I have been watching Barking Labs aka Fi, the company, for a while. I have a small puppy so the collars series 1 and 2 does not fit on my puppy. They have done really well in their advertisements and their marketing of the products. I have been waiting for a collar that could be put on smaller dogs. There came the Series 3. I also have been fanboying what they were doing in the microchipping space as well.

I ordered the Series 3 Collar in October 2022 around the time when it launched. I started getting emails about the shipment delays due to "extreme interest". My order did not arrive until end of November 2022. There was no option to allow us to pay more to get it expedited as well. I suspect it's a supply chain issue which they aren't transparent about either. After lots of back and forth (that takes forever to respond) and asking for some sort of explanation or compensation back, the company added a "free 1 month extension" to the account and it will "automatically apply your credit at the end of the subscription plan" The wording is quite weird. I got charged in December for my first month, I thought that I could get credit back from that 1 month they gave me. I have been emailing them to have them cancel my subscription because there's not a place on the website nor on the app that allows you to do that. Their customer service is not at all responsive by the way.

Because I wasn't sure if the data I'm getting from the Collar is what I think is worth paying a subscription for when I first ordered the product, I have opted into the month to month plan thinking it would be okay since I can just cancel anytime. Apparently not. The only place they mention that they have a 6-month minimum commitment is in the FAQ at the bottom of the product purchase page:

When you sign up for Fi, you can try it for 30 days. If for any reason you decide that Fi is not for you, you can return your Fi within the return window. Otherwise, the month to month membership has a minimum commitment of 6 months.

Not in the receipt, email, or any order confirmation do you get that you have subscribed to something for a minimum of 6 months.

I can say that I have started from being someone who's always wanted to purchase and own their products to someone who's just disappointed by the lack of transparency from this company.

Please be wary of the purchase of the Fi Series 3 collar. It is a good collar in general but there's still some work that could be done in the app to make it feel worth it to subscribe to.