The way that smart watch company Pebble is going out of business isn’t what we’re used to seeing: instead of officially filing for bankruptcy first or being fully acquired by another firm, Pebble sold only its software assets to Fitbit. The end of Pebble as a company means that the warranties on its devices are now done, too: even new devices that you might have just purchased.
What does that mean? Here’s what you should know about the fall of Pebble.
If you’ve purchased a new Pebble device recently: If you’ve recently purchased a watch from the company, it means that you have an important choice: you can either keep it and hope that it has no hardware problems that you can’t fix yourself, or return it to the retailer. This will depend on the retailer’s return policies, of course.
If you already owned a watch that was still under warranty: Um, it isn’t anymore.
If you backed the project on Kickstarter, you’ve most likely already received an email with information about your pledge, but let’s lay things out for everyone else in the audience as a cautionary tale about crowdfunding.
If you backed the most recent Kickstarter campaign and chose a Pebble 2 If you received your Pebble 2, you’re doubly stuck: you can’t return the device, and there will be no warranty support available for it. The good news is that you’ll have a super sad story to share with people who admire your watch. Wait, is that good news?
If you backed the most recent Kickstarter campaign and chose any other device: You’ll receive a refund: while initial reports were that the refunds may not be issued for a few months, Pebble now reports that Kickstarter refunds will be issued within about a week.
If you own any Pebble device: Be prepared for it to stop working, since the cloud-based services for the watches have been passed on to Fitbit, which will probably not keep then going indefinitely. “No immediate changes to the Pebble user experience will happen at this time,” the company assures users, but it’s the “at this time” part that’s important.
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist