Buying a Homey

Mathijs

Just a heads up, if you order a Homey as I did last weekend, you get a mail in reply that they hope to ship the 'pre-order' in September.  While buying it is not made clear that you are pre ordering. They have also not shipped to retail (that seems to be delayed many many times now) so there is no way to order there.

I am enthusiastic about the device, that's why I ordered one, but it would be nice if Athom would be clear about possible delivery. Even the shipment post (https://forum.athom.com/discussion/555/shipment-status#latest) does not even list shipments from Athom directly! If they would be as open and responsive about this as they are about the hardware and software ..... 

bvdbos

Latest notification was that the new shipment was a couple of days late (read it on slack)... First they had to get 0.10.1 ready and if this weekend no new showstoppers are found I think it will be promoted to stable quickly...

Mathijs

Mmmm and now I see they did take my money. Now that is really not nice. I run several online shops and I would NEVER charge a customer without being able to deliver. So I paid and up to this moment I got a mail stating they hope to deliver soon.

I'm not saying there is foul play, just saying that they are doing a lot to make it hard to like their business practises.

KoenMartens

Mathijs said:

 I run several online shops and I would NEVER charge a customer without being able to deliver. 

?
How are they not able to deliver? They state they have a delay. I assume you are known with the fact that you have to pay for something before it is shipped with all internet orders?

bvdbos

I don't see a problem either for the couple of days, quality-control it's called... End of September is Friday, estimate is Monday or Tuesday afaik (that's a couple of days).

Mathijs

If it was a couple of days it would be fine, but I bought a product and got a promise. If I would like that I would have used Kickstarter! What you show is what you see AFTER you paid. It is not made clear WHEN you order. 

KoenMartens, as said I run several webshops and I only charge the customer the day the product ships. Every webshop system I know has that option, one click on an option and the problem is solved.  You will have a little less money on your account that way but I am pretty sure every customer prefers to pay when a product ships, right?

In the meantime I got a reply from Athom, they will ship Friday or Monday.  That's acceptable to me (would have been better if it would be on the order page, but soit....). They apologized and the issue is solved.

bvdbos

Nope, I didn't order a second order this morning, it's the page after you click buy And Friday is indeed the end of September as I stated... But glad to hear it turns out right and Athom is confident enough to ship...

Hectorhauck

I also wanted to order homey. In how many days will it be delivered?

stamplus

I ordered a Homey on 25-8-2016 and I'm still waiting....
Last week i've got an update that stated  the expected shipping will be before wednesday this week.

So I hope I get a tracking number today. 

TheoDeKoning

Then today we get also, after months, a stable version of Homey's firmware.

Mathijs

It's now 17 days after I paid for my Homey and I still have nothing but promises. Promises of sending dates and promises of delivery dates. Strangely enough Annemarie (who has been polite and fast) is also not able to give me a tracking number which makes you wonder how she is able to track the package to give me the promises. 

I would NOT advise anybody to order a Homey at this moment as it does feel like Athom is rather confused. 

viktor

Delivery in NL? For my delivery in CH (not EU ) waited about 10 days

bvdbos

@Annemarie ? Last week someone ordered and got their Homey two days later...

Mathijs

Delivery in France. But the fact there does not seem to be a tracking number (though Annemarie can clearly see something as she told me on Friday to expect the package to be delivered on Friday or Saturday) worries me. See I run a few webshops and I need a tracking number to tell me what I was told. So why can't I get the tracking number?

Again, seventeen days is a long time.  I did not preorder, I bought a product that was for sale. It does not seem unreasonable to at least expect some honest answers. I am in exactly the same situation I was in 15 minutes after buying. I paid and got promises. So far the promises simply have not been kept. That's bad. And that's why I advise people not to buy at this moment.

caseda

@Mathijs ;;;;
as if athom can do anything about delivery companies that fail from time to time...
maybe the tracking number can only be used on a company login page. (there are enough delivery companies that work this way)

even if you have a "few webshops" you probably don't use the same company for sending stuff out.
but you also should know it can work like this for a few delivery companies,
and you also should know some delivery companies sometime just f*ck up,
and even the most professional delivery companies are being run by people,
people that make mistakes,
auto sorting devices also still make mistakes

it's called bad luck, not a "promise not kept" by a company

and even though it is 17 days after payment, there was send an email out to all buyers that homey wasn't send until last monday/tuesday, so only 7 days/5 working days max now since it was being send.

Mathijs

caseda said:

it's called bad luck, not a "promise not kept" by a company

So if they say it will be shipped at a certain date and it is not, that is not a broken promise?
If they say it will be delivered at a certain date and it is not, that's not a broken promise?

We might disagree on language , but we can't disagree on simple facts. And the simple fact is that they did not deliver on their promises and they got my money for 17 days while I got only the promises that were not kept. And indeed they send a mail to me that the shipping would be done on Monday (a promise they did not keep), later they promised it would be send on Tuesday (and I can only hope it was indeed done). But they did so AFTER they already invoiced my card. On the buy page this was not indicated.  

And believe me, all tracking of any package is done with a tracking number that is the same for the sender and the receiver. We use 7 different courier services and I do not know a single one who work differently even though you claim there are many that do. Athom uses Track and Trace, and they use tracking numbers. Annemiek seems to have that as she gives me information on that package, but she is unable to give the number to me. 

I applaud you defense of Athom (I wish them all the best, this is the second Homey I will own, I already got one second hand), but that does not mean potential buyers should not be aware of possible problems. I am far from the only one who is asking questions as you might well be aware.

Bumblez

@Mathijs ;  "broken promise" is a very heavy term. I don't know the exact wording of what Annemarie said to you. But do note that there is a big difference between "I expect the package to be delivered on Friday or Saturday" and "I promise you that the package will be delivered on Friday or Saturday". In the first case, it's not a broken promise if the package arrives later... it's only an unfulfilled expectation (even if it may be just as disappointing for you).
I do agree that Athom could (should) be better at communicating the status of your order, and that it would be better if they emailed you a tracking number right away, so that you can always keep track of where your package is. And yes, 17 days without knowing where your package is or when you can expect it, is in my opinion a valid reason to be upset.

But in regard to warning potential buyers... the only problems you can expect in the ordering process, is a (slight) delay in the delivery of your Homey. So far -as far as we know- every single person who ordered a Homey, eventually received it. So you do not have to worry about having paid for something that you will not receive.

Mathijs

I am not worried, just not happy.

About the fact I paid and got nothing and about the fact I am not getting the assistance I was hoping for. As you can see for example on Facebook and even here on the forum you can see I am not alone in that. If you do not feel that is relevant information to a potential buyer we differ in opinion. If I would have know this was possible I would have waited till they would have shipped to 3rd parties whom did support me correctly in the past.

I was asked to contact them if the Homey would not have been delivered this weekend and I did yesterday. So far no response to that.