issue occurred. Following troubleshooting and a software update requested by Fitbit support the situation became significantly worse. The battery drain increased the device crashed it began showing sync failures and a persistent red X error and it is now completely unusable.

Throughout the process it was clear from Fitbit records that I was the active user of the device and that the failure occurred during normal use on my account. However because the watch had been purchased second hand within my family and I could not provide the original receipt or the original activation email from years ago no repair replacement or recovery option was offered.

I understand the legal position that consumer rights sit with the original retailer and purchaser. From a customer perspective being advised to track down an unknown original purchaser from several years ago to recover proof that may no longer exist is unrealistic particularly when the failure followed a Fitbit directed software update.

The only resolution offered was a thirty five percent discount towards purchasing another device costing over one hundred pounds. For me this does not restore confidence. It asks the customer to invest again in the same ecosystem after experiencing a software induced failure with no practical recourse.

I am sharing this not to dispute policy but to ask a wider question. Is this really what treating customers right looks like when software updates can render hardware unusable.

I hope Fitbit considers how long term users and second hand owners are supported particularly when failures occur beyond the customer control. Customer trust is built not only on policy but on how situations like this are handled in practice.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[MarreFitbit]

Hi there, @fitdtr. Welcome to the Fitbit Community Forums. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I'm sorry to hear about your Versa 4. We‘re taking your comments and sentiments in regards to our products and services into consideration.

Thanks for your question about why we offered a discount towards a new Fitbit product instead of a replacement of your existing Fitbit product. Our limited warranty provides repair or replacement of products that have a defect while still in the warranty period. Your device is out of the warranty period, and therefore is not eligible for repair or replacement, but we want to offer you a discount to thank you for your loyalty to Fitbit. For more information about our warranty, see fitbit.com/legal/returns-and-warranty.

Even though I truly appreciate you took the time to come here and express your feelings towards your experience with your Versa 4 and also want to find a resolution to your issue, my best advice is to keep the conversation with our Support Team. Note for this kind of inquiries/cases/process, there's not so much we here in the forums can do for you as this is something that our team handles based on our policies.

Thanks in advance! 

[LZeeW]

@fitdtr    Based on users posts, a 35% discount is the common offer when a current model has things like this happen to the original owner outside the warranty period.  This offer seems very generous in your case.

[fitdtr]

I have not said it was not generous. I was stating, an option to repair would have been good. Throwing things away iis not a good option and not only this, the battery appeared to be losing charge, so when I contacted them, they sent an update. Its this update, after downloaded and completed, corrupted the watch, which then stopped working. Up until this point, it was fine and the original request was help to resolve the battery. After this, it stopped working.

[LZeeW]

@fitdtr   Fitbit doesn't offer repair services.