Jawbone CEO Offers Full Refund to UP Wristband Purchasers, Halts Sales

MacRumors · Dec 8, 2011, 03:23 PM

Jawbone's $99 UP wristband is designed to track users activity, sleep, and food intake to "encourage healthier living". However, it appears the wristband -- released in early November -- has not been well-received.

The situation is so bad, with so many disappointed customers, Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman has offered all Jawbone purchasers a "no questions asked guarantee" in a letter posted on Jawbone's website. The product seems to have been temporarily pulled from most retailers, including the Apple Online Store, Best Buy, and AT&T.

Quote:

For most of you, this program is simply meant to offer peace of mind. Please continue to enjoy your UP band and keep sharing your experience with us. If you encounter any problems with your UP band, contact Jawbone directly for your choice of a replacement and/or refund under this program. It's that simple.

Jawbone remains deeply committed to addressing all issues with UP, investing in the category and giving our customers the tools to live a healthier life. We've temporarily paused production of UP bands and will begin taking new orders once these issues have been sorted out. In the meantime, we'll continue to release app updates for existing users.

Any purchaser of a Jawbone UP can get a full refund on the device, and can keep the wristband. The refund website goes live December 9th.

Article Link: Jawbone CEO Offers Full Refund to UP Wristband Purchasers, Halts Sales

crisss1205 · Dec 8, 2011, 03:28 PM

I was so close to buying one, should have done it!

LimeiBook86 · Dec 8, 2011, 03:30 PM

I never really looked into this product. I'm curious to know what all the issues were with the product that would cause the company to refund the item and stop producing them.

Cougarcat · Dec 8, 2011, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LimeiBook86

I never really looked into this product. I'm curious to know what all the issues were with the product that would cause the company to refund the item and stop producing them.

According to the letter,

Quote:

With your help, we’ve found an issue with two specific capacitors in the power system that affects the ability to hold a charge in some of our bands. We’re also fixing an issue with syncing related to the band hardware.

It's temporary. They will start producing them again once they fix the problems.

LimeiBook86 · Dec 8, 2011, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cougarcat

According to the letter...

Well that makes sense then. Thanks for the info.

ChrisH3677 · Dec 8, 2011, 03:43 PM

Phew! When I heard about these i was worried maybe i shoulda got one instead of my FitBit. It is a shame though, they are a nifty device.

cognetic · 04:04 PM

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I've had one for a little over a week and really love it! I've been tracking meals, sleep, and activity in an intense diet, exercise, and lifestyle change prompted by medical condition. It's very accurate for mileage with swimming but doesn't accurately interpret the data... Dead on for walking, sleep, and upper body workout.

Only drawback was unexpected and random mode change, failure to sync, and odd battery discharge pattern.... All started happening after 6.5 days of use.

No worries though because both email and phone support helped to quickly guide reset, diagnostics, and offered overnight replacement!

This is the best device concept I've found. I do wish it was compatible with Virgin HealthMiles corporate program and made a plug at both businesses for the partnership.

-cog-

Edit to add=> I'm suspect that the issue might be software related as there is some correlation with restarting UP app, restarting iPhone 4S, and sync recovery.... Memory leak, audio/data headset jack dll??

baryon · Dec 8, 2011, 04:13 PM

It's a 99-dollar bracelet that vibrates from time to time, reminding you to get up from your chair. Of course people are disappointed, I could just set my wristwatch to beep every hour, for free.

spazzcat · Dec 8, 2011, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baryon

It's a 99-dollar bracelet that vibrates from time to time, reminding you to get up from your chair. Of course people are disappointed, I could just set my wristwatch to beep every hour, for free.

It does a little bit more then that, but ok...

fishmoose · Dec 8, 2011, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baryon

It's a 99-dollar bracelet that vibrates from time to time, reminding you to get up from your chair. Of course people are disappointed, I could just set my wristwatch to beep every hour, for free.

That's not really all it can do. It can do a lot more than that.

Battlefield Fan · Dec 8, 2011, 04:32 PM

I went through 3 bands in 30 days. It's a terrible product. It's expensive for what it can do and it seems awesome but I grew tired of it after just a month.

Even when it does come back out I'd suggest that people not buy it.

Stewie · Dec 8, 2011, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LimeiBook86

I never really looked into this product. I'm curious to know what all the issues were with the product that would cause the company to refund the item and stop producing them.

They just stopped working. For many people even the 2nd or 3rd replacement did the same thing. Mine quit working after 11 hours.

Also they do a terrible job of tracking my sleep and I question the accuracy of the number of steps it says I am taking.

I am glad I will now be getting this POS of free.

Force332 · Dec 8, 2011, 05:10 PM

I think the wristband is a great idea that just hasn't yet been executed properly.

My girlfriend and I each bought one when they came out and we both returned ours about a week and a half ago. After having it for about two weeks, the button stopped working to switch between the different modes. I had some battery issues as well. Also, IMO, the food tracker as it stands is pretty much worthless. We stopped the whole taking a picture of our food about two days into having it. The food tracker needs more detail than just, "how do you feel?" We both also found the pedometer's accuracy to be a little questionable. Checking out your sleep pattern was neat the first few times but then it kind of became, "so what?" I tried the smart alarm feature that tries to wake you up in the optimum state and I found to be no more alert or rested than before. In fact, I frequently went back to bed for the remaining 20 minutes or so before my real alarm went off because I really just wanted to sleep.

When mine broke, we ultimately decided that while it did have some neat features, like the social challenges, it wasn't yet worth it to pay the $99 each. Depending on how this product improves, I may want it in the future. (Ability to sync via Bluetooth please!) Overall, like I said, I think the idea has a lot of potential, but in is current stage isn't quite good enough. I am happy to see they know this and that they are working to improve!

evilyankeefan · Dec 8, 2011, 05:53 PM

Though I was on my 2nd one which just happened to croak last nite, I like the device. It was my day tracking activity device. Yeah the food tracking and the iOS app itself needed improvement. Sleep complemented the Zeo I had.

What really got me going was the integration with DailyFeats where you get points for doing stuff and after a while you can redeem it for rewards. Takes a while to get stuff, but if I'm going to do things it can sort of pay itself off (eventually).

What Jawbone did was commendable even though the product was just not ready. Hopefully they will take their time & make the product better before releasing it again. I think they got a winner on their hands. They just started horribly with it.

Dagless · Dec 8, 2011, 06:48 PM

First I'm hearing of this thing. But I have to say... if they fix the problems and sell them in the UK I'll definitely buy one, maybe more as gifts. Sounds like (in theory) a cool little gadget.

davepilgrimus · Dec 8, 2011, 06:49 PM

Wow this is really surprising. The people that I know that have used this device love it.

thespazz · Dec 8, 2011, 07:52 PM

I don't think I've driven to Target faster than I did after reading that post...

Bought two for me and my bro!

Amazing Iceman · Dec 8, 2011, 09:22 PM

I should have done that!!!
Grrr!!!
I'll try in the morning..
Sooo... what exactly is wrong with it?

Carlanga · Dec 8, 2011, 10:17 PM

I have one & will ask for the cash

I went today to the mall and asked about them and was told they could not sell them due to defects and product will be returned (same answer from 3 separate AT&T corporate owned stores in the mall), RadioShack had none and BB neither or were removed. What they told me at AT&T was that they were ordered to removed them from sale STAT so GL to anyone wanting to get one for free. The coupon conditions state that it needs to have been bought from one of their retail partners but since no receipt is needed just the serial I don't see a problem with it if you get one form somewhere else.

OldSchoolMacGuy · Dec 8, 2011, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cougarcat

It's temporary. They will start producing them again once they fix the problems.

They claim to know what the issue is in their release yet on their site they make it clean that they don't know when it will return so it sounds like they don't actually know what the problem is.

I went out and got one earlier today just as Best Buy was pulling them when I read the release on another site.

skellener · Dec 8, 2011, 11:16 PM

I had ordered one for my brother's B-Day. It arrives tomorrow. Crap, now what do I do.

drummingcraig · Dec 8, 2011, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skellener

I had ordered one for my brother's B-Day. It arrives tomorrow. Crap, now what do I do.

Assuming you ordered it before the announcement you could:

Give it to your brother anyhow and get your money back.
Give it to your brother along with $99 (which you'll get back from the refund) so he can replace it when it breaks.
Return it and get your money back.

Just decide what works best.

japanime · Dec 9, 2011, 01:47 AM

This is the second time I've went for a product that Leo Laporte has gushed about during his broadcasts on the TWiT network — the other one was the Drobo mass-storage system.

Both turned out to be absolutely terrible products.

Makes me wonder if Leo really tries out these products before he begins telling his audience how they are the best things since sliced bread, or if it's just all about the advertising dollars.

baryon · Dec 9, 2011, 04:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishmoose

That's not really all it can do. It can do a lot more than that.

Well that's all that was talked about in their video, other than monitoring your food intake, which is basically "type in what you ate in your phone, and we'll ask you how you feel about it 3 hours later, and your response will determine how you feel about it", which is hardly a feature of the bracelet. Also, yeah, it monitors sleeping habits, but it won't wake you up based on your sleep patterns or anything like that "Sleep Cycle Alarm" app, so it doesn't really "do" anything other than make statistics about an accelerometer, which your phone could easily do, since it already has an accelerometer and it's already in your pocket anyway.

Peterkro · Dec 9, 2011, 04:31 AM

Received mine on 28th November worked well and was extremely useful to me,dead as a dodo yesterday.Seems Jawbone dropped a massive bollock with this,surely normal testing would have picked up the faulty capacitors.

Dec 8, 2011, 03:28 PM	#2
crisss1205 macrumors 6502a Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Long Island, New York	I was so close to buying one, should have done it! __________________  27" iMac  11" MacBook Air  iPhone 4  iPad 2
	0

Dec 8, 2011, 03:30 PM	#3
LimeiBook86 macrumors 604 Join Date: May 2002 Location: Hanging around in NJ with his cutie. :)	I never really looked into this product. I'm curious to know what all the issues were with the product that would cause the company to refund the item and stop producing them. __________________ My 'How to Draw Fun Animals' iBook is now on iTunes "Just you try and stop me..." My Site Thrift Fails Tech Blog
	8

Dec 8, 2011, 04:00 PM	#7
cognetic macrumors newbie Join Date: Jun 2009	Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3) I've had one for a little over a week and really love it! I've been tracking meals, sleep, and activity in an intense diet, exercise, and lifestyle change prompted by medical condition. It's very accurate for mileage with swimming but doesn't accurately interpret the data... Dead on for walking, sleep, and upper body workout. Only drawback was unexpected and random mode change, failure to sync, and odd battery discharge pattern.... All started happening after 6.5 days of use. No worries though because both email and phone support helped to quickly guide reset, diagnostics, and offered overnight replacement! This is the best device concept I've found. I do wish it was compatible with Virgin HealthMiles corporate program and made a plug at both businesses for the partnership. -cog- Edit to add=> I'm suspect that the issue might be software related as there is some correlation with restarting UP app, restarting iPhone 4S, and sync recovery.... Memory leak, audio/data headset jack dll?? Last edited by cognetic; Dec 8, 2011 at 04:04 PM.
	-1

Dec 8, 2011, 04:13 PM	#8
baryon macrumors 68020 Join Date: Oct 2009	It's a 99-dollar bracelet that vibrates from time to time, reminding you to get up from your chair. Of course people are disappointed, I could just set my wristwatch to beep every hour, for free. __________________ Sent from my iPod Shuffle
	-14

Dec 8, 2011, 04:32 PM	#11
Battlefield Fan macrumors 6502a Join Date: Mar 2008	I went through 3 bands in 30 days. It's a terrible product. It's expensive for what it can do and it seems awesome but I grew tired of it after just a month. Even when it does come back out I'd suggest that people not buy it. __________________ 15" Macbook Pro Hi-Res, 2.3 GHz i7 QC, 16GB RAM, 480 GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G Xbench score: 426; 27" TB ACD; 27" MDP ACD; Black iPhone 5 64GB; White iPad 3 32GB LTE
	2

Dec 8, 2011, 03:43 PM	#6
ChrisH3677 macrumors 6502a Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Victoria, Australia	Phew! When I heard about these i was worried maybe i shoulda got one instead of my FitBit. It is a shame though, they are a nifty device.
	0

Dec 8, 2011, 05:10 PM	#13
Force332 macrumors member Join Date: Mar 2011	I think the wristband is a great idea that just hasn't yet been executed properly. My girlfriend and I each bought one when they came out and we both returned ours about a week and a half ago. After having it for about two weeks, the button stopped working to switch between the different modes. I had some battery issues as well. Also, IMO, the food tracker as it stands is pretty much worthless. We stopped the whole taking a picture of our food about two days into having it. The food tracker needs more detail than just, "how do you feel?" We both also found the pedometer's accuracy to be a little questionable. Checking out your sleep pattern was neat the first few times but then it kind of became, "so what?" I tried the smart alarm feature that tries to wake you up in the optimum state and I found to be no more alert or rested than before. In fact, I frequently went back to bed for the remaining 20 minutes or so before my real alarm went off because I really just wanted to sleep. When mine broke, we ultimately decided that while it did have some neat features, like the social challenges, it wasn't yet worth it to pay the $99 each. Depending on how this product improves, I may want it in the future. (Ability to sync via Bluetooth please!) Overall, like I said, I think the idea has a lot of potential, but in is current stage isn't quite good enough. I am happy to see they know this and that they are working to improve!
	3

Dec 8, 2011, 05:53 PM	#14
evilyankeefan macrumors regular Join Date: Aug 2007	Though I was on my 2nd one which just happened to croak last nite, I like the device. It was my day tracking activity device. Yeah the food tracking and the iOS app itself needed improvement. Sleep complemented the Zeo I had. What really got me going was the integration with DailyFeats where you get points for doing stuff and after a while you can redeem it for rewards. Takes a while to get stuff, but if I'm going to do things it can sort of pay itself off (eventually). What Jawbone did was commendable even though the product was just not ready. Hopefully they will take their time & make the product better before releasing it again. I think they got a winner on their hands. They just started horribly with it.
	2

Dec 8, 2011, 06:48 PM	#15
Dagless macrumors Core Join Date: Jan 2005	First I'm hearing of this thing. But I have to say... if they fix the problems and sell them in the UK I'll definitely buy one, maybe more as gifts. Sounds like (in theory) a cool little gadget. __________________ Maybe if everyone who'd ever been close to you had died, you'd be sarcastic, too. Also come join us Steam users!
	0

Dec 8, 2011, 06:49 PM	#16
davepilgrimus macrumors newbie Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: The Sunny State	Wow this is really surprising. The people that I know that have used this device love it. __________________ Free Game App Reviews for iPad, iPod, iTouch, and iPhone.
	0

Dec 8, 2011, 07:52 PM	#17
thespazz macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jul 2007	I don't think I've driven to Target faster than I did after reading that post... Bought two for me and my bro!
	0

Dec 8, 2011, 09:22 PM	#18
Amazing Iceman macrumors 68020 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Florida, U.S.A.	I should have done that!!! Grrr!!! I'll try in the morning.. Sooo... what exactly is wrong with it? __________________ 17" MacBook Pro (2007) iPad 3G / new iPad LTE 64GB AppleTV 2 Follow @AmazingIceman for useful tech info and more (mention MacRumors).
	-2

Dec 8, 2011, 10:17 PM	#19
Carlanga macrumors 68030 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: PR	I have one & will ask for the cash I went today to the mall and asked about them and was told they could not sell them due to defects and product will be returned (same answer from 3 separate AT&T corporate owned stores in the mall), RadioShack had none and BB neither or were removed. What they told me at AT&T was that they were ordered to removed them from sale STAT so GL to anyone wanting to get one for free. The coupon conditions state that it needs to have been bought from one of their retail partners but since no receipt is needed just the serial I don't see a problem with it if you get one form somewhere else. __________________ ☻ "A dream you dream alone is only a dream... ... A dream you dream together is reality." ☻
	0

Dec 8, 2011, 11:16 PM	#21
skellener macrumors 65816 Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: So. Cal.	I had ordered one for my brother's B-Day. It arrives tomorrow. Crap, now what do I do. __________________ 24" iMac 2008 iPad 2 iPhone 3G S⃣
	0

Dec 9, 2011, 01:47 AM	#23
japanime macrumors 6502a Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Japan	This is the second time I've went for a product that Leo Laporte has gushed about during his broadcasts on the TWiT network — the other one was the Drobo mass-storage system. Both turned out to be absolutely terrible products. Makes me wonder if Leo really tries out these products before he begins telling his audience how they are the best things since sliced bread, or if it's just all about the advertising dollars. __________________ Put Manga University in your pocket — get our free iPhone app!
	1

Dec 9, 2011, 04:31 AM	#25
Peterkro macrumors 68020 Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Communard de Londres	Received mine on 28th November worked well and was extremely useful to me,dead as a dodo yesterday.Seems Jawbone dropped a massive bollock with this,surely normal testing would have picked up the faulty capacitors.
	1

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