Well over a decade ago, I purchased a Roomba and for a few weeks we found it mildly useful. One day the Roomba jumped sensors I had placed to stop it from entering my home office, merrily sauntered in and proceeded to satiate its appetite by chewing the wires below my desk. It didn’t quite work the same after its little wire munching adventure.
I wrote to Roomba’s customer care to see if the issue could be fixed and did not get a response. I did however start getting marketing emails from the company, indicating that they had received my email about the faulty sensor or the faulty Roomba but did not care enough to respond. I promptly returned the expensive vacuum cleaner to Costco (COST), which accepted it without a single question.
While this is no more than anecdotal information, over the last decade I watched the company squander its lead in household robotics and fail to innovate. When I think of Roomba now, I think more of its myriad low-priced competitors that have similar looking disc shaped cleaners instead of a company like Dyson that has grown its presence in home-focused premium products by expanding to multiple categories.