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Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#71

Post by kenjackson »

bilbo0s wrote: post #68

"...The USB chargers were sourced through a Chinese vendor. We paid to have the proper certification and safety tests performed here in the U.S. for the chargers. However, tonight we were informed by a customer of a safety incident with the black USB chargers..." You think it is appropriate to say this in a recall notice... and this is why you fail. Sony has problems with their products, so does Apple. Neither of the…

I didn't think they were deflecting or blaming their source. Sounds like they were just saying that they did the proper due diligence, but there is still a problem.

Apple did the same thing when they were giving tours of their radio-frequency test lab. It's a way of saying, "Yes, there's a problem, but it wasn't sheer negligence."

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#72

Post by Fargren »

davidk0101 wrote: post #47
bugsy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a place I worked a few years ago we had to individually retest every single unit of our products. This involved opening up packaging and repacking and reshrinkwrapping afterwards. In between unpacking and repacking there was testing and finding about 1/3 of them always had problems. Some boards could be fixed by diagnosing to the component level, replacing components and even resoldering incorrectly wired interboa…

So you were basically saving $180 in exchange for a more polluted planet. Great exchange if I ever saw one.

120 bucks, actually.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#73

Post by mrerrormessage »

bilbo0s wrote: post #68

"...The USB chargers were sourced through a Chinese vendor. We paid to have the proper certification and safety tests performed here in the U.S. for the chargers. However, tonight we were informed by a customer of a safety incident with the black USB chargers..." You think it is appropriate to say this in a recall notice... and this is why you fail. Sony has problems with their products, so does Apple. Neither of the…

Perhaps they could take more responsibility, but they certainly aren't worse than Apple. Remember how Apple was very hush-hush about the exploding/fire-catching Macbook batteries? That seems a more apples-to-apples comparison to a product that was sourced upstream. Notice how Apple didn't do a full recall, they just hoped people wouldn't notice. Points to wakemate for a courageous recall on one report!

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#74

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

clewiston wrote: post #13
tlrobinson wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for not keeping quiet. If they kept quiet and someone were injured or killed due to a known defective product wouldn't they be open to lawsuits?

We sent this email tonight within an hour of hearing about the first issue. One of our goals as a company is to increase people's quality of life -- starting with sleep. It was immediately apparent to us we had to tell our customers, especially if their safety was at all at risk.

Isn't this a bit drastic, though? I absolutely commend you for the fast reaction and concern about customer's safety, but do you know the extent of the problem?

I mean, if the problem is limited to a certain batch of power supplies (or just that single faulty one), you've just deprived a large number of customers of the use of product. Certainly if you have no way to segment the people who may be affected, then the safest thing is a total product recall, but that's generally the last resort any business will take in this situation.

In any case, I hope this is just a speedbump for you guys and you continue on successfully.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#75

Post by blackguardx »

clewiston wrote: post #17
koichi wrote: post #12

I'd worry about this more if my WakeMate would actually arrive... :( This is pretty sad, though... I've been cheering for WakeMate since the beginning, but it's getting harder and harder... Are they at least sending new charger bricks at some point, perhaps a year or so from now (har har har)?

yes, but we will have to source new bricks first. We went with these black bricks because a) they looked cool, b) we could afford them, and c) samples of the bricks passed electrical surge and signal quality tests we had performed here in Mountain View. Maybe there's a reason Apple charges $29 for theirs...

Most of that $29 is the Apple brand. The circuitry inside one of those USB chargers is very simple.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#76

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

flip wrote: post #65

Does anyone else feel like a complete fool for having thought these guys were capable of pulling this off?

You shouldn't. Although I'm in software now, I've done enough hardware design to know that sometimes shit just happens no matter how well you jump through all the hoops.

It's a pity that it happened so soon after the product was released, but things like this are not at all unusual. In fact, they're lucky that they found out about it right away. I've known of suppliers changing the component they sell you without informing anyone or changing the part number, causing problems that go undetected for years.

Like an earlier poster said: hardware is hard.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#77

Post by mrchess »

bilbo0s wrote: post #68

"...The USB chargers were sourced through a Chinese vendor. We paid to have the proper certification and safety tests performed here in the U.S. for the chargers. However, tonight we were informed by a customer of a safety incident with the black USB chargers..." You think it is appropriate to say this in a recall notice... and this is why you fail. Sony has problems with their products, so does Apple. Neither of the…

I agree with this. The way they single out "Chinese" is very immature. They even said they paid to have proper certification in the U.S., well who did you pay because while your manufacturer may have shipped a bad product, your QC dept clearly failed their job too.

All you needed to say is that they were defective and they needed a recall, no reason to try and blame someone else for your problem.

I bought from you guys to support you, but please take some responsibility.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#78

Post by jrockway »

Caligula wrote: post #19
clewiston wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes the batteries are safe. we believe that the chargers are spitting out a noisy electrical signal, which is causing the battery charger IC on the WakeMate to overheat, thus causing the problem. We have only seen any incidence when the unit is plugged into the black USB charger bricks we shipped with. To date we have logged over 20000 hours of sleep on our system, so we're certain that sleeping with the Wakemate is…

I am curious, does your certification and testing involve anything with the FDA? I worked at one of the big sleep companies before and we always had to adhere to FDA regulations even though we were careful to be 'monitoring' and not 'diagnosis/treatment'. The FDA also occasionally randomly popped in as a part of their standard monitoring process.

I think they are careful to say "this is not a medical device", which exempts them from regulation. They can market it as a fun toy or fashion accessory or whatever, and then it has nothing to do with medicine.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#79

Post by beoba »

maayank wrote: post #49
davidk0101 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you were basically saving $180 in exchange for a more polluted planet. Great exchange if I ever saw one.

Realisticlly, if you don't do it then a competitor will and not only will he pollute the planet, but drive you out of business with his cheaper units.

This is what regulation and tariffs are for.

Too bad we can't be bothered, since we must protect corporate profits at any cost.

Re: Important Safety Notice from WakeMate

#80

Post by jackowayed »

jhferris3 wrote: post #69
jrockway wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you bitter that a technology project was delayed, or that they had your money the whole time? This is why I don't preorder. Even though I thought the WakeMate was interesting, I didn't have anything personally invested, and could just enjoy the story instead. My advice is to not give random people your money in exchange for promises unless you want to grow to hate them.

I was under the impression that they refunded most (all?) pre-order money?

They did. And even before they did, it was just $1 or $5 depending on when you preordered.
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