My 4th Band...

[Stockmoose16]

Deletr

 

[mkg3]

Really weird. I sweat and often find that Band is sitting on wrist sweat where the sensor is. Additionally, I actually clean my Band under running water using soap, albeit its not submerged or water hitting the sensor directly under the faucet.

You must have a fountain of a wrist....:smile:

 

[Nate Silver]

I wonder what's up with that? I've had my Band since release, and have done quite a few really sweaty workouts, but have never experienced that problem. You don't by any chance have a job that entails a lot of rapid temperature changes (restaurant or grocery store deep freeze or something), do you? Just wondering if it was more of a condensation issue.

 

[Stockmoose16]

I don't. Desk job. I can't figure it out. I wonder if there is some kind of full body protection that can prevent this issue.

 

[HanTing Lee]

Sir, have you ever bought a screen protection from the official store of Mircrosoft, or from other stores with wrapping services?

I have changed twice since I unboxed my Band. Although I sweated a lot, I would put my towel on my wrist to avoid sweating too much on my Band when I'm going jogging, or wiped my Band after I found out sweat on it when I'm doing workouts with rest time.

Sorry for my basic English, hope these suggestions may fix your whole problems from exercising with your Microsoft Band.

 

[jwpear]

I'm on my third. I ordered my first the day of the announcement. I have not seen any moisture issues with the display. I wear mine all day, minus charging. I work out 3-4 days a week, so mine is exposed to lots of sweat. I also wear mine while doing yard work, so it gets some dirt on top of the sweat. Has your Band taken any hard falls or shown any signs of cracks or openings around the display?

My issue is primarily corrosion of the sensor around the charging port. It gets to a point that it won't charge easily. With the last one, it also started to cause a rash on my wrist.

I've also had problems with the cover on the battery compartment wrinkling up. The cover started coming off with the last Band. I think that comes from my wrist bone pushing on the cover while I'm coding all day.

I'm getting about three months with each Band.

I haven't had any customer service issues. I ordered my Band from microsoftstore.com since I don't have anything close by. Each time, I request a call from support via the online support page. They've never hesitated to replace my Band. They did ask for pictures the first time. And they did remind me to wipe my Band off after getting wet or sweating. I was. The second time, they replaced with no questions or advice. I did an advanced exchange each time, so I had my replacement in two days without having to send mine in first. I've been impressed with the customer service every time. It is remarkable.

While it is annoying to have these issues with the Band durability, I cannot complain about the customer service at all. I'm hoping these durability issues are resolved with Band 2, if there is ever such a thing.

My goal was to get a year out of my Band. I felt like that was reasonable for an activity/fitness device given the potential punishment it would take while doing various activities. If Microsoft keeps up the great customer service and replacements through the first year, I'll be quite happy. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another after the year has elapsed.

 

[poit57]

I had to get a replacement when my touch screen stopped working after running a half marathon. The right third of the screen still responded to my touch, but not enough that I could scroll through the tiles and do anything with the Band. I think the culprit in my case was when I tried to drink the sports drink refreshments during the run and accidentally splashed myself.

I didn't think that would have been enough moisture to cause damage, but that's the only thing out of the ordinary that I can think of that would have caused the touchscreen to stop working. I was once caught in a heavy rain for about 10 minutes during one of my runs and have also completed a run in light rain. Even considering those two instances and all the sweat during my workouts, I've never come across any other issues that I believe were connected to liquid damage.

 

[FearL0rd]

I am now on my fourth Microsoft band, and I'm getting tired of going back to the store. I've had two screens that stop working, and both times for the same reason. Sweat gets under the screen and you can see fluid bubbles on the tiles. Once that happens, it's only a matter of time before the screen shorts and you need to warranty replace the band.

When I went back to the store, their answer is "it's only water resistant." I said "it's an activity band, it needs to withstand sweat." They won't give me my money back since I originally bought it at Best Buy, and I'm way past their return deadline.

I don't know what to do. There's no way to prevent water from entering the unit. And the Microsoft employee said it will likely keep happening.

Not happy with the quality control or the customer service.

I have mine since day one. I do crossfit every day. I had the kettle bell hitting the band many times. it still working amazing with a lot of scratches

 

[Artur Verdini Meireles]

All the complaints I see here happens around 3 months after using the band. I got mine o March 22 and today is June 19 and my band started to turn off by itself yesterday. Called Microsoft, did everything they said, reste, delete app, reinstala app, unpair bluethoot, air bluetooth. Did on my LUmia 930 and also with my Iphone 6 and the band still not working properly. I bought it from Amazon UK and I live in Portugal. Bottom line: I cant get a band r?placem?nt because Im not a residente of UK or US. If thats the case WHY they sell it on Amazon with shippping worldwide ?!??!! This is ridiculous. 230€ that I?m throwing in the garbage. Thanks Microsoft! Never again! BTW my band is in perfect condition, I dont sweat a lot, I dont use it on wtaer like washing plates etc. I dont see why this band is shuting off on its own for a lot of owners.

 

[FearL0rd]

All the complaints I see here happens around 3 months after using the band. I got mine o March 22 and today is June 19 and my band started to turn off by itself yesterday. Called Microsoft, did everything they said, reste, delete app, reinstala app, unpair bluethoot, air bluetooth. Did on my LUmia 930 and also with my Iphone 6 and the band still not working properly. I bought it from Amazon UK and I live in Portugal. Bottom line: I cant get a band r?placem?nt because Im not a residente of UK or US. If thats the case WHY they sell it on Amazon with shippping worldwide ?!??!! This is ridiculous. 230€ that I?m throwing in the garbage. Thanks Microsoft! Never again! BTW my band is in perfect condition, I dont sweat a lot, I dont use it on wtaer like washing plates etc. I dont see why this band is shuting off on its own for a lot of owners.

I think thta I'm lukcy

 

[07713]

All the complaints I see here happens around 3 months after using the band. I got mine o March 22 and today is June 19 and my band started to turn off by itself yesterday. Called Microsoft, did everything they said, reste, delete app, reinstala app, unpair bluethoot, air bluetooth. Did on my LUmia 930 and also with my Iphone 6 and the band still not working properly. I bought it from Amazon UK and I live in Portugal. Bottom line: I cant get a band r?placem?nt because Im not a residente of UK or US. If thats the case WHY they sell it on Amazon with shippping worldwide ?!??!! This is ridiculous. 230€ that I?m throwing in the garbage. Thanks Microsoft! Never again! BTW my band is in perfect condition, I dont sweat a lot, I dont use it on wtaer like washing plates etc. I dont see why this band is shuting off on its own for a lot of owners.

I live in germany, and my band isn't charging properly anymore. I chatted wits MS and they said they gonna replace it, whats the problem?

 

[Artur Verdini Meireles]

The issue with charging, sometimes, is related particles of your sweat(dirty) and you have to clean your band connector and the band charger. This is acceptable because as time goes by its normal that its going to accumulate your sweat.
In my case, the band turns off on its own randomly. I called MS. MS offered a new band. UPS just passed by my house to pick up the band and in a matter of days I will have a new band. I hope the issue doesnt happen again with the new band cause I read somewhere on the net that there are people on their third band exchange due to the same issue. I dont know if it is a bad batch that MS produced... But something has to be done.

 

[moc426]

I have my 4th band as well, its always the same thing. After a few weeks it stops charging and syncing on the pc. After cleaning the charging port and retrying numerous times it works eventually. Finally at some point all that stops working and I get it replaced. Not sure if they are going to replace this last one anymore but its having these issues. The band is great minus the charging port issues. I hope band 2 changes how the unit is charged, I'd rather have a cover that you pop open to charge then deal with this magnetic charging port that doesn't work as it should.

 

[ddn123]

Seems like MSFT is getting plenty of real world beta testing from customers. Wonder how Version 2.0 will do in the market? If people are still using the device after 3 failures, then you would think the utility of the device is sufficient to keep people from switching to another device.

 

[Nate Silver]

Seems like MSFT is getting plenty of real world beta testing from customers. Wonder how Version 2.0 will do in the market? If people are still using the device after 3 failures, then you would think the utility of the device is sufficient to keep people from switching to another device.

Agreed. The feature set and utility of the Band are pretty much unmatched at the price point. The only device I've found to surpass it is a much more expensive, larger and heavier sports watch (which even then requires a separate HR monitor). If MS can raise the bar a little further with something a little bit tougher and perhaps a bit sexier, it'll be a home run for sure.

 

[NBrookus]

Really weird. I sweat and often find that Band is sitting on wrist sweat where the sensor is. Additionally, I actually clean my Band under running water using soap, albeit its not submerged or water hitting the sensor directly under the faucet.

Might be the heat? Hot water is more dangerous than cold. Maybe 100F+ sweat counts as hot.

I wash mine under the tap, too, because dirt + sweat = mud, and I sweat a lot. Yet other than the scratches on the bezel and a few on the clasp, mine looks almost new and I haven't had any of the corrosion issues.

I really think there's a body chemistry issue going on with the materials they used. Judging from this forum, enough people are having this issue that they probably need to revisit those selections. I don't know where the numbers fall with MS, but with the FitBit they have something like 4% of customers who get rashes. They seem to have accepted that rate. FitBit just takes them back (even from retail purchases) and refunds the money. If MS is going to have that kind of percentage of people with incompatibility, perhaps they need to do the same.

 

[uselessrobot]

I bought mine less than a month ago and from day one noticed the slightest of gaps between those covers and the band. At the time I wasn't aware of the issue with the Band shutting off so I figured there was some gasket underneath and that the gap was mostly a cosmetic concern.

Clearly, the problem is more significant than that because my Band started having the issues described here. It shuts itself off, occasionally works but it unresponsive and sometimes the battery seems to quickly lose its charge. All these problems are symptoms of electronics that have been exposed to water. So sweat has to be seeping into the batteries. And I hadn't even done a proper workout wearing mine, having only gone on walks on very warm days.

If I had owned my Band for far longer I'd open it up to clean it out and maybe investigate adding some kind of gasket. But at barely a month in, and reading that people continue having problems with replacements, I decided to just return mine.

I'm guessing that the units that haven't had problems were manufactured under ideal conditions with perfect tolerances. Unfortunately, there's obviously an inherent flaw with the design. The battery covers should have been encased in rubber entirely or not exposed to the inside of the wrist.

The Band was clearly rushed to market. I also suspect management was aware of these issues which is why the device hasn't been marketed much and why supply was initially so limited. But really, they should have waited to resolve some of these problems.

It's a pity, because in every other way I loved the Band. I still eagerly await version 2, but nonsense like this is eroding my confidence in Microsoft.

 

[mprebich]

Who/how did you contact? Mine was bought in Boston store, but I'm now outside the country for next 6 months. MS support said I have to mail it back (even from outside the US) and they will replace it .

It's a big hassle to have to return it from here. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.