The Gizmo Watch Disaster, Or How Verizon Tricked A Bunch Of Parents Into Buying A Device That Immediately Became Obsolete
As has been noted here before, Verizon sold people Gizmo Watches with an app (GizmoHub) that worked pretty well. Because it plays nicely with other Gizmo Watches and they're popular with my kid's friends, we bought one earlier this year. A couple of months ago, Verizon told everyone it was discontinuing the app that worked with it and that everyone had to move over to Verizon Family.
When I tried to sign up for Verizon Family it wouldn't work. I called and went through it with a tech support numerous times. I assumed it wouldn't operate because I didn't have a cell phone through Verizon (I have a Verizon account for internet), but was told they'd figure it out and call me in a week. It would be wild to sell a bunch of people a device that would immediately become useless and not tell them that was going to happen, right? The tech implied it would get fixed.
No surprise, no one ever called me back.
Parents with the app got another text this week stating that the app would shut down, so I called tech support and deleted the account, et cetera. After going in circles many times I finally got to the final account screen and it said it wouldn't work. This was after 45 minutes+ of trying to get into the account with tech support. The final conclusion was just the answer to my original concern, which is that the app is only accessible to a parent who has a Verizon Wireless account, and because the app is the only way to communicate with your kid it's basically uesless now.
This is unfortunate for many reasons. I bought the watch less than a year ago and it works perfectly fine and the app works perfectly fine. Spending the money to buy something that becomes obsolete within a year is absolutely insane, and when I asked to speak to a supervisor or someone else they just put me on a hold that's been going on for half an hour.
Verizon discontinuing a service that worked after selling it to families in less than a year is awful and I'm hoping Verizon will either keep supporting the app or refund me for every cent I've wasted. If not, I'm going to have to go buy a different watch from AT&T and start this whole process over again. I feel like I've spent an entire day of my existence trying to get this thing that works to just keep working and I will never get that time back.
Is anyone else having this issue?