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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: 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?