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.
Closed
New shipment date for Homey?
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Comments
@Ronald
What if software bugs can't solved because of a software bug?
@BasPost
+1
Better save then sorry.
With a project like this delays are inevitable, there are always more of them than planned and they need to be adressed (unless you work in the gaming industry).
If you really want a refund (demanding the product to be shipped is kind of silly) you should PM Emile or Stefan.
I cannot think of a reason how they could deny your request (the legal stuff is on your side here).
However.
You took the "risk" (along with allot of us) to buy or back a homey knowing that the product is still beeing developed. You have contributed to this project by buying it anyway. It seems a bit counterproductive to cancel the order when shipment is not that far away anymore.
Why not wait a little longer?
Emile I agree with you, every possible hardware bug must be sorted out. In a case of a local manufacturer, the production and the assembly will take at least 4 weeks (experience) because that is not an issue free process. Than you have to handle the shipments. After you start to ship the first products you will get warranty issues (either an early failure [which always happens] or an overlooked design failure) and lots of emails and posts about software/radio issues and have to deal with the shipping companies with lost/damaged packages. This will slow down the 2nd, 3rd batch shipments. I am not negative, it is just experience. My point is that us who preordered the product unlikely to get it before October/November. I am ok with that. However because of the above you must make available the app store ASAP so we can see what devices are available and be help out with the missing ones… Also as you don’t plan to share virtual homey anymore proper comprehensive update(s) is/are needed, video updates. Including the use of thermostats, trvs, IR receiver and transmitter in action, configuring z-wave devices, complex flows, simultaneously running flows, etc.
Since the beginning of this project, almost all info we got where the result of continuously asking for info.
Backers got some sort of discount (or punished) for taking the risk. But there are also a lot of pre-order who paid big bucks and also get almost no information.
The last update (again almost 4 weeks ago), ended with:
Facebook: No updates
Forum: almost no updates, beside 1 week delay and the announcement of the Appstore.
You guys are aware that you funded a kickstarter right? I suggest you read a bit more about what kickstarter is all about before you give your money away.
We donated money to fund a company. If they manage to get to produce a product, we get a present back. Note that not all kickstarters make it to production. In some cases, your money is gone.
So please stop complaining about a few months delay and be happy that you are part of one of the greatest and most awesome products ever produced by a kickstarter campaign. The product we get will be of excellent value. I have been suprised so many times at what it can do, how nice it looks and how good it all works together.
Christmas will still be early this year.
@JaapPelt;
You already had Homey in your hands and played with it?
I played with the virtual Homey and I have faith the real thing will be just as awesome.
Okay!
Just wondering, but how could a "normal" Backer get Access to the Virtual Homey?
And i like it when people keep their promises and i read a lot of promises and did't see results
To All,
Sorry for my complain, I was a bit bummed out for that last delay.
I realize they want the best product they can make.
I still hope it will come soon and I don't want the money back ( stupid action to write that, SORRY ).
Red all the comments and re realized its a kickstarter project.
GRTX Ronald
@Ronald I've seen a lot of people on forums who posted an awkard comment and got a lot of critiques just let it slide by quietly.
I haven't seen that many apologies.
Respect.
Best, Moek
@Ronald, Crowdfunding is fun! I backed 5 project for the last year and the all(!) are going well
But Homey is a bit different to the others, there are a lot of promises and (until now) a bit disappointing results.
The other projects are open about there delays, share a lot of things on Kickstarter, publish tons of updates, are open about design changes, etc etc
Also Emile promised me something and until now i never seen the action.
I know its a crowd funded project and that we fund a team/company to make awesome thing, but then also if you make promises, you have to make them. So if you end a update with the sentence:
Do regular updates.
Be open about delays, Kickstarter member took a calculated risk, but pre-orders paid big bucks and have even more right to know whats happening.
Publish a list with compatible devices so people can take action to make the existing home automation work with Homey.
Why are the virtual homey's offline (or way out of sync), it was promised to the Geeks and all other backers.
Publish a (simple) roadmap about hard/soft -ware so we known what to expect from Athom in the near feature.
-
Be an open company, if people know what the can expect from Athom, more people will choose for Athom/Homey.
Everybody seems to forgot, that Athom isn't a Kickstarter project anymore, but a million dollar company. The crowdfunding is only 20% and only needed to start. There are also a lot of investors. Athom proudly presented that they had raised a million!
So it comes over to me, I have to say.
I agree more frequent updates are welcome.
Also screenshots of the apps for IOS and Android, I would like to see, hence, The apps had a delay also, so I guess there will now be time to catch up with that?
@BasPost:
+2 for "Athom isn't a Kickstarter project anymore, but a million dollar company".
I agree with the update part. Only after several questions Athom explains.
A little bit pro-active on the updates would be a nice change!
For the difference between kickstarter and pre-order: the pre-order customers, in my opinion, have more 'right' to know about delays since they 'bought' the product at a actual company.
I funded through kickstarter btw.
In my opinion there are 2 sides to the coin.
A more regular update would be nice. But that is all time that could be spend coding and making the product better. I am asuming someone made the coice to put full focus on getting all the work done.
Is this a mistake? I dont know, maybe it is. I did not order on kickstarter (was to late.) and i have never seen such interaction between a company and the buyers before. I am not dissapointed.
But i do understand why some are.
I run an costumer service departent. My credo has always been: It is OK if costumers have to wait, just inform then on why and what they are waiting for and keep being proactive. This seems easy, but it is not.
I know first hand that it is easy to fully focus on the problem with the product and forgetting to balance the time you need to fix the problem and informing the costumer. Because it feels counter productive to the engineer. It is never as simple as just writing an update. It is writing an update, replying on comments, taking in all the feeback and see how you can use that feedback. All that time could have been spent on the hardware\software.
I have seen many issues arising from trying to hard to speed up fixing the problem, putting all recources on it (with all good intentions) and still get an unsatisfied customer because they cannot see or donot know how hard you have worked, and how many strings you had to pull.
I would like more updates, but not if it means a few more days of delay. Some of you might dissagree. Meaning it is very very hard to find the perfect balance.
@kriebelkous;
Athom is a company with 18(!) employees and only one of them is frequently writing on this forum. Coding and product development is one (the technical) side of the coin and on the other side there are customers and customer-service. And there's a big advisory board
Writing an update could be done by somebody with communication/writing expertise and the techies are the input and controllers.
@MarcoF
All employees seem te be engineers and we dont know if they all work fulltime.
The advisory board does nothing more than advise..
I dont think the CEO of Nedap will be interested in writing updates..
It is not as simple as just making up a story and posting it. You need to:
You need someone who is monitoring the whole proces. Not just any employee.
Maybe a 19th person on the team is needed
that was I trying to say 
I think I'll just jump in here :-)
First, I'm sorry that some of you feel that we do not share enough updates. Writing a Kickstarter update takes a lot of time, time that I'd personally rather spend on making Homey better. We have chosen to share an update once a month, because most of our backers are not as involved as most of you are.
We do highly appreciate the way each one of you is involved. We even get every forum post directly into Slack, our main communcations channel, so we really know our community :-)
I try to do my best to answer every question as fast and accurately as possible, on the forum, and even on our Athom Community slack channel, because I want to stay close to everyone who supports Homey.
As for the mention that we're now a 'million dollar company', that money is mainly meant for producing more Homeys. Hiring someone for communication is not really feasible, because that person would then talk to all the engineers as well, which would even be more inefficient. That's why I personally do all the communication, because next to coding, designing, manufacturer partnerships, I also lead the project. So I know what's going on more than everyone else. It therefore makes more sense that I write the updates, and keep in touch with the community, instead of I talking to a 'communications person', which takes more time than to write it down. Unfortunately, I have to sleep as well, so it is as it is.
Most updates like delays are hard to communicate, because of their complexity. To give an example, yesterday we received the new feet (the old ones oxidized), but they were not as shiny as the sample we got. This could mean a delay, or it couldn't, because we don't know the exact time of delivery of the new ones. The packaging is also in production, and we do expect it on time. But maybe it doesn't meet our standards, and then we're delayed even further. So I cóuld communicate every single delay we have, but those don't nescessarily mean that the entire project is delayed. And of course, I don't like to share the bad news as well, because it's already frustrating enough for ourselves if we have a delay.
And the last time, we are doing a lot of things that are not nescessarily fun to be shared. Mainly low-level things, making sure everything works etc. The App Store is ready, and we're currently migrating it to managed webhosting, so when that's done, it will be only. From then we'll continously fill it with apps, when they're ready.
Trust me, things don't always go as I'd like them to go either. What we're doing here is so incredibly hard, and we have to do so many things right the first time. I am extremely proud on my team on what we've accomplished in just over a year (!), and all of us at Athom can't wait to ship the first Homeys. We just want them to be perfect.
@Emile
+1
Thanks for the small update @emile
+1
@Emile I think you and the team are doing great. Keep up the good work!
I have to disagree with you, we do understand that the product design and production is a complex thing. And you see at the end you had to explain it. The 7 weeks update period is just unreasonable. There is a twitter account. Max 160 character. How long does it take to write that and attach a screenshot or an image taken with the smartphone?? 30 sec? It could be:
Received the new feet. Not as good as the samples. Negotiating with the manufacturer.
Got issue with the Zigbee. Working on it. Might cause 1 week delay
App Store is ready, and we're currently migrating it to managed webhosting [screenshot]
Just made a driver for Danfoss TRV [screenshot]
I thing we deserve that 30 sec a day. Also that would keep us quiet and happy. Win-win.
What? Who told you that nonsens?
thanks for the "small" "update" and i beleive you guys are doing a good job.
But please inform your end/key/paying/waiting users!
1 million euro's for manufacturing Homeys.... that's good for the investors!
My wife asked me the status of "Homo"....
lmao..
@kriebelkous;
I had tears in my eyes...
You may tell why
@Emile +1
Now let's give the man some space so he can get back to coding
Received the new feet. Not as good as the samples. Negotiating with the manufacturer.
Got issue with the Zigbee. Working on it. Might cause 1 week delay
App Store is ready, and we're currently migrating it to managed webhosting [screenshot]
Just made a driver for Danfoss TRV [screenshot]
Although I don't expect such a short follow-up of things, I agree that some things would be better if communicated on a more regular basis. Things that are sure to give a delay, like the newly discovered Zigbee-problem.
If an estimated shipping date is given, and it is sure it can't be met, just a little update about the why is't that much work. And it keeps your customers happier than when they have to discover it by asking themselves.