Whoop reverses course on paid membership upgrade complaints

Whoop is now in damage control mode. Following the launch of its Whoop 5.0 fitness tracker, users expressed outrage after the company appeared to backtrack on a promise of complimentary hardware upgrades. In a recent Reddit announcement, the company clarified that users with more than 12 months remaining on their subscription are eligible to receive the Whoop 5.0 at no extra cost.

The confusion and frustration were partly fueled by Whoop’s unclear communications. Earlier yesterday, my colleague Victoria Song reported that securing a Whoop 5.0 band would require users to either extend their current membership by an additional 12 months or pay a one-time upgrade fee. However, as recently as March 28th of this year, a blog post on Whoop’s website stated that members only needed six months of active membership to qualify for a free upgrade to the next-generation hardware.

In response to the backlash, Whoop has adjusted its position—to a degree. Members with “more than 12 months remaining” on their subscription now qualify for a free upgrade to the WHOOP 5.0 under its “Peak” subscription plan. Those with fewer than 12 months left must still either extend their membership by another year or cover a one-time upgrade fee, according to the company. These revised terms are also reflected in an update on its membership pricing page.

The company also addressed the earlier blog post, stating: “a previous blog article incorrectly claimed that any member with at least six months of membership would receive a free upgrade. This was never our official policy and the post should not have been published.” Whoop further explained:

As noted above, our upgrade policy from WHOOP 3.0 to WHOOP 4.0 required members to have six or more months remaining on their membership to receive a free upgrade to WHOOP 4.0. We removed the erroneous blog article as soon as we became aware of the issue and updated WHOOP Coach with accurate information. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

This explanation appears consistent with a Forbes interview uncovered by a Reddit user, in which Whoop CEO Will Ahmed told the publication that Whoop 3.0 users could upgrade to the 4.0 model provided they had “at least 6 months of membership remaining.” Similar phrasing was used in a 2021 blog post detailing the Whoop 4.0 upgrade.

Despite the clarification, Reddit users have reacted negatively to the company’s response. Some have voiced frustration over being required to extend their subscription even with 11 months left, while others have threatened to cancel their memberships altogether.

Even those who are more accepting of the revised terms have expressed criticism. One user noted that while they are “pleased with the change,” they remain unconvinced that the blog post was a simple error. “They should admit they revised their policy instead of claiming it was an incorrect posting from the start.”

Correction, May 11th: An earlier version of this article misstated Whoop’s updated terms in one instance. The policy requires members to have 12 months remaining on their current subscription, not 12 months of total membership..