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We're hearing about troubles at Nest

businessinsider.com

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Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#101

Post by oscardelben »

aledalgrande wrote: post #84
nostromo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Nest thermostat is a dream compared to the smoke detector. The smoke detector goes off all the time -- without rhyme or reason. With a normal detector, you can just pull the battery if it refuses to shut off. With Nest, you actually need a screw driver to open the battery compartment to turn it off. So, when it decides to wake up the entire house at 3am (yes, the entire house, since they all go off in unison) you…

Never understood why in US the smoke detectors are such a nightmare. I never had a problem in Europe.

I also never had one in Europe outside of the UK.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#102

Post by heywire »

gherkin0 wrote: post #94
heywire wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually chose a competing product, the Sensi Thermostat from Emerson, after reading so many complaints like this. While it doesn't have the fancy learning capabilities of the Nest, it does have full scheduling capability, which I actually prefer. The mobile apps work great, and I've even written some small utilities to monitor their API so I can get some email alerts on certain interesting events. Aside from a cou…

> I've even written some small utilities to monitor their API Is their API local to the unit or "in the cloud?"

Unfortunately it is cloud based (signalr), so if they decide to close the service, my Wi-Fi thermostat becomes a basic programmable thermostat. I haven't yet sniffed the traffic between the thermostat and their servers to see if it would be possible to replace their service with my own.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#103

Post by atonse »

rblatz wrote: post #97
atonse wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh definitely, because I'm not just standing there waiting for it to turn on immediately. There have been times when we're freezing, and I tell my wife "just turn the temperature all the way up" and then she says "I did a while back" and when I go to check, it's on 90. So we're talking 20 mins having passed and the heating unit barely coming alive, when in reality it should be on the whole time attempting to heat up…

I had a similar issue, but it's because I had setup the nest incorrectly. It asked about my equipment and about my setup, and I got it wrong. So when it would try to turn on the heat it would not turn the blower on. Once I fixed the configuration error it works instantly.

Thanks, I'll check this out. I had mine professionally installed, so I generally trust the company that did it, but always good to double check.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#104

Post by abalone »

outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

Did anyone here work under him at Apple? I'm curious whether it was the same situation back then, or was better balanced by the rest of the management team, or if this is new thing.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#105

Post by xenadu02 »

w1ntermute wrote: post #52
asdfologist wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but I'm asking how. If you piss off your employees and they leave, how do you grow your business into a multibillion-dollar company?

Because not that many employees actually left, despite being pissed off. There was no way the Valley élite would let one of their own (Tony Fadell) have a hard fall, so at least a semi-successful exit was guaranteed from the beginning. The reason why Jobs and Fadell could be assholes and still succeed is because they were/are Jobs/Fadell. That doesn't mean you or I can act like assholes and still succeed. Perhaps we…

I'd also point out that Jobs was know to have become less of an asshole by the time he returned to Apple. Some people think it was reconnecting to his family that helped but who knows.

You can demand greatness without being an asshole.

You can tell someone the work they did isn't good enough without being an asshole.

You can also truthfully review someone's bad code without being an asshole, for what it's worth.

Being an asshole != "telling it like it is" though most people confuse the two.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#106

Post by throwaway6497 »

outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

Feel terrible reading this. Is rest of the Alphabet upper management completely oblivious to what is happening inside Nest? Don't they care? Isn't leadership about doing the right thing. If people are getting abused, Alphabet/Google better do something about it. I thought Alphabet took pride in the kind of leadership traits they support and want their leaders to embody. I am pretty sure a ton of current/ex-Googlers will be shell-shocked to hear stories like these. I think Nest employees should simply join core Google teams(search/ads/apps/chrome/new efforts) and put an end to their personal abuse.

Larry and the rest of the leadership should really look into how Nest is run internally and fix things. This cannot be the norm and status-quo. This is anti-thesis to being Googley, and I personally know a ton of current and Ex Googlers who will be ashamed and hurt to hear this kind of abuse at Alphabet/Google. I am sorry you had to endure this. I am happy you are in a much better place. I am happy for your family now.

[1 word edit for grammar]

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#107

Post by EC1 »

outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

>"Fuck being Googley" (direct quote).

I'd probably get fired for bursting out laughing.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#108

Post by Mithaldu »

EC1 wrote: post #107
outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

>"Fuck being Googley" (direct quote). I'd probably get fired for bursting out laughing.

Secretly and relentlessly put googly eyes on everything he owns.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#109

Post by lobster_johnson »

murbard2 wrote: post #3

I bought a Nest thermostat and I've been extremely unimpressed with it. It's not just the bugs that will have you wake up in the middle of the night in a freezing home. Even when it works as intended, the product is poorly thought out. - Instead of trying to learn when to apply heat and when not to, which depends on many contextual factors, it seems to be targeting learning a calendar. A calendar does not fully captu…

Nest always sounded weird me. How can it predict my schedule? Some days I work from home, or take the day off, and so on those days need heat; some days I come home early, or leave late. All of those instances happen constantly, but they aren't predictable. Who really has a schedule that is predictable enough that a thermostat can learn and predict it?

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#110

Post by [deleted] »

[deleted] wrote: post #81
dclowd9901 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also worked there, but not on hardware, and the crunch-ness was no better. It's also an org driven more by design and marketing than by QA and sound development and engineering. You always felt like you were failing and behind. It was a very discouraging experience. 1/5, would not recommend.

[deleted]

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