Smarthome Store Closed!

[rafarataneneces]

You can no longer go to Smarthome for Will Call or to order products.

 

In the last 2 weeks of July they changed their schedule from 10AM-2PM.

 

As of August 1st the store is now closed.

 

I guess Insteon is not doing alright.

[G W]

Insteon is doing fine. 99.99999% of us don't live near the store.

 

Best regards,

Gary Funk

[Brian H]

The amount of sales in the store. May not have justified keeping it open

 

I have seen many stores going away from physical locations and improving online sales efforts.

 

I am on the Smarthome email offers list.

I get at least one or more offers everyday. Not always Insteon offers as Smarthome sell a variety of things. Some very unique in my book.

 

I sometimes feel sales maybe down but Insteon is not  going away.

 

Though licensing the technology to other manufacturers in my opinion would help. All the manufacturers interested in Insteon,  on the list we early members of the now defunct, Developers Group got.  Never went ahead with their possible products.

Some decided to go with Z-Wave over Insteon.

[rafarataneneces]

Yeah never said they were going away just said Smarthome I can tell is not doing good that is why instead of focusing on Insteon they are focusing on smart products even Z-Wave controllers that directly compete with Insteon

[Brian H]

As far back as I can remember. They have tried to be a general automation vendor. Before Insteon was developed. They still sold both their X10 Clones along with real X10 and X10Pro modules. Z-Wave and all kinds of unique stuff.

 

Smartlabs is the Insteon developer and patent holder for Insteon. Smarthome is one of their main retail vendors along with Amazon and a few others that seem to come and go.

[Scottmichaelj]

Retail space in Irvine Ca (Orange County) is extremely expensive. Maybe they are relocating? Ca isn't known to be "business friendly" either.

[Techman]

Retail space in Irvine Ca (Orange County) is extremely expensive. Maybe they are relocating? Ca isn't known to be "business friendly" either.

 

The store was located on the ground floor of their 2 story building in an industrial park. It was more of a hole in the wall than a serious retail store, never well organized or staffed.

 

It probably didn't make sense to keep it open as there was very little foot traffic.

[Scottmichaelj]

The store was located on the ground floor of their 2 story building in an industrial park. It was more of a hole in the wall than a serious retail store, never well organized or staffed.

 

It probably didn't make sense to keep it open as there was very little foot traffic.

I went there a couple times myself and your right. I used to live in Newport Beach.

[rafarataneneces]

I just think they don't have money to keep it up.

 

here in California there is an economic crisis you go to Fry's Friday at 7PM they have 2-3 cashiers.

 

Businesses are competing with China and with Amazon and it's HARD to make a profit when Amazon has no cashiers.

 

So I'm not surprised a lot of Best Buys have closed and in the future it will be all Amazon (imported from China) and USPS lol.

 

I know they are not doing well because when I called Tech Support they would tell me to always 'buy from SmartHome because it keeps them employed'

 

If nobody would get laid off the wouldn't mention that in the tech call.

 

I love the people at Smart Home tech support they are by far the best in the business.

 

The people from retail store where untrained, extremely rude, emotional and unprofessional.

 

One time they started fighting between each other and yelling and I was right there! 

 

Another time I went the guy was in a tech support phone call while attending the store, so he had to ask the guy to wait because a person came in the store.

 

Weird.

 

But anyway it's a clear indication that they are not doing well.

[MWareman]

Maybe the price of the devices will come down a little, now they are not having to pay for a physical location.... [/sarc]

[rafarataneneces]

Maybe the price of the devices will come down a little, now they are not having to pay for a physical location.... [/sarc]

 

No their store was inside their headquarters.

 

This is just lack of desire to pay people, reducing costs, I am telling you, Newegg has good sales, therefore their Will Call has been open for many years.

 

Smarthome did the same thing but a clear indication that they are reducing costs is by just closing that Will Call store entirely.

 

So they save 1-2 employees there.

 

They actually shifted to Tech Support.

Tech Support only works if you call them at 5AM, later than that you have to wait for hours, another clear indication that they don't employ enough people.

[Scottmichaelj]

Wow didnt know Frys was in bad shape too but makes sense as they are rat [censored] anyways and there return policy was horrible. They would look for any excuse not to accept a return. One time they made me wait to count all the screws of a motherboard or something I needed to return. That was my final straw and never bought from there again.

 

Amazon is amazing and even better if you live in the Seattle area. We get all kinds of benefits with Amazon Prime, Amazon Fresh etc. I could be a complete hermit and never leave the house. Hell my new NVidia 1080 GPU was delivered today, yes on a Sunday. Amazon is partnered with USPS and they deliver for Amazon on Sundays here. There are also some items I can buy with same day delivery or next day without extra fees. Even local Seattle only stores you can get items from, say fresh fish from Pikes Market.

[rafarataneneces]

Wow didnt know Frys was in bad shape too but makes sense as they are rat [censored] anyways and there return policy was horrible. They would look for any excuse not to accept a return. One time they made me wait to count all the screws of a motherboard or something I needed to return. That was my final straw and never bought from there again.

 

Amazon is amazing and even better if you live in the Seattle area. We get all kinds of benefits with Amazon Prime, Amazon Fresh etc. I could be a complete hermit and never leave the house. Hell my new NVidia 1080 GPU was delivered today, yes on a Sunday. Amazon is partnered with USPS and they deliver for Amazon on Sundays here. There are also some items I can buy with same day delivery or next day without extra fees. Even local Seattle only stores you can get items from, say fresh fish from Pikes Market.

 

Yesterday a Amazon delivery truck came to my neighborhood and those guys are far more persistent and trained than the USPS guys

 

First guy ever to call me three times until I picked up and then I explained him how to find the directory and then I opened the gate through my phone.

 

95% of delivery guys will just give up lol.

 

Yeah Amazon puts everyone on their knees, some day soon BestBuy will just be a memory or they should transition to nice things that home owners want, like big TVs, fridge.

 

Most people want to try a fridge, measure it, before they take it home.

 

I would rather buy furniture from Best Buy than from Amazon, big things like tables, chairs for the home theater.

 

By the way Best Buy now ONLY allows 15 days for returns, another sign they are hurting.

[Scottmichaelj]

Yesterday a Amazon delivery truck came to my neighborhood and those guys are far more persistent and trained than the USPS guys

 

First guy ever to call me three times until I picked up and then I explained him how to find the directory and then I opened the gate through my phone.

 

95% of delivery guys will just give up lol.

 

Yeah Amazon puts everyone on their knees, some day soon BestBuy will just be a memory or they should transition to nice things that home owners want, like big TVs, fridge.

 

Most people want to try a fridge, measure it, before they take it home.

 

I would rather buy furniture from Best Buy than from Amazon, big things like tables, chairs for the home theater.

 

By the way Best Buy now ONLY allows 15 days for returns, another sign they are hurting.

Im not sure I agree that the 15 day return window is considered a sign of hurting. With tech changing so rapidly and again Amazon I think BB is trying to avoid a influx of returns for lower pricing. Amazon is very aggressive in pricing. It might not be the total story but it is a factor Im sure. I am also thinking full supply channel here BB vs Amazon.

 

I remember some fond days in both BB and Frys (Circuit City, The Good Guys, Incredible Universe, Radio Shack, etc). The Frys in Fountain Valley CA used to have all 32+ whatever registers open and still long lines making me consider buying useless things I never needed throughout the line corral! I can remember sending a day researching TVs or computer parts in the store. Or spending time flipping through the CD/DVD racks trying to find that certain one. Afraid its only nostalgia clouding my mind, if I had to do that today I would probably shoot myself. Is this bc of the internet or the fact I rather waste my downtime doing something else, probably both.

 

I'm not the "kick the tires" kind of guy. I look online see what I like, then buy it. All my appliances were ordered online (Although I bought all the same brand Thermador) but that was about $40k spent without walking into a store. I bought a builtin fridge, two wine fridges, oven/microwave, dishwasher, and cooktop all online. The range hood in my new house died after two years, yup bought a replacement online. Maybe some people need that touchy feely crap but I only care about that when it comes to my couch and bed mattress! Lol If theres good reviews and enough people like it I'm sure it will be fine and keep my food cold. So far I don't regret any of those purchases. My last two cars, called the internet manager told them what I wanted, ordered it and when it arrived was at the dealership for an hour or so and done. I get the pricing done beforehand as well as my app process before I step in the door. No need to drive around town and waste time.

 

Well better stop now this is turning into a Teken post and getting off topic. I kid. Sorry Teken you know I love you right and I do value your posts!?

 

Edit: wait one more thing to say...

 

We had guests come from out of town and needed a cheap bed, guess what Amazon! Sure its not Ethan Allen like the rest of my home but it works for guests and is super comfy. I would sleep on it, and the price couldnt be beat! The cheapest king sized mattress and box spring at the local mattress store was $1600! Its crazy it's vacuum sealed tight and then springs out when opened, so they can ship it in a box!

 

http://a.co/1igf37X

 

http://a.co/5yMEcte

[PurdueGuy]

I did a Will Call pickup a few weeks/months ago.   They had made it smaller, and  gotten rid of everything non-Insteon from the store, and redone all the displays.

 

I commented on how different it looked, and the sales person said "there are more changes coming."

 

I'm a little bummed, since I could order something, or do a warranty swap, with just a 15 minute drive!

[Scottmichaelj]

It all comes down to ROI. In the case of California, it seems the state government wants to see every business in the state close or move to a friendly state.

 

Best regards,

Gary Funk

CA has the "Robin Hood Effect" (thats my made up term, like it?) where they rob from the producers to give to the nonproducers. You know what Im not even going to go there today otherwise you will just pick on me for being negative! Lol

[IanSmith]

It looks way worse than that.

 

I was driving past the Smarthome building today and noticed there were no cars whatsoever in the parking lot facing Miliken. I came back and drove around the building and there were no cars anywhere. The building looks abandoned.

 

Hopefully, they've moved elsewhere, but I doubt it. We may all be screwed!

[G W]

Yes, they moved.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U1 using Tapatalk

[IanSmith]

So yeah... After finding the answer on the Internet, I was able to find info elsewhere on this forum.

 

Here's the news release:

 

Irvine, Calif. – June 13, 2017 – Richmond Capital Partners, a private investment firm based in Seattle, today announced the acquisition of Smartlabs Inc., parent company of Insteon®, an Internet of Things (IoT) technology company, and Smarthome®, an eCommerce superstore for home automation. As part of the acquisition, Rob Lilleness will assume the role of chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

 

As you are probably aware, Lillness was president and COO of Universal. Hopefully we are in good hands.

[lilyoyo1]

The store itself has been closed for quite some time. The new location isn't far from the old.