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iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

community.garadget.com

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Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#161
post #152
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon has already bricked a Kindle (and the full user account) because it had "a pirate PDF", according to their automations. Just, don't but from Amazon. Even Alibaba is better.

Do you have a reference? Googling dont reveal any cases, only people speculating if they might do it.

The closest analogue I know is Amazon remotely wiping books from customer devices when Amazon noticed that they did not have the right to sell them in the first place: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18ama... (Ironically, the books were by Orwell.) There was a lawsuit which was settled http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2009/09/am... and apologies from Amazon which said they would not do it again (this was in 2009) http://mashable.com/2009/07/17/amazon-remote-delete/.

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#162
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I am also quite surprised by the number of comments here at HN siding with Garadget. I don't agree with disabling the customer's device, but I also don't agree with customers somehow being absolved of having a minimum level of decorum.

If you operate a business in the Internet age and delude yourself that customers are required to have decorum, you are in for a rude shock, sooner than later.

You can require your customers to show decorum if you choose.

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#163
I'm pretty surprised by the comments here on decorum and civility. The customer called the product a "piece of shit" - yes he used bad language, but he's criticising the product itself. An object. The rep. directly insulted the customer's character (saying he had "poor impulse control" and was throwing a "tantrum").

Is this another example of American tendencies to be extra sensitive about "profanity" or am I missing something? From my reading, the rep. was significantly more out of line even in his tone and message than the customer, even before he went and defacto-bricked the device in his own little tantrum.

The character assassination gets even more childish if you look at the customer's account:

> This user is suspended until Dec 28, 2019 3:37 am.

> Reason: attitude

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#164
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the review here [0]; it's not abusive. It's probably the review of some guy who has been burned by half-assed Amazon shovel ware before. [0] https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2XHHHGM6BEUG6/re...

The guy has three reviews on Amazon, two of which are one-star. I think the abusiveness is primarily in the guys forum post, plus posting the negative Amazon review without waiting for response from the developer. But that's just my sensitivity level.

You are so misinterpreting the world. There are people who only review when they are facing an issue, and if they are happy they think there's no need of review because they got what they paid for. I wouldn't judge a customer as having abusive nature even if he has 100% negative reviews..

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#165
post #153
post #53

Dear customer, We are a small team who don't have the resources to test every single OS version on every device. Problems will happen. As such we're happy to issue you a refund, and you can keep the device. All we ask is that you let us update the app to make sure it's working on your device, and hopefully others. Thank you for helping us find the issue. We will work tirelessly until it is fixed. If at some stage you…

Which companies do the refund + keep-device if unsatisfied?

Amazon, occasionally, but not always.

Also happened to me at least twice with Spreadshirt (but they don't really sell devices). Once the product clearly had a defect (part of the print was coming off), once I ordered it just too small.

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#166
When I had a streaming website, featuring only embedded videos, we decided to put a form so that people could tell us if something was wrong. 90% of it was garbage:

- gibberish - insults - useless comment either empty of content or context - people asking us to fix things that weren't broken, or weren't broken on our site

We didn't ban them. Instead, we extracted each useful information out of it:

- adding missing informations to guide people on the site - adding features to remove frustrations from people - adding filters to remove fake email addresses (dns lookup on the domain name) so that we spent only time on those who are expecting an answer

The client is not always right. And I don't try to be nice to rude people. But that doesn't mean you can't use rude people to improve your business.

And clearly, if you can't stomach the stupidity and nastiness of humanity, don't sell to the average human. It's like getting angry at mosquitoes because they bite you, it's the most useless reaction ever. Worst, those particular mosquitoes give you money and you are not allowed to kill them.

So either do your job professionally or leave. Leaving is a very sane option IMO. There is not reason you should live this experience if you don't want to if you have the choice.

Any person working in an affordable bar, restaurant or shop knows that. Because they often don't have the choice.

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you operate a business in the Internet age and delude yourself that customers are required to have decorum, you are in for a rude shock, sooner than later.

You can require your customers to show decorum if you choose.

Fair enough, but please tell them that before they enter a contract with you. Don't take their cash followed by not providing a service for reasons not stipulated before accepting the money.

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#168
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>minimum level of decorum Free speech doesn't mean much? Entire nations were founded on the basis of individual rights to bitch about things they don't like, without incurring oppressive retaliation. Really, this is imperialism versus the free market. Either you harden up and listen to the people whose participation influences your survival directly (i.e. customers), or you go out of business. In this case, the latte…

> Entire nations were founded on the basis of individual rights to bitch about things they don't like, without incurring oppressive retaliation. From the Government.

> From the Government.

Because we shouldn't be protected from business interests when they get too powerful?

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#169
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I am also quite surprised by the number of comments here at HN siding with Garadget. I don't agree with disabling the customer's device, but I also don't agree with customers somehow being absolved of having a minimum level of decorum.

Thanks to psychology, there is a nice way of making it work for both sides (not in this particular case, of course — the damage is done). Hardware companies should (and will, eventually) offer the devices for free and switch to subscription model. Devices like these are not products, they are services. They are useless on their own without the operating backend, support and maintenance. If I am buying the device, I e…

I agree

But "subscription model" for a garage opener is, sorry to say, stupid

Of the things in my home I want a garage opener to have pretty good reliability. I need a plan B if the power is out for a conventional one. I don't want to get locked out if I miss a payment (this is not like rent where these things are regulated and lack of payments are handled through actual notices)

Relying on the internet to open your garage is just naive.

Re: iPhone App will not stay open - just flashes when trying to launch

#170

What's the right way to design an IoT product to not be dependent on a startup's cloud servers? - Allow the app/device to point to a different host (running an open source version of the backend)? - Support LAN connectivity without round-tripping to a third party server? - Allow the user to load their own firmware onto the device? I don't know where the line is for these things, it seems to be a balance of convenienc…

> What's the right way to design an IoT product to not be dependent on a startup's cloud servers? Not designing an IoT product in the first place seems to me the right way to avoid this issue. The IoT feature can usually be achieved otherwise and seems to be added in so the company can have more power/control over the customer. If you are adamant on making this IoT anyway, the only option is a distributed and/or fede…

> Not designing an IoT product in the first place seems to me the right way to avoid this issue

Unfortunately there is demand for these products and companies will always fill that demand if there is money to be made.

If users want to control things in their house remotely, the commands need to be routed through a server one way or another. This is a matter of convenience and I'm sure most users would purchase a product they can control remotely vs. one they can only control on their home network.

> the only option is a distributed and/or federated network

What would a distributed network for this sort of product look like?

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