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jaw

jaw

13 hours ago, teonzo said:

 

You should contact their customer service, asking to implement these ideas in one of their next firmware updates. They should be open to these suggestions, since you help them making a better product.

 

 

 

Teo

 

 

i thought about it, but frankly i don't think they'll listen to me.

 

first, they don't even provide firmware upgrades to end users anymore. why? this is all pure speculation, but i would guess that they've determined that their target demographic is not technically proficient enough to carry out the procedure, and providing that as an option to people just makes more trouble on their end than it's worth. also, depending on how they designed the firmware upgrader, it could even result in bricked machines if people do it wrong.

 

second, this product is relatively mature. it's been out for a while and works great. they have zero history of adding features to it despite the fact that there is (imo) room for improvement that could be implemented purely in software, so i don't see why they'd start just because i ask.

 

third, i generally haven't been impressed with their customer support in the past. using their contact form on their site, i never got a response. using phone support, i got bounced around back and forth between breville and PSC and maybe some other company. the only way i received satisfactory support was by hunting around online and finding an employee's email address. to their credit (or to his credit, rather), i did at that point receive excellent support.

 

finally, the economy is fucked. i'm sure their business is hurting, especially since it's directly coupled to an industry that's in real pain. i don't think they're going to set their engineers to work on things that aren't going to directly make them money. they're probably on maintenance / life support mode. imo, the fact that they're doing a free-trial promotion to clear out refurb machines could be seen as evidence of this. maybe.

 

but i think the CF is a great product, so i'll send David @ PSC my suggestions just for the heck of it. maybe i was being too cynical. you've convinced me, Teo. :)

 

On 11/20/2019 at 5:00 PM, jaw said:

i got in touch with David at PSC. he got back to me quickly and was very nice to deal with.

 

here's what i found out:

  • due to a change in policy, the firmware is no longer user-upgradeable
    • firmware updates will no longer be provided to end users by support
    • the user manual will eventually be updated to remove references to the software update procedure
  • firmware can be updated by service, but the unit has to be sent in
    • there's no fee to do that in-warranty. it was also suggested that there wouldn't be a fee to do it out-of-warranty if an update were required to resolve an actual issue with the unit
    • i forgot to ask who covers shipping, so i'll follow up with that info later if i learn more
  • i was told that the only firmware update available was to fix a harmless "communication error" bug affecting less than 1% of units
    • if you aren't already seeing that error, the issue probably won't manifest in the future

i never tried contacting Breville online support chat, but i sort of don't care anymore since i've been told that there aren't any useful firmware updates available.

 

jaw

jaw

6 hours ago, teonzo said:

 

You should contact their customer service, asking to implement these ideas in one of their next firmware updates. They should be open to these suggestions, since you help them making a better product.

 

 

 

Teo

 

 

i thought about it, but frankly i don't think they'll listen to me.

 

first, they don't even provide firmware upgrades to end users anymore. why? this is all pure speculation, but i would guess that they've determined that their target demographic is not technically proficient enough to carry out the procedure, and providing that as an option to people just makes more trouble on their end than it's worth. also, depending on how they designed the firmware upgrader, it could even result in bricked machines if people do it wrong.

 

second, this product is relatively mature. it's been out for a while and works great. they have zero history of adding features to it despite the fact that there is (imo) room for improvement that could be implemented purely in software, so i don't see why they'd start just because i ask.

 

third, i generally haven't been generally impressed with their customer support in the past. using their contact form on their site, i never got a response. using phone support, i got bounced around back and forth between breville and PSC and maybe some other company. the only way i received satisfactory support was by hunting around online and finding an employee's email address. to their credit (or to his credit, rather), i did at that point receive excellent support.

 

finally, the economy is fucked. i'm sure their business is hurting, especially since it's directly coupled to an industry that's in real pain. i don't think they're going to set their engineers to work on things that aren't going to directly make them money. they're probably on maintenance / life support mode. imo, the fact that they're doing a free-trial promotion to clear out refurb machines could be seen as evidence of this. maybe.

 

but i think the CF is a great product, so i'll send David @ PSC my suggestions just for the heck of it. maybe i was being too cynical. you've convinced me, Teo. :)

 

On 11/20/2019 at 5:00 PM, jaw said:

i got in touch with David at PSC. he got back to me quickly and was very nice to deal with.

 

here's what i found out:

  • due to a change in policy, the firmware is no longer user-upgradeable
    • firmware updates will no longer be provided to end users by support
    • the user manual will eventually be updated to remove references to the software update procedure
  • firmware can be updated by service, but the unit has to be sent in
    • there's no fee to do that in-warranty. it was also suggested that there wouldn't be a fee to do it out-of-warranty if an update were required to resolve an actual issue with the unit
    • i forgot to ask who covers shipping, so i'll follow up with that info later if i learn more
  • i was told that the only firmware update available was to fix a harmless "communication error" bug affecting less than 1% of units
    • if you aren't already seeing that error, the issue probably won't manifest in the future

i never tried contacting Breville online support chat, but i sort of don't care anymore since i've been told that there aren't any useful firmware updates available.

 

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