Topic: Acurite closes community forum?

[wcndave]

Have they closed this in advance of stopping support for the hub, to prevent the many public complaints they're sure to get?

2 days after the forum closed, my hub has stopped sending data to myAcurite, after 6 months of being stable.

This is a six month old device, so glad it's obsolete...

[nincehelser]

SmartHUB support isn’t ending until the end of February 2019.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[alanb]

You can spin the closing of the Acurite customer forum and phone support however you want ... a positive sign that they are focusing their resources on effective methods of customer support ... a negative sign that they are covering up their inevitable decline and failure. Time will tell.

In my view, closing down the forum and phone support is not a sign of a healthy company. I hope I am wrong because competition in the weather station market is good and I still hope the Atlas Elite becomes available and is successful. At this point, I am not optimistic.

[MacGarage]

 I am not a betting person but I would take a wild guess, based on some of the chatter about, that the Atlas and or Elite release (or an announcement) may finally be coming around Labor Day weekend.

 I do miss the customer support forum there and it was a wealth of information for those of us that are enthusiasts.

[wcndave]

Also, the fact that their website has been down for most of Europe for nearly 3 months speaks volumes about customer focus and brand reputation.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

[nincehelser]

Also, the fact that their website has been down for most of Europe for nearly 3 months speaks volumes about customer focus and brand reputation.

Acurite is very emphatic that they don't ship/support/sell to anywhere other than the US and a few other countries.

I'm not sure why that is, exactly.  You'd think they'd want to sell everywhere possible, but they've been purposely trying to exclude non-supported countries since at least the deployment of myAcurite.

Given that Primex is global, there must be some business reason/agreement/restriction involved.

[wcndave]

And those other countries were the UK and Australia I believe.

Still, to not have your site working at all outside US is pretty poor, and they sell all kinds of things in the UK

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=acurite&x=0&y=0

[nincehelser]

And those other countries were the UK and Australia I believe.

Still, to not have your site working at all outside US is pretty poor, and they sell all kinds of things in the UK

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=acurite&x=0&y=0

Sounds right, but for the non-supported countries, are those "acurites", "acu-rites", (and other spelling variations) are they the "real" Acurite, or not?  Could it be they don't have exclusive use of the name "Acurite" in all countries?  Is it a technology licensing issue in other countries.  ?????  I'd sure like to hear someone sort this out and explain why they just won't simply sell and support everywhere.

[wcndave]

Sure, I just think it's pretty poor to have your website look like this across Europe



Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

[wcndave]

For months on end


Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

[vreihen]

Sure, I just think it's pretty poor to have your website look like this across Europe

The explanation about why their web site is disabled in Europe is right in the URL...GDPR!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation

Acu-Rite is not the only company that decided to just stop accepting connections from Europe rather than pay lawyers to write policies/procedures for that secondary market.  For the tinfoil hat types, maybe they are doing something with your data behind the scenes that's not compatible with the provisions of GDPR?

My first guess about why was thinking that their hardware only has FCC certification, so it is not legal to own outside of ITU Region 2 (North/South America).....

[wcndave]

Yes, I understand it's GDPR.  I don't think it's right for a company to just shut down to those users.  Also EU is the biggest market in the world.

It's not about the product, it's about how they use the data.  Obviously they use personal data in ways which are not compliant with a more relevant and consumer protecting code of conduct.

However none of that was my point....

They sell goods in UK, for example, and then shut down the website for any support or information, and then write "committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market" on their website, for more than 3 months....

There is clearly no commitment to do this.
Yet that also contradicts the "USA only" policy...

So it's just another example of where Acurite have stuck two fingers in the air to customers.

The whole hub fiasco, the payment system not working, the phone system and callback system not working, online support not working now, email not working, new hub being a step backwards, and certainly not any kind of step forwards - I bought my hub only 8 months ago and it's obsolete, shutting down the forum that was full of useful suggestions, but not updating the code to ensure google search removed their pages.... all a systematic pattern of a company that does not give two shots.

Sorry, but I thought they were going to offer what I, and others wanted, but it's been more stress and wasted time than I could believe...

[knwpsk]

I've been emailing Acurite about trouble with my Access hub, for several days.  No responses at all.
A couple of weeks ago I got a response on a different (but related) issue, and the response was like something you'd expect from Comcast -- clearly a copy-paste "form" reply, which didn't answer my question. 
I agree with another comment I saw on this thread -- it doesn't look good for Acurite, as far as I can tell.

If someone knows of a thread on this site, talking about Access hub frequently dropping connectivity to sensors and/or to MyAcurite site... please link me to it?  Thanks.  (I'll go search, too)

[wcndave]

My smart hub has now been unable to send data to myacurite for 9 days....

[DrewShock]

I was wondering why I stopped receiving emails from the Acurite forums. I have been trying to solve my Access issues since the unit came out. It's still goes out for hours while my smartHUB keeps on rolling.

Did they have to many customer complaints and couldn't handle and or solve them and gave up on the forum?

What's the saying, "If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen." I guess Acurite decided to close the kitchen.

Any place to go on this forum for help with Access that actually work? Or are it's issues only something Acurite can fix?

[nincehelser]

I was wondering why I stopped receiving emails from the Acurite forums. I have been trying to solve my Access issues since the unit came out. It's still goes out for hours while my smartHUB keeps on rolling.

Did they have to many customer complaints and couldn't handle and or solve them and gave up on the forum?

Nope.  Check out Facebook, their online chat, or email.

[wase4711]

while I personally think its horrible for a Consumer products company to stop giving phone support for their products, I do understand them shutting down their forum..As an "older person", I am not a big fan of online chat support, but the times I have tried it with Acurite, I have gotten answers within 3-10 minutes every time.
I guess its a different world now a days, and the "young folks" dont care or maybe even want to "talk" to anyone about an issue, when texting/chatting will get them the answer to their questions..I will say they have answered a couple of questions I posted on Amazon about the Atlas within 24 hours, directly to me..

[ALRUI]

They shut the forums down because it was a public black eye for them after the Smart Hub fiasco (firmware bricking units then cutting off support). I also figure if the Atlas bombed they didnt want it know publicly. They state in their chat that it was in order to provide better service & I for one find that to be pure BS! The only company that does chat right is Apple and even their can be dicey depending on the person at the other end of the chat dialogue.

[radioman61]

I don't want to start a political debate but in this case...don't blame Acurite.  Blame the socialist governments in the EU for making it too costly to do business there.

[wase4711]

so, if thats the reason, why are there thousands of other companies, both American and otherwise doing a ton of business there?

[fortran]

I know this is stale, its the reason I am now registered.  New owner of a 5-n-1, who plans to use Arduino to talk to the thing.

[nincehelser]

They shut the forums down because it was a public black eye for them after the Smart Hub fiasco (firmware bricking units then cutting off support). I also figure if the Atlas bombed they didnt want it know publicly. They state in their chat that it was in order to provide better service & I for one find that to be pure BS! The only company that does chat right is Apple and even their can be dicey depending on the person at the other end of the chat dialogue.

z

The big killer was those idiots who decided to post graphic sexual and racist materials in the forums.  Most of the employees backed-off after that, and a quite a few involved were banned.

[wcndave]

So now that the Hub is no longer working, I am using a Pi to receive and send data to the internet, far cheaper and more reliable, plus works on wifi.....

With the forum shut down, here's how Acurite, a company I was keen to invest time and energy into has treated us.

1. Shut down the website for EU visitors, due to not being GDPR compliant (which just means that they will look after my data, and will provide it to me on request, or delete it), stated they are committed to a solution, clearly a lie as most organisations resolve this within days/weeks.

2. Their email addresses, even those I have used in the past, including Chaney ones, are now all "do not reply" addresses

3. When the website was available, online purchasing did not work.

4. Their telephone line never answered

5. They never called back when left messages, even about purchasing items

6. They sold me a product, that became EOL straight away, and then refused to even talk to me about it in any way.

So, given there is no NO METHOD to be in touch, email/website/phone are all unavailable, I have no choice but to continue with using other methods for my weather station needs.  Shame when I had high hopes at the start.  I think they should be completely ashamed of themselves, I know I am not the only person to be treated like shit, and their products are clearly flawed from the volume of complaints, but good customer service normally wins out.  I hope everyone thinks twice about using any of their products in the future.

Oh, and BTW, nearly every company/product has some kind of forum, that they don't need to shut down for the reasons mentioned. Clearly it was just a massive evidence based bad publicity site...

[Neil_O]

I was at first quite skeptical when AcuRite discontinued their direct phone support.  However, I have actually had reasonably good success with their online chat support.  Using a combination of the chat service and follow-on emails from the support team, the false lightning detection problem was diagnosed and resolved (I have one of the early Atlas units).