I had spent most of the day Saturday putting the doors on my cabinets and preparing the ‘Man Cave’ as I had had my old office in Highland Heights. All my personal effects, pictures and memorabilia came out of boxes and landed on walls, shelved and counters I’d built. Once finished, I reclined in my favorite chair for the first time and looked around. It was like pulling on a warm, familiar blanket and for the first time since moving to Peninsula I can honestly say it felt like my home.
With temperatures in the mid-thirties, I decided against trying to ride. Maybe I’m a sissy Mary, but I know Spring is just around the river bend and I’m just getting a little soft in my old age. Dakota and I took a hike, though, pushing my steps over 20,000. Once I got home, I decided I wanted to know how many steps I’d averaged over the month of March, so I tried synching my Fitbit watch with the app on my phone. Nothing happened. I tried several things, but could see technology was going to beat me so I tried the Fitbit helpline on the computer. I started a text-type conversation with something or someone – but I’m pretty sure it was not a human based on the vernacular. At a point, it/she (Wendy) asked if I was willing to try a different approach. I typed, ‘you haven’t tried anything yet’. And she/it hadn’t. She/it typed back, ‘is that a yes?’
I could see where this was going and typed ‘yes’ and received a response about warranty and having had the Fitbit more than a year. I wrote back ‘goodbye’ and signed off. I quickly received an email from Fitbit asking me about my experience and whether I’d take a survey. I replied, ‘no thanks. You didn’t do anything and you suck’. They didn’t write back or check about my dissatisfaction.
I was given the Fitbit by my kids for Christmas, 2016. I’d been wearing and enjoying it for the 15 months since then, but it came with a 1-year warranty. It costs $150, but they will only stand behind it for a year. After that I guess it disposable or you buy an extended warranty because they built them so poorly that you’ll need it. I don’t like that approach. I was hoping to just have a human walk me through whatever I needed to do to get it synching again, but I think they knew my unit was fundamentally flawed and I was going to need a new one. Well…I’m not buying one. And I don’t recommend Fitbit to anyone else. I don’t recommend anything that lasts such as short period of time and with limited support from the manufacturer. It’s a good tool and got me taking hikes I might not have taken otherwise, but it needs to have a longer shelf life. I miss the Craftsman ‘guaranteed for life’ kind of stuff. What an old fart I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment