Heart Rate Monitors – Mio Slice

The short :Don’t bother. You’re welcome. Goodbye

The long of it: I have rarely made new year resolutions. And in all my 40+ years I have probably made 2 resolutions and kept both.

This year  I resolved to up my fitness game. To keep track of that I decided to (re)invest in a heart rate monitor.

I didn’t want a device to talk to me or make my tea, just something that simply calculated Heart Rate. As I mostly do Yoga nowadays, something that calculated heart rate instead of “steps” was huge.

I had a Polar chest strap in the 90s. While the most accurate ,the big problem is you have to put it on while essentially, naked ! And too much work. Who wants to deal with all that ‘wet-strap-put-around-chest-then-wear-sports-bra’ and then get the rest of your gear on.

You wont believe how many times I have realized I had forgotten the chest strap with no time to strip down to put it on before my spin class.  And all that pinching when you are bending over during yoga was getting on my nerves.

So this year after much debate and research between the darling of the masses, the Fitbit, the oldie Polar I decided to go with the Mio, more specifically the Mio Slice.

Don’t buy it. I bought my Mio Slice off Amazon on 29th Nov 2017. I paired with my Samsung phone and it worked till Dec 22nd 2017.  After that…dead.

I have been on the phone with Mio support and on email since. About 20 emails and 7 customer support calls. My picture is probably on a dartboard  in their employee lunchroom !

Is it me ? Is it them ? I don’t know. It has caused me nothing but grief.  Most specifically do not buy online from Amazon. Will elaborate below.

So let my tale of woe commence.

The device: The SLICE will NOT work without downloading and activating the App on your phone. I did NOT realise that.  I thought the App was a nice extra for features I did not care for.  This is awful because if the app gets buggered, has a bug the device is basically a dust gatherer.

OS: I am a die hard Android/Samsung phone girl (who is madly in love with her MacBook laptop. Go figure)  Christmas 2017 Mio did an update and all of the sudden it stopped working with my Samsung device. Mind you Samsung phone updates automatically so the OS was up to date.

What got my goat is Mio support’s response. Basically boiled down to ‘yes we did an update and its not compatible with your phone anymore’.

ANYMORE ??!!! That bugs me no end. Complete lack of responsibility here.

Mio sent me a replacement and their suggestion; Try and pair it with another phone.

Yes ofcourse, everyone has multiple phones lying around the house…not.

I paired it with my husband’s iPhone. Yep all good…..

almost…

Mio’s happily ever after solution did not work here either !

iPhone: The device paired with my husband’s iPhone but guess WHAT ? A update your firmware message came on and it would NOT update.

Closed App. Forgot device, Clean data, clean cache, un-install, re-install. Nope.Update error.

Me: Now what Mio, now what ?

Mio: Is your wifi stable ?

Me: Yes Mio very stable. We live downtown Greater Seattle (and I happened to be standing near the router, which I did not bother telling them. I was already over their band-aid solutions by now.)

Mio: do not do the update, just use it as is.

Me: OK. (suspicious very suspicious! which App on earth would advice you not to do an update ???)

Device’s Accuracy : So finally the device is blinking it green lights like a christmas tree all paired (but not updated) but guess what ??? It’s off with its reading.

Years of treadmill, spin class, power yoga and personal training I am well aware of where my heart rate is. Resting, easy jog, a stroll or power yoga.

I woke up , still in bed, checked my Slice heart rate 112. My Samsung phone showed 62-70.

Mio suggested switch wrists. (rolling eyes)

I checked it today, both wrists. I was drying dishes while watching the Great British Baking show on PBS. My heart rate 182.

No not even Paul Hollywood coupled with a chocolate croissant  would spike my heart rate like that.

I wrote to Mio.  This time just for fun. Just how far will they go to NOT take responsibility for this device.

Oh I know ! This time it will be .. me !  I am just too damned alive I guess.

Honestly who devised this and are they still employed ?

Amazon: My biggest point to state here is DO NOT Buy this off Amazon. Why ? Because it took me more than their 30 days refund policy to find out this Slice is the pits !

Remember it worked…then Mio sent me a replacement.  By then it was no longer Amazon’s responsibility. I will however warn buyers of this on the Amazon review site.

I do believe that if I bought it at a sports store (like an REI) I am sure by now even the retailer would be fed up with Mio’s lack lustre response and give me a refund.

At this point I would like to meet the engineer or product development person for the Mio Slice and give them a public dressing down.