This is the forum archive of Homey. For more information about Homey, visit the Official Homey website.
The Homey Community has been moved to https://community.athom.com.
This forum is now read-only for archive purposes.
The Homey Community has been moved to https://community.athom.com.
This forum is now read-only for archive purposes.
Comments
"...wait a little bit, until we think Homey is good enough for everyone to use, and go for the full retail experience..."
is a little bit vague
how long will it take? i know nobody can tell a real date, but perhaps something like "1-2 month" because on christmas it's too long to wait!
It looks to me when 1 problem is fixed 2 new problems occure.
The whole idea was great but maybe it is a bubble which is about to burst.
Why should i keep my euro's on the bank at Athom?
Hi xxxxxxx
You have pre-ordered Homey some time ago, so firstly, we want to thank you! Without believers and supporters such as you, we would never have gotten this far. As you might have noticed, developing Homey has not been without delays. We've definitely been a little bit naive and too optimistic about our timelines, and we are sorry for that.
As you (might) know, well over a thousand Homeys are already shipped and working well. However, there also were, and still are, many bugs for us to fix and things to improve. We are still working really hard every day with our entire team to improve Homey's software. It does takes some more time than we, and probably you, have hoped, but we're definitely getting there. Homey is getting much better every day, and we're also getting more and more proud of the product we made (and are still making)!
For us, the idea of a 'Pre-order' has always been the same experience as when you would buy Homey in a store, just sooner. However, as we realize we’re not there just yet, we're facing a tough decision: ship Homeys and maybe underperform, or don't ship just yet, and polish Homey a bit more.
Both options have their advantages and disadvantages. For example, customers based in The Netherlands have the right to return a product without reason within 14 days. Since we're still a startup and close team, every returned Homey is a direct hit for us, also financially. On the other hand, we don't want to keep anyone waiting: that wouldn't be fair either, and we see a lot of people eager for their Homey!
Because we care about the Homey experience, but also about customer freedom, we want to give you the choice of when you receive your Homey: You can either choose to receive Homey in the coming weeks (probably shipped around the 23rd of May), or wait a little bit, until we think Homey is good enough for everyone to use, and go for the full retail experience.
If you want to receive Homey as soon as possible, we obviously cannot enforce that you won't return it. We would like to ask you however to think twice about it, as your support really makes a difference here. If you understand this and want to get your hands on your Homey as soon as possible, you can go to the Request form and fill it in:
If you’d rather wait for the complete experience, you don’t have to do anything, and we will ship Homey to you as soon as it’s ready to rock. And don’t worry, you will still receive it well before retail launch.
Thank you so much for your patience and time. We're doing everything we can to make Homey the best product you’ve ever had – and will have!
Love,
Athom
and
and
Working well? The software definitely isn't working well, and with eg the IR issue, there are serious doubts about the hardware as well. Athom must have a different idea about what these words mean, than I do.
Too bad that we, the users who already have a Homey, neither see this improvement, nor are kept up-to-date on the progress that is being made. It's been weeks since the last software update, and equally long since Athom provided any insight in how things are really going with these issues (see also my feedback here - I really hope Athom will do anything with that post to improve their communication ).
Most important to me is that the homey has a great foundation.
The bugs will be fixed while the community develope great apps. And if something is broken then we have to help out, report and wait until it's fixed
@nklerk - see also the post I linked in my previous reply. It's not even the bugs I'm most concerned about, it's the lack of communication and transparency on most of these issues. And I'm not asking for a bugfix, I am asking for an honest and open status update from Athom, to let us know where they are at.
Don't expect retail experience if you have a beta product and don't complain about getting beta experience if you don't have a retail product.
An stable Homey would be the least to expect.
And if "it hasn't crashed beyond repair" is you definition of "working well", then I hope you never ever take a job in the automobile industry!
I wouldn't complain so much about communication or how the product is working if you compare this to other home domotica controllers. If you could just take a look how Fibaro and Vera were when they started and how long it has taken to become stable. I realize this is not possible now but these company's were 10 times worse regarding communication. It also took certainly more then 2 years in retail before a stable release was realized and these are products that only supports zwave and IP as communication protocols.
Personally I find the communication much better then their competitors at the moment. I am sure this will also improve when there is some breathing space and the major bugs get ironed out.
And how bad Fibaro and Vera communicated in the past, should never be a guideline for how Athom should do it.
As Emile said "every returned Homey is a direct hit for us, also financially." Indirectly, this also applies to all Homeys sold on marktplaats, because the people who bought it on marktplaats, would otherwise (most likely) have bought it from Athom themselves, which would mean another Homey sold (and more money). So it's critically important for them to keep the faith from their customers. Communication, and especially managing customer expectations, is vital there. So regardless of how other companies did, Athom will need to improve in this field (and fast).
Some recommendations:
- let us know which issues they are currently working on (what is planned for the next firmware update)
- give us a short status update at the end of every week (issues probably fixed/currently in testing/currently under analysis/in development)
- if people report an issue to their support email, they should at least receive a reply informing them when someone from the team expects to have time to look at it. Right now, if you're lucky, you will receive one email with a recommendation ("try this..."), and if that doesn't solve your problem and you send a reply informing them, then chances are you won't hear from them for weeks.
and that is just not true and in the past there were several promises with other dates.
i really like the product, idea etc. and i have not an homey sofar, but this smells like someone will muck around. every new customer on this page think he will get a retail and stable homey and then he must realise that the product he bought will be shipped 1 year later?!
that is not fair and not a good transparency!
am ia right that this is not only for customers in the netherlands...?
From slack :
Hopefully they will release this week.