The level of autonomy achieved by a robot, whether its Yarbo or Roborock, will be different in every yard/house. Add to that the high level of expectations due to the promises made by the manufacturer, the same robot could be a time saver for some and a headache for others.
I still want to come back to Yarbo, but I don’t see that happening for few years due to the current state of their product.
I really want to see Yarbo succeed. So my personal focus is on suggesting areas of improvement that I think will benefit myself and other Yarbo owners. We are all well aware of Yarbo’s current status and issues. No point in beating a dead horse. But maybe we can help them become more than they are today, and reap the benefits as a result.
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I hope Yarbo can relay all this feedback to their management.
I agree. When I owned Yarbo -
- I was active on Facebook group assisting others and posting issues/suggestion (many of them were not approved by admins due to cancel culture)
- Created several requests on the forum for enhancements.
- Created support tickets for every bug I encountered.
I was enthusiastic and really wanted my Yarbo to work well for everyone. However, my enthusiasm and patience died after 2 months when
- I saw no traction from the company on my showstopper issues (optics are important).
- Experienced extensive damage to various things in my yard.
- Ran into Yarbo’s limitations (confirmed by Support) that left parts of my lawn unmowed.
I would love to sit down with Yarbo on a video call and go over every single issue/detail mentioned in my first post above, but somehow I feel that’s not what they want.
Also - lets not forget that not everyone wants to be a beta tester after spending $6k on a machine. Some people are happy to work through the issues and some just want the machine to work without any hassle.
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I would agree. There is a big difference between “Yarbo doesn’t map efficiently” and “Yarbo doesn’t have the promised object avoidance and ran into a car”. Unfortunately, it seems the voices for minor unpolished issues are just as loud or louder than for major missing features.
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True, but what might be minor issue for one maybe a major issue for others. Someone with a sloped yard will have completely different set of issues and priorities, than someone who has a flat yard.
It’s time to call spade a spade. Both positive and negative criticism needs to be in place to hold Yarbo accountable for the promises they have made and the money they have taken from the customers. They aren’t doing charity and paying customer aren’t free beta testers.
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So after 2 months of owning where you able to get your money refunded, or did you have to sell it?
Sold. The damage caused to the yard regularly, the damage caused to the robot itself, plus all the frustration just wasn’t worth dealing with. I can’t imagine dealing with a completely new set of challenges in winter with the snowblower module. That’s a scary thought for me
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I’ve read through all the posts in the topic and appreciate all your feedback on the current Yarbo. I’ve also passed some of the insights along to our management team. We always value our users’ feedback, as it’s your support that helps us become a better brand and provide better products.
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I feel your pain. I’ve only had a Yarbo for a couple of months and nothing but issues. The current unit is sitting in my garage and won’t work due to some issue that somehow occurred while it was sitting in the garage charging. I wanted it to work but ready to throw it out and certainly will never recommend the product. The company does not support it well either. That’s a whole other story.
I’m sure I’m going to be offered my third unit to “fix” the problem but will wind up with issues and stuck in a constant loop of replacement as I am currently. If the company truly cared about their customers and products they would behave differently but I see everywhere people posting the same issues and responses.
Sad, but expected when the company is solely focused on selling units.
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Yes, I am one of the testers. My core bricked on June 6. I was out of town for two weeks after that so my core didn’t get replaced until July 7. I remapped and am testing again. Yes, it can be frustrating waiting on customer service but I try to look at the bright side, the longer it takes for a replacement core to ship, the less trouble I will have with the replacement. This has been the true for my new core. Fewer problems and annoyances that my original core so far. It’s not always easy but I believe the product will continue to improve. Personally, I would much rather have Yarbo employees work on improvements, even if it takes a little longer to hear hback (within reason)
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Technology takes time to improve and iterate. This is not just Yarbo but any phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, car, truck, boat or anything else that has technology built into it. I do believe the cell phone and internet has introduced and cemented the fact that we as humans are now very impatient when it comes to technology. Having everything in our hands RIGHT now and not allowing the time needed to iterate and improve. I am looking at the mirror myself as I am impatient when it comes to technology and I work in the industry.
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They advertise that they have 3 US warehouses - CA, Chicago and NY. Yet, everything for me, including the replacement core, shipped from CA. I am in New England. So the extra days it takes for cross country transit can easily be shaved off if the closest warehouse is used for fulfillment.
This isn’t ideal in a dead machine scenario, as it requires the customer to rent or buy a new machine to take care of snow/grass. I myself had to buy a backup mower during the 3 weeks of downtime, which could have been easily reduced to 5-6 days if the process was efficient. Based on my personal experience and how unreliable Yarbo is, I think a backup mower./snowblower is an absolute must have.
I pre-ordered the 2024 ‘everything including the kitchen sink package’ with the snow blower, snow plow, mower, leaf blower, dry and wet spreaders, edger, and trimmer. At first I just wanted a remote control mower that could handle “heart attack hill” with reliability. For years I wanted one of those robot mowers with the perimeter wire that looked like a little tykes sandbox lid and did stupid random patterns all over the lawn. I’m glad I waited and did my research. My buddy at work suggested the Yarbo for it’s modular approach which appealed to me.
Yes, it has a few features that need refining. What product doesn’t? Do you run Windows on your computer?!?! I’m an IT guy and I understand updates and such. I was willing to work through those in order to gain productivity and not kill myself on the hill in my back yard.
I have to say, it was worth the wait. It does what I wanted and then some. Can’t wait until the new mower module arrives for my farm apiary property. I’m looking forward to the spreaders too. But what I love is the fact that I can be having my morning coffee and breakfast while the little dude is mowing heart attack hill in 90 degree temps with soul crushing humidity and not so much as a complaint. If it does more than that, based on my requirements, the added value is a cherry and whipped cream on top. The only downside I have experienced is now I have more time to do stuff my wife tells me I need to do. LOL
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I loved the response and even got a good laugh out of it. Thanks for being slightly humorous in your response!
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I am a @PropellerHead myself as a Navy Aviation Veteran,
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I totally agree. I am in the midwest and it takes 7-10 days for replacements after all of the troubleshooting. I can only imagine how long it would take to go from California to New England.
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It seems that most of us want yarbo to succeed. However it really does seem like we are the guinea pigs. I 100% agree that there needs to be a warranty extension/reset on replacement cores if nothing else. Without the core everything else is useless. I am assuming this is not the norm but I just received my 4th core in less than a year. In fairness I haven’t had any issues with customer service/support but I too will become a disgruntled owner if next year I am told that my warranty has expired. I have not given up yet but the peace of mind of an extended warranty would go a long way.
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My yarbo just finished its full month of mowing (All of July…was hot as heck here in MI). I only had to rescue it once because it stopped mid job due to software update. No big deal. Outside of that everything has worked for me as intended. I do agree that some of the stated features I was told I would have but dont or doesnt work enough to function is a bit annoying but its not effecting my primary use of just cutting my grass. I have about 4 acres right now that its mowing for me every week. I research a lot (probably we’ll above the average consumer) so I knew beforehand some of the mods or adjustments and considerations to think about before my purchase. Stuff like removing the blade guards on the mower module and knowing where my lawn is going to be turn destroyed and carefully mapping these areas. I haven’t retired my zero turn but yarbo is cutting back 90% of my mowing time. For now i manually mow areas the yarbo isnt equipped to handle and perimeter cleanup/weed hacking. Im eager to mess with the trimmer I pre ordered whenever it comes. I also ordered the pro mower and will maintain the old razor mower as a backup. I understand the frustration regarding not having an option for a trade in if you had somewhat just bought the original but now want the pro… thats a tough one to swallow but honestly would be what I would expect from most of my tech type purchases. I mean what consumer tech product isn’t constantly in a flux of new releases. They just better continue to optimize older versions and I haven’t been a customer long enough to trust this yet. This isn’t for everyone and I wouldnt rec this product to individuals if they arnt able to troubleshoot issues on their own but I love my yarbo so far and thankful for the time its saved me from mowing in July and sweating my butt off.
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I completely agree and I couldn’t have said it better myself. My experience is very much the same, except I’ve been using mine since October and the mower since late November.
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