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I Have No Fitbit, and I Must Scream
Feb. 18th, 2016 12:15 amMy Fitbit broke last night.
Despite being just nine months old, it's been fading for a while. The problem seems to be the rubber covering on the watch band, which has been coming increasingly loose for some months. I've been meaning to request some warranty repair for that (just because it looks bad) for the last month or two. The plan was actually to send it out just before I went to Hawaii, which would have been this week.
But then Hawaii didn't happen. Meanwhle, in the last week my Fitbit started getting nonresponsive to some of its buttons and physical cues. And then this morning its alarm didn't go off. (Fortunately, my secondary alarm, aka Lucy Cat, woke me up just a few minutes after it should have gone off.) And when I finally plugged it in (the Fitbit, not the Lucy), it just showed a half-empty status bar.
I dunno, maybe it's half-full.
You'll have to guess at the trepidation I felt when I logged onto Fitbit's chat line. But given my recent horrible experiences with customer nonsupport at Hawaiian Airlines, and given my insurance company, Anthem, recently trying to screw me (which I need to write about), I was unthrilled to talk to customer support.
But there I am, chatting and I explain the two problems (peeling rubber and non-responsive Fitbit) and the customer service rep starts looking at my Fitbit account.
Then he's asking me questions like what color & size it is (black, large). And my mailing address.
And I'm thinking, "There's no way they're just going to send me a new Fitbit without making me jump through the hoops of returning my old one."
But that's exactly what they did. They had me a confirmation number within minutes, and had shipped within hours. They promise that it should arrive within 5-7 days of shipment. By next Wednesday.
It's the type of service that companies *should* offer, but no one does. So, kudos to Fitbit for astounding service.
And I now wonder what else my Fitbit might be telling their web site. Like did it send out a, "Help! Ohmigod! I'm dying!" message this morning, which was why the customer service agent was willing to send out a new Fitbit with few questions asked?
I got my original Fitbit last May and absent the manufacturing defect that eventually led me to talk to customer service today it's been quite a success.
I know that it encourages me to be more active. I try to make 10,000 steps on a day (averaging out Saturdays where I usually get a lot of steps with some mid-day weeks, especially Thursday, when I don't). I also do my best to get 30 "active minutes" a day ... something that I'd gotten pretty good at before my blood pressure meds starting causing troubles (another topic requiring another journal entry).
Since last March I've managed to lose 20 pounds, putting me to almost where I want to be, and a lot of that's thanks to the Fitbit device making me more conscious of my activity and the Fitbit website making me more conscious of what I eat. You put those together, and you've got a pretty good combo: burn more calories than you eat.
I was at first afraid that I was going to "backslide" while I was waiting for a new Fitbit. But they pushed out that new Fitbit so quickly that they're now saying it'll be here in 7 days. They unfortunately use a UPS shipping method that uses USPS as its backend, and I've had troubles with that in the past, but (fingers crossed), I should have a replacement Fitbit before I can do any sliding in any direction.
I'm amused by how acutely aware I am of my missing Fitbit.
Any number of times today I've wanted to look at my watch, and it's of course not there. The funny thing is that I've almost never worn a watch in my life. I have a very good internal sense of time. But the last 9 months of wearing the Fitbit has at least gotten me into the habit of looking at my watch as a nervous fidget.
I'm also quite aware of the lack of Fitbit every time I walk up and down the stairs. That's because climbing stairs is one of the Fitbit's "goals", and it's a pretty small number (10 flights by default, though I have mine set to 20 and often try to hit 25 as there's another badge there). So when I go up the stairs without the Fitbit, it's like I'm missing 5% or 10% of my goal ... and that's enough to make me aware of it.
Of course that awareness of doing stuff is what makes the Fitbit work as an encouragement device.
Looking forward to my replacement arriving!
Despite being just nine months old, it's been fading for a while. The problem seems to be the rubber covering on the watch band, which has been coming increasingly loose for some months. I've been meaning to request some warranty repair for that (just because it looks bad) for the last month or two. The plan was actually to send it out just before I went to Hawaii, which would have been this week.
But then Hawaii didn't happen. Meanwhle, in the last week my Fitbit started getting nonresponsive to some of its buttons and physical cues. And then this morning its alarm didn't go off. (Fortunately, my secondary alarm, aka Lucy Cat, woke me up just a few minutes after it should have gone off.) And when I finally plugged it in (the Fitbit, not the Lucy), it just showed a half-empty status bar.
I dunno, maybe it's half-full.
You'll have to guess at the trepidation I felt when I logged onto Fitbit's chat line. But given my recent horrible experiences with customer nonsupport at Hawaiian Airlines, and given my insurance company, Anthem, recently trying to screw me (which I need to write about), I was unthrilled to talk to customer support.
But there I am, chatting and I explain the two problems (peeling rubber and non-responsive Fitbit) and the customer service rep starts looking at my Fitbit account.
Then he's asking me questions like what color & size it is (black, large). And my mailing address.
And I'm thinking, "There's no way they're just going to send me a new Fitbit without making me jump through the hoops of returning my old one."
But that's exactly what they did. They had me a confirmation number within minutes, and had shipped within hours. They promise that it should arrive within 5-7 days of shipment. By next Wednesday.
It's the type of service that companies *should* offer, but no one does. So, kudos to Fitbit for astounding service.
And I now wonder what else my Fitbit might be telling their web site. Like did it send out a, "Help! Ohmigod! I'm dying!" message this morning, which was why the customer service agent was willing to send out a new Fitbit with few questions asked?
I got my original Fitbit last May and absent the manufacturing defect that eventually led me to talk to customer service today it's been quite a success.
I know that it encourages me to be more active. I try to make 10,000 steps on a day (averaging out Saturdays where I usually get a lot of steps with some mid-day weeks, especially Thursday, when I don't). I also do my best to get 30 "active minutes" a day ... something that I'd gotten pretty good at before my blood pressure meds starting causing troubles (another topic requiring another journal entry).
Since last March I've managed to lose 20 pounds, putting me to almost where I want to be, and a lot of that's thanks to the Fitbit device making me more conscious of my activity and the Fitbit website making me more conscious of what I eat. You put those together, and you've got a pretty good combo: burn more calories than you eat.
I was at first afraid that I was going to "backslide" while I was waiting for a new Fitbit. But they pushed out that new Fitbit so quickly that they're now saying it'll be here in 7 days. They unfortunately use a UPS shipping method that uses USPS as its backend, and I've had troubles with that in the past, but (fingers crossed), I should have a replacement Fitbit before I can do any sliding in any direction.
I'm amused by how acutely aware I am of my missing Fitbit.
Any number of times today I've wanted to look at my watch, and it's of course not there. The funny thing is that I've almost never worn a watch in my life. I have a very good internal sense of time. But the last 9 months of wearing the Fitbit has at least gotten me into the habit of looking at my watch as a nervous fidget.
I'm also quite aware of the lack of Fitbit every time I walk up and down the stairs. That's because climbing stairs is one of the Fitbit's "goals", and it's a pretty small number (10 flights by default, though I have mine set to 20 and often try to hit 25 as there's another badge there). So when I go up the stairs without the Fitbit, it's like I'm missing 5% or 10% of my goal ... and that's enough to make me aware of it.
Of course that awareness of doing stuff is what makes the Fitbit work as an encouragement device.
Looking forward to my replacement arriving!
