Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

community.garadget.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 453 posts

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

#191

Post by Xylakant »

bigbugbag wrote: post #93
eps wrote: post #30

Not "for negative Amazon review", but for being an asshole. This guy forgot that there are people behind every product and the abstraction is as thin as it gets when it is in fact a smaller company or a startup. There are negative reviews and there are nasty reviews. He was nasty to them and they no longer wanted him as a client. No reason why a company should swallow shit that a person wouldn't. They certainly _can_…

There are countries where national laws says doing that is illegal to deny service to some customers based on subjective opinion and you can be sued for discrimination. "This customer is a toxic asshole" is not that far from "this customer has a skin color / religion / political view I don't like".

no, actually, it is quite far from (especially) skin color. It's based on actions and behavior and not on some trait of the customer. I can't think of any country where you need to serve customers that misbehave.

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

#192

Post by IncRnd »

rapht wrote: post #168
deadbunny wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

The discussion is about words, and no you shouldn't be protected from the words and speech coming from business interests.

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

#193

Post by PeterisP »

Just1689 wrote: post #25
Lazare wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure any negative review is painful, but that hardly seems to cross any lines. "Abusive language" is really, really, really stretching it.

Yeah, abusive language it is not. It's more of a tantrum. Looking at the other reviews, it does seem that the company is happy to help with issues even where there is a negative review.

Why would you call it a tantrum? It sounds like a reasonable review that a calm dissatisfied customer would make as well.

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

#194

Post by dawnerd »

tomc1985 wrote: post #150
raverbashing wrote: post #59

I can't believe people are still buying any "cloud powered" crap for their homes Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice... Don't buy anything "cloud powered/IoT stuff" unless you know what you are doing and the product has been vetted by the general public and you're aware that there will be breaches Right now the number of IoT stuff I intend to buy is Zero

There are already established protocols in this space that never needed and do not require a cloud connection, let alone internet. (I forget their names, but industrial control automation has a long history) Why can't device makers simply speak the language?

It's not so much the protocol since most of the devices are either z-wave or zigbee (BTLE is growing). All of those can operate without a network connection - it's just the companies that decided that the hub needs to store everything in the cloud. I believe the new smarthings hub can operate offline.

I've been slowly upgrading stuff in my house but steering clear of wifi only devices. They just don't work that well to begin with. Only exception being my nest thermostat - but that can even work offline, just with limited functionality.

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

#195

Post by yAnonymous »

cyberferret wrote: post #47

Perhaps it is because I have spent the entire day today trying to mitigate a new user on our web app trying to abuse our service to send out spam, but I am leaning more towards siding with Garadget on this one. I know that 'being professional' is of paramount importance, but I wish users would remember that every time they send an abusive email to a company, an actual person is on the other end who is going to be rec…

That applies for free open source projects, but if you work in support, get paid for it and take the things personally, the job is not for you.

In many cases, customers arguably have a right to be angry, because your company delivered a shitty product. You happen to be the target of that, because where else are they going to direct it? It's the same with police. If you can't stay calm when people behave like asses, the job is not for you.

Staying calm and collected is part of your job description. Deal with it or look for another job.

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

#196

Post by barking »

StavrosK wrote: post #184
barking wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's only because the reaction was so unusual. I'd react the way you suggest but I admire people who react the way he did. And, every now and then you hear of a business with a fuck you attitude that succeeds, e.g. Ryanair

Ryanair only succeeds because my tolerance for "fuck you" is more than my tolerance for expensive flights. The moment I have a cheap alternative, I'm never touching Ryanair again, and sometimes not even then.

In my experience there are a small percentage of customers, bullies basically, who are toxic and have the ability to ruin the experience for your good customers by taking up an inordinate amount of resources in money, time and employee mental state. Maybe part of the reason they are cheap is because they don't pander to this type?

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

#197

Post by dawnerd »

Johnny555 wrote: post #144

I was wondering why the Amazon product page wasn't full of one-star warnings about this behavior, until I tried to post one, twice. Both times it was rejected as being against review guidelines: http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines

Thats a good thing. Reviews should only be from actual customers, not people using it to post anything - good or bad. Best thing you can do is mark the negative comments about the app not working as helpful as those will be surfaced higher up.

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

#198

Post by barking »

atemerev wrote: post #189
barking wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's only because the reaction was so unusual. I'd react the way you suggest but I admire people who react the way he did. And, every now and then you hear of a business with a fuck you attitude that succeeds, e.g. Ryanair

And if Ryanair representative suddenly appeared here and banned you from ever flying with them because you talk shit about them on HN, you'd have been rightfully mad. Even more so if you had the ticket on hands. :)

Absolutely and I know I could rely on the rest of you to show solidarity and boycott Ryanair, right?

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

#199

Post by monsieurbanana »

erikb wrote: post #52
diegorbaquero wrote: post #26

I don't see this story going anywhere positive for Garadget. Blocking functionality because of a bad review? This will backfire horribly.

They didn't block it because of the review. Read the stuff in the link and not just the headline.

I read the stuff in the link, they 100% blocked the device because of the two review he wrote. What are you even talking about?

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

#200

Post by atemerev »

dangrossman wrote: post #175
raverbashing wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The product is basically a cloud-enabled garage door remote . It doesn't replace the buttons on the wall in the garage, nor does it replace the garage door opener you use in your car, or however it is you work your door. It supplements them, like buying a spare remote, except this one is app-enabled and can be used without line-of-sight to the door. I have a smart garage door opener, smart deadbolt, smart car (remote…

It is not that simple. Do you remember one of those bear toys that were sending the recordings of their conversations with children to an exposed MongoDB instance? I bought one of them for my daughter a few months before. And I am a software engineer who knows what an exposed MongoDB instance is. My voice and my daughter's voice are now in the leak. Thankfully, the toy was only used with my supervision, so I know what was said there.

The problem is that is was advertised as a Bluetooth-powered toy to communicate with your child via recorder messages. "It's fun" -- I have thought, so I bought it. Only later I realized that it forwarded everything that was said to their servers via their "cloud app".

OK, I have thought, so they have the recording. But at least do they have some decency to not share it with the public? And that, indeed, turned out to be a little naive.

The toy became "broken" a few weeks before the leak when I was finally fed with it, but the damage is done.

Now I have similar worries about my NetAtmo devices. They do look cool and measure CO2 content in my rooms, which is the reason I bought them, but they also contain an always-on microphone for measuring "noise pollution", and I am not sure at this point if they don't transmit everything I speak in my room to the CIA, NSA, Russians, our reptilian overlords, or whoever else needs to hear the shit I say at home.

Post reply on HN