Whoop is in damage control mode. After debuting its
Whoop 5.0 fitness tracker
, users were angered to find it had reneged on a promise of free hardware upgrades. In a
new Reddit post
The company now states that users who have been members for more than 12 months are eligible to receive the Whoop 5.0 at no cost.
Part of the outrage was prompted by Whoop’s confusing messaging. Early yesterday morning, my colleague
Victoria Song reported
that to get a Whoop 5.0 band, users would need to extend their existing membership by an additional 12 months or pay a one-time upgrade fee. However, until at least March 28th of this year, Whoop’s website
had a blog post
As mentioned, users would just need to be members for a minimum of six months to receive a complimentary upgrade to the next-generation hardware.
After the backlash, Whoop is now changing its tune — somewhat. Those with “more than 12 months remaining” are “eligible for a free upgrade to WHOOP 5.0 on Peak,” one of its new subscription offerings. Those with less than 12 months left, still have to either extend their membership another 12 months or pay a one-time upgrade fee, the company says. The same information is reflected in an
update on its membership pricing page
.
The firm responds to the prior blog entry by stating, “A previously published blog mistakenly indicated that individuals who were members for merely half a year would get a complimentary upgrade. This assertion was inaccurate and not reflective of our policies.” Moving forward, Whoop continues:
As mentioned earlier, we had a policy allowing members with at least six months left on their memberships to receive a complimentary upgrade from WHOOP 3.0 to WHOOP 4.0. However, upon realizing the error, we took down the relevant blog post and corrected the details in WHOOP Coach instead. We apologize for any resulting confusion.
That seems to line up with a
Forbes
interview
that
a Reddit user found
, in which Whoop CEO Will Ahmed told the outlet that members with a Whoop 3.0 band could upgrade to the 4.0 model, so long as they had “at least 6 months of membership left on their account.” The company used similar language in a
2021 blog post
regarding the Whoop 4.0 band.
Nevertheless, Redditors are not reacting positively to the company’s response, with several users griping about having to prolong their subscriptions.
despite having 11 months remaining
, or
considering revoking their membership
.
Some who are more open to the change still have their critiques.
One person writes
While they’re “happy about the alteration,” they don’t believe the blog post was an error. They think “they ought to admit changing their stance instead of claiming it was a mistaken publication from the start.”
