Alan, is there additional information you can provide about the issue Beth is having? Brookstone has a support program for using the demo robots and they also have contact for EZ-Robot support as well. Also, this forum is the best. Maybe Beth can post her troubles and we can help her here if traditional supports isn't working for her. Community never fails!

DJ,

Beth has tried to use her internal contact and he is not responding to emails or phone calls. She had no instructions for contacting EZ-Robot, so I forwarded an email to customer support for Aislinn to forward as needed.

She has tried 2 Six's and neither will even turn on (they may have been damaged or have blown fuses, the associate who put them together had several of the servos plugged in backwards that we know of, unsure what else might have happened before Beth took over trying).

As well as the email I forwarded to support, you can see the beginnings of the discussion in this thread https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/8197 (she didn't know how to post a new thread... like I said, not at all technical, can't access the web from work, so trying to remember as much as she can for when she comes home, but she can't bring one of the Six's home either, so really stuck in a hard place, which is why I was looking for any Miami based users who might be able to physically assist rather than remotely assist.

Alan

@Anthony,

I am not sure, other than it is a Brookstone. I sent you an email with Beth's contact info.

Alan

Awesome Anthony! Thanks for jumping in and helping out.

Alan

Anthony, bring a robot! Bet that would draw a lot of attention for yourself and us. And impress the heck out of everyone in the mall!

Take some pictures too! It would be great if you could video it so we could all share in the proceedings, but I doubt she'd like that. However, a few pics might be ok.

Anthony is awesome! But so is Alan for going the extra mile too!

Thanks Anthony, I suspected it would be something like that and it would be much easier to troubleshoot in person rather than by forum post, email or phone.

Alan

Thank you very much Anthony, we really appreciate the personal time and sacrifice you made to help us! It makes me very proud to be a part of such a community that goes over and above.

Wow - thanks Anthony. That's really nice of you to help out this brookstone employee. I'll ensure they are reminded again to direct their staff to our tutorials.

EDIT: I just realized I didnt read Anthony's post. blush Anthony, check the JD too.

OMG I was there trying to help them last week! I am on vacation and noticed the JD right up front in the Brookstone at Dolphin mall. I tried to help those ladies but they dont have any experience in robotics. I was with my son and spent more than 30 minutes trying to get 2 of thier SIX to work. They didnt have even proper screwdrivers. Immediately i noticed that each of the six had a reversed servo connection. The 2 batteries didnt seem to want to charge. I suspected they drained too far. I contemplated using the power supply from the JD display but quickly realized that i was already spending too much time away from my son. I only have 2 weeks with him. Im sorry DJ but i had to refer them to call or contact you. They said they didnt have instructions on the proper connections of the servos to the ports either. Also, the JD didnt seem to be performing right. They said a child had pulled its head off. Its barely on it and its flopping with motion. It wasnt doing much motion of its arms and legs either.

It's located in a great spot though. You can see it from outside as you walk by. Unfortunately that's not good if it looked like that. Good to know you can help them out. I'm sure they will make a lot of sales when it's all good to go.

PS: @anthony, Mangos Tropical Cafe is a great place to eat.

@DJ, one of Beth's issues is that they can't access the tutorials from the computers in the store. They can only access the Brookstone intranet. Maybe you could have your contact talk to IT and either have them add ez-robot.com to their allowed site list, or copy the tutorials onto their intranet.

Alan

And yes wait till all the kids get their hands on them, not going to last too long. To me they should have been provided an electronic manual with everything on it (a cheap ipad/or other cheap note device). At least printed out PDF's that could have helped some. This irritates me and it dosnt even evolve me, but wanted to give my two cents worth. EZ-Robot owes Anthony at least a cold beverage or 24

if the answers to all the questions are the big blue question marks, then there should be an nice tablet in which the person is browsing the robot to read/watch from.

Looks to me like they should have the demo robot under plastic or behind plastic. Little kids are going to be grabbing them all the time like that. Some adults too. At least have the working demos behind the counter or some such if behind glass/plastic isn't feasible.

Even a cheap thin square plastic bubble like they use for bubble packs of parts and toys would do. Probably wouldn't cost more than a dollar each wholesale. Somebody must make those things in large enough sizes. All the stores could be supplied for a few hundred dollars. To me it would be worth the investment to save many more hundreds in broken part replacement. Heads pulled off by kids isn't going to be covered by warranty replacement either. Not to mention the hours in lost labor fixing them. With 200-some-odd stores, maintaining the robots will be no small task as it is. Damage from grabby hands won't help.

I never saw the $400 drones out to be touched and child handled at will. And for good reason. Should be the same with JD.

No news yet, things are in process. I'll let you and Beth know once replacements have been figured out.

I agree totally with WBS00001. These little display robots need to be in a protected box and in complete working order. There is nothing that will turn away a potential customer faster and never buy from you then a broken and non functioning live display of your product. They walk up to a display of DJ or Six that caught their eye and imagination and see only one leg or arm jerking around and a floppy broken head and they think "What a peace of junk". They walk away forever with the impression that this thing breaks easily and hard to set up and get working (if they even know what it can do in the first place).

I'll bet money that many other stores are having this same issue. I also agree with a previous post that instructions should been sent "on paper" with detailed instructions on how to set these up. You GOTTA idiot proof things and make even easy things clear and easier. Businesses don't have the resources or time to let the employee sit in front of a computer for even a short time watching videos let along trouble shoot a mis-wired robot. They need to get this thing set out on the showroom floor and that employee out there selling everything else in the store to money spending customers. Weren't these displays pre-assembled and tested? If so they should have stayed that way and shipped in-tacked even if shipping cost more.

EZ Robot has spent a lot of labor and money on this venture. It's a great idea And if set up properly can attract many new customers. However as it is, if nothing is done other then to direct them to the question marks and tutorials it has the potential to blow up in your face and turn away many, many customers that would have spent money on EZ Robots. These people will also tell their friends and family "Not" to buy from EZ Robot based on those broken, crippled and mis-wired examples of expensive peaces of junk they saw at the store. This is truly how many people think and act all over the world. You guys have got to take this seriously and get personally involved with a rock solid solution like mentioned here and other posts. All your doing now is loosing customers on a grand scale. If you cant fix this you need to pull these displays ASAP.

Like 69Developer said; "this irritants me and I'm not even involved". mad However I feel I am involved. I want EZ Robot to seceded and become as big and accepted as Arduino. I've spent many hours over the years promoting EZ Robot over many places on the internet and to friends. I hate it when someone comes back and gets in my face with a story like this. EZ Robot is worth every cent spent on it and worth much more then money in education and pleasure. Watching a broken and burnt up robot jerk and flop around makes it very hard to justify and defend. blush

Good luck EZ Robot and I truly hope you all get this worked out. Soon.

this is a major blunder.supose it was a darwin robot standing there. the kid his finger would be broken or cut clean off.many robots has, handel bar to safely transport a robot.am feeling sad for the team here, they work long and hard for it.one not satisfied person tells it further to, 7 other people.

I'll play devil's advocate here among the gloom and doom. Once this is resolved, Beth and her employees are going to have a great story of customer and community support. If all of us who live near Brookstones drop in and offer our assistance if needed (and buy some EZ-Bits in the process) the story will be even better, and nationwide.

Alan

When I saw it right there in a prominent place I thought "Ah cool! I get to see JD in person!" Then I saw it was broken and wanted to show DJ. It was really disappointing because as a consumer I see the bot and I see the price tag and if I had only the display to look at I would just have just walked away. We really need to get this display up and running. That place sees people with deep pockets and we need to lighten their burden.

One thing that would help would be for the demo unit to be placed higher up. At least that would put it out of arm's reach by little kids. As to documentation, surely something was sent out with these units?

The last time I went by the local Brookstone, they didn't have a JD out front at all. Instead they had a non-functioning Six with it's legs folded on top. Makes me wonder if their JD is already broken or no one could set it up or what. Maybe they sold it, but that seems unlikely since the demo units are special. But you never know. Could have sent it back for repairs for all I know. Are there Six demo units out there I wonder?

I'll probably go by there tomorrow. I'll find out at that time. And, as was suggested, I'll offer to help if they are having problems. Only thing is, I wonder how you put the demo JD into demo mode? Assuming they have one that's not too badly broken. I have a number of spare servos I could use to get it going if need be. Even a pair of extra feet and a few micro-servos. No spare head though, so here's hoping it's Okay. Or spare EZB4, for that matter. If nothing else I should be able to get their Six going so they can control it via a cell phone.

But that's all conjecture until I actually go by. Hopefully though, they have something going and all is well.