Customer Leaves Bad Review of Garage App, Gets Banned from Own Garage

Megalith

Megalith

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A future is coming where bad reviews can lead to sabotage and denial of service for products bought and paid for. One guy had a very bad experience with a remote-control garage app dubbed “Garadget” and decided to let off a little steam by publishing a rant on Amazon. Unfortunately, the guys behind the app turned out to be just as hot-headed, disabling his device so he could no longer use it to operate his garage. I hear that the developers are working on a cooking-stove app next so they can burn your house down if you leave poor feedback. Thanks to TwiceOver for this one.

After having problems with their “Garadget,” an app that allows you to remotely control your garage door, they left a hasty one-star review on Amazon and posted criticism on the product's own forum. R. Martin doesn't mince his or her words. But the manufacturer didn't take kindly to this and replied scornfully on the product forum, calling out the customer for "abusive language" and having "poor impulse control.” The manufacturer, who replied under the name Garadget, then said that the customer's unit would "be denied a server connection.” What this means is that the manufacturer was able to identify the buyer and remotely disable their device – in this case, their own garage door.
 
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IF i dispute a credit card charge on my PS4, they will suspend my access to PSN, including the special effect apps on my mirrorless camera (a6000).....we are in for a very ugly future. The upside is that this is the stuff that will give rise to the real life cyberpunks.
 
If he hated the product that much, why would he still entrust his getting in and out of the garage up to it?
 
Spire3660 said:
IF i dispute a credit card charge on my PS4, they will suspend my access to PSN, including the special effect apps on my mirrorless camera (a6000).....we are in for a very ugly future. The upside is that this is the stuff that will give rise to the real life cyberpunks.
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A charge-back isn't equivalent to a written review.
 
rflcptr said:
A charge-back isn't equivalent to a written review.
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I was merely drawing a parallel to how insanely centralized things have become. Also, a chargeback is a LEGITIMATE complaint, and is part of the Sony terms of accepting credit cards. You shouldnt be punished prior to an arbitration process.
 
That_Sound_Guy said:
Disabling a paying customers service based on a review (substantiated or not) without notice and restricting access to additional customers property? That's a lawsuit'n.
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Owner sounds like a crybaby/dickbag. All the court will care about: did the customer pay for the service: Yes Is the owner denying him what he paid for a baseless reason: Yes

Just for fun -- here's the facebook of the creator of the device https://www.facebook.com/denis.grisak

I sent him a message saying how glad I was I googled the product before I bought it and how I will (very happily) be taking my money elsewhere.

Edit: i'd love to see this wind up in court... Nissan can't lock you out of your car if you tell people it sucks. Hope the owner gets pounded in the ass in court.
 
You know, part of me just wants to blame anyone who uses web shit where they just don't need it.

I know, everyone has different needs, miles in moccasins, judge not... All that... But come the fuck on, do we need web enable light bulbs? Garage door openers? A television in your fridge for food selfies?

Does anyone ever stop to think about just how many devices in a single home could potentially join the great bot-net army?
 
If you actually go to the forum thread and read it, you'll see that the Telegraph totally made a click bait headline and associated article.

They didn't lock the guy out of his garage. He couldn't even get them thing to register, so it obviously wasn't in use yet.

Again, probably not the very best customer service, but sometimes it's great to be able to just fire your customers that are more trouble then they are worth.

The app could still be a pile of crap; not making a judgement on that. But I fully support they guy's ability to fire a customer for being a PITA.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
You know, part of me just wants to blame anyone who uses web shit where they just don't need it.

I know, everyone has different needs, miles in moccasins, judge not... All that... But come the fuck on, do we need web enable light bulbs? Garage door openers? A television in your fridge for food selfies?

Does anyone ever stop to think about just how many devices in a single home could potentially join the great bot-net army?
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I'm usually the type to love anything high tech or connected... but I tend to agree with you. The fact we have fucking SHOES that are wifi connected just so you can order a pizza (pizza hut) ... kinda says a lot about what society thinks is normal. I mean, I kinda want a NEST thermostat.... but I don't *need* it... so why waste the money?
 
Axehandler said:
It looked like a decent product. but after seeing the company respond this way, I would refuse to do business with them.
I think this publicity will hurt the company FAR FAR more then a 1 Star review every would have....
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Why, I only look at negative reviews cause positive reviews mean nothing at all in this world. No business fakes negative reviews.

On the other hand I try to be very discriminating when reading negative reviews because the world is full of ignorant and stupid people who sometimes leave unwarranted negative reviews.

I look for trends, "stopped working within a month" would be an example of a trend I might find significant, etc.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
You know, part of me just wants to blame anyone who uses web shit where they just don't need it.

I know, everyone has different needs, miles in moccasins, judge not... All that... But come the fuck on, do we need web enable light bulbs? Garage door openers? A television in your fridge for food selfies?

Does anyone ever stop to think about just how many devices in a single home could potentially join the great bot-net army?
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While I agree not a necessity by any stretch, web connected garage door opener is sorta cool. I swear I am on auto-pilot in the AM and second guess if I closed the door. i might even drive back after a few blocks to check, usually its closed but it would be nice to be able to check remotely.

I also went to Europe with some friends and they had their stuff setup to turn on/off lights, warn them of temp, open door etc It was pretty cool. So yes I think day to day light control is a bit much but it can have its uses.
 
This comes back to making things connected to the net just because they can. What was that one feature that made the buyer think "that's so much better than my traditional door opener"? Because I just don't get it, like putting my lights to the net, just why?
 
Internet of Things is not the best idea. I don't want all the dumb devices in my house to suddenly become points of failure when I lose internet connectivity or the paranoid in me doesn't like the Big Brother aspect of things spying on me instead of just doing their role in the household environment.
 
collegeboy69us said:
Owner sounds like a crybaby/dickbag. All the court will care about: did the customer pay for the service: Yes Is the owner denying him what he paid for a baseless reason: Yes

Just for fun -- here's the facebook of the creator of the device https://www.facebook.com/denis.grisak

I sent him a message saying how glad I was I googled the product before I bought it and how I will (very happily) be taking my money elsewhere.

Edit: i'd love to see this wind up in court... Nissan can't lock you out of your car if you tell people it sucks. Hope the owner gets pounded in the ass in court.
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Why?

Look, maybe the customer is a whiner, maybe the owner is a dickhead, maybe it's a lot of both, whiner meets dickhead.

But to me, it's for them to figure out. I don't see the "Reddit Army" approach as a good thing. I just don't think people should let themselves be used and manipulated into online mob rule, and that is what this amounts to. The first guy that gets a sympathetic news post online and catches the attention of people who will do this and stick their noses into disputes that frankly, are none of their business, that's what you get, "online mob rules bullshit"

But hey, you're a big boy. You can choose for yourself and do as you please. I wouldn't block your internet access over it. I'm just letting you know what I think about this kind of "activism".
 
Twisted Kidney said:
You know, part of me just wants to blame anyone who uses web shit where they just don't need it.

I know, everyone has different needs, miles in moccasins, judge not... All that... But come the fuck on, do we need web enable light bulbs? Garage door openers? A television in your fridge for food selfies?

Does anyone ever stop to think about just how many devices in a single home could potentially join the great bot-net army?
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As a user, yes! I will not buy any appliance that requires an internet connection for full functionality (talking to you Nest). I do have smart TVs but they were actually cheaper than the non-smart versions. I have home built computers/DVRs that I use to connect the TVs to the net. I maintain control!
 
I guess they couldn't find his brother on grindr
 
lcpiper said:
Why, I only look at negative reviews cause positive reviews mean nothing at all in this world. No business fakes negative reviews.

On the other hand I try to be very discriminating when reading negative reviews because the world is full of ignorant and stupid people who sometimes leave unwarranted negative reviews.

I look for trends, "stopped working within a month" would be an example of a trend I might find significant, etc.
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I Agree!
That is why I feel the response is worse then a 1 star review.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
You know, part of me just wants to blame anyone who uses web shit where they just don't need it.

I know, everyone has different needs, miles in moccasins, judge not... All that... But come the fuck on, do we need web enable light bulbs? Garage door openers? A television in your fridge for food selfies?

Does anyone ever stop to think about just how many devices in a single home could potentially join the great bot-net army?
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Cable boxes are the worst offenders. They have been and continue to be used by those kinds of people.
 
This is part of the danger to using these kinds of apps or anything connected to your life at home or anywhere else in the physical world. It bothers me more to find out they route all data through their servers and you are not directly connecting to you device.


The new thing is If you are not a fanboi the deep state (Doesn't just apply to governments) comes after you! If you go a certain place that likes to spin on their hamster wheels and point on the problems with Ryzen or AMD's history of bad support although more improved than years past with their CPUs or GPUs you get shouted down. Look at the Asus 1080 ti 11GB strix review now on newegg https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...186&cm_re=asus_1080_ti-_-14-126-186-_-Product don't buy because of Vega coming out WTF. That's not an argument! In the first coming of the Athlon I supported AMD and I also supported them by buying their video cards now the toxicity of the community has me rethinking future support. This whole partisan ideal that only one opinion counts and if you don't agree we will make you pay and come after is starting to get out of hand.
 
LBJM said:
This is part of the danger to using these kinds of apps or anything connected to your life at home or anywhere else in the physical world. It bothers me more to find out they route all data through their servers and you are not directly connecting to you device.


The new thing is If you are not a fanboi the deep state (Doesn't just apply to governments) comes after you! If you go a certain place that likes to spin on their hamster wheels and point on the problems with Ryzen or AMD's history of bad support although more improved than years past with their CPUs or GPUs you get shouted down. Look at the Asus 1080 ti 11GB strix review now on newegg https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...186&cm_re=asus_1080_ti-_-14-126-186-_-Product don't buy because of Vega coming out WTF. That's not an argument! In the first coming of the Athlon I supported AMD and I also supported them by buying their video cards now the toxicity of the community has me rethinking future support. This whole partisan ideal that only one opinion counts and if you don't agree we will make you pay and come after is starting to get out of hand.
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Reading comments anywhere on the internet these days is starting to give me cancer. Newegg noobs are the worse for that shit.
 
And here's the kicker. The inability of Congress to reign in the Terms of Service bullshit will allow things like this to continue.

Sure, you bought the hardware, but that "software license" that comes bundled is revokable at any time per most ToS's. Want to sue over said software? You probably agreed to arbitration when you created a new account.
 
Jehuty said:
If this is indeed the case, someone's gonna get paid handsomely.

By which I mean, lawyers will.
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Hell, they'll even be kind enough to call this guy up and inform him that he's been wronged and violated and has the right to counsel.
 
Spidey329 said:
And here's the kicker. The inability of Congress to reign in the Terms of Service bullshit will allow things like this to continue.

Sure, you bought the hardware, but that "software license" that comes bundled is revokable at any time per most ToS's. Want to sue over said software? You probably agreed to arbitration when you created a new account.
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Most of our Congress Critters have pretty well figured out the Telegraph but the whole voice over the wire idea has most of them rather stumped. So expecting them to deal with ToS, EULA, IoT, CyberSecurity, or Privacy Policies is rather hopeless.
 
collegeboy69us said:
I mean, I kinda want a NEST thermostat.... but I don't *need* it... so why waste the money?
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I have a couple Nest smoke/fire alarms, not because they can connect to my phone, but because they can connect to each other over WiFi, so if one goes off, they all go off, just like a wired system. (They are also much better smoke alarms - i.e less false alarms) than the cheap ones most places sell.

Still, you need to keep your local fire department number on your phone when you travel, so you can call them if you get an alert :)

I'm calling to report a possible fire at my home. There is smoke in the upstairs loft.
No I'm not in the house, I'm 3,000 miles away on vacation.
No, this is not a prank call. An app on my phone is connected to my smoke alarms.
 
LOLOL this is so funny. Bet this was probably a kickstarted business as well. Customers buy your shit, and when they don't like it guess what most common reaction is? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Can't remember the exact number, but its something like 70-80% of most dissatisfied customers never buy your products again. No feedback, no returns, no nothing. Only thing the majority of upset customers do is bad mouth your stuff when it comes up in a friendly conversation, and there is nothing you can do to combat this. Once this starts happening, there isn't much you can do to change it. This customer left feedback... albiet hostile, but it was feedback none the less. The company had a chance to make it right, and earn some good PR in the process. Instead they did quite possibly the worst thing you can do, became hostile to their own customer. Do people not listen to ancient proverbs and philosophy anymore? Don't bite the hand that feeds. They just bit the shit out of that guys poor garage door.

Business 101, the customer is always right, until they are outta sight then you can bitch and fume about how wrong and stupid they actually are.

On the flip, I do have to wonder why did the "smartphone" required access to any kind of server or internet to open or close a garage door. Garage door openers use a low RF, and the vast majority of phones are equipped with RF transmitters. So why the need for the "internet"? Well Billy that's an easy question to answer, data collection. The internet is quickly being used as the go to spectrum to operate just about anything these days. Well my dad taught me never to keep all my eggs in one basket, so when the internet goes out in my house guess what happens? Not a damn thing, I can still open my garage, fridge, use my microwave, read a paperback book, go for a run with no musical or computer assistance reporting my heart rate.

In closing I must say, I think both parties in this situation are morons. Garagdet for making a crappy pointless app and product, and to the guy who bought the crappy and pointless product.
 
Company out of business in 3 2 1... so who had the poor impulse control again?
 
Hmm.....yep, I dislike both parties equally and I'm glad they found one another in this big ol' universe.
 
Spire3660 said:
IF i dispute a credit card charge on my PS4, they will suspend my access to PSN, including the special effect apps on my mirrorless camera (a6000).....we are in for a very ugly future. The upside is that this is the stuff that will give rise to the real life cyberpunks.
Click to expand...

Yea, bitches tried to pull that shit on me when a mistaken purchase not bought by me but using my stored card info on my ps4 which at the time I didnt even know was stored.

The purchase was disputed within a minute or so of the purchase being applied, sony got back to me saying we can see it was accidental etc and we will refund it back onto your wallet, the money for the purchase wasnt previously in my wallet so i wanted a direct refund to my card, I told them if they didnt refund to my card I would dispute it with my card company.

Sony told me to stfu and take it up the ass or we will banz u from eba eba eba using psn again, me thought fuck you slant eye and called my credit card co, mofos told me that since sony refunded me back onto my wallet the credit card company wouldnt do shit, WTF.

What kinda shit world are we living in when companies think they can bully us, we keep these fuks in business and if we only decided to wise up and vote with our wallets these fuckwit companies would soon change their shitty attitude towards us.
 
Tak Ne said:
Words that instantly make me reject a product "connected to the cloud"
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If I wanted to have smart 'things' interconnected I would set up my own server to control them, I will never install a device that HAS to connect to an external server to operate it. If my thermostat that has to connect to an outside server, that, in the middle of winter looses connection because the pedestal that I connect to gets it by a car, no internet and all the pipes in my house burst because of that? No thanks.
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
Yea, bitches tried to pull that shit on me when a mistaken purchase not bought by me but using my stored card info on my ps4 which at the time I didnt even know was stored.

The purchase was disputed within a minute or so of the purchase being applied, sony got back to me saying we can see it was accidental etc and we will refund it back onto your wallet, the money for the purchase wasnt previously in my wallet so i wanted a direct refund to my card, I told them if they didnt refund to my card I would dispute it with my card company.

Sony told me to stfu and take it up the ass or we will banz u from eba eba eba using psn again, me thought fuck you slant eye and called my credit card co, mofos told me that since sony refunded me back onto my wallet the credit card company wouldnt do shit, WTF.

What kinda shit world are we living in when companies think they can bully us, we keep these fuks in business and if we only decided to wise up and vote with our wallets these fuckwit companies would soon change their shitty attitude towards us.
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I have learned that you should give them as little info as possible to get what you want done. Any additional info can and will be used against you.
 
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