No per month charge for automation (auto-assist) l

I do understand why push-notificatioms are free, but not why auto-assist is not.
It seems like an important feature that should be included when Tado sells their products as automation and smart products.
Why do I have to pay per month after I have bought the product? It kind of eats into the money (I might have) saved on heating.

I will return my products within a year if not all features are free of charge.

Kind regards
Peter Truels Wulff
23
23 votes

Active · Last Updated

Comments

  • It’s incredibly annoying to receive a “switch to away mode?” Notification and to not be able to click a “yes/no” button on my Apple Watch.

    A monthly subscription isn’t worth it, so they should either give that to me free of charge or stop sending me notifications I can’t respond to without unlocking my phone.
  • Hi @luka,
    Go to "settings" select "Notifications" then deselect the ones you don't want.
  • Hi all,

    It might be interesting to think a bit differently about the monthly subscription. Instead of it being about auto features, consider as funding the feature development of the app and digital features making your investment in the physical technology more valuable to you over time. If Tado only have funding coming from the sale of hardware, it’s a one-off and doesn’t help them to make the product better, just bring out more hardware. We want our hardware to become better and more useful not be outdated every couple of years. The subscription helps Tado to develop the software side. At least, this is the way I rationalise it.

    Cheers,

    Yossarian
  • Just spent a load of money on 2 thermostats and 8 radiator valves and Tado expect me to pay for basic features available on all other smart thermostats. My previous thermostat was a honeywell and did all the tado subscription features for free.

    It feels incredibly cheap and penny pinchy by Tado to charge for this and I refuse to pay it, furthermore as the tech guy for my friends and family I will not be recommending Tado products to anyone.

    I can code up all these subscription features myself in home assistant so Tado can stick their subscription model where the sun don't shine.

  • rafm5
    rafm5 ✭✭✭

    @yossarian Well, they can always use Kickstarter ;-)

    I partially agree with you. What disappoints me is the lack of visible development during recent years. I have no isues contributing, but ideally I would like to see this as an investment into tado° ecosystem.

    IMHO the subscription is not worth paying extra if I can have better results by using HomeKit automation etc.

  • rafm5
    rafm5 ✭✭✭

    @matteo998 At least tado° is clear about the subscription and it's cost. It was your decision to pay for 2 thermostats and 8 radiator valves. This service is 'an option' so you can't refuse paying for it - simply ignore it.

    I don't necessary agree with subscription model in general, but I do understand why it is so common nowadays.

    tado° is getting better, yet not perfect, but I will recommend this platform.

  • My brother recommended Tado to me & now that he's found out that they've started charging for the automated features, which used to be free, he'll no longer be recommending it to any of his customers. Ultimately, automation is the main point of getting these smart thermostats, but most people won't pay when competitors still offer it free
  • johnnyp78
    johnnyp78 ✭✭✭
    In fairness, the features Tado charges extra for aren’t essential anyway. Open window detection doesn’t work very well and energy IQ is only a rough estimate of energy use. Home and away is just a question of responding to a notification on the app. If you want to automate it for free it can be done through HomeKit or IFTTT.
  • GrayDav4276
    GrayDav4276 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2022

    So why charge a subscription for basic features that really don't function effectively.......tado° should ensure that these features work correctly before charging a captive audience for what should be (imho)an integral part of their service.

  • rafm5
    rafm5 ✭✭✭
    edited July 2022

    @GrayDav4276

    A Munich court has ordered Tesla Inc to reimburse a customer most of the 112,000 euros she paid for a Model X SUV because of problems with the Autopilot function, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

    It's quite interesting decision; the customer paid for something that doesn't work as shown in the 'manual' so will be able to withdrawn from the agreement.

    The case is not directly linked to tado° (as tado° already offer Energy Savings Guarantee) but hopefully this is a small step in sorting companies out for false advertising in Europe.

  • Rob
    Rob | Admin

    In principle, all these features work. For the vast majority of people. For some, they don't work that well. For example, in my own home Open Window Detection works absolutely fine. I honestly have zero complaints. However, I am aware that some people do experience that it does not work all that well for them. It is also based on how we detect an open window; through a sudden fluctuation of temperature of humidity. When your thermostat is relatively far from or insulated from the open window the fluctuation will be much more mild. In some cases too mild to trigger our window detection. Especially when the outside and inside temperatures don't differ that much. Or, when there is a draught it might detect an open window when there is none.

    Geofencing; similar story. Our app compares detected location to the area that is set as 'home', and can thus determine if someone is 'home', 'away' or moving towards home. This works fine, when the requirements are met. However, when the app is not able to detect location and/or cannot reach our servers, then it will not work. This tends to be based on restrictive iOS/Android settings or people hard closing our app.

    My personal perspective: I don't expect the Auto-Assist subscription to go away. I do expect that its feature set will change. I expect more (still to be introduced) features to be included, and maybe one or two removed (as in: become available in the free version). The latter will however certainly not happen without the former. This, again, is what I personally expect and is not an official tado° promise.