Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold • Hacker News Board

Re: Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold

#31

Post by atom_enger » Thu, Jan 14, 2016, 1:38 AM UTC

We have two nest thermostats installed at work. I rotate the WiFi keys for our APs quarterly and these things are the biggest pain in the ass to reconnect to the WiFi.

The furnace turns off almost immediately after changing the WiFi key once the Nest loses connectivity. At first I thought it was coincidence but now that I rotate on a strict schedule it's a joke in our office. However, what's not a joke is what happens when the internet goes down. So does our heat.

What the hell, Nest?

Relevant: https://twitter.com/internetofshit

Re: Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold

#32

Post by spdustin » Thu, Jan 14, 2016, 1:40 AM UTC

Mine (Gen 2) died a month ago. I charged it up and reset it, and called Nest support. They sent me a replacement even though mine was working again, and included a prepaid return label.

First problem I had with mine, and it was a great support experience.

Anecdata and all. But combined with this story, makes me wonder if they replaced it because they knew it was likely to happen again.

Re: Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold

#33

Post by josinalvo » Thu, Jan 14, 2016, 1:41 AM UTC

> Buried deep in Nest’s 8,000-word service agreement is a section called “Disputes and Arbitration,” which prohibits customers from suing the company or joining a class-action suit.

Though I have no need for a thermostat whatsoever, I kinda like nest. However, I'd love if people went to court with a class action suit against them.

These 'no class action' and 'arbitration' clauses are becoming increasingly common, but I think they probably don't hold up in court - and nor should they, given how much power they put in the hands of the company.

Re: Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold

#34

Post by sparky_z » Thu, Jan 14, 2016, 1:41 AM UTC

rubidium wrote: post #13

FireBeyond wrote: post #6

"It also happened recently with Fitbit, the maker of wearable activity trackers. The company was hit with a class-action lawsuit in San Francisco asserting that the wristbands failed to “consistently and accurately record wearers’ heart rates,” which is vital for those with certain medical conditions." Apropos of anything else - I don't think Fitbit has ever tried to market itself as a medical device.

It turns out even if a company markets its products with big bold "not for diagnostic/medical use", and its customers use the products for diagnostic or medical use, the company can still be on the hook. It depends on a number of things, not least of which is the company's knowledge of the actual use of their devices.

That doesn't seem fair. What's a company supposed to do in that situation? Just close up shop?

Makes me wonder if it would be possible to intentionally drive a company out of business by convincing a bunch of people to use their products incorrectly.

Re: Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold

#35

Post by pm24601 » Thu, Jan 14, 2016, 1:41 AM UTC

hijinks wrote: post #3

Wow this happened to my family. We didn't have heat for I think 5 hours. Now we are in the SF Bay so it didn't get crazy cold but I had a wife telling me to fix it and the stupid thing wouldn't come online. I chalked it up to one of the kids pulled the unit from the base plate and the battery drained. It seems like a GIANT bug to me that the Nest won't come back online till the battery is almost fully charged. I "fix…

Ahhh but you still haven't learned, have you :-)? The repair ended after you replace the Nest.

Re: Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold

#36

Post by stcredzero » Thu, Jan 14, 2016, 1:42 AM UTC

If you watch the unhappy early adopter YouTube videos of Nest thermostats, this outcome is pretty predictable. There's a level of quality control you need to put up a web app, which won't physically affect anyone if it happens to crash for awhile. Then there's a much higher level required when you're controlling things in the real world.

This outcome was predictable from the experience of those early adopters.

EDIT: Why couldn't Nest fall back to being a dumb thermostat? Lots of smart device makers should consider having such a fallback.

Re: Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold

#37

Post by ams6110 » Thu, Jan 14, 2016, 1:42 AM UTC

I have a manual thermostat, no batteries required. It has worked flawlessly for over 30 years. It has a simple intuitive interface: a switch for "heat" or "cool" and a dial with a pointer to set the desired temperature.

Why make things more complicated than they need to be?

Re: Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold

#38

Post by zitterbewegung » Thu, Jan 14, 2016, 1:44 AM UTC

Why have I only heard horror stories about the Nest? I see their reviews on Amazon and I see huge problems with this product .

Re: Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold

#39

Post by imh » Thu, Jan 14, 2016, 1:44 AM UTC

rubidium wrote: post #13

FireBeyond wrote: post #6

"It also happened recently with Fitbit, the maker of wearable activity trackers. The company was hit with a class-action lawsuit in San Francisco asserting that the wristbands failed to “consistently and accurately record wearers’ heart rates,” which is vital for those with certain medical conditions." Apropos of anything else - I don't think Fitbit has ever tried to market itself as a medical device.

It turns out even if a company markets its products with big bold "not for diagnostic/medical use", and its customers use the products for diagnostic or medical use, the company can still be on the hook. It depends on a number of things, not least of which is the company's knowledge of the actual use of their devices.

It shouldn't matter. It says it can read your heart rate. That's what it advertises as. It should be able to do so.

I'm curious if there are legal precedents on how accurate a thing must be to advertise as a being a measurement device.

Re: Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold

#40

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 14, 2016, 1:45 AM UTC

mhurron wrote: post #8

tcdent wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scary enough to have redundancy? edit: I'm talking about redundant systems. A wood fireplace, for example. You should have a backup of any form of technology you rely on to maintain your life. We regularly do it with far less critical applications.

Think about what you just said. Redundancy for a thermostat. You know, that thing that before the Nest you never even had to think about.

[deleted]