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Bye Homey

AlwinDocterAlwinDocter Member
in Off-Topic
Happy to have supported homey in my first kick starter project.

I think the potential of homey is huge, but on this moment it lacks to much functionality to
have a working out of the box experience. My current domotica solution, homewizard, has not so much potential
as homey has, but it is on this moment much more reliable and stable then homey.

The current state would ask a lot of time and handling with not working software, and on this moment I don't want
to spent that time. So for now, I have sold my homey to a new owner. I hope that the software is evolving in time and hopefully
the promises that homey has, are there in something over a year or more.

Then I will be happy to buy a new homey back via athom. I hope that the homey reach that state.

But for now: bye bye homey

Comments

  • vanillasskyvanillassky Member
    Traitor
  • posthokposthok Member
    I can't blame you.  B)
  • jvreedejvreede Member
    Hey, So I am trying to do the opposite :) I have seen several Homey's available on Marktplaats, but have only placed my order two days ago, so have some time to wait. Has the hardware evolved since the models that are now on Marktplaats and the ones that are being shipped now? 

    (in other words, is it best to wait for my delivery, or will I get the same product as I can buy now on Marktplaats?)

    Thanks

    Jan-Bart
  • BumblezBumblez Member
    @jvreede As far as we know, the hardware is still the same as what was sent out to the very first batch backers.
    All the changes have been in software/firmware.
  • MG11MG11 Member
    @AlwinDocter ;I think you didn't understand what Homey is. And you can't compare it with any other smart-home system out there. First of all you have to see Homey as an universal hub for different protocols and smart-home systems: this is because of the hardware inside of this small sexy ball. This makes Homey so unique - at the moment.

    Of course the current state of the software and the apps availability are still very limiting and the capabilities of Homey are underachieved. This could be quite frustrating at the moment. Especially when you know what Homey is capable to achieve (in the theory). There are huge problems with the voice recognition, there is a very limited IR range and IR sight angle, there is still no support for Bluetooth, no native iPhone App, no Apps for own music or f.e. Spotify etc. There are very limited features to use z-wave sensors inside of the flows; no possibilities no dimm or change the colors of the light bulbs and so on... 

    But Homey is just born and is still a little baby. So we have to treat Homey as an evolving technology that has a huge potential to grow - in the sense of the required software development.

    I wasn't expecting a ready-to-run device with 100% functionality.
    The current setting at my home makes me quite happy: my Homey controls a bunch of IR devices in different rooms (with the support of an IR Extender), switches on/off my Mi-Light bulbs, can play some music (from Soundcloud) and can be triggered by IFTTT recipes - what already is a huge thing for me! 
    Of course I have to talk to Homey like to a baby-child: sometimes 3 or 5 times repeating the same words. So I better leave it at the moment. You know: you have to find your own ways how to treat/trigger small babies in an effective non-verbal way. ;)  

    So keep on doing your amazing work, guys! In the Homey's office and in the developers community out there!     
  • BumblezBumblez Member
    edited April 2016
    @MG11 I agree the hardware is very promising, and Homey has a lot of potential. But I also foresee problems, especially if Athom keeps continuing the way they are going right now. So yes, I can very well understand why some people lose faith and get out of this moving train.

    Let me describe my main concern: Athom consists of a bunch of young men, who love to experiment and build new things. If you lock them in a room for a couple of weeks/months/years and let them try out new stuff, they will (generally) be happy and come up with some really nice stuff (as you can see from the Homey hardware that they designed).
    But they are not very good at customer contact, customer support and issue management. From my experience, many of the young guys in IT see doing customer support for a day (replying to customer emails, trying to reproduce issues that a customer has, etc), as a punishment and try to avoid it as much as possible.
    I very much get the impression that the people at Athom feel the same about it, because emails sent to their support email address remain unanswered for many days, sometimes weeks, and they don't respond to serious issues raised on this forum (such as the IR range issue, which appears to be a hardware issue, and as such should have a very high priority). Now that the Homey hardware is out the door, it really is time to get serious and stop playing around. Customer support, customer feedback and keeping the customers happy should have top priority. A large part of this is managing customer expectations. It doesn't mean that issues have to be fixed faster than they are now, but customers should always know what they can expect, where in the priority list their problems are, and approximately how long they will have to wait before Athom picks up a particular issue (note that it is often more important for customers to know that Athom is working on their issue (or when they will be), than to know exactly when they can expect a solution!). Athom's public timeline is a nice first step, but it's much too vague for managing customer expectations. If people send an email to support, they should at least get a reply informing them when someone from Athom will be looking into their issue. And when there are serious issues raised on the forum, it would also be good to know where on Athom's very full agenda the investigation of those issues stands.
    If Athom doesn't manage to improve in this field (and fast!), we're going to see a lot more unhappy people turn away from this product.

    TLDR: my main concern for this product isn't the hardware or the software, it's how Athom manages customer expectations.
  • RoelofRosRoelofRos Member
    i agree with Bumblez,  it is not the short term but the long term i am worried about too.

    i contributed to the Backer project to support an in potential great product, allot of different protocols in one controller.
    but also being realistic that Homey will not replace my main controller (zwave) in a short period,  maybe in about a year it would be an option.

    for me in this stadium its a nice toy to play around with.
  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    @Bumblez:
    No expectation management is also management  :)


  • tunftunf Member
    @MarcoF, you sounds like you are in love these days....;-)
  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    tunf said:
    @MarcoF, you sounds like you are in love these days....;-)
    :love: 

    Would love to receive a update!  <3
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