10 months in: Narwal was the dream robo mop, until support made it a nightmare
This is a follow up to: https://www.reddit.com/r/NARWAL/comments/1u21c6x/narwal_flow_rewashes_the_mop_every_10_ft_and/
And its not a good one...
But I want to be fair to the product, because this isn't a "the robot sucks" post. The robot was great. Narwal wasn't even my top pick, it was my second choice, and I picked it anyway because I liked the idea of backing the "smaller company" trying to break into the market. Solid build, mopping that worked really well, and I recommended it to basically everyone who walked into my house!
Then in May, after a firmware update, the mopping broke. The robot started driving back to rewash the mop every ~10 feet, ignoring every setting, unable to finish a single room (see link at the top). That's when I met the ugly side of Narwal.
Eleven weeks. Nine different reps. A three-week "repair" at their service center that changed nothing. Their own troubleshooting then turned up a second defect (dock button doesn't work), confirmed live on a call with their rep. They said the dock was the issue (which I doubted) offered a replacement dock but refused to put in writing what happens if it didn't fix anything. I did every step, shipped it to them.
A week after they received it, (surprise) they tell me the replacement dock is out of stock with no restock timeline.
They required the dock, took it, and then admitted they can't replace it. The robot can't even charge now. Their final offer was about ~40% of what I paid, prorated for "months of use" that include the months the robot sat at their service center. Talk about a slap in the face.
But the absolute worst part is I work in AI, so I could recognize exactly what was happening in that support thread. Every reply very politely/plausibly drawing the process out, offering the same non-solutions in a loop - a process that seems designed to outlast you until you give up. I didn't give up, but I suspect that most people would.
Their warranty lists repair, equivalent exchange, or an upgraded-model exchange. I asked them to honor their warranty; management declined. So I've filed a JAMS consumer arbitration (PROTIP: their own terms name JAMS, costs a consumer $250 to file) and a complaint with the PA Attorney General. I'll update with how it goes.
The product deserved better owners of its customer experience. If you buy one, you better hope you never need support