The Jawbone UP has been making big news. It was even #1 on my list yesterday of top holiday gifts for the tech geek in your life. The week it launched, it was nearly impossible to find on shelves. The UP is a small bracelet that tracks your habits - eating, movement and sleeping. It tells you when you’ve been idle too long and suggests you move. Wear it when you eat and tell the app on your phone how you feel and it will monitor which food make you feel better than others. Set an alarm and it will gently wake you, just befre the alarm time, at the best time in your sleep cycle.

What it doesn’t do, is any of those things over a long period of time, according to reports by consumers. The physical quality of the UP has been debated. People say that it breaks and stops working easily. This is not something we have come to expect from Jawbone at all. All of their products (I own multiple) are sturdy and well constructed. The nature of the UP is a little different in that it is flexible and worn in a more vulnerable spot on the body.

Jawbone, a company with excellent  customer service, has made a bold move to fix the problem and retain their customer. It is a decision that should be applauded. All UP owners are being refunded their money, whether they return the device or not. Not just people who bring it back. Not just people who complain it breaks. ALL purchasers. Jawbone understands it released a product that is not up to its own standards, even though it’s up to standards for some of its owners. 

Customers can get $109 in cash or $150 in Jawbone.com credit while the company works to recreate the up in a way that’ll solve its current problems. Customers just have to promise that they won’t take the money, sell the UP and make a profit, although there’s nothing stopping them from doing that anyway. I would imagine that enough users are thankful enough for Jawbone’s approach that they will abide by the agreement.

So, if you have an UP, get your cash and replace it with the studier version when it releases. If you don’t have one, you definitely should get one, just not yet. I’m glad to see that nobody is attacking Jawbone for this. It is an honest mistake from a reputable company, known for putting out high quality products and that company is making good on the mistake and even going above and beyond. That speaks volumes of the caliber company that Jawbone is.

I’ll be getting a second revision of the UP for sure.