Pebble Shuts Down: What To Do If You Ordered One Recently

Dec 07, 2016 11:37 PM EST

All good things must come to an end, some sooner rather than later. We did hear that Pebble could be disposed off to Fitbit for as little as $34 million, or up to $40 million, depending on which way the wind blows. That is certainly a far cry from the three quarter of a billion dollars that was offered not too long ago by industry bigwigs, but something is better than nothing. Pebble, being a major player in the smartwatch industry, is about to close its doors, so what are your options if you happen to have placed an order for one of their smart timepieces not too long ago, and have yet to receive it?

Pebble FAQ for those who have an order with them
Thankfully, the folks at Pebble are nice enough not to leave those who still had faith in them in their last days to back their Kickstarter campaign (having garnered $12.7 million thereabouts, actually) which proved to be a success, but not enough to ensure that Pebble will march on to live another day. The FAQ on Pebble’s Kickstarter page does handle some of the more basic questions for consumers who are still waiting for their Pebble timepieces -- three new products, in fact: the Pebble Time 2 smartwatch, the Pebble Core fitness tracker, and the Pebble 2 Watch.

So, do I get my money back?
The most simple and fundamental answer is, “Yes”. Now that you can wipe the beads of sweat that have formed over your forehead while making sure that your palms remain nice and dry, it works this way. If you have dropped some coin in faith for the Pebble Time 2 watch and the Pebble Core fitness tracker, then you will be able to obtain a full refund, guaranteed, without having to jump through red tape or have messy questions asked of you. After all, this would mean that the Pebble Time 2 as well as the Pebble Core would not have had the luxury of entering the production process in the first place. As for whether Fitbit will continue to march on with those two devices, chances are the answer would be in the negative.

As for those who have placed an order for the Pebble 2 Watch and have yet to obtain a notice that it has been shipped, then you too, would be able to get your money back. If you happen to be the rare few who actually picked up the shiny new Pebble 2 Watch, then you do not qualify for a refund, obviously, but you would be getting an obsolete timepiece right out of the box without any support at all. Bummer, but on the bright side, it might end up as a precious collector’s item, so you might want to keep it nicely boxed up for posterity. Who knows? It might actually fetch a handsome price in time to come with speculators being born every single minute.

Pebble will honor returns that are completed before Wednesday, so do take note of that. At the end of the day, Pebble device owners will stop receiving official support for the devices, and Pebble has put up a disclaimer that “Pebble functionality or service quality may be reduced in the future.”