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IoT Garage Door Opener Maker Bricks Customer's Product After Bad Review (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: 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."
Then it's okay.
#DeleteChrome
Did the guy agree that his device can be disabled at any time and the server side service is not a given?
In the click-through EULA? Go ahead, be an asshole.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
In a click through EULA he probably agreed to lots of things.
He agreed that the manufacturer can sneak in the middle of the night and harvest his, and his family's organs, of their ISP hasn't already gotten them first.
That EULA probably also said that they have no liability if they knowingly and deliberately remotely open his garage door when they specifically know he is not home.
Oh, the joy of EULAs.
. . . and Ballmer took Linus onto a high mountain and showeth him all the CPUs of the world and said "these can all be yours if you simply bow down and click I AGREE to my EULA."
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
(Garage Door Operation As a Service--GDOAAS?)
My internal 12-year-old prefers Garage Opening Now A Delivered Service (GONADS).
Basically, you get a txt msg from your wife saying that her clicker broke, please remotely open the garage door. So you open it. Then later you find out your wife's phone was stole by a thief, along with the contents of your garage and house, and that you never had a wife in the first place.
The spelling is adequate for its intended porpoise.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Garage Light and Door Opening Service (GLaDOS), making a note here, huge success.
Internet of Tantrums.
ONLY apps can app apps, NOT LUDDITE software!
Apps!
a blond Customer Service Lady or these guys ...
It's cruel to make porpoises have to use a garage door remote. They don't even have fingers to use the phone app.
So they need to use a flipper phone?
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office