Jawbone Leaves Users in the Lurch as Customer Support Goes Silent

[asleep]

This used to be such a thing...

 

[bazinga871]

Until Apple brings sleep tracking to the Apple Watch, I will continue to wear my Jawbone to sleep at night. I even like how the app guesses my sleep duration when I forget to set it to sleep mode or even when I forget to wear it at all (how they figure it out accurately I don't really know, but I assume it's accelerometer data).

Have you seen the AutoSleep app (same dev as HeartWatch)? It does what you asks. Also gives you a nice widget (battery-shaped) that shows you how your sleep has been the past week. I usually charge my AW at night (use Withings Aura for sleep tracking instead) so I don't often get to use it. But it does work and looks like Apple designed it.
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In dollars yes, but it will cost more to rehab the product's reputation. Lots of people will avoid buying any (former) Jawbone product because of their bad experience or because various websites will warn against buying their products. It may be cheap to buy but expensive to rebuild.

Well, if Fitbit decides to buy them, they'll just take the parts that worked well and slap the Fitbit brand on it, right? The way Jawbone showed sleep stats in their app is something I _really_ wish Fitbit would implement. Also, the Healthkit integration. I left Fitbit partially because I got nasty rashes from the Charge HR, but also because of their decision not to send info to Apple Health.

 

[fhall1]

I just bought a Big Jambox through a deal with Groupon for about $60 - listening to music through it via BT connection to Echo Dot. It's a great $60 speaker - no way I would have paid the original $299 price.

 

[manhattanboy]

Sounds like many have a bone to pick with them

Is that slapjaw comedy?

 

[NoahK17]

The only thing I know about Jawbone is that they used to make a pretty decent Bluetooth Headset.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

This used to be such a thing...

People still buy those. In recent years I haven't been to someone's pool or barbeque that didn't have something like that outside.

 

[adityakoparkar]

This company is nothing but a fraud. They have abandoned their product and there is no way to reach customer care or any person for that matter. I reached out to engineer via email to get my jawbone up 4 fixed. And all he did was to forward me a customer support link which is not working! I didn't even use it for 1 day and it bricked after a firmware update! I wish if I could take these b@st@rds to court.

 

[SBlue1]

I love my Jawbone Up24, but hey Jawbone has such a poor QC!

I am on my 6th Jawbone band now. The first Jawbone UP bough for 180 € died after 2 months. The second after 4 months. After that the Apple store stopped selling them so I got a full refund. Bought the next one on Amazon for 140 € and it died after 5 months. Got a full refund since they didn't started shipping UP24 only so I bought one for 100 €. It died after 6 months. Got a new one now again for free. That thing died after 4 months. Got a full refund since that shop stopped selling them. Bought my 6th UP for 40 Euros. Lets see how long it will last.

So for 6 bands I payed 40 € in total. No wonder they are going out of business.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not convinced that wearable computing is a thing. When the novelty is gone a gadget has to prove its value in utility and I don't think it's there. Most people don't carry an extra camera additional to their smartphone camera or an extra gps tracker, why would they want a smartwatch or a fitness tracker? The iPhone already tells the time and measures your activity good enough or even superior given the choice of apps in the AppStore. I'd pay zero dollar for a wearable device and put it in a dusty drawer for eternal storage.

Step counting was the initial reason I bought my UP but I repurchased for two reasons only: Silent alarm, so my wife doesn't wake up, and sleep tracking.

 

[NightFox]

...I never liked the design, because it lacked any display like the fitbit.

I know a lot of people shared that sentiment, but for some of us that was actually the best thing about it - too many fitness trackers are watch substitutes, but I want one I can still wear as well as a watch without looking like a cheesy '80s pop star. I know for those people who like to track their steps progress regularly throughout the day, having to check it via your iPhone isn't ideal, but if you're just checking a couple of times a day or are more interesting in historic trending then the lack of display is a no-brainer trade-off for reduced size and much longer battery life.

With the move/evolution from pure fitness trackers to mobile-paired "smart" devices with in-built HRMs, fitness trackers are growing in bulk and my wish for a discreet device doesn't look like it's going to be granted any time in the near future

 

[rti92391]

Owners of Jawbone products have been met with a wall of silence from the speaker and activity tracker company's customer support, it was reported on Wednesday.

Customers told The Verge they had contacted Jawbone in recent months or weeks about faulty products and had not received any response, while calls to the company's support number are being continually met with automated messages about busy lines.

The company's support Twitter account hasn't tweeted since December 21, 2016, and the Jawbone Facebook page does not respond to comments left by frustrated customers, with many of the comments apparently hidden from public view. Meanwhile, review aggregator website Trustpilot.com currently gives Jawbone an average one-star rating.

Jawbone did not respond to requests for comment regarding its lack of customer support, despite the fact that the company's products are still available to buy through Amazon, if not Jawbone's own website.

Reports that the company has been struggling to stay afloat date back to May of last year, when it ended production of its UP line of fitness trackers and sold its remaining inventory to a third-party reseller at a discounted price.

At the time, Jawbone denied claims that it was going out of business and said it was focusing on advanced sensors to sell to other wearable makers, but recently both the head executive of product and the chief financial officer left the company.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Fitbit attempted to buy Jawbone last year, but it only offered a fraction of the $1.5 billion valuation the company had at the beginning of 2016. Jawbone and Fitbit have also been involved in a series of lawsuits over patents and trade secrets over the last year.

Article Link: Jawbone Leaves Users in the Lurch as Customer Support Goes Silent

Really loved this company and products (despite numerous faulty products received). Utterly poor management, no vision of where the market is moving and abhorrent customer service.

Reading back on their page, this post by the CEO in 2016 was just blatantly untrue.
https://jawbone.com/blog/still-committed/

Current valuation is $0.02 per share. Would not be surprised if the end is within this quarter.

 

[CarlJ]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not convinced that wearable computing is a thing.

Oh, wearable computing is absolutely a thing. It can be argued whether it's a good thing or a useful thing, but arguing whether it exists is kind of silly.

The iPhone already tells the time...

Yes, the iPhone tells time, if you fish it out of your pocket and wake up the display. But then why bother with that when you could just take your laptop out of its case, and open it, and wait for it to wake up, and check the time that way? It's all a question of convenience and speed. I can check the watch on my wrist in a second and get back to whatever else I was doing, while you're still reaching down to your pocket. Convenience and speed. The tradeoffs may or may not be worthwhile to you. I like the Apple Watch a lot.

 

[44267547]

I hope FitBit buy them, with this & Pebble & Vector, they can build some decent competition to keep Apple on their toes (and I say this as a happy Series 2 owner!)

The longer Fitbit wait, the cheaper Jawbone will be to purchase

The Article states that Fitbit already attempted to purchase Jawbone. However, they couldn't meet in agreement and there are pending lawsuits between one another.

 

[LotusLord]

I really liked my Jawbone Up24. Great battery life, and the app was better than Fitbit's at the time (6ish months ago) however when my Up stopped working after a swim, I felt like trying Fitbit, especially since most of my family wear them as do several of my friends. The app has improved and while my Alta's battery isn't as long lived, the screen with notifications has been beneficial. It's not so jarring that I couldn't wear a traditional watch if I wanted with it as well, but I seldom have need to do that (I wore my Alta, under my suit at my grandfathers funeral, and I wasn't the only one wearing one).