Tado Marketing Test
Answers
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I absolutely love the video. Sums up the clusterf Tado manage to cook0
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Can we have an official statement from Tado confirming that the app portion of the "marketing test" is over? I mean, as a marketing test, it's already done irreparable damage to the brand, customer trust, and resulted in multiple large media outlets producing scathing articles and videos, so the test itself can surely only be regarded as being very successful at gathering feedback.
"I have altered the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."1 -
This thing with finding out how much we value the app…..I call BS.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I've learned in life that all these companies are out for whatever they can get, no smoke without fire. Even if they really have knocked this particular fiasco on the head, do you really think the money still doesn't have to be raised by some other method? On top of that, they have to recover all the free year's worth of Auto Assist they're having to give away by way of an apology.
They've lost my trust and many others, permanently. I have a total of 7 individual purchases from Amazon that I will be leaving appropriate feedback for. I am one of the lucky ones, but I will repeat this here: I've had some of the kit since April last year, and they are refunding me upon return, I recommend if you are so inclined, to try the same.
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Wow. I got two TadoX thermostats, and was about to replace my other aging Eve/Bluetooth soon. I'll not do that anymore.
As an app developer myself, I don't believe you. It can't be this expensive to run the servers for what you claim they do. You probably do a bunch of of tracking and other stuff that is not necessary at all for your users, but you have a PM that LOVES filling excel sheets with KPIs. This is where the server cost is. I refuse to pay for that, and so should everyone else.
HomeKit and especially Matter based controllers are perfectly capable of running your thermostats without your Cloud or your app. I see that this is free, and hope it should remain so. But with this stupidity I still lost trust that tado is run by sane people.
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Test or not, I will also be returning my system whilst I still can. This is clearly a company that can not be trusted not to begin charging going forward. They're obviously exploring other ways to generate revenue at the expense of existing users.
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(edit: further clarified in my post below…)
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Just came across this.
I feel bad for recommending this system to my sister. Will definitely not be buying any new tado hardware.
They would not be testing this if it wasnt the plan for the future.
Such a shame. Should have realised this would happen eventually.0 -
OK after a bit of digging, for UK users, we may well be protected by the consumer protection regulations and consumer rights act.
If a company advertises a product as “subscription-free” to encourage purchases, then later introduces a required subscription, this could be deemed a misleading or unfair commercial practice under consumer protection regulations.
The consumer rights act also states that goods must be as described and fit for purpose. If a product was sold under the condition that it works without a subscription, changing that later could be seen as making the product not as described at the time of sale. Since the change substantially impacts use, the customer may be entitled to a refund.
So, there is also the potential argument for breach of contract under the consumer rights act if a mandatory subscription to access features that were previously free is introduced. However, this would be against the retailer rather than the manufacturer. That said, if all the big DIY stores suddenly get an influx of returns, they will stop working with Tado which will negatively impact Tado and the customer will ultimately still get their refund.
Since this affects a wide user base, it's possible that it would be something that would be investigated by the competition and markets authority.
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" This will help our management team make an informed decision on how to move forward. "
Have the management team just arrived on this planet? What sort of feedback was expected from this "test", except for criticism and destroying the brand reputation?
Are they aware of any examples from the past, where general population of users were happy to be charged for the features available and promised as part of hardware purchase?
I'm a Tado user for a good few year now. This morning found a relatively decent offer for 4x radiator thermostats, which I was going to purchase to complete my home set-up.
First comment on that deal was linking to this forum and some other resources on the net and guess what? You lost a sell.
I can't commit more to the brand, I don't trust anymore. While I do like the Tado ecosystem, what stops you from introducing & increasing the price for app access to £5pm? Then £10pm?
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So I am already a paying customer. Getting contacted by relatives about this matter we decided to cancel out paid subscription immediatly.
This is one of many cases in the trend os vendors locking in users by selling hardware and free services, and then hijack those customers into paying for the services or have limited or broken functionality.
You made a paying customer leave and not only not paying a dollar per month but even not willing to pay the full price anymore.0 -
This is absolutely horrible. The weird thing is that I still got the 'app blocked popup' even though we already have the auto-assist subscription. After restarting the app it didnt appear again. This absolutely broke my trust in Tado as I paid a lot for the thermostat to not have a required subscription.
Me and my colleagues will also stop recommending Tado product for our IT help company which helps thousands of customers every year in the Netherlands with different IT and technical questions, including installing and advising for smart thermostats.
Thanks for nothing Tado
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I think this keeps getting worse. I asked tado support for clarification on Monday, they said someone would get back to me. I've chased this several times with NO RESPONSE and not I have no option but to process my return.
I asked them to process this 3 days ago and they have IGNORED my messages. I am chancing today again with new messages and no response.
I'm at the end of my tether with this company and am about to reverse the charges on my credit card as I am not getting any communication from this.
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Not good being on Louis Rossmann's 2.2 million subsciber channel 😂
Sales probably dropping.
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@nnxen
Whereas what you say is indeed perfectly legitimate, it doesn't stop tado from simply increasing the cost of Auto-Assist or otherwise removing features from the app citing some rubbish about it not being a useful feature, then reintroducing it later as a different feature but in the Premium paid subs.
My point is, tado have shown their true colours, something is in the offing and whatever it is, it won't be good. When investors ask for more money, you can bet your backside they will get it.
I'll be keeping a close eye on the future of tado and its tactics, but anyone who can back out now would be well advised to do exactly that.
Oh, and the complete lack of comment by anyone at tado on this thread recently speaks volumes. Someone has just said "let the dust settle, it'll be tomorrow's chip paper and they'll all have forgotten about this soon".
I'm counting down….Wednesday next week is the big uninstall and tado can look forward to receiving another box of used product back.
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What an absolutely shocking management decision. Imagine thinking this test was a good idea and signing off on it.
The whole situations been badly managed; childish responses from Tado staff on this forum, bizarre comments to the Verge.
Either Tado’s going bust or they’re getting greedy.
If I have to pay a subscription to use my heating then I’m sending it all back under the consumer rights act.3 -
Hmmmm…. I was about to replace my mother in laws trvs. Trust is hard won, easy lost. Charging for an app , when everyone has forked out for hardware, seems shortsighted. 1 euro a month would be fine except all across Europe inflation has been a major worry for people. Suggesting you were evaluating something just proves the intent was there and now a lot of hardcore tado users will be reconsidering their investment. It’s a real shame as the platform has been reliable (for me) and saved me money over the years. But let’s be clear, nobody likes these moves. Grifters!1
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Tado sold us good and expensive hardware with no subscription for basic functionality - both sides agreed on that deal. If investors are pushing them, if they are just greedy, or whatever reason, we are not paying for it, we have already paid!
I am a seasoned mobile software engineer and I can tell you that cost of keeping such a basic functionality operational is minimal. They could release basic app and not update it, just keep it stable.
They could also provide full access to bridge API for 3rd party apps to connect.
I will advise all my friends not to buy tado, has been trust is lost.0 -
I see one-star Trustpilot reviews are coming in thick and fast now. Two days ago they have 4/5, now its decreased to 3.8/5
tado brought it upon themselves. Dishonest and fraudulent. Yet still no apology to their customer base, just a bribe in the form of 12 months of Auto Assist for some. Reflected in the reviews; people know it was just some contorted vile test, but they're not stupid, those not deserting the ship are not happy, and they know eventually they will be hit with higher costs, its just a matter of time.
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The marketing team is probably busy brainstorming (kind of diffucult without a brain to be honest) about how to turn this into the customer's problem.
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Current Tado Trustpilot standings:
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Better make Tado stable local controlable without the need for tado-server-connection. This so customers know they have a product that is safe and will always work despite what kind of fantasies Tado comes up with.
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After being a lab animal for this test, I asked about improving HomeKit support, providing a local API, and also asked how they plan to compensate users if they're unable to provide like-for-like functionality (a requirement with UK consumer law if digital services are withdrawn).
I got a big nothing burger of a response, how did this take a week to not answer any of my questions,
!Hello,Thank you for contacting us and sorry for the late response.
As is standard practice in our industry, tado° regularly conducts price sensitivity tests and carefully considers customer feedback to inform our future strategy and improve the value we offer.
Participants in these tests incur no additional costs when using the tado° app and were advised about the test whatever choice they made when asked in the app or on the website.
Customer input is invaluable to us. Currently, we have no announcements to make beyond our ongoing commitment to enhancing and innovating our existing hardware, software, and energy products.
Thank you for your assistance and your feedback.
The tado° Customer Support Team
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They're busy posting the same generic response to every bad review in the app store. This seems like an odd approach to damage control.
I would much prefer them to provide some reassurance that they admit this was a poor decision and will not be moving forward with this. These kinds of actions make it seem like they're pushing forward with this new subscription regardless of this backlash.
ps. Do like the handwritten feel of them having basic typos like "tank you for your review" 😅2 -
I'm done!
Last piece of tado removed from the house today and boxed up ready to return for a refund. It was a good feeling deleting the tado app. Oddly I could "remove" everything from the app except for the Bridge, but hey, that's their problem.
Now just need to leave the appropriate reviews on Amazon and thankfully this fiasco is over for me.
And to think, all they needed to do was to apologise properly……..
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Hello @Gordcam
1. The test is over as far as I am aware (both on the webshop and the app). I am not privy to further conversations, but the negative feedback is being thoroughly discussed by the company as a whole.
2. I don't believe there is. However, I might not be the best person to ask. I see that you are also in contact with support about this, let's see what they say.2 -
I have bought a Worchester Bosch CT200 Easycontrol thermostat will be removing the bridge unit which is using ON/OFF relay and changing to Easycontrol which uses EMS2 BUS connection much better and no messing around with the possibility of forced subscriptions service.
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If you introduce charging me £1 per household per app on my system, I will give a bad review. Tell hundreds of people if not more how your system is and that will be negative and then look to dump the system.
A better approach would be to release a new system that has features such as room by room geofencing and then charge for that.
Leave the current generation of tado devices alone. V3+ plus should not be affected0 -
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