Background
I previously owned the first generation of the Nike+ Fuelband. I previously had the Jawbone Up, and while I liked it, the cap started to become loose and it hurt my wrist throughout the day. Anyway, the pawl on my Fuelband spit out it’s internal spring somehow and I needed a replacement spacer – which Nike was quick to get to me.
So when the Nike+ Fuelband SE was announced, I was intrigued. I pre-ordered one with the orange accents. It looked good, was announced as having better water resistance, BTLE syncing, and came with the ability to track sleep (something I liked in the Jawbone Up).
I’ve been generally quite pleased with the Fuelband SE. I originally had some problems getting the band to sync to the iOS application, but after Nike sorted out the bug, things improved and worked.
What just happened?
At work one day the band suddenly felt loose. I looked down, it had become un-clasped. I reached down to clasp it back together and something shot out of the rotary pawl on the band itself… meaning now that spacer cannot be attached back to the band. Unwearable.
Room for design improvement
Let me say that there is something Nike can do to improve their Fuelband SE design. If they made a rotary pawl that was thin and actually screwed INTO the band instead of being integrated, they could ship out little rotary pawl segments instead of doing what needs to be done right now…
Nike is sending me a replacement band, after I supplied them with my credit card number, and when I get the new one, I return the old one. Pretty easy and it will only take a few days. If there was an operational Nike store near me, I’d just go there and swap it out. Alas.
This is going to cost Nike a whole new band — all because a little spring or something shot out of the rotary pawl… a 0.5ยข part? Since this is the second one I’ve needed repaired/replaced and there seems to be a robust support need for this on their own website, Nike should get on this and make it
- Easier to send replacement parts for connection to the band itself
- Cheaper to supply replacement parts
- Offer one to actually purchase replacement parts (such as the rotary pawl) ahead of time in anticipation of hardware failure
Anyway, thanks to Nike Support’s Twitter account, I was able to initiate things, then it went to emails, I supplied a photo, and then needed to make a 30-minute phone call with a friendly gentleman named David in order for him to issue a new Fuelband knowing what my credit card information was in case I didn’t return the old band.