Dear Andre,

I'm Gianpiero Morbello, serving as the Head of IOT and Ecosystem at Haier Europe.

 It's a pleasure to hear from you. We just received your email, and coincidentally, I was in the process of sending you a mail with a similar suggestion.

I want to emphasize Haier Europe's enthusiasm for supporting initiatives in the open world. Please note that our IOT vision revolves around a three-pillar strategy:

    achieving 100% connectivity for our appliances,
    opening our IOT infrastructure (we are aligned with Matter and extensively integrating third-party connections through APIs, and looking for any other opportunity it might be interesting),
    and the third pillar involves enhancing consumer value through the integration of various appliances and services, as an example we are pretty active in the energy management opening our platform to solution which are coming from energy providers.

Our strategy's cornerstone is the IOT platform and the HON app, introduced on AWS in 2020 with a focus on Privacy and Security by Design principles. We're delighted that our HON connected appliances and solutions have been well-received so the number of connected active consumers is growing day after day, with high level of satisfaction proven by the high rates we receive in the App stores.

Prioritizing the efficiency of HON functions when making AWS calls has been crucial, particularly in light of the notable increase in active users mentioned above. This focus enables us to effectively control costs.

Recently, we've observed a substantial increase in AWS calls attributed to your plugin, prompting the communication you previously received as standard protocol for our company, but as mentioned earlier, we are committed to transparency and keenly interested in collaborating with you not only to optimize your plugin in alignment with our cost control objectives, but also to cooperate in better serving your community.

I propose scheduling a call involving our IOT Technology department to address the issue comprehensively and respond to any questions both parties may have.

Hope to hear back from you soon.

Best regards

Gianpiero Morbello
Head of Brand & IOT
Haier Europe

If only they would have reached out this way the first time instead of a cease and desist, their brand getting dragged through the mud could have been avoided.

  • ScrubblesOP
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    7710 months ago

    Oh absolutely agree, but this is where they can use it.

    The dev can say that they obviously need an official plugin, and work with them on that because now they have 1,800 clones of an unofficial one that may not be optimized.

    We also get to know that our tiny HA community has hit a critical mass large enough to get a corpo to freak out a bit

    • @SoleInvictus@lemmy.world
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      1510 months ago

      I did my part and sent them a “do this and I’ll never buy a Haier product” email. Corporations exist to maximize profits. Communities like ours just have to learn how to make it clear to them that shutting us out will hurt their profitability.

      I think we should all be really proud of ourselves. We banded together and, regardless of WHY Haier is doing this, got them to open a line of communication. This is a huge win!

      • @CurbsTickle@lemmy.world
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        410 months ago

        Yup, sent an email and left a message, calling out Haier, GE, Fisher Paykel, etc as not on my list anymore due to this behavior.

        I’ll call it a win when it’s fully resolved though.