Fitbit Apologizes To “Very Limited Number Of” Force Owners With Skin Irritation

(Photo courtesy of Fitbit Force user McKenzie)

After Consumerist broke the story on Monday, mysterious rashes caused by the wearable motion tracker Fitbit have been in the news all over the world. The company has issued an apology to what they call a “very limited number of Fitbit Force users” who have a mysterious skin irritation underneath their wristbands.

In a statement to Huffington Post, which published a story on Monday as well, Fitbit issued a public apology to customers who have experienced skin problems on the wrists where they’ve worn the force.

We are looking into reports from a very limited number of Fitbit Force users who have been experiencing skin irritation, possibly as a result of an allergy to nickel, an element of surgical-grade stainless steel used in the device.

We suggest that consumers experiencing any irritation discontinue using the product and contact Fitbit at force@fitbit.com if they have additional questions. Customers may also contact Fitbit for an immediate refund or replacement with a different Fitbit product.

We are sorry that even a few consumers have experienced these problems and assure you that we are looking at ways to modify the product so that anyone can wear the Fitbit Force comfortably. We will continue to update our customers with the latest information.

We can’t know how many Fitbit customers have experienced problems out of the total number of bands sold. Only the company knows that, and it is likely a very small (yet itchy) proportion. What we do know is that many customers don’t regularly peruse the company’s forums and didn’t know that anyone else had the same problem. “I never even heard about this until today on Consumerist and made the connection,” one user wrote on the Fitbit forums thread about the situation yesterday.

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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist