For me, the ecobees were the best Alexa units in my environment for awhile as far as command usage. Just over the past couple months or so their performance has deteriorated. But I think that’s an issue with my WiFi; the ecobees seem more sensitive to hiccups on the network than other devices.
My 2 cents … I’ve got two ecobee’s and I love the remote sensor concept. The ‘support’ from Ecobee is fantastic; I had a new AC system installed last week, and the new system had 2-stage heating and 2-stage cooling. The installation tech needed to know about some of these details (thresholds, durations, etc) and so I called ecobee support. Got a live, ‘good English-speaking’ person right away, and she was able to answer all questions. Today I had an issue with readings, and I used their ‘chat’ feature; got a great guy who helped me. I’ve had this experience several times. Also, their ‘chat’ feature is available on their main website, and they don’t put you through any barriers to reach them.
In contrast, I was considering a Nest a few weeks ago but had a question; I could not find any way to reach a person by chat or voice, easily.
The big downside to Ecobee IMO is the looks. It’s a big device, shiny black finish - VERY visible on the wall (The nest can be bought in a subtle off-white color, which is why I was considering it). The workaround - locate the main ecobee thermostat INSIDE the ac closet, and rely entirely on the remote sensors for temperature sensing, and use the phone/web apps for management. You can totally ignore the temp of the main thermostat and just read from the remotes. I’m even considering painting over the main ecobee face to hide it 
… but you must use the main screen for a few advanced settings.
Edit to add: I found this thread while about to post a question about ecobee data; I’ll create that thread and post a link here. The issue is - while ecobee reads data every few minutes, and the data is changing, that changed data is not making it over to SmartThings. Last night, my AC kicked in twice between 11pm and 2am, but neither event was seen by ST. The events at 11 an 2 were … so it’s getting ‘some but not all’ data. I’ll post separately …
ETA - here’s my post about ecobee data integration …
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The support for Nest has deteriorated. When I purchased my Nest thermostats a few years ago, they stayed with me, on the phone, walking me step by step to get them installed. Then they followed up both via email and phone to make sure everything was working. Same experience with Protect. I accidentally scratched the tag on one of them when trying to install it and they sent me a replacement the next day (you cannot register a Protect without the serial number). I was floored by the customer service. Fast forward to couple of months ago when I purchased their Secure. My unit was missing events in the history when a door was closed or open. I emailed first, and after no response in 3 days, I called. When I reported my issue, the rep asked me to open the door. He confirmed that was working, and told me to call back if it happens again. When I asked if someone can look at provided date and time of the missed event, I was told that someone will look into it and will follow up with me. Needless to say, a ticket wasn’t even created, nor anyone got back to me. For a security device to miss events, it kind of defeats the purpose of having it, so I returned it after 3 weeks of use.
I remember the days before Google swallowed them up. My first three cameras are actually Dropcams. I agree, the support has tanked. Same thing happened when ST got gobbled up by Samsung .
I suspect the same will happen with Ecobee eventually. I don’t know how the finances of these companies work, but my guess is they are sitting on a big pile of venture capital, and are living for the moment they get acquired. During the honeymoon phase when they have the venture cap, they can provide great support and build a customer base - which is what makes them a buyout target. Once they are bought, the real economy kicks in and the bean-counters dictate that support is ‘too expensive’.
I used to run support operations for software companies - big enterprise level companies charging millions for their products; I can’t imagine how a company like ecobee or nest can afford to have trained, competent US-based employees providing ‘instant’ customer support for a product that sells for $200 or less. I mean, 1 hour of support will wipe that widget’s margin out.
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I totally agree, “instant” high quality technical support can wipe out a profit margin very quickly. However, smart companies can empower tier 1 support with proper training and adequate tools to make a difference. In this day and age, exceeding customer expectations is what makes or breaks a good product.
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They’ve made a blog post trying to clarify things
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Part of the problem is that these companies are using the opportunity to collect data, rather than simply serve the customer. Thus the first three minutes of any support call are all about your name, address, phone, email, warranty ID, etc. Being in systems myself I can tell you that a decently trained level-one person can address 80% of issues within two minutes. So do the math. If you can only process twelve calls instead of 30 because you’re collecting data, that’s 2.5 FTEs needed to do a job that could be accomplished by one.
You should ONLY be collecting personal data on the folks you have to call back. All others? Record the issue and result only. Save time, save FTEs, save MONEY.
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Sounds like you use different support then I do. I am generally only asked my name and either phone or email. 10 seconds at most
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This is just a feeble attempt to soften the language of the initial announcement without committing to anything or saying something new to reassure their partners that their efforts won’t go to waste. I personally think they are digging their hole deeper by doing this, instead of sticking to their guns and delivering something that would exceed expectations sooner rather than later.
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The Verge take on recent Google blog…
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So clearly they’ve recognized that their current Google assistant routines are not adequate to replace the works with nest functionality at the present time. Now they’ve committed to filling in some of those gaps before they cut off the works with nest program.
One of the most popular WWN features is to automatically trigger routines based on Home/Away status. Later this year, we’ll bring that same functionality to the Google Assistant and provide more device options for you to choose from. For example, you’ll be able to have your smart light bulbs automatically turn off when you leave your home. Routines can be created from the Google Home or Assistant apps, and can be created using the hardware you already own. Plus we’re making lots of improvements to setup and managing Routines to make them even easier to use.
Power users will still have frustrations, particularly with the loss of the IFTTT integration and two way communications such as @tonesto7 ‘s NST Manager for smartthings users, but if they can deliver what they described in the blog post they will meet the needs of many of the high ticket item customers such as the ones using Samsung smart appliances.
So while I’m still mad at them, they may have found an approach that will satisfy the majority of their customers.
We will see.
( it will also be interesting to see which design philosophy they adopt for blocks and security systems. Will a Google assistant routine be able to unlock a lock? Or not. Will it be able to do it if you are away from the home network? Just another thing to watch for.)
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…and Gizmodo’s take on Google’s recent backpedaling
I agree - or… Perhaps their initial announcement was genuinely incompetent and ignorant of the impact of the strategy.
It sure seems incredible that Google did not anticipate a backlash - but personally I feel a large portion of the backlash is due to communication failure, confusion, inconsistent messages etc…
Frankly, SmartThings obviously failed (and continues to fail) to adequately communicate the new App and new API rollout, status, and support strategy.
We need a Developer Advocate team here more than ever. So does Google Nest, apparently.
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Yeah, that author doesn’t understand the issue with the routines and the two way communication change.
That’s not a knock, it’s really complicated and it’s also kind of dumb, so it’s easy to make assumptions that then are not accurate.
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It is unbelievable that after a year since they suspended any activity on their Works with Nest program, this is all they had to show at I/O - an ambiguous message that took everyone by surprise. And then the fiasco that followed of mixed messages and confusion about the “later this year” migration.
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All my interactions with Ecobee so far have been very direct, with no requests for info. They freely give assistance to anyone who calls. when I called the other day to get advice on the two-stage settings, they helped me drill into the menu system without ever asking who I was. Once I called to report a problem with the data on my chart. They had to ask me for my login name (but not password) and asked permission to view my data.
Any company worth its salt these days is going to use callerID to tie everything they need to know back to the phone number, or email address if logging in through ‘chat’. So spending 3 minutes on such a task is a thing of the past.
But as I said, I think ecobee is knowingly burning through $ because they are in ‘build customer base’ mode, not ‘return a profit’ mode. I just read this today - https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/06/amazon-alexa-fund-and-energy-impact-partners-invested-in-ecobee.html - another $62 million of funding to expand the product line. Looks like Amazon is going to swallow them eventually (it’s a year-old article, but relevant).
For those of us who’ve been in the IT/tech industry for a while (35 years for me), the current approach is quite amazing. You used to have to have a plan to be profitable before you could get funding, and small companies had to be very careful. These days, I can almost guarantee that companies like ecobee, nest, etc never had any intention of being profitable, but rather, to be acquired. You make yourself an acquisition target by having ‘eyeballs’, or customers, or some clever technology. I’m consulting with a company right now that is developing an ‘app’ for health monitoring. It will NEVER make money, but the founders hope that a bigger company will like it and buy the whole package, saving themselves the effort of having to develop a smart app. Small companies are good at ‘coming up with ideas’ (and implementing them to a degree); big companies are generally better at, well, being a company …
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As bad as this announcement and its implications are, we should not lose sight of two things:
- it really does not make sense for a thermostat to be the central controller of a home. Nest only chose to do this because it’s what they managed to get into the market. The ‘smartthings’ approach of having an independent or separate hub is far more logical.
- Concerns about security in this context are very valid. Having all manner of 3rd party apps knowing that you are ‘away’ is simply not smart. I’m not saying Google should be the ‘chosen ones’ to know this; but they are right to try to rein in the info.
A third observation would be - this event simply highlights what we already know - that this is a rapidly changing industry. I do fear two things - i) that my non-trivial investment in gadgets may soon be rendered obsolete, and ii) the rather complex array of functionalities that I’m slowly getting to be reliant on may someday stop working without much (if any) warning. I may find myself on vacation in Europe and no longer able to monitor my home or rely on water sensors to be detecting problems.
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I see your point, but I wonder. What function aside from the toilet is more central to the functioning of a modern home than the thermostat?? So I can see where Nest went that way.
I don’t see it that way at all, “Works with Nest” didn’t make the thermostat the central controller of your home, or else you would have been able to controll everything from the thermostat, or at least Nest app. “Works with Nest” program made interoperability possible and was a brilliant way to have massive free advertising for a rather obscure thermostat that is no smarter than other thermostats that sell for far less money. Nest was able to charge premium price because everything was “working” with Nest. Very smart strategy.