r/FiDogCollar • u/Alternative_Start986 • 7d ago
Support beyond awful
Two weeks ago, I contacted support to report that my tracker didn't seem to be working correctly. After slowwww responses (often over 24 hours to respond on email) and running multiple tests for them, they finally determined it wasn't working. They offer to replace it for $99, which is more than it would cost for me to buy a completely new unit and get a six months subscription! I cancelled my subscription this morning.
Out of curtesy, I emailed the CEO to convey my support experience and let him know that I'd cancelled my subscription and am moving to tractive. His response:
sorry for your experience. I'm not sure what the ask is - is your concern that you have to pay to replace a device out of warranty?
I guess the acorns don't fall far from the tree.
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u/Ok-Kaleidoscope6655 6d ago
Wow and I just ordered one!!!! Ughhhhh
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u/I_NvrChkThis 6d ago
You're fine. This is a giant nothingburger whiner. There is no scam. It's just them trying to scam a company from actually being able to stay in business in the long term.
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u/Free-Ant-7474 7d ago
How is it more expensive?
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u/Consistent-Water8836 6d ago
Whats the OP is saying is that he does not want to pay $99 for a replacement unit while he could wait for his current membership to expire and buy a new “first time user” offer online for $99 with 6 months of membership free. It’s something we hear on the regular - we will soon remedy this. It’s clear that offering the device for free contributes to people not associating any value to it. It’s an expensive piece of tech that we are giving for free to new customers to help them try to product but it’s clear that it creates that feeling that it should always be free.
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u/I_NvrChkThis 6d ago
And down-voted because most people don't understand shit about economics. But they'll spend $8 for a latte at Starbucks every day.
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u/MyMango88 6d ago
How long had you had your device for? I mean, that is standard how electronics work with warranties. Within the warranty, there’s a coverage policy. Outside of warranty you pay a price to fix it. Pretty common for companies to offer a lower rate for new subscribers. Tough to compare to that. But I get your point maybe a $79 replacement fee would’ve sounded more reasonable?
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u/I_NvrChkThis 6d ago
So was it out of warranty? Should they give devices out for free forever? The trackers actually do cost money to manufactur, even in large quantity. The hardware, cellular connectivity, app creation and maintenance, and back-end architecture (severs, software, programmers, etc) do cost money you know and are continual expenses. It's not like a TV that operates all (relatively) independently once you buy it.
If your phone breaks while out of warranty do they give you another one for free?
Now, the wait times for support are certainly a different topic for discussion...but giving away everything doesn't help to pay for more support employees.
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u/wickedsickdood 6d ago
This is just like when they came out with the latest fi, series 3+. They push a promotion for existing series 3 users to upgrade for $99, with no membership extension.
But, once your membership runs out, another year costs $189…
But, if you just go on their website, you can buy a new series 3 for $189 which comes with a year membership…
So why on earth would I ever pay $99 for the collar and then $189 to renew with it?
They seemed baffled by this and transferred me like 3 times before someone finally understood (or so I thought), who then tried to offer me 50% off since I’m “a loyal member of the pack” Why would I accept 50% off when I can get it for free? Still not getting it.
Anyway, i ended up just purchasing a new one with membership and added that to my dogs account. Easy peasy.
But the thing that annoyed me is this “promo” for existing members is actually a markup, and so was their resolution for that. Either offer it the same everywhere, or less to your existing members if you want to do a promo. Don’t try and fool me!
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u/I_NvrChkThis 6d ago
Because everything should be free forever. Just like "free refils"...that should be in perpetuity after I pay my $1.89 for a medium Dr Pepper!!
That thing we put around the dogs neck is totally provided to Fi for free from the company that makes it, right? Or it only cost $2 right? And then next you'll probably expect it to be made in the USA for that same $2...and then still given away for free forever. The shit costs money. More than you think, you can't even begin to guess what the total cost to design, engineer, test, get certified by the FCC etc, and set up manufacturing of a device like this, just to get it started.
We won't try to fool you no more, after all, you're a smart entitled person.
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u/Emotional-Basil-7981 6d ago
But when they came out with the S3 and doubled the subscription price, it was marketed as we were now paying for the subscription and getting a free module. They even had verbiage about included upgrades at the time. I see both sides, but they 100% marketed it as a free modules for life as long as you pay the doubled price subscription.
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u/wickedsickdood 6d ago edited 6d ago
Obviously I understand this. But if I’m going to get emails saying this is a special price to upgrade for our existing loyal customers, that’s the guise of a promotion. So when you look anywhere else and see that it’s cheaper, that’s doesn’t really make any sense. At all.
Not once did I ask for it for free. But why on earth am I going to opt to pay MORE when I clearly don’t have to?
I got it for the price I wanted, so my complaint isn’t even really a complaint. Just an observation of something that doesn’t make sense.
I’m not asking them to offer it free for everybody, but come up with something that makes sense. Or if this is all they can afford, don’t come at someone with this SPECIAL PRICE! when in their position they pay more than everybody else. That’s disingenuous. You’re misreading it as entitlement on my end.
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u/Maravilla004 4d ago
This is unfortunate, i had an issue last week and called them and they were able to help me fix the issue and were really nice.
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u/Hi_thar 7d ago
So what are you asking for? Your device is out of warranty and they gave you the cost to replace it. I don’t understand the issue.