Remote S: Tesla app for Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

[bollar]

Go here for further communications with Allen https://www.facebook.com/allenapp?fref=nf

Thanks for sharing this link.

If I understand Allen correctly, he has been invited to become a sponsor here at TMC and won't be able to post in this thread unless he does. His view is the RemoteS app doesn't generate enough revenue to cover the sponsorship costs, so he will be providing support elsewhere -- like this Facebook group linked above.

 

[stsanford]

Thanks for sharing this link.

If I understand Allen correctly, he has been invited to become a sponsor here at TMC and won't be able to post in this thread unless he does. His view is the RemoteS app doesn't generate enough revenue to cover the sponsorship costs, so he will be providing support elsewhere -- like this Facebook group linked above.

Thanks Bollar, as a user of Allen's app, I'll be checking around here to see if there's anything I can help with in the meantime, and to help direct people to proper channels for support. Don't forget there are support links within the app itself.

I don't want to see fellow Tesla users impacted because of sponsorship. Wonder if the Visible Tesla creator is also being ... a-hem, affected.... I know I found his app through this forum, which I truly appreciate, but I searched the App Store weekly to see if anyone had developed the Apple Watch Tesla app, so I would have found it at some point without this forum.

 

[gizmoboy]

Thanks for sharing this link.

If I understand Allen correctly, he has been invited to become a sponsor here at TMC and won't be able to post in this thread unless he does. His view is the RemoteS app doesn't generate enough revenue to cover the sponsorship costs, so he will be providing support elsewhere -- like this Facebook group linked above.

This is disappointing if true. Alan has been simultaneously extremely available and very low-key about his app.

I don't see him plugging it all over the forums; there's just the one thread that all support is in.

This support thread drove me to your site from the official TM forum, and while I'm here to stay, I believe it would do/has done the same for others.

 

[russman]

I find this a little disconcerting about TMC if true. Here is the verbiage from his facebook page:

"By the way, if any TMC forum members are reading this: I tried answering the questions posted about my app on the Remote S thread, but the forum owners decided to suddenly disallow me to post. Today they emailed me and asked that I pay them a few hundreds of dollars month if I want to post in the forums again (yes, I have to pay them thousands of ...dollars per year to able to answer questions and respond to feedback posted by existing users of my app - an app that doesn't even make that much money for me). So the reason I haven't had my famous quick response customer service isn't that I haven't been responding (I tried and my messages never get posted). It's because I'm not allowed to at the moment, because someone wants to take money from me. Sigh. Anyway, if the more experienced Remote S users can just respond to the less experienced users of Remote S with questions for me on the forum, then that would great. Help each other out. If there's a question nobody can answer, email me directly. In the meantime, I'm going to take this opportunity to take a break from giving customer service via TMC. I was only providing the feedback/quick reply back to the users as a way of benefiting the whole Tesla community. But if it's goes unappreciated like this where I have to pay someone else for me to do my work, then the choice is clear to me: I have better things to do with my time like rest and recover from surgery."

 

[mdevp]

This is horrible, shame on TMC. I think others would agree.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

This is horrible, shame on TMC. I think others would agree.

Absolutely agree. This is really poor form.

 

[Bet TSLA]

I find this a little disconcerting about TMC if true....

I don't. Seems reasonable. If they allow unrestricted posting by every vendor who wants to post here, then it will get very commercial very fast. Alan is in a position of selling a fairly cheap item into a fairly small market, so becoming a sponsor makes no economic sense. In the spirit of having simple rules the same for everybody, I see no problem with posts here (and links in the app) that say nothing more than "go to such and such a place for support".

It's difficult to come up with good rules that are the same for everybody without it making no sense in some cases. This is one case, but such is life. I'm sure we can discuss the app here as much as we like. I won't be surprised if the same thing happens with the CPO consolidator site support now that it's bringing in money.

 

[Andyw2100]

Wonder if the Visible Tesla creator is also being ... a-hem, affected.... I know I found his app through this forum, which I truly appreciate, but I searched the App Store weekly to see if anyone had developed the Apple Watch Tesla app, so I would have found it at some point without this forum.

Visible Tesla is free, and always has been, so the comparison is not valid.

That being said, I agree that Allen really was not "pushing" his app via TMC, but rather was primarily providing support and seeking our input in order to improve the app. But the improvements he was agreeing to make based on our suggestions were unlikely to significantly increase his sales. Instead they were likely to just give us more functionality.

Perhaps some sort of agreement might be reached in which Allen agrees not to attempt to market the app, in exchange for continuing to be able to support it as before.

 

[gizmoboy]

Perhaps some sort of agreement might be reached in which Allen agrees not to attempt to market the app, in exchange for continuing to be able to support it as before.

Why the hell would he jump through any hoops when he was the least objectionable vendor rep I've ever seen on a board?

His interactions here benefitted us FAR more than they benefitted him.

This was a tone deaf response by the board owners. They were within their rights to do it, but imnsho they were just plain wrong.

 

[Andyw2100]

Why the hell would he jump through any hoops when he was the least objectionable vendor rep I've ever seen on a board?

His interactions here benefitted us FAR more than they benefitted him.

This was a tone deaf response by the board owners. They were within their rights to do it, but imnsho they were just plain wrong.

I don't know what hoops you think I'm suggesting Allen jump through. As it stands, he can't post at all unless he pays to be a sponsor. I'm suggesting that perhaps an agreement could be reached that would allow everything to go back to the way it was, provided Allen agreed not to attempt to market the app. That's not "jumping through hoops." It is giving up a bit of a freedom that he enjoyed, but not one that he enjoys at the moment, in order to be able to at least post on TMC again.

 

[lg_golfs]

I donated to TMC partially because of people like Allen being here.

I participate on some wine boards as well and they have a separate section for product support (wine corked, shipping / weather tracking, drinking windows, harvest information, etc). Those companies pay a small fee to help with the increased moderation and there are firm rules in place as to where they can post deals, etc.

I am curious about TMCs policy regarding sponsorship / advertising. Is it posted somewhere?

 

[rogerkang]

I have REMOTE ACCESS in the car set to ON.
I'm not sure if that's what you mean. If not please tell me how to reach that menu pick "always connected".

Ken, it's not the app's fault and it's not necessarily the case where "Tesla Servers are Busy" either.

If the car cannot connect to the severs for whatever reason, it can't let you in with the app. I was on a recent trip and could not access my car to see the charging status--and this was *right* after I plugged into the supercharger and walked away. It was odd because I could connect to my other Tesla 500 miles away.

I came back to see that the screen had frozen and required a reboot before the car's 3G radio got working again.

I've also been in a situation where the car would not finish "powering system up" and I had to use the app to enable keyless driving, which nudged the car to turn on.

It's good to have both the fob and the phone app.

Note: when this particular app shows "servers are busy," that might not necessarily be the case. The car might not be communicating with the servers.

Next time this happens to you, maybe after 20 mins you can call Tesla first and see if they can wake the car and let you in. I'm sorry you had to wait for an hour!

 

[Johan]

This thing with Allen and TMC is very unfortunate indeed. Especially since I dislike and don't use Facebook.

I will follow this issue and hear both sides of the story before I donate to TMC again (I've donated quite a few times over the years).

 

[russman]

Only Allen and TMC know how the communication went and we have Allen's side of the story.

There's a big difference between, hey we'd love for you to donate or be a sponsor on the forum as it would be really helpful for us vs you can't post until you sponsor anymore, because it looks like you make money and we want some.

I'm not saying either happened, but it feels like how Yelp has been accused of taking 5 star reviews away from business that don't sign up with them....

 

[danny]

Hi everyone. Please don't worry about this. This was simply bit of an overreaction on the part of Allen.

We only made contact with Allen yesterday just giving him the standard run down of what it takes to function as a business on TMC, what we send to anyone conducting commercial activity on the forum. We try to have a level playing field for all such individuals, so this was standard procedure. He then responded explaining that this is a small operation and that he doesn't want to use the forum for commercial activity, but simply to provide support. This is reasonable and something we can allow, as it is something TMC users would appreciate, so we were about to respond to him saying that we can allow him to continue to provide support in this thread alone, as long as he changes his username and avatar. However, he unfortunately jumped to conclusions before giving us proper chance to respond.

Please allow us time to work this out with him.

 

[AnOutsider]

I donated to TMC partially because of people like Allen being here.

I participate on some wine boards as well and they have a separate section for product support (wine corked, shipping / weather tracking, drinking windows, harvest information, etc). Those companies pay a small fee to help with the increased moderation and there are firm rules in place as to where they can post deals, etc.

I am curious about TMCs policy regarding sponsorship / advertising. Is it posted somewhere?

There is. It's here: Advertising Policy

As Danny said, it's being worked out.

 

[AllenWong]

Test test. Am I back on now?

Edit: Looks like I'm back again with a new user name. Let's just pretend that none of this happened and go back to business as usual. I hold no grudges, I dislike drama, and am thankful that TMC has reinstated my ability to post again. As a courtesy for letting me use their forums a tool to communicate with my existing users, I will now post a link in my app to this thread and make it the official support thread for Remote S. TMC will get new Tesla users and more page views (i.e. Ad revenue) through that link. I am not someone who doesn't help back the people who help me.

 

[bollar]

Test test. Am I back on now?

Hi!

 

[bollar]

Test test. Am I back on now?

Hi there!

 

[dsm363]

Great! Glad things were worked out. Welcome back.