Routines vs SmartHome Skill

[mulu]

I created some routines so I can say "Alexa, open/close shade x" instead of "Alexa, turn on/off shade x". However, lately I am having troubles with this as Alexa either doesn't do anything, tell me that the device doesn't support this and some other error message. When I play the corresponding routines through the Alexa app it worked flawlessly during my testing. That makes me believe that in most cases Alexa let's HomeSeer execute my command "Alexa, open/close shade x" instead of executing the routine. That's probably because in HomeSeer I use the same name for the shade as I do in the routine. So then HomeSeer recognizes the device but doesn't know what "open"/"close" is.
Is there some way to either make Alexa execute the routine or have HomeSeer understand what "open"/"close" means? Btw, I don't want to give the device a different name in HomeSeer or Alexa because I also want to be able to say "Alexa, set shade x to y percent".

[fuzzysb]

Try naming your routine slightly different. Change it to "Alexa open close the shade X" this works with my shades. I'm in the UK and the Alexa regions differ so this may still not work in the US. I believe by putting the word the in the routine it then evaluates the routine names all as there isn't an exact match.

[mikee123]

Routines seem to be a bit of hit and miss... quite frequently add of my device actions disappear from the routines. So I get the ok (or whatever response I set), but nothing happens. I go into my routine and all actions are there except for the homeseer device actions. Thats annoying.
I also have a routine, called good night. That starts my good night event which shuts down the house for the night. Lately, when I say ALexa, good night, she wishes me good night, but does not start the good night event any more. It is still in the routine, and if I run the routine from the app, all is fine. This has worked since we have had routines. Now its not working any more.

[mulu]

Fuzzysb, I have tried your suggestion by adding "the" to the routine but I still have the same issue. Actually, besides error messages, what happens quite often is that Alex simply turns off the blue light without saying anything after I say a command. There is no confirmation like "ok" or an error message. Then again, even if the command is executed successfully (not very often) I also don't get a confirmation. Maybe this is a setting. In any case, there is no indication where things are breaking down. Is Alexa trying to invoke a routine but fails, or thinks it succeeded while it didn't. Or is the HomeSeer skill taking over but then doesn't report back that it couldn't execute the command (I know at least sometimes it does report back a failure but maybe it doesn't always do so).

Note that this worked somewhat reliable before where I had to repeat a command maybe 25% of the times but now I have to try like 4 times until something happens if something ever happens at all.

[mikee123]

Just a thought. Have you set a response when you created a routine ? Not sure you get any if you dont set any response in the app.