New Inovelli switch

I know Eric has been out of the country and just got back. I will let him respond in his due time. but I do agree about the website having the old OOS product still listed. If its not available, and it not going to be coming back it should be removed. As for the blog and forums, They are a startup that is going through an adjustment period, the blog probably isn't much of a priority. I think the forms were introduced after things started going sideways with the old product line, so that will take time to mature. i suspect many don't even realize they have those forums. I didn't until recently.

@Eric_Inovelli provided this status on the ST community a few days ago:

More delays.... That's shocking (said no one).

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Hey guys... going to be a long one.

Checks his back to see if @JasonJoel is still firing shots :face_with_head_bandage: - my goodness man, take those steel toed boots off, your kicking me when I'm down is really starting to hurt!

Let me preface this response by saying that yes, we've have some ups and downs over the past year to year and a half and we're all learning as best as we can. While there's been delays, communication errors, more delays, out of stocks, etc -- there's one hill that I'll die on and that's that I've never not treated anyone fair.

Believe it or not (I realize I'm an internet stranger and haven't personally met any of you) I actually do take these things pretty personally when the company I've built from scratch gets called shady or not trustworthy. C'mon guys - I don't know too many other companies that take the time to respond in forums with a non-canned response. I'm trying my best here.

Website
Dangit, yeah @Mr_Bond you're absolutely right. The website sucks -- The good news is that the new website should be ready in about a month or so and we hired a professional agency to fix it. Here's a sneak peek if you're curious (Note: The link may expire shortly as they're moving to production):
https://borngroup.invisionapp.com/share/3WSWAZ1MHGN#/screens/372971106

So, why did I keep the products up that were OOS for what feels like 5 years? Great question -- and I'm about to get humble here -- is that we couldn't afford to have the site redone. This is what happens when you switch manufacturers and have no products to sell... the cashflow is non-existent. So, that left me to fend for myself to try to figure out the website -- BIG MISTAKE -- I don't know how to edit pages very well.

Once Series A funding came in, we had a choice -- invest in the current website or spend on a new one (and inventory). I chose the latter as I thought I could do the bare minimum on editing the old site. I was wrong. It's been a disaster and it's a lesson learned... appearance and UI is everything. Thanks @Mr_Bond for calling us out on this.

Mailing List & Blog
One of my biggest downfalls is that I tend to bite off more than I can chew and these were two of them. In theory they sounded great -- have people opt-in to receive updates and send updates. Educate people on smart home tech. Unfortunately, that required a ton of work...

Let me back up -- we're not some Fortune 500 with hundreds of people working for us. There's six of us. And three of the six were carrying the team last year. During the manufacturer snafu, there were only two of us (Eric^2). The remaining four were hired in March and April.

So, it was my bad for biting off more than I can chew with the mailing list and blog. I hope to provide a better experience this year as we hired a social media manager who will help create emails as well as help with writing blog content.

Forums
Ok, now this one I will 100% blame myself for but it was also a perfect storm of not having time AND also the plug-in was terrible causing poor execution. Then the ol', "I'll get to it later" kicked in and here we are. We will be switching to Discourse (which is what Hubitat and ST use for their forums) which is hosted outside of Inovelli.com and actually is an amazing forum platform as I get notifications pretty regularly, so I'll be able to be more active. More to come here.

Moving Forward
Ok, now that I feel like the prosecution has rested their case and I'm able to be relieved from the stand -- let me end with this...

I realize I'm not going to please everyone out there. It's impossible. It's incredibly tricky too as I'd be upset if I was in your shoes around the pre-orders, communication snafus and a terrible website. But I promise you we're taking steps to improve (1. We have a new website coming 2. We have hired more people to help, and 3. We've learned how our new manufacturer works).

I can also assure you that between @ericm, myself and the rest of the team -- we are trying our best, we've sacrificed a lot ourselves because we believe in what we're doing and anything that may have offended you @JasonJoel was not done intentionally and I apologize for whatever was done to cause a chip on your shoulder.

I sincerely think this will be the last delay on our switches (famous last words, but I actually really do feel good about this) -- moving forward here, we've learned not to be so optimistic with our timelines. I'm not joking when the manufacturer told us it would be 3.5 months back in January. We're equally as pissed.

Anyway, sorry for the novel.

Hope you all have a great weekend and I'm going to be out of commission (camping) until Thursday starting on Monday, so if I don't respond that's why.

Talk soon!

Eric

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A bit of (unsolicited) "business advice":

Stop giving timelines period, (similar to how Hubitat does), you can announce/advertise something new, but never give a deadline, as the ONLY thing this can accomplish is a possible let down to those expecting it as they were told.

One of the main drivers that drove me to ditch Vera although I was HIGHLY invested in it was due to this......They REPEATEDLY for almost 2 years would post about "fixes" and new additions were "just around the corner" or "should be any day know"

One PRIME example is

Guess what it's 3rd quarter of 2019, and THEY STILL DON'T HAVE IFTTT INTEGRATION.

Come to later find out that during this whole being promised routinely the company went through 2 Acquisitions, downsized, had almost no staff to even work on what they are promising.

In the business world the fastest way to turn away your customers is to NOT fulfill their expectations, and the ONLY way they have those expectations is by the information YOU give them. So only provide the expectations you know 100% you can fulfill as described.

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@Eric_Inovelli:
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I for one am still looking forward to more Inovelli products and hope the new line really draws good attention.

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Yeah, this is great insight and one of those, "hindsight is 20/20" realizations to me that I've definitely learned the hard way (and am still trying to figure out).

Every timeline I've given comes directly from the manufacturer and their fancy spreadsheet, however, as I've come to find out, these seem about as accurate as your example from Vera.

I guess the part that I struggle with is balancing trying to give my best guess to everyone on when things will be launched and also not committing to a certain timeline (as we don't have crystal balls and 9/10 we get burned).

I'm genuinely asking for advice here -- what do you think is acceptable from a customer POV? Something vague like, "ETA: Summer 2019"?

Thanks for taking the time out to respond -- I really appreciate it!

Eric

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Many thanks Eric, more than anything I'm happy to hear you are still surviving!

I actually thought the current website was fundamentally OK, just lacking in updates and housecleaning. For me these are big red flags when shopping online, a fact I learnt the hard way with one of my own sites! The lesson I took was that whatever platform I chose, I had to be able to make updates without external input.

It does seem ironic that you are so good in forums, but don't use your own formal channels. Even a 'hi we're still alive' would be a step forward.

But all in, I personally do trust you because of your responses and input to questions. That ethic comes through loud and clear!

Looking forward to the Canadian launch!

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Lol -- yeah... I have no rebuttal :confused:

Yeah, totally -- this was a huge lesson here too and definitely something we talked about with the agency... everything needs to be easily editable by myself and our staff.

Appreciate the kind words and I look forward to the Canadian launch as well! I actually think I'll make a trip over there as well (I'm like 3hrs from Windsor -- but I really want to go to Toronto) -- this gives me an excuse :slight_smile:

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Is it me or did prices double?

(Although I've had minor disagreements with some aspects :roll_eyes:)

A decent example is to watch how Hubitat's staff gives updates.

When they find AND FIX and issue they say "It will be in the next release" but NEVER will they state "when" that release is coming.

When Bruce was developing RM 4.0, he did a teaser on the HE Livestream to promote/show they were developing it , but never said when it would be released.

When recommendations are put forth (and Hubitat staff agrees) they state "it's on the list", most generally most of the items it this category eventually come to fruition but never stated "when" they plan on them being implemented. When they don't agree, they will usually state, they don't see this being implemented in the near future. Therefore, I as their customer have a reasonable expectation to expect or NOT expect for my concern to be addressed. But never do I have the ability to say You said I would have this on X, it is now X and you didn't live up to your expectations.

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I am hoping those were placeholder "sample" prices on the sample site there as I noticed some other little oddities of in the listings that I would assume will be corrected also.

@Eric_Inovelli

@waynespringer79 hit the nail on the head.

Stated deadlines raise expectations. Not meeting them leaves prospective users/customers feeling irate and skeptical.

OTOH, with RM 4.0, we knew it was in development, and I honestly thought it would be a month or more before it would be released. So I was pleasantly surprised and left very impressed when it was released so soon after the teaser on the HE livestream.

Edit - To be clear, I am still looking forward to buying the new iNovelli switches!

We also know that RM 5.0 is coming too. :wink: but not when.

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@Eric_Inovelli, thanks for the update. As I have never been through the issues you guys have been, I can only imagine it being frustrating!

I will echo other responses here. If you are going to give hard dates, which is great, maybe provide more updates or the like, especially if that date is not going to be met. I know you are more than frustated of all the setbacks. We were receiving semi-periodic updates, but then became hit and miss. I realize you are busy, but maybe just a "We're still kicking" message.

I am excited to see the product be released. I still have 3 on pre-order and waiting for them to ship. Hopefully, they will be everything they are touted to be and maybe @JasonJoel may spring for one or two. :slight_smile:

Again, thanks for the update!

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Truthfully, I wish them absolutely nothing but success. If the new devices ever make it to market, and are actually in stock, I fully intend to pick up a couple to check out.

I admit I remain very skeptical at this point, but I have been proven wrong before so we will see. More options in the marketplace is a good thing.

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You can read their latest updates for the new dimmers and new switches on their Community forum (seems you're required to call if that if the backend is Discourse :laughing:) under the Product Roadmap section. They've posted updates they've sent out to preorder-ers via e-mail to those posts.

Alternatively, for those who don't want to click, mass production is in progress for the switches (projected to be done around now but no updates yet), and the dimmers are projected to start mass production this coming week (but the last update is that they were waiting on technical Z-Wave certification, so that might get delayed a bit). Both seem quite close in any case, particularly the switches. :slight_smile:

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Anyone who's read through this thread will believe it when they see it. They've met exactly zero of the dates they have advertised so far.

They will no doubt come out at some point, if they don't run out of operating cash first. I look forward to picking one up when they're commercially available, and in stock.

The harshest posts in this thread are actually just yours. :wink: There is no denying that they are delayed from their originally projected launch date, but I've pre-ordered enough electronics in my life to have already expected that. Maybe that's why a couple months doesn't faze me (quick, someone ask me about that Lockitron....). I'm also comforted by the fact that both do exist: you can't send a nonexistent device off to the Z-Wave Alliance for certification (they're not lying that the switches are done), and if you're on their email updates, they've sent pictures and videos. One still has a bit to go, but the main issue with the other now is how long mass production and shipping it to us actually takes. I'm not trying to shock anyone here, but I'm already prepared for a week or two of delay beyond what they already predicted and won't be surprised if it's a bit more (but will be pleasantly surprised if it's sooner). :slight_smile:

I see you're also disappointed that their old products are out of stock. I believe that is why they switched manufacturers, and considering this is their day job, I'm pretty sure they weren't thrilled about that (other than being more popular than they anticipated) either. Orders were shut down at that point, and I don't see how that makes them bad.

I never said they are bad. Just stating facts that they have hit zero dates, so don't get too excited and caveat emptor.

I do give them a hard time, and I think they deserve/have earned every bit of it.