Tahoe61
10K Club member
Dog in the fight, skin in the game.
Reef Breeders Bricked
- Thread starter FishLvR
- Start date
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VintageReefer
10K Club member
I gave no opinion on the emails themself, and I have no bias. I added information and fact.
At the time of the email, the only solution was waiting for the developers to finish the coding which is taking longer than predicted. The discounted WiFi board was not an idea or option at that exact moment.
After the email, when RB made the post here in response, that was the first presentation of the idea to discount the $175 wifi board for $30 to users that did not switch apps by the cutoff date. The link didn’t exist yet, it was the evening before Thanksgiving. And RB was replying to emails instead of ignoring, coming up with solutions, and making posts on a forum to explain the situation and plan.
At the time of the email, the only solution was waiting for the developers to finish the coding which is taking longer than predicted. The discounted WiFi board was not an idea or option at that exact moment.
After the email, when RB made the post here in response, that was the first presentation of the idea to discount the $175 wifi board for $30 to users that did not switch apps by the cutoff date. The link didn’t exist yet, it was the evening before Thanksgiving. And RB was replying to emails instead of ignoring, coming up with solutions, and making posts on a forum to explain the situation and plan.
VintageReefer
10K Club member
100%
When someone sets up the light, they are required to give an email address so they can have an account made in the app and so RB can contact owners.
- if someone doesn’t read multiple emails sent, it’s negligence
- if someone stops using an email address entirely, starts using a new one, and doesn’t update apps, companies, mailing lists, its negligence. How do you expect RB to contact you, if you changed your contact info and didn’t tell them?
- if you make a post and say I heard I’m supposed to be using the new app, is this correct? Then you are told Yes, but you never bothered to read the thread again or check notifications to see the thread was updated, its negligence
Finally - the light was not “bricked” by any of this. The light would have continued to safely run the programmed schedule saved in internal memory. It doesn’t need the app to run the saved schedule. I can delete the app from my phone, the light will still run the schedule day after day.
The unit became “bricked” when the op hit the reset button 8 times and factory reset it, blowing out the schedule from memory. I get it, this was an accident. Well, the action was intentional, but the outcome was not what they expected. Regardless, the light was functioning and running its schedule just fine. The owners actions reset it to factory default, on 100% while they knew they had no means to control or reprogram it.
Maybe RB can update the light programming so factory default is all channels 50% ? That should give decent par, support most tanks and would be safer than 100.%
Last edited:
malcolmyoung
New Member
Hi, I'm from Belgium, I Bought a Photon V2 Pro in the end of December 2023. At that time, the App to run it was Reef nexus. Everything was fine, I didn't had any problem until today. In the afternoon, I try to manually run the light, and nothing was working. Can't login to the Reef Nexus App. After looking on the Apple Store for an update of the app, can't find the Reef Nexus app, but find the Reef Breeder app.
I Try it, but didn't work either. I Send an Email to ReefBreeder and its at that moment, after receiving their answer that I learned I need to changer the Board of the light. Due to the closing of the reef nexus app, they can't do anything. I didn't know it before and didn't receive any email. They tell me by Email that lot of customers didn't receive the advertising Email during the past few month due to junk filters. And I'm in that case.
When I read here on the forum people saying that is Negligence from customers, it's making me a little annoyed, it's not fair to say that. I swear I didn't receive any Email from Reef breeder or Reef Nexus in the past months to advertise me.
I need to Buy a new Board to them at a reduce price. I don't blame them, they give me a quick answer and try to help by making a cheap discount, thanks to them. But the comments from people saying it's our fault and negligence, it's not very cool.
I Try it, but didn't work either. I Send an Email to ReefBreeder and its at that moment, after receiving their answer that I learned I need to changer the Board of the light. Due to the closing of the reef nexus app, they can't do anything. I didn't know it before and didn't receive any email. They tell me by Email that lot of customers didn't receive the advertising Email during the past few month due to junk filters. And I'm in that case.
When I read here on the forum people saying that is Negligence from customers, it's making me a little annoyed, it's not fair to say that. I swear I didn't receive any Email from Reef breeder or Reef Nexus in the past months to advertise me.
I need to Buy a new Board to them at a reduce price. I don't blame them, they give me a quick answer and try to help by making a cheap discount, thanks to them. But the comments from people saying it's our fault and negligence, it's not very cool.
Gone Reefin’
Active Member
Wow, you never know which topics on this forum, or any forum, will fire people up. This one definitely has!
First off, I feel for the OP for 2 reasons. First, they have received a lot of heat even AFTER apologizing for making a fuss…
Second, their light was stuck at 100%. I do get it, it was from them resetting it, but I don’t think most of us would have expected this to occur.
Anyhow, since opinions are like buttholes (keeping it classy), I’ll give mine. I can see both sides, however I think this falls more on the company. Have you all seen the amount of junk we get anytime we give our email?!? I’ll also say if I switch my email accounts, I’m not immediately going back to a company I purchased an item from years ago to update it (especially not having the foresight that they would get into an app battle, temporarily making the item function improperly).
However, the company could not have seen this coming (although one may argue this is always a business risk when you decide to design a product that can only be controlled by an app). At a minimum, as someone mentioned, give one button manual control (I.e. one click 25%, 2 clicks 50%, etc.).
All that being said, the RIGHT thing for the company to do would have supplied the part at no cost (not 50%, 75% or even 99% off). The aggressive campaign they made to get people to switch would have minimized their hit. I mean, how much recoup is the $30 really offering anyway? Seems to be more of a penalty for not keeping email info current. And to get ahead of it, I do understand that $30 adds up when considering thousands of users, but if thousands of users failed to update, was the communication really effective?
First off, I feel for the OP for 2 reasons. First, they have received a lot of heat even AFTER apologizing for making a fuss…
Second, their light was stuck at 100%. I do get it, it was from them resetting it, but I don’t think most of us would have expected this to occur.
Anyhow, since opinions are like buttholes (keeping it classy), I’ll give mine. I can see both sides, however I think this falls more on the company. Have you all seen the amount of junk we get anytime we give our email?!? I’ll also say if I switch my email accounts, I’m not immediately going back to a company I purchased an item from years ago to update it (especially not having the foresight that they would get into an app battle, temporarily making the item function improperly).
However, the company could not have seen this coming (although one may argue this is always a business risk when you decide to design a product that can only be controlled by an app). At a minimum, as someone mentioned, give one button manual control (I.e. one click 25%, 2 clicks 50%, etc.).
All that being said, the RIGHT thing for the company to do would have supplied the part at no cost (not 50%, 75% or even 99% off). The aggressive campaign they made to get people to switch would have minimized their hit. I mean, how much recoup is the $30 really offering anyway? Seems to be more of a penalty for not keeping email info current. And to get ahead of it, I do understand that $30 adds up when considering thousands of users, but if thousands of users failed to update, was the communication really effective?
NanoSteam
ANTI 100% Blues Only Club
Ok, that title "URGENT: Final Chance" is how half the scam emails I get start...... URGENT: Final Chance to claim your prize!
Gmail would likely flag that.
GSPClown94
Well-Known Member
Lol their strategy is to reach customers via email. I would expect those that missed it the first time will likely miss this one as well. Also why is this only going to be reopened for a short time? I hope they refund all those that were forced to buy that replacement part as a result of their poor business decisions. Own up to your mistakes and be an ethical business owner.
Edit: not directed at you @abc123 btw, just commenting on the content of the email.
VintageReefer
10K Club member
SpyC
Valuable Member
Where did OP post that? I may have missed the update stating this, but you also don’t have to be rude about it like I am trying to purposely and knowingly spread misinformation.
NanoSteam
ANTI 100% Blues Only Club
I think this thread needs to die... some of us feel it was handled sub-optimally and some feel RB went above and beyond... we'll never agree, that's just how humans are.
VintageReefer
10K Club member
Post 76, 84, and in post 103 another member mentioned they paid full price and posts to say RB refunded them so the part was only 30$ in the end
I apologize for my coming across rude. I was trying to bring some humor to the thread.
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