Versa 4 - Family Account fail

[GoatShow]

So my 12yr old daughter's 75yr old Grandmother as bought her a Versa 4 for Christmas. As I'm well versed in setting up my children's other devices through family accounts I have had the very unfortunate experience in discovering FitBit does not support this device in a Family Account. This after multiple frustrating attempts at creating a family account via the device and to another frustrating phone chat with customer support. Customer Support has informed me the onus is on me to find the retail store the Grandparent purchased from and return it for the only Family Account supported device (Ace series watches). Important to note - There is NO AGE RESTRICTION LISTED on the box and there is no age restriction noted on the product description on FitBit's website. This is a stunning (or intentional) oversight on FitBit's part. As the Grandmother is now on a 6 month world cruise and the retail store is 500 miles from our residence - does anyone have a work around on this conundrum - as the retail return FitBit has set me up for is going to be stunningly difficult? TIA

[JohnnyRow]

1)  So you have set up other children's devices in family accounts, and just happened to buy all Ace devices, without realizing that they were the required devices?  And in setting them up, you didn't see anything about the device restrictions?

2)  If you had gotten it set up and run into any problems, wouldn't you still be in the same situation?

3)  Was the vendor an authorized Fitbit dealer?  If so, seems you might still be able to return to Fitbit.

4)  How long until daughter turns 13?  In U.S. at age 13 (or if Fitbit thinks she is 13), I think she can graduate from family account to full user and use the Versa 4.

[Dopovo · Accepted solution]

Hello @JohnnyRow ,

Regarding point 1 the purchase was done by the grandmother, not by the father of the 12 years old girl. I can't say that @GoatShow doesn't have a point to be upset, the family account implemented by Fitbit is, in my humble opinion, a big mess in terms of implementation and management.

[GoatShow]

Hi Johnny,

Appreciate your looking at this issue

1)  So you have set up other children's devices in family accounts, and just happened to buy all Ace devices, without realizing that they were the required devices?  And in setting them up, you didn't see anything about the device restrictions?

“my children's other devices” - sorry I wasn’t clear there - their Leapfrogs, tablets, iPhones and subscription services like Netflix are all run on family accounts - this issue is our first hands on exposure to a Fitbit product

2)  If you had gotten it set up and run into any problems, wouldn't you still be in the same situation?

Pretty sure you missed the point here. FitBit has set up any sub-13year old consumer or individual buying for a sub-13year old to fail. There is no indication or disclaimer on the products packaging or website description that it is not to be used by sub-13yr olds. But you are right - if there were to have been a hardware failure or the like with the product, we would be in a similar situation.

3)  Was the vendor an authorized Fitbit dealer?  If so, seems you might still be able to return to Fitbit.

Million dollar (or $250?) question - You can trust we are standing by to see if Grandma gets back to us before with the purchase details before the “assumed” 30(?) day money back warranty comes due. 

4)  How long until daughter turns 13?  In U.S. at age 13 (or if Fitbit thinks she is 13), I think she can graduate from family account to full user and use the Versa 4.

Johnny - not sure if you are a parent and I certainly like to avoid being too much the helicopter - but I do know the threats to my child’s digital (and real) presence via tracking, data collection and communications. Their childish naivety with tech exposes them to potential harm - a Family Account goes a long way in overwatch and life coaching while setting them up succeed.

At close to 20K posts Mr Row - you are very clearly in some manner, employed by Fitbit. I know this is not your first time seeing this issue with Fitbit selling unsuitable products to sub 13yr olds and I’d wager you have certainly responded to more than one of these type posts. IIRC, My research is seeing this issue pop up since 2018. Please do us a favour - although a detriment to your employ - push this issue up the ladder to Fitbit’s Marketing engineers. Potentially then you will no longer have to deal with this issue? 

A wise person seeing this reoccurring issue over such a time period - yet so easily corrected - might almost intrepid it as intentional?

All the best. 

[Odyssey13]

Hi @GoatShow  actually @JohnnyRow is part of the Community Council, a group of volunteers who help members of the forum and use Fitbit products themselves. There are many of us who have been helping people on these forums for years. I've been doing it myself for years, so it's easy to have a lot of posts under our names. You can see who we are on this page - click to see.

The problem with children and online accounts stems from the COPPA law (click to read more) which limits children under 13 having online accounts. Children under that age must have guardian accounts, much like Nintendo has parents set their children up with accounts. There are international laws as well regarding minors, so Fitbit is only trying to meet the letter of the law.

[GoatShow]

Hi Odyssey13,

Thank You for your involvement but I believe you missed the mark of this community support question.

“The problem with children and online accounts stems from the COPPA which limits children under 13 having online accounts. Children under that age must have guardian accounts, much like Nintendo has parents set their children up with accounts. There are international laws as well regarding minors, so Fitbit is only trying to meet the letter of the law.”

NOPE, I politely disagree with you. COPPA is legislation (in serious need of upgrade) to protect our children online - it is not a problem. The problem is FitBit Software Engineers and Marketing Engineers. One only has to look at the other (very large unnamed multinational technology company)’s smart watches and see every single series watch sold by them is supported with by a family account. A 76 yr old Grandmother can buy her 11 yr old Granddaughter one as gift and have it legally function under COPPA. 

The actual problem is

1. fitbit’s software engineers failed to write the script to make all fitbit smart products capable of family account and
2. fitbit’s marketing engineers failed to clearly label packaging and web descriptions of the smart products not able to support family account - as unsuitable for sub13yr.    

 @GoatShow  actually @JohnnyRow is part of the Community Council, a group of volunteers who help members of the forum and use Fitbit products themselves. 

I sure recognize the importance of volunteer work - massive respect to you and the council. I too subscribe to the importance of volunteer work with not for profit societies as a volunteer firefighter, volunteer ski patrol for our area’s society run ski hill and sit on a board for a society run home for autistic adults. Odyssey your contribution is amazing - 38,300 posts - my very conservative guess - minimum 1 minute per post on average? 38,300 mins = 640 hrs = 80 standard work days = 16  standard work weeks = 4 months of sitting in front of a computer on a volunteer basis in support of fitbit products - all without compensation - I tip my hat to you - Great Job! Thank You