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posted by martyb on Wednesday April 29 2020, @05:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the its-dead-jim dept.

After prolonged service outage, Petnet shuts down, citing coronavirus:

Cloud-connected, "smart" automated pet-feeder system Petnet has had a rough spring. The service not only went offline in February, but all its customer service vanished, too, leaving users in the dark until the company apologized and pushed a patch more than a week later. The service briefly returned for some users but fell off again in March. Now, after weeks of silence, the company is blaming COVID-19 for driving it offline for good—even though its problems started weeks or months before the novel coronavirus became a significant concern.

[...] "Last week on April 14, 2020, we briefed all of our customers regarding one of our third-party connected vendor's inability to fully resource their company and stay functionally online," the message reads. "As of this writing, this situation remains unresolved but we are confident it will be overcome soon."

But due to the exceptional circumstances the COVID-19 pandemic has created, Petnet went on, many of its vendors—largely startups like itself—were "severely and negatively affected in their day to day operations." In short: the funding dried up. Due to a lack of funds, Petnet said, it "re-prioritized and reorganized [its] resources," including:

  • We have furloughed 100% of our remaining staff
  • We have ceased all future product development, including bug fixes
  • We have turned off all non-infrastructure related expenses
  • We have terminated our office lease and are working remotely
  • We have applied for all available CARES stimulus funding

Previously:
(2020-02-28) Petnet's Smart Pet Feeder System Back after Week-Long Outage
(2016-07-30) Cats, Dogs Go Hungry as Internet-Connected PetNet Plays Dead


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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by driverless on Wednesday April 29 2020, @11:36AM (2 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Wednesday April 29 2020, @11:36AM (#988149)

    A cat? Of course sir, black and white or tabby?

    Oh, any colour, it's for the python.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @11:51AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2020, @11:51AM (#988154)

    I guess you were referring to most cats come a running to the sound of a can opener. If the snake can get it turned on, here comes the meal on four paws. Surprise!

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Wednesday April 29 2020, @12:06PM

      by driverless (4770) on Wednesday April 29 2020, @12:06PM (#988157)

      Actually it was the dog that typed that, not me. Him and the cat are always pranking each other.