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    No more iAutomate?

    The BBB lists iAutomate as being out-of-business. You may want to check the BBB site before dealing with this company.

    http://www.atlanta.bbb.org/commonrep...compid=7001880

    I myself will be removing my receivers as the system has generally been very unreliable. Despite having two readers (at a ~$1000+ cost) my tags, even ones only a few feet away from a reader, are often not seen. The promised .net Plugin has also never arrived.

    This is just a warning to those thinking about buying one of these.

    #2
    Firstly I would have appreciated some contact from you directly, since we have had direct email communication in the past, before you posted this note. I would have normally pulled this post but it is a good opportunity to talk about our strength and my weakness.

    We're not out of business, quite the opposite; we are thriving and growing. Our web store has added over 200 new items in the past month and we are experiencing month over month and year over year growth. My weakness is growing our staff to accommodate our growth and keep up with the demand for our products.

    The Better Business Bureau's information is three years out of date; iAutomate.com was purchased by KRM Technology Inc. in 2004. KRM Technology Inc. has never been at the address, or telephone number listed in the link you provided for the BBB. iAutomate.com has not been at that location or telephone number in over three years. If the BBB tried to reach us either KRM or iAutomate.com at that old address, of course they would have failed to reach us, so either old or new inquiries would have been sent to "nowhere". I've contacted the BBB, so our listing should be made correct in short order to reflect the ownership by KRM Technology Inc. and our contact info.

    Although we have had delays with the MIRACLE 5104, they have been for very good reasons as we launch our first <i>manufactured</i> product. Insisting on quality is the major reason for delay (of this 4 layer circuit board) The product is due to start shipping soon.

    I have not seen any of your posts for assistance in the RFID board beyond those that were resolved, else we may have been able to address your problem(s) and help you solve it. The COM Plugin has been reliable for years and periodically updated.

    Most all of the hundreds of users are experiencing great results and as a matter of fact keep ordering more tags. We've shipped to 11 different countries an are thrilled to have users all over the world.

    We are presently implementing the largest RFID personnel tracking system in our history, tagging 440 employees throughout an industrial campus on 60 acres with a 300,000 sq ft building.

    There have been beta tests of the RFID.net plug-in and it should be released soon, in part the release has been delayed to limited feedback from testers. As a matter of fact, the last communication I had from you was April 20th where you stated that the Virus checkers at your work would not let the Beta files past the firewall (you stated "paranoid virus checkers") I then sent the files to another email that you provided. We never received any Beta feedback from you so I removed you from the tester list.

    We are responsive to all support requests at: http://board.homeseer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=758 as well as via email at support@iautomate.com

    Customers can also contact me directly via email or call me at 1-877-306-2940 x102

    Thanks

    Peter Monahan









    Originally posted by anogee View Post
    The BBB lists iAutomate as being out-of-business. You may want to check the BBB site before dealing with this company.

    http://www.atlanta.bbb.org/commonrep...compid=7001880

    I myself will be removing my receivers as the system has generally been very unreliable. Despite having two readers (at a ~$1000+ cost) my tags, even ones only a few feet away from a reader, are often not seen. The promised .net Plugin has also never arrived.

    This is just a warning to those thinking about buying one of these.
    Last edited by pmonahan; July 30, 2007, 05:37 PM.

    Comment


      #3
      I have been quiet for months on this board (lots of personal issues) so I will come out of semi retirement and just to chime in and say that Pete has always been responsive and always sorted issues out. The hardware build is excellent quality and does what is states on the packet.

      I think this post by anogee is very unfair.

      Anogee there are lots of reasons why tags drop out.

      An example....the RFID system was always losing my wife's keys...it turned out the library tag she put on her keys was clashing with the RFID tag....removed the library tag...all sorted. So look for other things than the PC, software etc etc

      Peter,

      If you need more beta testers just let me know.

      Cheers,

      Darren

      Comment


        #4
        Hmm.. Lots of points here so I want to respond. First, darren-mc, I must have to say I'm a bit put-off by your statement:
        I think this post by anogee is very unfair.
        I certainly aim for 100&#37; fairness, and if I said anything "unfair" I definitely want to know about it, and I will certainly correct it if it is unfair.

        My posting was prompted when I noticed that smog had posted a question to Peter on July 5th, and again yesturday, and there was no reply. As I often do, I checked out iAutomate on the BBB and noticed that they stated that the company had gone out-of-business after their contacts have gone unanswered. This is significant info, and should be posted here, at least so that Peter has a chance to answer it. I'm not sure how posting a link to the BBB is "unfair." I don't know about the UK, but in the US, the BBB can be a valuable resource.

        The second statement in my posting concerned how I was removing my system because it had been unreliable. I'm not sure that this is a matter of fairness, but it is a statement of fact. Are you implying because I didn't fully explain this, that I was being "unfair?" In an attempt at fairness, I will explain more below.

        Otherwise, darren-mc, please do explain what I stated "unfair" and I will do my best to make it fair. Certainly I've always tried to be as fair as possible, and I hope you will do the same.

        Now Peter:

        I didn't feel that it was my obligation to contact you first on how the BBB listed your company. Its good to see that you are being proactive, and I look forward to the information being corrected. If their listing was incorrect, just state that and move on. Those following the link in the future should see the corrected information, which is why I posted a link, and not just a copy.

        On the MIRACLE 5104, I won't comment since I never mentioned that in my letter, nor do I have or want one. It was smog that was asking for status, not me.

        On the system, I can't comment on your industrial installs, but I can only assume these don't use your HomeSeer Plug-in, so comparisons with those systems aren't helpful to me. I also can't comment on other user experiences, only mine.

        I purchased two readers and some tags from you almost a year ago, and it has yet to work at a level that I feel is acceptable. Certainly when one pays in excess of $1000 for a system, they expect it to work good, and I have spent considerable time to do just that. This is not my first HomeSeer plugin, and I always work with the author to get them running correctly.

        As darren-mc implied in his response, but interestingly enough I NEVER mentioned in my posting, was that a big problem is "dropped tags" and it definitely has been. I can place several tags throughout my house, then LEAVE THE HOUSE COMPLETELY, and I check the logs when I return and see tags completely "dissappear" for minutes to hours, then return to high signal levels. Again, this is with NOBODY in or near the house. Maybe the tags are just having a party when I'm gone. Its hard to rely on such a system for accurate presence when this is the norm.

        I have contacted you on several occasions to report this problem, and I always get one of two responses, either this is "normal" and just the way it works, or the problem is the plug-in, with the new ".NET" version being available "soon." Either answer is not acceptable. The second one seems to imply that I have to live with it until this plug-in fixes the problem, a period of almost a year. While I could understand that for a free plug-in, its not an acceptable answer for a $1000+ system.

        Your comments that you have hundreds of users but almost no beta testers seems a bit strange to me. As you stated, I offered to be a beta tester, and I did test a few versions, and I gave you feedback on them. If you didn't receive the feedback, I'm happy to send it again, I have copies of all my e-mails to you. The last beta I tested in April didn't work good for me, but I'm always happy to test others. I'm indifferent on the beta testing, and its not important to me that I be included or if I am included, my only goal is working software with minimized downtime.

        In this tread, you stated:
        http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=117896

        We hope to have our .NET plugin available by the end of January, and we believe that this transition to .NET will make a great interface even better.
        By my calendar, today is July 31, and I'm still waiting for this plug-in which may or may not fix my problems. You say its a "lack of beta testers" that accounts for this delay, yet I see no posts from you since April looking for beta testers.

        My goal is and has always been to get this working correctly, as I could have found other uses for a $1000+, but I chose to buy this RFID system. On the other-hand, my patience only goes so far. My first posting was just a cautionary one for anyone thinking about jumping in to this RFID system at this point. I have never told anyone not to buy this system, only to fully research it before they do. My comments are based on my own experiences and nothing more. If I ever get this running correctly, I will be more than happy to broadcast that fact to the world as well. And again, please be specific in pointing out anything I say which is "unfair." Like anyone else, I make mistakes, and if a mistake or "unfairness" was made, I'm happy to correct it. I'm also happy to send along any collaborative proof of what I state in a private e-mail, should anyone request it.

        Comment


          #5
          I guess I fall in the middle on this one. I have had my RFID System almost 2 years and have had several dealings with Peter. Our first communication was far from what I would call good, but since then Peter has been very helpful and always resonds quickly. My system is 95% where I think it should be. It will work fine for months, then it will just start losing tags for a few days, but that usually clears up with no interaction from me (i have modified my scripts to account for a non intentional lost tag).

          As far as the beta, I was receiving betas to test and then no further contact. I was sending in feedback. I don't know what had happened. I look forward to the new plugin as I feel a .net version will help the stability and interaction with Homeseer.

          Jack
          Over The Hill
          What Hill?
          Where?
          When?
          I Don't Remember Any Hill

          Virtualized Server 2k3 Ent X86 Guest on VMWare ESXi 4.1 with 3 SunRay thin clients as access points - HSPro 2.4.0.48 - ZTroller - ACRF2 (3 WGL 800's) - iAutomate RFID - Ledam - MLHSPlugin - Ultra1wire - RainRelay8 - TI103 - Ultramon - WAF-AB8SS - jvESS (11 zones) - Bitwise Controls BC4 - with 745 Total Devices - 550 Events - 104 scripts - 78 ZWave devices - 42 X10 devices - 76 DS10a's 3 RFXSenors and 32 Motion Sensors

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