Re: Smarthome Insteon Defective Switchlinc Replacement Program (Re: I think they've done it again)

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

ddl@danlan.*com (Dan Lanciani) wrote:

>In article <pkj9d2htptus4l3h66i4usavor5ul7qomf@xxxxxxx>, MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Marc_F_Hult) writes:
>
>| (FWIW,  I think some folks have an inflated view of the impact of
>| comp.home.automation. This is jist my impression because I don't actually
>| have any data. I am particularly skeptical of _post hoc ergo propter hoc_
>| causal relations that I often read about in this newsgroup.
>
>I don't know.  Back when I was trying to use the original SwitchLinc product
>and SmartLinc was stonewalling with the usual ``your wiring is too noisy''
>line, a posting to comp.home.automation with some speculation on the nature
>of the bugs actually provoked a phone call from someone claiming to be in
>the development department at SmartLinc.  Granted it turned out that their
>real motivation was to prevent (or at least delay) me from posting a more
>complete description of the problems, but they certainly reacted.
>
>Similarly, years earlier a posting in comp.dcom.telecom about bugs in
>a Vive caller ID box provoked a response from (IIRC) the president after
>it was somehow brought to the company's attention.  Of course, the purpose
>of the response was mainly to attempt to deflect the criticism and confuse
>the issue.
>
>Hmm, maybe these examples support your thesis that there isn't much
>impact. :)  But it may be a good way to get the attention of otherwise
>unresponsive companies, and the availability of archives has made it
>much more difficult for those companies to use the, ``nobody else is
>having that problem'' excuse...

FWIW, the requests that I become a beta tester have come after a post here
detailing a problem.

There were minor revisions to their SDK license after my grousing here.