Google owned Fitbit sued for its tendency to overheat and cause burns to customers

Two plaintiffs have sued Fitbit smartwatches and Google for the fitness tracker’s tendency to overheat. The two plaintiffs, who are based in California, claim that the overheating of the fitness trackers causes burns and creates fire hazards.

The lawyers of the plaintiffs said in a statement that people purchase Fitbit’s fitness trackers to burn calories and pursue a healthy lifestyle, not to burn their skin.

The plaintiffs claim that they bought the fitness trackers from the Fitbit’s Versa lineup, and have alleged that the watches create a burn hazard. One plaintiff claims that the smartwatch burned their daughter's wrist, while the other claims that they themselves were the victim.

The lawyers of the complainants have also included photos of burn marks of other people using other models of the Fitbit, which include Fitbit Sense, Versa 3, Blaze, Inspire and Inspire 2.

The plaintiffs also alleged that Fitbit’s customer support wasn’t exactly helpful with heating issues before the incident, which led to the injuries.

The documents that the plaintiffs submitted included several screenshots of replies to the Fitbit Support on Twitter where customers were frustrated with long waits and unresponsive customer service while trying to get refunds for the recently recalled Ionic fitness tracker.

Fitbit had recalled all the Ionic smartwatches that it had sold after it discovered there were some critical issues with the batteries being used in the devices. It was found that the batteries would overheat beyond the safety threshold and could burn customers. The company says that it recalled almost 1 million units in the United States and about 7,00,000 units from around the globe. Fitbit also set up a refund registration page in order to facilitate easier returns.

The lawsuit acknowledges that although a recall was issued, it wasn’t issued properly. The plaintiffs allege that not all batches with the defective batteries were recalled. They also claim that Google failed to do enough to stem the problem. They further allege, that the recall and the refund were issued just for the Ionic line of watches, and did not include the other models which used the same faulty batteries.

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