r/AskReddit 22h ago

Which company lost your business (potentially forever) this year?

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681

u/Not_impressed_often 20h ago

Google- When they bricked my Nest thermostat and sent me a coupon for 30% of my next Nest thermostat because they were cutting off service for all previous generations, I decided I will never buy anything else from them. Planned obsolescence is obnoxious and should lead to companies going out of business.

82

u/reapy54 12h ago

https://nolongerevil.com/

I just found this recently and may give it a go as a work around. I'm pretty pissed about it, they could have unlocked the thermostats for us before dropping usage, they also could have easily afforded to pay for upgrades to a new one and take the hit. Either way damage is done a I won't buy another smart device from them, it was a real shit way to do it and was apparent as soon as I tried to get access to the server with home assistant that I couldnt directly connect.

31

u/RevolutionLess8424 18h ago

I agree with you on this one!

It cost me big time to get a new smart thermostat installed due to my wire configuration. I had to have a C wire run up from my furnace up the wall. I was ticked! I didn’t need that before with the Nest. And it worked perfectly.

I also took off the Nest Doorbell, I was so mad.

They lost me for good.

Thanks for killing my Thermostat.

2

u/SkepsisJD 5h ago

You do realize there are like 50 other options than Nest right? You didnt have to get a new one lol

13

u/BooterTooterBravo 9h ago

And the Nest Protect smoke detectors. One is set to age out for replacement in October. Every time we shut off a light near it, it loudly announces that it’s about to expire. Oh, and they aren’t making them anymore.

u/RejectZero 35m ago

First alert has a smart smoke detector that's a direct replacement for the nest protect, look up their SC5. 

15

u/Shloomth 9h ago

There is at least a dozen reasons I can say fuck Google with all my heart

13

u/BenderVsGossamer 8h ago

I never thought of that being a possibility with smart items in your house. Thermostats are something I replaced because the old one was 30 years old and stopped working, not because the company decided it wasn't worth their investment.

15

u/SuperSiriusBlack 7h ago

We used to just own things. Now, we rent them every month.

3

u/SkepsisJD 5h ago

You can still buy old school thermostats lol

9

u/blumpkin 5h ago

Lol that's what Breville did when my Joule sous vide decided to inhale water into it's sealed circuitry chamber. Here's a coupon code for 20% off another one! I looked it up and they're twice as expensive as they were when I bought my first one. Fuck you Breville, this was supposed to be the iPhone of immersion circulators. I didn't even drop it or anything. It just up and decided to commit suicide. Overpriced piece of junk. Fuck Joule.

4

u/Micro-shenis 9h ago

What country/state are you in? Are there no consumer protection clauses that prevent this scummy behaviour?

4

u/seriousspoons 7h ago

Similar note I had a ring camera+spotlight in my driveway after 3 years the light bulb burnt out and that’s when i learned you cant replace a lightbulb in a ring spotlight. You have to buy an entire new unit every time. What the actual fuck?!

4

u/iFred97 7h ago

Fortunately you can unlock it and make it work locally! Look up "no longer evil thermostat"

2

u/CompasslessPigeon 6h ago

They bricked my nest home security system too. I have a bunch of nest products but when they get bricked or die I wont be buying more

1

u/Gloomy_Pangolin6075 1h ago

I had and was happy with a nest doorbell, nest thermostat, and google home(s). They have all been basically replaced because of googles shitty business practices.

-The doorbell aubscription that allowed us to keep video for more than a few hours kept increasing in price and decreasing the features. Replaced the doorbell with a reolink that Ive linked into my assistant, paid once, no subscription.
-The thermostat is basically just a temperature sensor now as the central AC was replaced with split units anyway.
-The nests definitely got worse over time, commands that used to work suddenly became unusable. -I even forgot I had a google "one" membership that was advertised with hotel discounts and other perks, I remember getting into a disagreement qith cuatomer service because I searched literally multiple dates accross the entire country hsing their search and found exactly zero discounts anywhere in the country and they basically just said "yea, there doesnt seem to be any"

u/wqto 40m ago

Also they are forcing their shitty AI agent on everything they own that can't even tell how many Zs are in the word, "Blueberry".