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Anyone Pre-Order a Birdi Smoke Detector?

A

adamjackson

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 9, 2008
2,340
4,743
  • What was your order date?
  • Have you received an email update from them?
  • Have you received your unit yet?
  • If so, does it work as promised?
  • Does it work with HomeKit?

My Situation:
  • Emailed them October 11th asking if they could give me a lead-time. I was remodeling a house and needed them by december. They replied a day later with a 10% off coupon but didn't answer my question. I replied "that didn't answer my question" and they didn't react
  • I ordered a week later, 3-pack for $305.99 and my AMEX was charged
  • On November 7th, I received, "Birdi is about to ship and needs your feedback!" I confirmed my mailing address using their online form
  • on 11/30 I asked, "Any update on shipping? My home is almost done with construction"
  • No Response
  • ON december 8th, I sent "Do I just cancel my order? A company unresponsive to a shipping estimate is absurd. What are you guys doing over there? "
  • No response
  • Yesterday I sent, "Did the company shut down? I'm going to file a claim with American Express."
  • No response

Looking on their Facebook page, there were a lot of posts asking for order updates. All of those were deleted at some point over Christmas. They literally removed people's questions.

Looking at their Twitter replies, people are asking them for updates and the Birdi account or their CEO's account hasn't replied to anyone or posted an update.

I saw this tweet indicating that their smoke detector doesn't even work with HomeKit despite it being featured @ WWDC in June as supporting it.

----

The main reason I am buying these is for HomeKit compatibility. I've had to buy cheap smoke detectors for my house for now so I can pass the town inspection and safety but I'm thinking, at this point do I just file a charge-back with American Express?

I'm trying to see if others are receiving their units already because it appears on december 8th, Birdi had a batch going out Although I can't find anyone online (besides press) that have received these yet.
 
I paid for a Birdi in July, 2015. Almost two years later I've received nothing. The company hasn't responded to multiple e-mails.
 
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Reactions: adamjackson
Oct 2016 - Order a Birdi 3-pack.

Nov 2016 - "Birdi is about to ship and needs your feedback! Time to confirm your shipping info! Please complete this form to ensure your order is shipped on time."

Dec 2016 - No response to requests for an update on shipping ETA.

Jan 2017 - Finally receive the one and only response: "We've started shipping from our holiday batch... As we manufacture and roll those out, please look out for a shipping confirmation."

Feb 2017 - Subsequent requests for updates are ignored by Birdi, so I file a dispute with my CC company.

Mar 2017 - Surprisingly, Birdi actually responds to my CC company's outreach in a timely manner...but make the brazenly false claim that the product was actually delivered.

Has anyone else gone through a CC dispute process with Birdi?

Given how little concern Birdi seems to have for their customers, I'm not quite sure how they expect us to trust their product to protect our homes and lives.
 
dehory said:
Has anyone else gone through a CC dispute process with Birdi?
Click to expand...

I'm very thankful that I purchased birdi w/ my AMEX. It's been over a month since my claim and Amex initially fully released the funds to me and said they'd confirm the refund within 30 days.

I never heard back which I assume means it's all case-closed. Birdi never contested.

I would have preferred to receive Birdi. I went with a house full of Nest units which sucks as they're owned by Google.
 
I purchased with my Citi CC and although they also initially released the funds to me, Birdi has apparently claimed that the merchandise was shipped and delivered, and the funds were taken back. I will continue to dispute the charge.
 
  • Like
Reactions: adamjackson
adamjackson said:
  • What was your order date?
  • Have you received an email update from them?
  • Have you received your unit yet?
  • If so, does it work as promised?
  • Does it work with HomeKit?
My Situation:
  • Emailed them October 11th asking if they could give me a lead-time. I was remodeling a house and needed them by december. They replied a day later with a 10% off coupon but didn't answer my question. I replied "that didn't answer my question" and they didn't react
  • I ordered a week later, 3-pack for $305.99 and my AMEX was charged
  • On November 7th, I received, "Birdi is about to ship and needs your feedback!" I confirmed my mailing address using their online form
  • on 11/30 I asked, "Any update on shipping? My home is almost done with construction"
  • No Response
  • ON december 8th, I sent "Do I just cancel my order? A company unresponsive to a shipping estimate is absurd. What are you guys doing over there? "
  • No response
  • Yesterday I sent, "Did the company shut down? I'm going to file a claim with American Express."
  • No response

Looking on their Facebook page, there were a lot of posts asking for order updates. All of those were deleted at some point over Christmas. They literally removed people's questions.

Looking at their Twitter replies, people are asking them for updates and the Birdi account or their CEO's account hasn't replied to anyone or posted an update.

I saw this tweet indicating that their smoke detector doesn't even work with HomeKit despite it being featured @ WWDC in June as supporting it.

----

The main reason I am buying these is for HomeKit compatibility. I've had to buy cheap smoke detectors for my house for now so I can pass the town inspection and safety but I'm thinking, at this point do I just file a charge-back with American Express?

I'm trying to see if others are receiving their units already because it appears on december 8th, Birdi had a batch going out Although I can't find anyone online (besides press) that have received these yet.
Click to expand...
I ordered 2 years ago
adamjackson said:
  • What was your order date?
  • Have you received an email update from them?
  • Have you received your unit yet?
  • If so, does it work as promised?
  • Does it work with HomeKit?
My Situation:
  • Emailed them October 11th asking if they could give me a lead-time. I was remodeling a house and needed them by december. They replied a day later with a 10% off coupon but didn't answer my question. I replied "that didn't answer my question" and they didn't react
  • I ordered a week later, 3-pack for $305.99 and my AMEX was charged
  • On November 7th, I received, "Birdi is about to ship and needs your feedback!" I confirmed my mailing address using their online form
  • on 11/30 I asked, "Any update on shipping? My home is almost done with construction"
  • No Response
  • ON december 8th, I sent "Do I just cancel my order? A company unresponsive to a shipping estimate is absurd. What are you guys doing over there? "
  • No response
  • Yesterday I sent, "Did the company shut down? I'm going to file a claim with American Express."
  • No response

Looking on their Facebook page, there were a lot of posts asking for order updates. All of those were deleted at some point over Christmas. They literally removed people's questions.

Looking at their Twitter replies, people are asking them for updates and the Birdi account or their CEO's account hasn't replied to anyone or posted an update.

I saw this tweet indicating that their smoke detector doesn't even work with HomeKit despite it being featured @ WWDC in June as supporting it.

----

The main reason I am buying these is for HomeKit compatibility. I've had to buy cheap smoke detectors for my house for now so I can pass the town inspection and safety but I'm thinking, at this point do I just file a charge-back with American Express?

I'm trying to see if others are receiving their units already because it appears on december 8th, Birdi had a batch going out Although I can't find anyone online (besides press) that have received these yet.
Click to expand...
i ordered 2 years ago. Got a few emails before and after the "confirm your shipping address" request in November of 2016. They don't respond to ANY inquiries and now I guess I need to go back to my CC company and try to get my money back for the 3 units I ordered. If this wasn't a scam, they would reply to our emails!
 
Crowdfunding is a huge gamble. I'm only 1 for 3 on projects I've backed. What's really bad about that is I tended to only back projects from existing companies with established track records, so even established successful companies have failed to deliver.

Failure - Lockitron smart lock (very late and an unreliable piece of junk)
Failure - Almond+ router (it was delivered, but very late and also was missing substantial promised features)
Success - Chuwi SurBook (it was a couple months late, but otherwise delivered and worked as described)

I almost considered the TellSpec, a hand-held device that somehow scanned your food (without contacting it) for anything you might want to know about... allergens, toxins, calories, chemicals, nutrients, gluten, transfats, etc. I didn't back it because frankly that sounds impossible. Well next month their campaign will be 5 years old and 4 years late, with no deliveries yet.

My friends have joined a lot of crowdfunded projects for board games, and they've had 100% success (not counting missed deadlines), so I think depending on what it is that you are backing, there is more or less risk. Technology seems to be high risk.
 
Last edited:
@ActionableMango - Luckily, I bought through their site with an AMEX. Did a charge-back and Birdi never contested it. I feel bad for the people who ordered a 10 pack for a few grand on IndiGoGo. But you're right. It's a gamble.
 
ActionableMango said:
I never heard of Birdi so I looked it up. This is a pretty damning article:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/17...-low-quantity-deliveries-silence-from-company
Click to expand...

https://angel.co/birdi

I had reached out to many of the investors when trying to find out what was going on. Complete silence. There are legitimate orders from people (non crowd-funded) who were not filled. Then the company was sold off in 12/16 to an unknown company. I'm honestly pretty amazed there's not more being written Especially since Apple highlighted them during WWDC as HomeKit partners.

Plenty of comments on IGG - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/birdi#/comments

----

basically people who received their detectors (a small handful) were given access to the app via Apple's Test Flight beta testing. Birdi didn't renew the app so now people have no way to control these that did receive them since it was never officially published on the app Store.

What a cluster-F.
 
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