Whoop is replacing defective MG trackers

Users of Whoop’s fitness trackers have been reporting that their Whoop MG fitness trackers are turning unresponsive, in some cases within under an hour of setting them up. Now, the company is replacing the trackers, in some cases before the users even ask, TechIssuesToday reports.

Launched alongside the Whoop 5.0 earlier this month, the Whoop MG (which stands for “Medical Grade”) comes with EKG capabilities and blood pressure insights and requires a premium Whoop Life subscription that’s $359 per year. Users started reporting issues with the tracker almost immediately.

On May 11th, a user reported in the Whoop community forum that their MG “stopped working overnight after working for 8 hours. No green light, no bluelight nothing. It won’t now pair with the app.” Others replied to say the tracker failed even sooner for them, with one person reporting that it went inert after just half an hour of use. Some also report that their 5.0 has failed.

In a statement emailed to The Verge, Whoop chief marketing officer John Sullivan says the company hasn’t seen “evidence of a widespread issue” and that the “scenarios described are rare and isolated, impacting a small number of members.”

Sullivan continues:

For the small subset of members who have reported performance issues since launch, we’ve promptly replaced their devices. If a replacement takes more than a day to arrive, we ensure the member is not charged for any time without a working device.

Looking at the Whoop Reddit group, the company has indeed been replacing devices, and according to some it’s doing it proactively. The person who posted the screenshot above later commented, “They reached out to me, I was surprised to see the email.” The same goes for a user who posted two days ago, saying that Whoop told them they were getting a replacement despite them not having noticed an issue. Some in that thread even write that they got replacements without Whoop ever telling them it would be doing so.

If you’re having trouble, Whoop recommends a few troubleshooting steps — the usual things like making sure your device is charged or trying to reset it — if that doesn’t work out for you, the company says you should reach out to its customer support.

This has been a rough launch for Whoop. Earlier this month, some users were outraged when the company said they would need to add another 12 months onto their memberships to avoid the upgrade fee for the Whoop 5.0. Previously, users only needed to have 6 months left on their subscription to get a Whoop 4.0. Whoop soon walked its new terms back, posting on Reddit that those who had at least 12 months left would be eligible for an upgrade.

Update May 25th: Added statement by Whoop chief marketing officer John Sullivan.