Jawbone Cancels All Pending Up Orders, Refunds Unhappy Owners
This is pretty incredible customer service.
I'm on my second Up now--my first one died after two days. It's a fun idea but it's not really implemented that well. There are a couple fundamental problems both with the device (why do I have to turn on sleep mode? can't it figure that out itself?) and the app (why can't I use Facebook to find friends?). I'm glad Jawbone is standing behind their reputation and improving this product.
And even though it's not that useful, I still wear it everyday. I like the way it looks :)
I wish WakeMate would have done something like this. Their customer support has been a black hole for the past 2 months; the solution[1][2][3] is to first ping them on twitter, then email random co-founders and hope for a response. It kind of sucks since it was a great idea but terrible execution.
[1] https://twitter.com/#!/wakemate/status/139012967692894209
[2] https://twitter.com/#!/wakemate/status/114720498511912960
[3] https://twitter.com/#!/wakemate/status/114463267061104640
This is the perfect way to Build brand loyalty rather than damage it. Lot of speculation that this may damage the Jawbone brand is without merit.
Considering what they are offering - We will refund your money AND you can still keep the product.
I am one of the people who will jump on the newly re-designed UP if it ever becomes available.
I'm glad to see Jawbone taking customer satisfaction seriously, but I hope this doesn't negatively impact them moving the product category forward.
I've been using an Up for about a week now and really like it. Yes, the battery life is half of what they claim (I only got 5 days on a fresh charge, not 10). Yes, it is annoying that it doesn't use Bluetooth LE for data transfer. Those two negatives aside, it is IMHO a good first generation product.
This is pretty awesome. I'd never even heard of the Up before, but when they finally start taking orders again, I may just have to buy one after seeing customer service like this.
I've had mine for a month, and was wearing it pretty much all the time. I actually found it pretty useful for making me aware of how much activity I was logging.
I was even exploring the unofficial api to grab as much of the raw data as possible. http://eric-blue.com/2011/11/28/jawbone-up-api-discovery/
Saw the announcement this morning, and discovered that the device would no longer sync this afternoon.
Things I'll be looking for in a replacement:
1. inductive charging
2. wireless sync - whether bluetooth, nfc, wifi or optical
3. direct access to the raw data - preferably without having to go through the manufacturers website.
4. less annoying buzzer
While a watch display would be nice, and a watch would be a reasonably good form factor for this device I don't feel an absolute need to have a display on wrist. On the other hand I wouldn't want both a watch and one of these.
All companies should work like this. Good on Jawbone.
I have one without major problems, and I like it. A pretty annoying thing is that a single charge session lasting 45 minutes doesn't make it last 24 hours. That is not acceptable for a device with no display and no radio.
Good job in handling the crippling hardware flaw in your product. Yay to Jawbone!
And I'm still trying to figure out why that little battery powered bluetooth speaker thingie they are pushing heavily costs $200.
I suspect there will be lots of these devices on eBay soon, since it doesn't sound like they're making any real effort to make sure people aren't claiming refunds and also reselling the device.
Looks like the Lean Startup philosophy doesn't work for hardware.. ;)
I was trying to order myself one of these for Christmas a few days ago, and kept getting strange errors when I tried to check out. I finally gave up... looks like it was the right move!
Is there any other product that is better than this, and in the same price range?
Hopefully they'll have their Android app out by the time they re-release.
Haven't tried Jawbone, but aren't all these devices just helping mostly people who are health-conscious in the first place, rather than helping those who need it the most?
They could put "WakeMate" in the headline, it's not the only product Jawbone offers.