Smart Watch issues

I recently read a review and ordered a health watch aptly named Health Watch. It sounded too good to be true and it was!
I received a watch alright that looked almost like the one I ordered but was not. It was called Smart Watch on the box.
I should have sent it back. For my sins I didn’t. I am out $132.00 for a fitness watch that lasted about 40 days. The warranty is only 30 days as they tell you on their form letter.
Please be aware consumers of Health Watch.

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Did you pay with a credit card. If so, ask your providor to reverse the transaction as it was obviously not fit for purpose.

Also go to Productreview.com.au to warn others about the rubbish.

Lasted only 40 days for a $132 item? No wonder they only had a 30 day warranty.

Everything sold at Bunnings has a minimum 12 months warranty.

Is this the watch/seller you bought/dealt with?

https://www.healthwatch-official.com/healthwatchv2.php?gclid=Cj0KCQiAz53vBRCpARIsAPPsz8XKcxzvDrGinistrfVTvqh68VCsnzzuXX2xhWkL7NbNv2xr3aiyxJsaAh_MEALw_wcB

The website does not mention any warranty except a 3 year warranty for an extra $20 but does mention excluding all warranties.

And the only reveiws for Health Watch are scam websites providing glowing endorsements for them such as these scams.

What a bunch of charlatans.

image

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Hu @Tysoe, welcome to the forum.

It is disappointing to see that you have problems with you recently purchased Health Watch. Just a couple of questions:

  1. Did you purchase this watch from an Australian retailer either online or in a bricks and mortar store?
    2.If you could provide more information about the watch, it would be great…such as the manufacturer, model etc.

In relation to warranties, if the watch was purchased from an Australian retailer, they are bound by the Australian Consumer Law.

It is worth reading the Consumer guarantees on products and services under the Consumer Guarantees section as the retailer’s/manufacturer’s warranty will not be relevant in your case. For a watch which has a value of $132, one would reasonably expect that the watch would last greater than 40 days. Such watches should last at least a year if not several years. The ACL consumer guarantee would come into play and there would be an opportunity for recourse/resolution under the ACL.

Also it appears that the advertising or marketing material was misleading as well, which means that there is opportunity for recourse/resolution under the ACL.

If the retailer is Australian, it is possible to lodge a complaint with them reminding them of their obligations under the ACL. The ACCC website above has example letters of complaint (templates) which can be used for such purposes.

If the Health Watch was purchased online and/or purchased from overseas online, it is worth reading this website:

It can be very challenging to make warranty claims for an overseas retailer as the requirements of the other country in relation to consumer guarantees may come into play. Online purchases made from an Australian retailer comes under the ACL which is clear in its intent and obligations.

The last avenue is if you purchased the Health Watch using a credit card, it may be possible to get a charge back from your credit card provider. Likewise if a payment platform like PayPal (or eBAY) was used, there are avenues to lodge a dispute to hopefully receive a resolution (either refund or replacement).

The reason about knowing more about the watch is that if it was purchased overseas there may be a manufacturer’s agent or business in Australia that may be willing to resolve the problems you have.

Let us know more about the watch and retailer and also keep us posted of how you get on.

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I purchased this from overseas. Paypal has started a dispute with Hypertech but they are still claiming 30 days warranty.

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Reviews for Hypertech on Trustpilot, Sitejabber & Reviews.io

https://au.trustpilot.com/review/hypertech.com

Looks like just another bunch of charlatans.

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I purchased a health watch from an American website who claimed it was Japanese technology which I thought would be OK as I had previously purchased Chinese versions which would not even link to my phone(s). However the product when it arrived was just as bad and guess what (it was made in china). It linked to my phone but constantly said it wasn’t connected even though it showed a link icon on the phone. The software supplied with the phone was next to useless. The tracker would not accurately track heart rate or steps taken. It stated that in order to monitor sleep I should turn on the function, but failed to tell me how to do that with the result that no matter what I tried I could not get it to work. There was no icon to record blood pressure or blood oxygen levels as stated in the advert and the watch was not waterproof even though the add says it was.
The offered a 30 day money back guarantee if I return the product. However when I contacted them to arrange this the number of hoops I was told to jump through made it almost impossible or not cost effective and designed to make me go away and give up. I was told I had to post the product so some place in Lybia, even though the product was sent to me was from some place in Sydney. I also had to send it registered mail and include their secret code without which the product would not be accepted by them. Finally they said I could keep the product and accept a refund of 60% of the purchase fee.
I think they have produced a product that is probably worth $10-20 and charged $57US in order to give you 60% back and still make a profit. Huge scam don’t waste your time buying these watches on line as they are all made by the same Chinese company even though they are made to look different.

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Hi @RMBJAB, welcome to the community.

You can name and shame the product and company/website. This will then help prevent others making the same shonky purchase as yourself.

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https://tryhealthwatch.com/index01 was the website the watch was purchased from and the company was Longhai Technology SZX. This same company distribute several health watches under different names all I would assume are the same inside. Moral is don’t buy this sort of item on line. Also I believe government should enforce on line shops to clearly state where their store is located and where product was manufactured and by whom.

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Gotta love that website.

All 5 star ratings from 676 reviews.

And the popups on the lower left indicate that they are selling faster than hot cakes.

And a 30 day money back guarantee.

What could possibly go wrong?

Only 1 review on Product Review.

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They are the same popups cycling. I bet tomorrow, next week and next month they will be the same. Such popups are used to create confidence in a website/buyers…and should always be ignored. Some accommodation booking sites do similar popups as a sales pressure technique…must book quickly before I miss out.

This rings alarm bells as no genuine reviews are 100% 5 star.

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Strange that yu cannot see the 676 5 star reviews. only the 5 reviews lower down.

Perhaps the post should be moved to Spot-A-Shonky?

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I hope you paid by paypal. If you did ask them to get you a refund. I did with what I assume is the same company and paypal refunded me. I sent the watch back safely by Australia Post. Then I bought a Fitbit from Officeworks. Don’t play by the companies 30 timeline.
Best of luck.

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I’d like other consumers to be aware that the ads for the Fitpro smart watch are totally misleading. When the one I purchased for about $70, failed to pair Bluetooth with my iPhone and other iPhones, I relied on the 90 day “easy return”, ‘for whatever reason’ guarantee. This was refused on the grounds that they did not accept returns due to “buyer remorse”. Further correspondence was ignored. Clearly I was scammed and given that there was no address, I have no recourse to any legal action.

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No reviews that I could find on Product Review, but there are plenty of negative ones on this site.
Just Use App reviews

Sounds like a con.

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Hi @Grant1 welcome to the community.
Thank you for sharing your issue.

Are you able to share who you purchased the product from? Overseas eg Ebay etc or Aussie.
Depending on how you paid there may be options for a credit card charge back, or PayPal refund.

Did the product include a clear warranty and product advice it was compatible with an iPhone?
Has the supplier offered to assist fault finding why the device will not pair?

There are several other threads in the community on fitness trackers and smart watches.

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Thanks for the warning. You will notice that I have moved your post to a relevant existing thread. If you look at the earlier posts you will see advice on what can be done such as checking out your ACL rights and guarantees. If you paid by credit card you can approach the provider and ask for a transaction reversal as mentioned in the previous post.

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As part of the process mentioned by @mark_m and @meltam you will need to have some evidence the product is claimed to connect to bluetooth, or iPhones, or at least does not have a caveat it only works with Android.

With that in your hands dispute the transaction with your card issuer or paypal as ‘product not as described’.

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Looking at the user manual online, it doesn’t provide any confidence it is a quality product… the manual is riddled with spelling and grammatical mistakes.

There are many smart watches being advertised online through social media platforms and Google/Apple which seem to have overreaching claims (kids watches fully waterproof, projector watches, connects and controls everything etc). Many seem to be cashing in on the smart watch boom catching unsuspecting buyers out who want to save some money with a unknown brand watch.

I wouldn’t be buying such watches sight unseen as there are videos online showing the pitfalls (including scams) of making such purchases.

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I took a community member’s advice and looked up the Fitpro smart watch manual. Like its ads it was slick and professional looking; no grammatical or spelling mistakes. And that is the problem, they look professional on the surface and seem believable. Nevertheless perhaps we are having some effect. They began as Oshen smart watch then changed to Fitpro, and just recently changed to Fits watch. They have also changed the app 2 days ago. I also wonder if Choice is aware of the fact they advertise in Google under the heading “Choice smart watches”.
I believe they could be based in the British Indian Ocean Territory as their Oshen email address ended in “io.” That’s interesting as there is no civilian population in the Indian Ocean Territory.Only British and US military. Diego Garcia former atomic test site is part of the Territory. Could the Australian Government ask questions?

Grant1

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The .io domain is a popular one for many websites, such as https://www.privacytools.io/. The “io” is seen as representing input/output.

In other IT news, I just learned that a restart/update of Chrome does not lose the text I typed above. Impressive.

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