Re: Insteon now or wait?

["Robert L Bass" <robertlbass@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>> I know that flickering can cause premature
>> burnout but I have not heard of it causing a
>> bulb to blow though it may indeed be possible.
>
> The point that's important is that it's possible...

I'm not sure I agree that it is possible, Bob.  Maybe so, but IME it hasn't
happened.

> especially with a new, largely untested design
> to have more than the one defect that we seem
> to all agree on, flickering...

I've only seen the reports of flickering here.  I believe those reports as
all but one of the people discussing it are known to be forthright.  I
disagree that the product is "untested" though and I seriously doubt the
flickering will cause a catastorphic failure.

> Or that it's possible that continued filament
> flickering might cause some up until now
> unknown physical failure in the bulb...

Smarthome isn't responsible for unknown physical failure of the bulb.
That's like saying that a maker of glass table tops is responsible for a
customer getting cut when a wooden table he bought elsewhere fell apart,
causing the glass to break.

> Any search on "light bulb injuries" brings
> you to famous cases.

I did a search and found none where the light fixture or switch was at
fault.  All of the hazards I found were associated with improper handling or
defective bulbs, neither of which would be Smarthome's problem since they
don't make light bulbs.

> A bad switch doesn't have to make a light
> bulb explode in order to help kill you.
> Premature bulb failure can lead to other
> consequential damage.  Some poor kid
> showed how even a defect that only causes
> light bulbs to burn out prematurely can have
> fatal consequences:

I read that case.  There was nothing about the bulb burning out prematurely.
The kid fell off the ladder.

> As a vendor, I suspect you'd rather not sell
> products that have to be returned for any
> reason, right?...

Yep.  You'll notice that I don't sell Insteon and I never sold Switchlinc
stuff either.  There are two reasons.  First, I've never been confident in
the products.  Second, they don't offer much of a price break to dealers.
In all fairness though, even if I thought that Insteon was wonderful I
wouldn't carry it due to reason number two.  :^)

> Smarthome should have suspended sales until
> they fixed the current problem for the sake of
> all the other businessmen involved with them
> as installers or vendors...

Appartently they did not.  It is possible that they believed that the
problems only affect a small percentage of installations.

> Every time you change a light bulb, there is a
> definite, non-zero risk you may be electrocuted,
> killed by falling from a ladder or injured by
> broken glass.  Every time.  If defective switches
> cause a substantial reduction in the light bulb
> changing interval, they have increased that risk
> of injury.

True, but I doubt that's enough to win a product liability case against them
if, say am 18-year old kid disobeys his boss, climbs a ladder and falls to
his death in the process.

> When Smarthome became aware of the
> problem, they should have taken the
> remaining inventory and let it out as beta
> test equipment to search out any other
> defects they might have missed...

We agree that they should not have sold it if they believed it was
defective.  How they should have gone about fixing the problem isn't the
issue.

> Instead, they sold it without informing purchasers
> they had discovered a substantial defect...

We're assuming they considered the defect substantial.  Maybe they thought
it was only a few switches or that the problem was limited to certain
installations.  I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.

> They let poor end users do the beta testing
> for them.  What benefit did those buyers
> between March and July earn as their reward?
> Apparently only the right to own bad switches
> they paid full freight for and would have to pay
> more money to exchange.  That's dirty pool in
> my book.

We don't disagree that they should have at least stopped selling them or
notified dealers / end users of a possible problem.

> They made a serious error and they are *still*
> letting it careen out of control...

Unfortunately, this sort of thing is all too common in the industry.

> They didn't give customers a chance to decide
> to wait until they fixed the problem.  More
> importantly, they had every reason to believe
> customers could and would incur considerable
> expense installing and removing those switches
> that they knew were defective.

Probably so.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

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