Hi all,
First and foremost, I own a bunch of thermoworks products and have bought all of my friends and family members Thermapen MK4's when they would go on sale as gifts. I started to look at wifi based thermometers back in March and stumbled across the new Signals. I did my research and thought maybe the fireboard could be a little bit better, but I'm a thermoworks fanboy through and through and bought it to upgrade from my trusty Maverick 732.
I have a detached garage where my smoking is done about 50ft from my high end Asus tri-band router. I can use wifi on my smartphone reliably several houses down on the street, should be no problem right?
Everything about the signals worked as advertised, but I had this weird issue where it would stay connected for a couple hours then permanently lose connection until I turned the unit off and back on. The thermoworks app shows wifi signal strength and it could be better so I figured the Signals unit itself must have a lousy antenna in it. No big deal, I bought a $20 wifi signal extender to give it 100%. I shouldn't of had to do that but I'll make an honest effort to remedy the issue relatively cheaply. The same issues persisted.
Thermoworks contacts me a week after purchase asking how I liked the product. I said I love it but will be returning it if I can't figure out a solution to the above issues. I email back and forth with tech support for a week or so and they suggest the common sense stuff that might be wrong. None of it created a solution.
They say OK return it to us AT YOUR COST and we'll take a look at it. I protested and they said ok fine we'll email you a prepaid UPS shipping label. I ship it back and they get back to me 2 weeks later saying they couldn't recreate the issue and it is on the way back to me. I email back saying they should just keep it and refund my money as there is no point in sending back a product that doesn't function correctly. Keep in mind I'm at work on a construction site so I can't check my email every 30 seconds.
An Amanda McGrath who is the Tech support manager responds that she can only offer me $114 refund because the product is "well used" (I only cooked once and did not use all included probes) and is past the 30 day return window. WHAT!? This whole process started around 7 days after I bought it. She says I have to get back to her quickly within 2 hours so she can pull it from the shipping department if I want the less than 50% refund. I miss the deadline because I'm at work so it ships back to me.
I protest that it was only 7 days after purchase that I started my tech support case and she agrees and now offers a refund of $166 which is still far less than full purchase price of $229 plus tax and shipping it was around $246. I protest, go back and forth, and they essentially tell me to pound salt so I send it back the minute it arrives back at my house cutting my losses. I explained how many products I've bought and have in my own home and the other products I've bought for friends and family and how I recommend them to everyone who will listen. They didn't give a single crap about any of that. I told them I was going to write this. They didn't care. Needless to say I was surprised.
I will never buy another thermoworks product again. When my MK4 thermapen eventually needs replaced I'll buy something else even if that's the best.
I looked today and they have them on-sale for $194 down from $229. They couldn't even offer me $194.
There is a silver lining to all of this. After I returned it, I immediately order a Fireboard. It arrived quickly, and works perfectly. The phone app is much more refined, the build quality is excellent, it has a smaller footprint, the battery lasts longer, it can be charged with a standard USB adapter or battery pack unlike the stupid 12V adapter you have to use with the Signals.
The fireboard shows 50% signal strength where the Signals was and has never lost connection. Regardless of my thermoworks customer experience, the fireboard is a flat out better product in every way. I figured there aren't a lot of people who have owned both.
First and foremost, I own a bunch of thermoworks products and have bought all of my friends and family members Thermapen MK4's when they would go on sale as gifts. I started to look at wifi based thermometers back in March and stumbled across the new Signals. I did my research and thought maybe the fireboard could be a little bit better, but I'm a thermoworks fanboy through and through and bought it to upgrade from my trusty Maverick 732.
I have a detached garage where my smoking is done about 50ft from my high end Asus tri-band router. I can use wifi on my smartphone reliably several houses down on the street, should be no problem right?
Everything about the signals worked as advertised, but I had this weird issue where it would stay connected for a couple hours then permanently lose connection until I turned the unit off and back on. The thermoworks app shows wifi signal strength and it could be better so I figured the Signals unit itself must have a lousy antenna in it. No big deal, I bought a $20 wifi signal extender to give it 100%. I shouldn't of had to do that but I'll make an honest effort to remedy the issue relatively cheaply. The same issues persisted.
Thermoworks contacts me a week after purchase asking how I liked the product. I said I love it but will be returning it if I can't figure out a solution to the above issues. I email back and forth with tech support for a week or so and they suggest the common sense stuff that might be wrong. None of it created a solution.
They say OK return it to us AT YOUR COST and we'll take a look at it. I protested and they said ok fine we'll email you a prepaid UPS shipping label. I ship it back and they get back to me 2 weeks later saying they couldn't recreate the issue and it is on the way back to me. I email back saying they should just keep it and refund my money as there is no point in sending back a product that doesn't function correctly. Keep in mind I'm at work on a construction site so I can't check my email every 30 seconds.
An Amanda McGrath who is the Tech support manager responds that she can only offer me $114 refund because the product is "well used" (I only cooked once and did not use all included probes) and is past the 30 day return window. WHAT!? This whole process started around 7 days after I bought it. She says I have to get back to her quickly within 2 hours so she can pull it from the shipping department if I want the less than 50% refund. I miss the deadline because I'm at work so it ships back to me.
I protest that it was only 7 days after purchase that I started my tech support case and she agrees and now offers a refund of $166 which is still far less than full purchase price of $229 plus tax and shipping it was around $246. I protest, go back and forth, and they essentially tell me to pound salt so I send it back the minute it arrives back at my house cutting my losses. I explained how many products I've bought and have in my own home and the other products I've bought for friends and family and how I recommend them to everyone who will listen. They didn't give a single crap about any of that. I told them I was going to write this. They didn't care. Needless to say I was surprised.
I will never buy another thermoworks product again. When my MK4 thermapen eventually needs replaced I'll buy something else even if that's the best.
I looked today and they have them on-sale for $194 down from $229. They couldn't even offer me $194.
There is a silver lining to all of this. After I returned it, I immediately order a Fireboard. It arrived quickly, and works perfectly. The phone app is much more refined, the build quality is excellent, it has a smaller footprint, the battery lasts longer, it can be charged with a standard USB adapter or battery pack unlike the stupid 12V adapter you have to use with the Signals.
The fireboard shows 50% signal strength where the Signals was and has never lost connection. Regardless of my thermoworks customer experience, the fireboard is a flat out better product in every way. I figured there aren't a lot of people who have owned both.
