Argos refusing to refund Fitbit that is unusable

mightbedave

I bought a Fitbit Inspire 2 for my daughter last week from Argos. You need a Google account to set it up but it was not possible with her account. Only the Fitbit Ace kiddie options appear in the app. After much Googling it seems that adult Fitbits will not work with supervised Google accounts (where you can set time limits, downtime etc.) The only option is to switch her to a full adult Google account for everything on her phone which would remove all parental restrictions. Different people have different views but I do not think this would be suitable for a 13 year old. 

Anyway, clearly as it does not work as described (this restriction is not mentioned in the Argos description) I packaged it all up and returned it to Argos.

The lady at Argos refused to refund me because I had opened the box and tried to set it up. I said that the only way I could find the issue was by trying to set it up and if it had worked properly I wouldn't be returning it. They pointed me to their refund terms, to which I pointed to the bit at the end where it says they do not affect your consumer rights. Anyway they wouldn't budge and refused to refund me. Where do I go from here?

Thanks in advance for your help.

elsien

Option three. Set up a an adult Google account for her on your device and then support her to access it under your supervision. 

pinkshoes

I had the same issue after getting my son a fitbit versa 4 for Christmas. 

Just change the age to 13, get them to agree to taking charge of their own Google account (they get sent an email and need to click a link), install the watch then put the parent controls back on.

It works fine as do the parent controls.

Just to add - my son was already 13 but we hadnt clicked the take over account email link that google sent him on his birthday. I'm a mean parent who put parent controls back on!

mightbedave

elsien said:

Option three. Set up a an adult Google account for her on your device and then support her to access it under your supervision. 

That doesn't really work because then she won't be able to connect it to her phone to get messages, notifications etc.

mightbedave

pinkshoes said:

I had the same issue after getting my son a fitbit versa 4 for Christmas. 

Just change the age to 13, get them to agree to taking charge of their own Google account (they get sent an email and need to click a link), install the watch then put the parent controls back on.

It works fine as do the parent controls.

Just to add - my son was already 13 but we hadnt clicked the take over account email link that google sent him on his birthday. I'm a mean parent who put parent controls back on!

Thanks, I might try this. What a ridiculous faff though! 

Surely I still should be entitled to a refund though. I'm tech-savvy enough to be able to do this but many would not be.

Ayr_Rage

As the Fitbit is not actually faulty I believe Argos are correct in refusing a refund if this was a store purchase.

PHK

I don't think you are entitled to a refund. There's nothing wrong with the Fitbit, it doesn't operate in the way you expected it to. Any refund would be down to store policy and I think a health item that has been setup would be unlikely to qualify. 

Additionally, there is a specific children's version so it could be argued you would have known the adult version might not work . Secondly, thirteen is the age that teens can have their own accounts.

mightbedave

PHK said:

I don't think you are entitled to a refund. There's nothing wrong with the Fitbit, it doesn't operate in the way you expected it to. Any refund would be down to store policy and I think a health item that has been setup would be unlikely to qualify. 

Additionally, there is a specific children's version so it could be argued you would have known the adult version might not work . Secondly, thirteen is the age that teens can have their own accounts.

I think it is a design fault with the Fitbit system. My daughter is 13 (the minimum age to get an adult Fitbit) although this requirement is not stated anywhere obvious, I am meeting it. The Fitbit website (not Argos) also states that she needs a Google account and she has one of those. No where can you find anywhere apart from complaints on forums from people like me that it will not work with supervised Google accounts. I don't think I can reasonably have been expected to know this before trying to set it up and Argos are refusing a refund because I tried to set it up.

Aylesbury_Duck

mightbedave said:

PHK said:

I don't think you are entitled to a refund. There's nothing wrong with the Fitbit, it doesn't operate in the way you expected it to. Any refund would be down to store policy and I think a health item that has been setup would be unlikely to qualify. 

Additionally, there is a specific children's version so it could be argued you would have known the adult version might not work . Secondly, thirteen is the age that teens can have their own accounts.

I think it is a design fault with the Fitbit system. My daughter is 13 (the minimum age to get an adult Fitbit) although this requirement is not stated anywhere obvious, I am meeting it. The Fitbit website (not Argos) also states that she needs a Google account and she has one of those. No where can you find anywhere apart from complaints on forums from people like me that it will not work with supervised Google accounts. I don't think I can reasonably have been expected to know this before trying to set it up and Argos are refusing a refund because I tried to set it up.

But isn't the point that this doesn't matter?  She has a Fitbit she's old enough to use, and she has a google account she's old enough to use, unsupervised.  It's your choice (and not a bad one, by the way) that her google account is supervised.  That choice is what's made the Fitbit incompatible with her account, it's not anything Fitbit has done.

I can't see where there's a design fault.  It appears that Fitbit have matched their age requirement to google's.  That's either a coincidence or done deliberately.  I suspect it's the latter.

mightbedave

Aylesbury_Duck said:

mightbedave said:

PHK said:

I don't think you are entitled to a refund. There's nothing wrong with the Fitbit, it doesn't operate in the way you expected it to. Any refund would be down to store policy and I think a health item that has been setup would be unlikely to qualify. 

Additionally, there is a specific children's version so it could be argued you would have known the adult version might not work . Secondly, thirteen is the age that teens can have their own accounts.

I think it is a design fault with the Fitbit system. My daughter is 13 (the minimum age to get an adult Fitbit) although this requirement is not stated anywhere obvious, I am meeting it. The Fitbit website (not Argos) also states that she needs a Google account and she has one of those. No where can you find anywhere apart from complaints on forums from people like me that it will not work with supervised Google accounts. I don't think I can reasonably have been expected to know this before trying to set it up and Argos are refusing a refund because I tried to set it up.

But isn't the point that this doesn't matter?  She has a Fitbit she's old enough to use, and she has a google account she's old enough to use, unsupervised.  It's your choice (and not a bad one, by the way) that her google account is supervised.  That choice is what's made the Fitbit incompatible with her account, it's not anything Fitbit has done.

I can't see where there's a design fault.  It appears that Fitbit have matched their age requirement to google's.  That's either a coincidence or done deliberately.  I suspect it's the latter.

My point is that there is no logical reason why it should not work with a supervised Google account. Literally everything else does, it's just some things needs parental approval to install. Having a full adult unsupervised account is not specified as a requirement anywhere. Even on the Fitbit website it just says you need a Google account. The only way to find out is to try setting it up, or trawl through posts like these on forums. If the requirement was on the product description I would not have bought it. 

Aylesbury_Duck

mightbedave said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

mightbedave said:

PHK said:

I don't think you are entitled to a refund. There's nothing wrong with the Fitbit, it doesn't operate in the way you expected it to. Any refund would be down to store policy and I think a health item that has been setup would be unlikely to qualify. 

Additionally, there is a specific children's version so it could be argued you would have known the adult version might not work . Secondly, thirteen is the age that teens can have their own accounts.

I think it is a design fault with the Fitbit system. My daughter is 13 (the minimum age to get an adult Fitbit) although this requirement is not stated anywhere obvious, I am meeting it. The Fitbit website (not Argos) also states that she needs a Google account and she has one of those. No where can you find anywhere apart from complaints on forums from people like me that it will not work with supervised Google accounts. I don't think I can reasonably have been expected to know this before trying to set it up and Argos are refusing a refund because I tried to set it up.

But isn't the point that this doesn't matter?  She has a Fitbit she's old enough to use, and she has a google account she's old enough to use, unsupervised.  It's your choice (and not a bad one, by the way) that her google account is supervised.  That choice is what's made the Fitbit incompatible with her account, it's not anything Fitbit has done.

I can't see where there's a design fault.  It appears that Fitbit have matched their age requirement to google's.  That's either a coincidence or done deliberately.  I suspect it's the latter.

My point is that there is no logical reason why it should not work with a supervised Google account. Literally everything else does, it's just some things needs parental approval to install. Having a full adult unsupervised account is not specified as a requirement anywhere. Even on the Fitbit website it just says you need a Google account. The only way to find out is to try setting it up, or trawl through posts like these on forums. If the requirement was on the product description I would not have bought it. 

I'm not defending Fitbit here (I don't rate their products, as it happens), but playing devil's advocate, there are a number of things I disagree with here, and it seems you'll need to overcome these arguments to try and secure the outcome you want.

1. Your first point is your opinion.  Fitbit have decided they don't want it to work with a supervised Google account.  It's reasonable to think that they don't want the potential hassle of problems with minors, parents, etc.  By making it so that it only works with a full Google account, they've aligned themselves to their parent organisation (Google) and deemed that 13 is the 'adult age' for the product, it being the same as the age where someone is allowed to have their own Google account.  Seems sensible to me.

2. "Literally everything else does" is just based on your experience, and doesn't mean Fitbit has to go along with every other product, even if you are right.

3. Having a full adult account doesn't need to be specified as a requirement.  It's possible for anyone 13 or over (the age at which Fitbit allow their products to be used) to get an unsupervised Google account if they haven't one already.  Therefore the product works.

I'd contend that since your situation is unusual (in that it's probably a minority of google accounts that are supervised), the onus was on you to do the research before buying, because it's you that has a specific requirement.  If you had asked about it on the Argos website or in-store before purchasing, and they had erroneously informed you it would work with a supervised account, then you'd be in a different position, entitled to a refund.  As things stand, I think you're reliant upon goodwill or taking it further and hoping something like a small claims court sees your side of things.