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Denis Grisak, the man behind the Internet-connected garage opener Garadget, is having a very bad week. Grisak and his Colorado-based company SoftComplex launched Garadget, a device built using Wi-Fi-based cloud connectivity from Particle, on Indiegogo earlier this year, hitting 209 percent of his launch goal in February. But this week, his response to an unhappy customer has gotten Garadget a totally different sort of attention.
On April 1, a customer who purchased Garadget on Amazon using the name R. Martin reported problems with the iPhone application that controls Garadget. He left an angry comment on the Garadget community board:
Just installed and attempting to register a door when the app started doing this. Have uninstalled and reinstalled iphone app, powered phone off/on - wondering what kind of piece of shit I just purchased here...
Shortly afterward, not having gotten a response, Martin left a 1-star review of Garadget on Amazon:
Junk - DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY - iPhone app is a piece of junk, crashes constantly, start-up company that obviously has not performed proper quality assurance tests on their products.
Grisak then responded by bricking Martin's product remotely, posting on the support forum:
Martin,
The abusive language here and in your negative Amazon review, submitted minutes after experiencing a technical difficulty, only demonstrates your poor impulse control. I'm happy to provide the technical support to the customers on my Saturday night but I'm not going to tolerate any tantrums.
At this time your only option is return Garadget to Amazon for refund. Your unit ID 2f0036... will be denied server connection. [Ed's Comment: As of Apr 5, Garadget have apologised for this action and have restored connectivity]
The exchange then went viral, being picked up by the Twitter account @internetofshit and rising to the top of Hacker News.
Source: ArsTechnica
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Thursday April 06 2017, @09:58PM (6 children)
I can support the business owner a little here. What makes the difference is that the consumer left the bad review "minutes" after having the technical problem. Or in other words, didn't even attempt to deal with the manufacturer. Personally, I take some issue with that. It's rare, but I do receive DOA equipment that needs an RMA ASAP. Still not a reason to rake the manufacturer over the coals, especially when I've dealt with some nice people in the RMA dept. and I can get a new unit sent out 2 day air.
It's not unreasonable to expect the consumer to make *some* effort, and this consumer did make exactly zero effort beyond being a shitty whiner about it. I don't blame the business owner for being a little miffed. It's the Golden Rule; I treat vendors as well as I can, because I want people to work with me on technical support issues and not just attempt to kill me over the phone. Give me a chance at least....
Offering/Forcing the refund instantly was the right course, but bricking the operations of the device was a step too far. That's where I take issue with the business owner. He didn't respect the ownership of the device, which is an argument about the First Sale doctrine. Although, technically, he may have took ownership back if he forced the refund through his payment systems already. At that point, disabling may be seen as his prerogative.
That being said, the business owner deliberately bricked a fucking garage door due to a shitty consumer being a dick on the Internet. That's not cool to screw up somebody's garage door. Does this service brick garage doors if you don't pay?
I think in this case it took "two to tango" and the consumer is just as much a whiner as the business owner. Yes, it's really fucking disturbing to see these IoT business owners not respect First Sale and simply annex all consumer equipment as their own CPE inventory.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday April 06 2017, @10:12PM
The thing is, consumers are going to be dicks and whiners. That's just reality. If you can't handle that, then you have no business selling products to the general public. Bricking the guy's device is exactly what all the hoopla is about; the consumer's crappy attitude is really irrelevant. As you alluded to, if they'll brick your door opener for a negative post or general dickishness, what else will they brick your door opener for? What if they just decide to brick everyone's device after a couple years (after the warranty is expired) and then demand they pay more to get un-bricked? Hey, I have a new business plan!!
(Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday April 06 2017, @10:20PM (4 children)
Except they didn't "brick" anything. That was invented for a clickbait headline.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday April 07 2017, @12:06AM (3 children)
Uhhhh, unless the garage door opener worked perfectly as stated in the specs without access to the central servers, then removing access to the server precludes the proper function of the garage door. Hence, it was bricked.
Did it work after server access was revoked? Otherwise you're playing a game of semantics, and a losing one at that.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday April 07 2017, @02:12AM (2 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by tftp on Friday April 07 2017, @05:47AM (1 child)
Note that in this system "the device" is not just the box at the customer's garage, but also the server at the company that runs the cloud. If you tamper with the server, it causes malfunction of the device. If your email provider deletes your account at their server, will you state that since your mail user agent (KMail, Outlook, whatever) was not touched by them, everything is just peachy?
IF he has a solid enforceable contract for the service he might have a case
It's called fitness for the purpose. If you buy an electron microscope you expect it to function as a microscope, and not as a boat anchor.
Don't buy junk.
That's the best lesson that can be learned from this story.
(Score: 1) by WillR on Friday April 07 2017, @02:02PM
If your email provider deletes your account at their server, will you state that since your mail user agent (KMail, Outlook, whatever) was not touched by them, everything is just peachy?
No, but I certainly wouldn't say my MUA was bricked because of it either. "Bricked" is more than just a hipster synonym for "broken", it means the thing won't boot and can't be made to boot again without hardware modification. Would your router be bricked if you stopped paying for internet service and they disconnected you?