iRobot
Reviews and Complaints

I have tried the iRobot 985 that I was please with however felt it was too expensive so I tried both the iRobot E6 and a Dyson. While I found the more expensive 985 seemed to work very well I did feel it was too expensive so I tried the other two. The Dyson wasn't even worth my time so I tried the E6 to save about $200+ but also assuming the $200 difference would be minimal. Was I ever wrong - the E6 isn't more than tying a cheap vacuum onto you pet and ask it to walk around your house for, if you're lucky 90 minutes.
When I called to complain and to see if perhaps I just got a bad product I was told that basically none of the reasons for buying an AI Robot Vacuum were programmed into the E6 - and as a customer service unit I have NEVER spoken to four worse customer service individuals as I did at iRobot. I am now going to return this iRobot back to Costco and give up (or if I feel I can afford it I could buy the 980 for about $700 tax included! Not a small amount of money for anyone.
But bottom line not one iRobot Consumer Service team member had any idea on how to handle disappointed customers nor does their management who also could care less about my complaints - the only thing good I can say is the last person I spoke with listened and once I was done simply said "thank you" and we ended the call!

Good day,

Could you please clarify whether it is IRobot's company policy to not disclose known product faults to their clients? Three weeks ago, I arrived to the IRobot store in Raanana (Israel) in order to buy a new battery for the IRobot I had - which was one of the first kinds sold in Israel and which worked perfectly. The store employees convinced me to upgrade to a newer version, and thus trade my older IRobot in for a newer one.

That said, they did not disclose that after two weeks there will be a technical fault which would hinder me from making use of the product (Error 15), by making it impossible to neutralise the IRobot when holding down both buttons.

After having spoken to technical support, I was told that the product needed to be taken to the lab by a delivery service, and that it is on the customer to wait for the delivery person for 4 hours during the word day, which is utterly unacceptable. Should I decide to cancel the trade in, I was told that I would not receive my old IRobot back and that I would also lose an additional 30% of the cost of the trade in. Therefore, a loyal and return customer of IRobot is being forced to lose not only in the quality of the product, but also suffer financially.

Why is it that once you purchase an IRobot you receive such unprofessional and unjust customer support? Why is it that the full cost of the product is not returned to the customer when it is evident and understood that it is faulty? Why does IRobot not take responsibility for its products? I have lost faith and trust in your products and despite having taken a financial loss twice due to your lack of service and faulty products, I will no longer make use of the IRobot.

regards
Margalit perez
Israel
Raanana

I have purchased a robot vacuum from www.irobot.com and it broke after two weeks of using. There were no visible damages, it just stopped working and that's it. I sent them a message and told everything I thought about them and their junk product. I would not recommend buying these garbage robots, very poor quality! I threw it into the garbage can. Just a waste of money.

I have purchased 3 products from iRobot over the past 2 years - 2 Roomba and 1 Scooba. All 3 died while out of warranty. In all 3 cases, I called iRobot customer service and got the same answers, which reduce to this sequence: Clean it. Bang on it. Clean it again. Bang on it harder. Buy parts if you want to fix it yourself (assuming you know what parts to replace). Otherwise, throw it away. Buy a newer model. iRobot does NOT service / repair ANY of their consumer products.

My latest (and LAST) call to their customer "no" service connected me to someone who obviously is tired of having to tell customers to clean/bang/self-service/dispose/buy replacement. The customer service rep sounded like a robot as though they were embarrassed having to tell yet another customer the same story.

I was seriously thinking about buying one of their new Braava mopping robots. After this latest call to iRobot it is clear to me that iRobot does not produce products that last. They work great until they malfunction. Once they do, you can try to fix it yourself, and eventually have an expensive piece of worthless junk that you have to dispose of.

I believe it is enlightening to look at how many different models of cleaning robots they no longer make in the Roomba, Scooba, Braava, Mirra, Looj, DirtDog, etc. product lines. I believe this indicates they have problems and are constantly trying to come up with a newer model that fixes them.

To anyone who is considering purchasing one of iRobot's products, before you do, call them up and ask them what happens if the product malfunctions / breaks outside of the warranty period.

Personally I will NEVER purchase another product from iRobot.

I purchased an iRobot Roomba 562 vacuum along with additional filters and an APS battery as a Christmas gift. The person I bought it for was not interested in this product so I returned all items to iRobot. I followed their return process in great detail; e.g., received return authorization numbers and sent it back to them in original packaging via UPS (at my cost of $60.00). Within 2 weeks I received email confirmation that the returns were received and that credit had been applied to my credit card. Well...credits never showed up. I called iRobot customer service and was told that their automated crediting system had not functioned for a few days and that my credits would be done "manually." I've since made 8 phone calls with little success. The original notification that credit had been applied was sent to me on January 21, 2011. It is now February 17, 2011. I did receive credit for one of the orders returned (for the APS battery) but I have yet to receive credit for the vacuum (for $421.67). Customer service reps have been polite but unable to perform this simple task. The products were returned and credit approved but yet, my credit card still carries this balance. I WILL NEVER DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY AGAIN!

I remember the first time I saw her, sitting in the showcase window;

with all the bells and whistles my eyes went shallow.

I fell for her, I fell in love with a beautiful Roomba named "Rosey"

her brilliant red that cascaded color still looks just as lovely.

Me and "Rosey" had many days and many weeks of cleaning,

from hardwood flooors straight to rugs she went with no complaining.

She never complained about the way I left my cords on the floor,

& I always left her virtual wall set out right infront the door.

Oh..., how I loved my "Rosey" with her color cascade Red,

until one faithful morning I woke up and she was dead.

"Rosey" has no lights, no lights, no lights on "Rosey"

I took out her battery and did the reset just as they had told me.

But still there sat my "Rosey" still connected to the base,

With not a button glowing but everthing inplace.

I called up tech support and they gave me the obvious answer,

Just as I had suspected my "Rosey" has gone to her Roomba maker.

So there I sat on the phone with a person who bearly speaks english,

Telling me about charging mechanisums and all sorths of giberish...

I then spoke to a supervisor who I thought would be more helpful than the first

But she just said the same thing... infact she said it worst!

They want me to purchase another "Rosey" now

What are these people thinking? I'll buy milk when I already bought the Cow...!

They offered me a discount much to my suprise,

The discount wasn't bad but I didn't want to buy.

So there I sat with "Rosey" not a light is showing,

I asked the supervisor to have this escalated.

She then placed me on hold and I was connected to another,

This time I got a man so you could just imagine how he couldn't be bothered.

To be quite truthful he tried to help but I really didn't let him,

I just kept yelling and screaming Co-operate, Co-operate, Co-operate

All of a sudden things changed and stated looking up for me,

I finally got the response I wanted and a new "Rosey".

To all iRobot customer who can't get help today,

just mention the word Co-operate and I'm sure you'll get your way.

Hello,

I bought the Scooba from iRobot only to be disappointed like most people. These machines break and no one at iRobot wants to fix the product. They simply tell you to buy a new one (and they will keep the old one for parts). Very Very Very Dirty Business Mr. iRobot! I have read so many horrible complaints. People are scanning the internet for answers, and finding little to no professional help. Repair companies offer to fix the problem, but you have no way of knowing if even they are telling you the truth when you are told again to just buy another one. My best advise is to stay as far away from iRobot temptation as possible. It's a gimmick, plain and simple. They pay for the ads and we buy the bait. Don't believe me? Start reading the reviews and complaints. Start reading the blogs on finding repair info for this machine. Do your homework before you buy!

I bought my Roomba as a gift to myself for my birthday in March 2009. By June 2009 the product was useless. I tried to clean it as instructed, changed the brushes etc and the thing would still not work poperly. I sent emails to customer service at iRobot numerous times with no response. Finally I called them in November 2009 and asked to return it thinking I had a 1 year warranty. SURPRISE! Its a 30 day warranty! A toaster has a better warranty than that!

If you get a Roomba realize you will spend more time cleaning it than you will getting use out of it.

Do not bother buying anything from iRobot. Poor product, poor warranty, poor customer service. In other words, Junk!

I bought a rumba from Irobot and it only workede once and never worked. I have called about 5 times to the call center and the call center's agents english is horrible and they just keep giving me the run around. They won't transfer me to a manager or supervisor and I end up waiting to speak to a rep for about 45 min. and after I get to talk to them it takes another 45 min. to explain a 2 sentance problem because the don't understand english. DO NOT BUY AN IROBOT. Not worth the money and you will not receive help from the call center.

I bought a NEW Roomba 560 from an eBay seller. I register the product in the company site and the site says its covered under warranty until November 2009. When I contacted the customer support about a battery issue, they are saying that the item is covered under warranty since it’s bought from eBay. They are pointing me to a policy section in their site to show me that it’s their policy.

If that was their policy, they shouldn't be saying that it’s not covered under warranty in the registration page.

The customer service people are not ready to listen. They keep telling you the same thing over and over again and again. If they found a discrepancy in registration and their policy, they should be taking the responsibility and honoring what is posted in the registration form.

Now, they lost a customer for ever.

My Roomba 580 stopped working in December. I submitted numerous emails requesting customer assistance. After several email exchanges (most were never returned) I called in to tech support. Finding someone that spoke english well enough to understand was a challenge. After consultation with someone else the customer service rep gave me an RMA number to ship the unit back. The Unit was shipped January 13, 2009. On February 4th I inquired about my RMA number via another tech ticket. They indicated they had never recieved the unit and I must supply proof of delivery. I provided the tracking number which shows they received the unit January 16 2009 and that it was signed for. Suddenly the original RMA was updated to indicate that a new unit would be shipping.

I have asked repeatedly if I could elevate my case to a supervisor due to the poor service so perhaps they could fix the issues. I have asked five time giving them a direct cell number. The response was that the tickets both were closed.

I have emailed the president at i robot. I do not expect to hear from the clown.

I purchased a Roomba 4110 robot vacuum from amazon.com in January 2008. So far, I've been quite pleased with the product. However, the robot started experiencing service-affecting issues in May 2008. I tried calling irobot's "Customer Care" number listed in the product manual [protected]) to find out how to get a replacement. After-hours basically tells you to call back. So I called back during business hours. I was never able to get past their IVR to talk to anyone. Then their system told me to go online and type in RMA in the site search box. I opened a support case, suppling all the information on their on-line form. Then I got an automated response telling me the check a few things. I did this, and responded back that it was still not working. Email conversations went back and forth with irobot requesting my address (which I had already supplied) the Roomba product code (already supplied), and charger product code and purchase date (already supplied). They kept requesting this information even though I made sure to go into their support case and supply it. This banter took over 40 days! Finally, they emailed me with an RMA number and instructions on how to send it to them. I followed these instructions to a 'T'! After I had not heard any status in two weeks, I posted a request to the support case. The next day, I received an email stating that there was no record of my shipment. (even though I had a confirmation number and the name of the signee from UPS!) Now here it is, over 2 months since I originally reported the problem, and I'm having to battle their belligerently poor customer service just to get a simple product exchange!
I started wondering if I was the only one who experienced such pitiful warranty exchange service from irobot. It didn't take much searching (BBB, complaintsboard.com, complaints.com, and numerous forum boards) before I found that this was business-as-usual for irobot. By the way, irobot does not pay for the shipping...so I'm currently out the cost of a robot, plus $10 bucks for shipping. I've been more that patient so far, but now I feel ripped off! What good has this product done for me in the last two months?! I opened a BBB case (166918).
This is such a shame...While I really like the robot vacuum, it's just not worth the hassle if you ever need a warranty exchange. This company's product has great potential, but their customer service department will keep me from buying another one of their products in the future. Hopefully irobot will get their act together and make their customer service perform to the level that is expected of their products! --Dissatisfied Roomba owner

I have never been treated so poorly and I still don't have a working Roomba. I received my Roomba without a battery. After speaking with customer "no-service", I was told I would be shipped a battery within a week. I paid for expedited delivery and demanded a credit for the expedited shipping charge and overnight shipment of the batter. After sitting on hold for 5 minutes, I finally got the credit, but was refused overnight delivery of the battery. When I was transferred to a "supervisor" who refused to give her name, I was told very rudely that I would get the battery within 2 days and that's all she would do.

Not 2 minutes later I received an email stating that I couldn't receive the battery because there were non available. "Thanks!" Thanks? Are you kidding me? After being passed around from agent to agent who didn't understand why there was a problem (News Flash Agents - Roomba doesn't work without a battery!) I finally spoke with an equally rude Supervisor who finally gave his name "Josh ID # 79013). Now they say they'll ship a new Roomba and I have to return the old one and sit at home and wait on the UPS guy to come pick it up OR drive to a UPS location and drop it off.

Really?! Really?! iRobot is the worst company I have ever dealt with. I have never been spoken to so rudely by customer service in my life.

DO NOT BY FROM IROBOT! THEY ARE TERRIBLE TO DO BUSINESS WITH! BUYER BEWARE!

Similar complaint to the previous. Customer Service is extremly lacking. CS is not worth it. They are selling a product that is not supposed to last you for very long. That is why they have all sorts of procedures to return it because they know that you will have to. Law of numbers applies here. Most people will buy it and forget it once it breaks ...and it will break. They are quick to sell you a replacement one if you are "out of warranty" at a "reduced price" Spend the money somewhere else and get up and push the vaccuum. Think of it as excercise.

I purchased a Roomba (robotic vaccuum cleaner) from iRobot. The company I work for has manufactured components for iRobot's tactical product line, so I was aware of their commitment to quality, and assumed that it would be reflected in their consumer products as well.

The first one I had died 10 minutes into its first use. The brush drive motor self destructed, causing a great grinding noise to come from the machine. It ultimately took 3 weeks for a warranty exchange.

They (technical support) decided that the reason why the replacement robot didn't work - no sound, only travels in backward little jerky movements 90% of the time, won't dock, wont respond to the remote control, drives right down the steps without ever slowing down... is because the battery needs replaced.

The second agent I spoke with (when a new battery failed to resolve any of the issues) told me I needed to clean the sensors.

When that didn't fix it, the third agent told me that if the speaker isnt working, then it doesn't matter if the battery is good or bad, or if it is dirty or not... the entire robot needs replaced. According to the information he had in front of him, the only problem that I had reported was that it wasn't spending as much time cleaning as it used to. I pointed out that I had never claimed that as a problem, I had, in fact, explained exactly the same symptoms to every person I spoke with.

He sent me 2 emails that told me how to prepare it for shipping, but no RMA number. The first email told me to watch for a subsequent email that would have my RMA number.

After 4 days of waiting for the 'subsequent email with an RMA number', I finally called to request one from a real person. The agent I spoke with gave me a 12-digit RMA number. (For the record: [protected])

I shipped it back with the RMA number clearly visible on the box, and the shipping label, and emailed iRobot the tracking number (1Z71155F0395020217), RMA number, and expected delivery date.

They replied to *that very email* 2 hours later with �?Here's your RMA number.' And this one was totally different. (The new number is: [protected])

I called and explained that I had been given 2 different RMA numbers.

I was told that I shipped it back with an invalid RMA number, and that was going to cause problems, but that it would be noted on my ticket.

Three days later, the unit was received by iRobot. I called when I received a delivery confirmation from them.

They told me that a robot was not received on that RMA number and that I would not receive my 'warranty exchange unit' (code for 'another refurb to replace the new one that didnt work') until they had received my defective one on the RMA number I had been given.

I tried to explain that I already did that... even have a confirmation that 'Murray' signed for it... But that didn’t matter, because the RMA number in their system does not show a returned unit, and that I would not receive my warranty exchange unit until they receive my defective one on the RMA number I had been given.

I started demanding to speak with someone who could find answers for me.

They then began providing lip service for me:
I was told that it had already shipped, but that they don't have a tracking number because 'it doesn't work that way' (whatever THAT means.)

Several days later I received an email that said it would be released for shipment in 2-3 business days.

4 business days later, I called and was told it was on the dock and would ship out that day.

Several days later, I was told that it had shipped the day before.

The next day I received an email saying it would ship in 2-3 business days.

I called and demanded an honest and true indication as to the status of my robot. I was told that they couldn't help me because they couldn't 'work with' the RMA number I had been given, and that I would have to take it up with the sales department.

The sales department couldn't find any record of the RMA number at all, and told me that I needed to take it up with technical support.

A supervisor told me that I needed to take it back to the store where I bought it in the first place (He told me this after I told him I had returned the unit to iRobot, gave him the shipping information, the delivery receipt date and recipient, and all of the RMA numbers and ticket numbers...)

My frustration level at this point was higher than it has been with any company or product in memory.

That's when I just gave up and decided it was wasting more of my time than the thing was even worth in the first place.

So now they have my robot, they have my money, and they have no desire or ability to return either one to me.

So I took the components that I did NOT return to them (the charger, the battery, the dirt bin, the virtual walls, and the remote) and I threw them in the dumpster.

iRobot wins.

I give up.

They have defeated me.

Their technical support agents contradict each other, they give out conflicting instructions and information, they give out wildly varying diagnoses to exactly the same symptoms, and they ignore such facts as 'delivery confirmation receipts'.

They pass customers off to other agents or departments who are even less helpful or competent than the previous one, and they are unable to offer any explanation as to why this sort of behaviour is acceptable from their staff.

I am tired of playing with them, the cost of the robot, plus the cost of sending 2 defective units back to them, is a pricey way to get their point across to me, but I feel that they will get my money's worth. I will take the education I received from them, and use it to in turn educate as many people as I can... They have a nice concept, but their product quality is inferior. I base that statement on the fact that 100% of their products that I have used have quit working within 10 minutes of their first use.
I faxed the company and instructed them to keep the robot; I am tired of dealing with them after 9 months. I have filed a report with the BBB in their area, and I am seeking reimbursement of the $10.85 it cost me to send the second one back to them.

Their customer service department is unable to diagnose a problem consistently from one person to the next. They give out conflicting information, but are unable to acknowledge that they made a mistake. They do anything in their power to alienate their customers and make the process so cumbersome that it is easier to just give up and walk away than it is to find even one employee who is willing to look at a situation and make a decision to satisfy the customer rather than perpetuate the nightmare.

They are the stereotypical American company that sells a shoddy product, refuses to stand behind it, takes the customer's money, and slams the door in their face.

I will do everything I am able to make sure that anyone I can reach will know what a horrible company iRobot is.

Our IRobot stopped working correctly. So we call them up, and they say we need a new unit that the charger we have wont work with another unit.

So we buy another one, and only get half the product. We have to call and wait for the next half to come.

We finally try it and the same problem happens. We call again, and are told now we have to buy a new battery. That’s what was wrong with the first one.

Then they say we have to pay shipping again. Plus, they're only good for 2 years. I feel they should tell you that in the first place. These are not cheap items.