> However, it's quite an old product and if you went for a Hive system from 2016
These things are part of the house, like an appliance. 7 years is nothing in terms of a building, it's ridiculous to disable products in such a short time.
These things are part of the house, like an appliance. 7 years is nothing in terms of a building, it's ridiculous to disable products in such a short time.
There is an e-waste issue here as well as a consumer rights one. The old analog boiler control/timer box and thermostat in my house look they were installed in the 1980s. A bit yellowed and beat up but they still work just fine!
There is no time limit, only "reasonable", which for something that is fixed into your house, 20 years seems reasonable to me. You could settle for prorating the 20 year life, so if you've had it 5 years then they will refund 75% or something.
British Gas is easily big enough to absorb the losses, and has a lot of bad press at the moment because of the profit it has been making. It would set a good example for future cases.
https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-...
Where's that quoted from? Legislation? How do you think that consumer rights apply to electricity supply and phone contracts, for example?
I have no knowledge of whether consumer rights apply to Hive but I don't understand this "take ownership" principle that you're proposing here.
> KEY INFORMATION > > Taking ownership > The clock starts ticking from the date you take ownership of the goods
No they don’t. Consumer rights law in the UK applies to services too.
Amusingly, because they’re HomeKit compatible, they continue to work because Apple required HomeKit to work without some weird manufacturer cloud system.
And more importantly you can easily buy wire-compatible replacement controllers to this day.
10 years (or whatever) from time the product comes to market or from the time they stop selling it?
If it from the time they stop selling it that would probably lead to a lot of things not being sold for long. Manufacturers will want to get the clock started as soon as possible to minimize the amount of time they end up having to back port security fixes to libraries that upstream has stopped supporting.
This could result in manufacturers discontinuing things a year to two after introducing them, replacing them with newer products that do most of what the old did but probably also incorporate newer features.
That would be annoying for consumers. Say I buy some internet connected home control and security system, but don't buy all the accessories it works with. Then 5 years later I want to add say a camera. But the cameras designed for my system were discontinued 4 years earlier, and the cameras the company now sells are 3 generations ahead of that and require features or interfaces in the base system that aren't in mine.
On the other hand if it is from the time the product comes to market that will also probably discourage manufactures from keeping a product available for a long time. Consumers might be reluctant to buy something that has been for sale several years knowing that it only has a few years of mandatory support left.
Probably what you need are two limits, one requiring a certain number of years from the time the product is introduced, and the other requiring a certain smaller number of years after the product is discontinued.
Consumer law is typically based on the date of purchase. So, 10 years from the date of purchase, for example.
Although, as pointed out by another commenter, UK consumers effectively have these rights already, as they have the right to return (to the retailer) a product that is no longer functioning after a reasonable amount of time for repair, replacement, or refund.
id accept the same for hive if there was an open ecosystem to move it to.
point is, if companies want to retain control of something they actually need to maintain it. if they dont want to maintain it, they need to give up control. they cant have it both ways.
Huh? You're joking, right?
You want to go around and replace all switches, dimmers, etc every other year in a home?
We're talking about a single inexpensive thermostat that's being replaced at half price after 5-7 years, I'm definitely not joking when I'm suggesting that this might actually have less impact on consumer wallets or ewaste pile than very expensive consumer devices whose OEMs' business model revolves around being replaced biannually
smart != internet connected. KNX, Zigbee, Z-Wave falls into this category as well, and those are local to the house, unless there's a gateway.
Anyway... as others said it before, a non-smart switch lasts decades. Smart ones should as well.
This isn't necessary.
Because cellphones are traditionally something you replace every 3-4 years it's expected that they only last that long, and you are fully aware of that when you are buying it.
With smartphones, the principle drivers of technical obsolescence are ultimately communications standards (e.g., phase-out of 3G communications), chip speeds, and the ever-increasing resource requirements of connected services (apps or websites).
Tools for dealing with phone & SMS spam and fraud would be another principle concern.
But really, there's no reason otherwise that a handset from a decade or two ago couldn't work, and there are many who look on classic Nokia handsets with fondness and/or mourning.
...and that means it should be expected to last 20 years...
...then maybe just don't use the cheapest part you can, and instead actually engineer it to last 20 years?
You're talking about it like the manufacturer has no choice but to make it as cheap as possible and hey, if it fails, it fails—but that's not true at all. If there were a requirement for something to be more durable, then the manufacturer would be both able and obligated to follow it. Unfortunately, I don't believe there is such a requirement as things stand.