Thursday, December 18, 2014

A Thing I lost control of....

The announcement of the UK prices for the BEBOP, triggered in me a desire to acquire one, despite :
1) The UK price was higher than both Europe and US prices
2) My prior drone from them had flown off into the wide blue yonder, refusing to respond to any commands, never to be seen again.

This was the contents of the email I just sent them.

So despite my awful experience with my previous drone from you (Parrot Case n° 076016), I plucked up the courage to try you again.

I tried to order a Bebop using the "buy now” button you kindly emailed me…. yeah right!

So after much clicking I then figured out i could get it cheaper from the US including the Import Duty
So I clicked buy from Amazon US, when I thought I wonder what the Customer Reviews are like?

And lo! A spate of "it flew straight up and out of sight" instances…

Funny! that’s exactly what happened to my previous Parrot! ...and despite spending hours trying to persuade you to replace it I got nowhere,

I was quite surprised how I quickly I had forgotten the pain.

Needless to say the negative reviews brought the pain back with a rush….

Happily I was just in time to cancel my order, needless to say I was much relieved.

So to close, my DJI Phantom 2 Video should arrive in time for Christmas and is also going to cost me less. 

PHEW!

That was a mighty close shave!
A still frustrated Ex Parrot Owner, to mis-quote a famous parrot sketch

Mr. Praline: 'Ello, I wish to register a complaint…. I wish to complain about this parrot
….e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, flew off into the sky and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
...
Owner: "We have a Bebop!?”

Mr. Praline: WELL IT'S HARDLY A BLOODY REPLACEMENT, IS IT?!!???!!?

Owner: N-no, I guess not. (gets ashamed, looks at his feet)

Have a reasonably quiet Christmas, but please deal with the myriad of Lost or Damaged Bebop complaints better than you did my Parrot complaint. I will keep scanning for the class action, and instantly join it!


Adrian and Ex Parrot owner.

Remember folks it is important to be able to maintain control over your Things.
Anyone designing a Thing that either leaves them in control of it, or no-one in control of it should feel the full weight of the law on their shoulders. Sadly as with all things legal, the law has yet to catch up with the full implications of Cyber Agency, or lack there-of!

Have a Great Christmas

And be careful about choosing your things....

I was lucky that Parrot had chosen to over-price their thing, as this caused me to see the US Amazon reviews on the Bebop!


Post Blog Note

I just received this email bounce back!



Thank you for contacting Parrot UK technical support.

In order to streamline our support process and improve the level of service we offer to our customers we are currently making changes to the way enquiries are handled, as such this email address is no longer active. Please follow the link below to complete our new online support form and we will be in contact shortly.


Our opening hours are Monday – Thursday 9am – 5.30pm and Friday 9am – 4.30pm.

Sorry for any inconvenience, your enquiry is important to us and we look forward to hearing from you.

=====  !!!!!!!  =====   !!!!!
I suppose it's little wonder they have stopped folks emailing them!

Aside: I wonder when the news media is going to pick up on the idea of rogue drones with software flaws "<"Think: Mind of it's own!">" flying off out of control and creating mayhem....

Monday, December 08, 2014

Who owns the controls for YOUR Things?

The take up and benefits of the Internet of Things are likely to be dramatically reduced if the great Consumer Control Grab continues. A growing and concerning trend, accelerated by the dramatic reduction in the cost of making everything "smart", has the makers of virtually everything from TVs to shoes thinking that if they add the Smarts, they naturally should be in control of the Thing in question..

The trend can only be recognized if one actually reads the Terms and Conditions of the increasingly smart things, and puts in place very comprehensive and technically complex monitoring regime. The goal of this monitoring would be to establish the answer to the question: "Who is controlling my Things?"

But who has the time to do that?

Imagine that a Samsung employee, with his own ke,y let himself into your home and proceeded to alter the settings of your new television, deleting your favorite applications.

How would you feel?

Know that he is apparently totally in his rights to do this, albeit virtually, for you accepted the Terms and Conditions.

Though I still have not established what part of the Terms and Conditions gave Samsung the right to delete Google Maps from MY television?

What should we do to the address this issue?