Oral-B Takes ‘Alexa’ Feature Away From Its Toothbrush Base 4 Years After Selling Them
from the alexa-how-do-i-refund-my-toothbrush? dept
Here we are again, with yet another in our series of posts describing how in these here modern times you simply don’t actually own the things you’ve bought. This sort of thing takes many forms, of course. Sometimes the digital media you “bought” gets disappeared by a platform after a licensing deal runs out. Sometimes the hardware you bought turns into a relatively expensive brick because the company you bought it from decides to stop supporting those devices entirely. And, as Sony made famous with its PlayStation 3, sometimes a company simply decides to disappear a feature that was a selling point on a product on a whim.
Well, that last and oldest example appears to be the most analogous to what Oral-B just did to customers of some of its toothbrushes, which came with a charging base that you could connect to an Amazon Alexa.
That’s what’s happening to some who bought into Oral-B toothbrushes with Amazon Alexa built in. Oral-B released the Guide for $230 in August 2020 but bricked the ability to set up or reconfigure Alexa on the product this February. As of this writing, the Guide is still available through a third-party Amazon seller.
The Guide toothbrush’s charging base was able to connect to the Internet and work like an Alexa speaker that you could speak to and from which Alexa could respond. Owners could “ask to play music, hear the news, check weather, control smart home devices, and even order more brush heads by saying, ‘Alexa, order Oral-B brush head replacements,’” per Procter & Gamble’s 2020 announcement.
And then, in February of this year, Oral-B simply took that feature away. Where there once was an app that you could use to connect the Guide base to your Alexa, that feature in the app is no longer available. For those that had it previously setup with their Alexa, the base will work right up until the point that it drops its internet connection, after which it will no longer connect.
And if you thought refunds would be a thing here, it appears that’s not the case.
That’s a problem for Patrick Hubley, who learned that Oral-B discontinued Connect when his base inadvertently disconnected from the Wi-Fi and he tried using Connect to fix it. He told Ars Technica that when he tries using the Alexa wake word now, the speaker says, “I’m having trouble connecting to the Internet. For help, go to your device’s companion app.”
Hubley attempted but failed to get a refund or replacement brush through Oral-B’s support avenues. He says he will no longer buy Oral-B or Alexa products.
“I only purchased this toothbrush from Amazon because that was the only way to get the water-resistant Alexa speaker that I wanted for the bathroom. … I’m ready to be done with Alexa and Oral-B both.”
This is all starting to sound like the Spotify Car Thing story I linked to in the opener. If history is a guide, perhaps a good bout of public outrage from buyers of the Guide will spur Oral-B to reconsider offering refunds for a product it retroactively decided to make less useful after purchase.
But either way, there really should be some sort of consumer rights associated with not having a product that is purchased suddenly lose features long after purchase. In the meantime, I’ll just have to go back to singing in the shower, I suppose.
Filed Under: alexa, bricked, ownership, smart toothbrush, toothbrushes
Companies: oral-b, procter & gamble
Comments on “Oral-B Takes ‘Alexa’ Feature Away From Its Toothbrush Base 4 Years After Selling Them”
You had me at “Alexa… toothbrush base”.
What the fuck even.
Still kind of sympathetic to the people getting screwed. Still continually disgusted by our choices in what constitutes capitalism.
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Never thought I would read a philosophical comment about a toothbrush.
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And you still haven’t.
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Really it’s just a waterproof smart speaker in the same housing as an electric toothbrush charger, because (1) people don’t search for waterproof smart speakers when they’re shopping online, and (2) a lot of people only have one plug socket in their bathroom. It’s not that much of a worse idea than smart speakers in general.
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Oh that’s so reasonable now. /s
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Alexa, Alexa, who has the fairest smile of all?
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No no, Alexa waits until your mouth is full of toothpaste before it attempts all sort of conversation.
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I like music in my bathroom. If I can get it without a discrete device, that’s great.
IoT devices are going through the same thing that desktops, laptops, phones, tablets, everything else has. The software is written, by day, with the expectation of faster processors, more RAM, more and faster storage, and more capability in general.
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“IoT devices are going through the same thing that desktops, laptops, phones, tablets, everything else has.”
.. what?
pls explain
what is this ‘thing’ that everything goes through?
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Literally the next fucking sentence.
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Oh, my goodness!
My bad .. I was unaware that security and privacy were all driven by ‘the expectation of faster processors, more RAM, more and faster storage, and more capability in general’.
I was under the misguided impression that the written software/firmware/whatever was responsible for same, I stand corrected.
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Built-in obsolescence, of course.
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My brother in Christ, we cannot eternally run things from the Intel 80286.
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A 286 is capable of processing the necessary bits to stream high quality music from the intarwebs.
a $230 toothbrush?
really?
On one hand, this sucks for those who bought it. On the other hand, smart toothbrushes aren’t really such a good thing in the first place as they’re bound to be lacking in the security department (as with 99% of Internet of Things devices) so it’s not all bad news that the smart bits got taken out server side (won’t do much for security flaws in the toothbrush itself though).
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Depends on the details. If the smart speaker connects to a domain name which Oral B will no longer keep active, then a threat actor could register that domain. So perhaps it will make them more vulnerable.
Yep, because we live in a world where need have to stay productive even during the 3 minutes three times a day when we brushing our teeth. I guess.
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More like because some people are going to think “oh, I need to order new brush heads” when they’re in the bathroom, and then three minutes later, three times a day, forget.
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I feel attacked…
Hey .. no big deal,
’cause I got this internet connected hair brush and nail clipper.
My guess is an expired certificate. “Unexpected” (unnannounced) losses of connectivity are often that.
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You’re talking about security on an IoT device? That’s pretty cheeky of you.
People aren’t buying enough replacement bases, so lets kill the function they wanted… that will totally increase sales for us.
Then we can relaunch with “AI” on board and then record when they poop & sell that information.
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It probably would rat you out to the dentist..
– subject only brushed once today and did not floss.
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That, and having it order replacement brush heads (without letting people shop around for sales—or, heaven forfend, off-brand variants), was probably the dream as explained to Oral-B management.
In reality, people don’t care much about re-ordering being easier. It’s just not that hard to begin with. Remember Amazon Dash? I suspect not very well, so I made that a link.
And dentists and dental hygienists already have a good idea how well their patients clean their teeth, without having to sign up for several incompatible dental-surveillance services. They don’t want to be nannies anyway, and the users would self-select for fastidiousness, so what’d be the point?
But I guess these are the questions that businesspeople don’t ask when an employee proposes jumping onto the latest trend. Be that “internet of things”, “3-d televisions”, whatever.
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I’ve got the Amazon scale for my Nespresso pods and it just reorders when I get below my minimum stock order. It’s like magic and I haven’t been out of coffee I. Years. But clearly it’s just me, as I think they’ve discontinued those scales.
So, my Brother printer just order itself a new toner cartridge. If only it could install itself.
I personally don’t think interesting a speaker into a charging base is a bad idea, honestly.
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Coffee pods are something that many people use daily, maybe multiple times; freshness is of some concern, and people don’t like to run out. As for printers, toner levels are easily overlooked; it’s not obviously visible, and people might not print often.
So, these ideas are cool, and maybe even useful for certain cases. I’m not sure toothbrush heads are one of those. They’re small, with shelf-lives measured in decades, and they don’t really run out—you just might end up using a worn one longer than you’d like. Given the risk of the service being shut down, or the head being discontinued while the motor-body remains viable, stocking up in advance is probably the best move anyway.
And that always seems to be how the “internet of things” goes. A minor convenience when it’s working, that somehow becomes a disproportionately large inconvenience when the service provider loses interest. (Let’s not pretend that’s an “if” rather than a “when”.)
As for the “speakers and microphones in other things”, sure, we could put one in any product where it seems like it could be useful. But do we really want to complicate all products and their manuals with wi-fi and bluetooth setup, troubleshooting, privacy concerns, and all of that? I say, either make it a general-purpose computer or a single-function device; this in-between stuff is just annoying.
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“Coffee pods are something that many people use daily, maybe multiple times; freshness is of some concern”
I’m no expert on brewing coffee, but …
I prefer fresh ground coffee thanks.
I have consumed some coffee pod products and they were acceptable, not great, certainly better than the machine coffee which I think was instant type coffee.
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Nespresso pods are, effectively, fresh ground the day you use them. The pods are in an inert environment, completely sealed, with very little opportunities to go bad. Now I’m not saying they great coffee, but they are reliable coffee and unlike Keurig they regularly good reviews.
Someday, when this dies I’ll probably replace it with a fully automatic machine that grinds and brews, that incan plumb in. I’m not playing chemist/mechanic before I’ve had coffee. I’m going to push a button.
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These are all decent concerns which is why I went ahead and planned for a separate speaker. But, frustratingly, there isn’t good solution that isn’t a smart speaker. Whole house systems with controls in each room are amazingly expensive, proprietary, and just mediocre experience.
"Smart"?
Wanting a device with access to your computer/internet to play Your music?
I call that a CHEAP Cellphone thats NOT using the cellphone part. And many have Voice activation.
How many devices got Alexia SLAPPED on just to raise the price? And most times its Just Talking to your PHONE, its a remote speaker.
for the Increase in price you could have gone to Amazon and got the CHEAP tablet, for LESS.
But as with our phones, the OS expands and gets to big to FIT on the older systems. (THEN WHY UPDATE, it worked, leave it alone)
OR paying a small fee to Use the Alexia Program?
They wanted to use $0.99 worth of hardware and charge you $100 to use it.
And people made fun of how I keep my toothbrush going
Articles like this give me validation. Back in 2004 I bought an Oral-B Triumph. Had perfect dental checkups since, so I don’t wanna mess with what’s been working. Battery dies, not replacable. Requires soldering to replace, which I can’t do. So went to replace. All new toothbrushes with that same speed and feature set are now app and bluetooth connected! WTF! I decided, no! I will not have bluetooth in my toothbrush. Not concerned about tinfoil hat stuff, just the ludicrousness of having a connected toothbrush was too much for me. So I paid to have someone replace the battery in my toothbrush. Which amused many people. But read stuff like this and it no longer seems like I wasted my money.
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I can appreciate the desire to keep a good product going and reduce unnecessary waste.
It looks to me like it takes a fairly normal NIMH cell, just in a non-standard size: 17 mm diameter and either 42 or 49 mm long. A double-A (14.5 diameter, 50.5 long) or triple-A (10.5 diameter, 44.5 long) would probably fit without much effort—AA having similar battery life, AAA about 40%. If you had someone solder in a normal battery connector, you’d be able to use off-the-shelf rechargeables with no future soldering.
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As long as you can replace the battery, the older brush will likely outlast all the junk produced since, so that’s probably a pretty good decision.
You’re a gullible dork if you buy any of this crap. Who needs Alexa? Even Siri is stupid. But you’re the real tool for thinking you “need” these evil “smart” devices in your home!
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Some formerly useful items are now only available with the unwanted and unneeded connectivity electronics. Some you do not need to connect in order to have some functionality but that is not the point. Why am I forced to pay for things I do not want? I guess it is because there is a lack of competition. I’m rather positive there is a market for dumb televisions, the only ones available lack the most desired features.
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In some cases, it’d cost more without those features. Either because they can’t sell your data; or, more innocently, because markets and supply chains can get weird sometimes (e.g., a more powerful microcontroller might cost less; or some added components might be so cheap that the cost-savings of having only one hardware model, or sticking with a reference design, are more important).
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Blind people, although I still say these tools should default to being button-activated rather than listening all the time.
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Are you blind?
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If I say that black people need greater access to social justice, does that automatically make me black, ableist tool?
I am interested in the details of this
Hyper Text Toothbrush Control Protocol
but am unable to find any results from search.
People will take orders from their toothbrush
Check this Mitchell and webb toothbrush sketch.
Oral-B must have seen it as a business-model documentary.
What have we discovered? PEOPLE WILL TAKE ORDERS FROM THEIR TOOTHRBRUSHES!
Re: MISSED THE LINK
Mitchel and Webb, here it is sorry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltZrfrmb7Ws