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Comment by PaulHoule | Hacker News Reader

Ouch.

Coin was a company that stood by it's products, Fitbit is the kind of outfit that will find any lame excuse to not issue you an RMA.

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I've had very much the opposite experience with Fitbit, twice.

1. I had an old FitBit Ultra that stopped syncing to the base station. They sent me a replacement base station but that didn't work, but I forgot to follow it up. Fast forward a year and I find my (now out of warranty) Fitbit in the back of my Man Drawer. I dropped them an email on the off chance that they'd take a look at it for me and instead they sent me a free Fitbit One.

2. My wife dropped her Fitbit One on the school run and didn't notice until later in the day. On the way back to pick up our daughter she found her Fitbit by the side of the road with half of the electronics hanging out due to having been under more than a few car tyres. I suggested contacting Fitbit to see if it could be repaired or if they offered refurbished units, and again they sent her a brand new Fitbit One completely free of charge.

I'm sure the level of customer support varies geographically, but since the above I've had nothing but good things to say about Fitbit UK's customer support.

  Coin was a company that stood by it's products

I definitely had a different experience than you did. Preordered a coin, 2 years later still had not arrived and yet the world had moved on from magnetic stripes.

Got the original Coin, it was defective and I was sent another one. I used it on a transaction and it charged a card different than the one showing on the display. By then most of my frequent buys were at stores that take chip cards so I stopped carrying it. Still waiting for my Coin 2.0 that should have shipped in Q1.

> the world had moved on from magnetic stripes

Here in the pacific northwest, a rather high-tech area, perhaps one out of ten shops/merchants I use actually supports some manner of NFC payments, while everyone supports magnetic stripes. Any payment mechanism that only works with NFC is DOA for me.

I think they meant chip-and-PIN, not NFC.

Ah. In that case: perhaps two out of ten of the shops/merchants I use support (but don't require) chip-and-PIN. But yes, any new payment mechanism based on magnetic stripes should absolutely support chip-and-PIN.

I had completely forgot I preordered a coin until it showed up. By that point I had no use for it. Literally have not used it once.

Got any loyalty cards or gift cards? That's what I used mine for.

Coin did not work for me at like 40-60% of stores I tried it at. When I tried to get a refund they claimed it was unreturnable and could only refund 50% of the money I paid for it.

I wouldn't exactly say they had a good product or stood by it, this seems like an acquihire to me. They did try hard to do something that many said would be impossible, which is HARD, I'll give them that!

I've had problems with 2 of the 4 Fitbit devices me and my wife have owned. Her Flex was intermittently powering off. I contacted support and they sent a new one within days. My current Charge HR (bought in October) band started bubbling and pulling apart. I contacted support last week and a replacement device should arrive tomorrow.

I think they required receipt information for the Flex (that was a few years ago). For the Charge HR, they just asked me where I bought it and what country I live in, then offered a replacement.

Fitbit devices haven't shown good durability, in my experience, but the company has proven very willing to replace defective devices.

Coin stood by nothing, not even their early backers. I'm genuinely upset they got our money and sold out, making more money. I wish they went up in flames and died out for the horrific user experience I and other backers experienced.

Coin had a raised a decent amount of Venture Capital, so it's likely there were other stakeholders and voices at the table in the decision. It's not uncommon for a VC to demand a board seat when they lead a funding round, and it's also not uncommon for a VC with said board seat to push for a modest exit to cover their downside when things aren't working out.

Interesting. I've had a Fitbit since 2012 (the Ultra) and have had almost uniformly positive experiences with customer service.

Agreed. I had a brief (~10m) online chat and then received a new Charge HR a couple days later for one with a broken power connector.

Same here. Customer service was great at replacing my fitbit four times. Needless to say, I don't use fitbits anymore.

Echoed. Bought a Fitbit Charge a few years ago, band started separating, I tweeted them and got a response within 20 minutes, and a new Fitbit Charge about 8 days later. I've since upgraded to the Charge HR.

I lost my cheapo fitbit at the car dealership (it clipped onto the seatbelt of a certain car I test drove), and Fitbit sent it back after it was found.

This is the product (Coin 2.0) that has not even been out a year, cost as much as $100, and will become a brick in under 2 years with its built-in obsolescence?

RMA?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_merchandise_authorizati...

Return Merchandise Authorization. It's approval to return the product and it is a number you put on the shipping label when you return it so the company knows to refund you on receipt assuming it passes QC.

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