HOOBS Inc. Arvostelua 133

After more than two years waiting, I did not get my device, nor did I get a refund.

The story:
I pre-ordered a Hoobs device on March 26th, 2023.
Once in a while, I asked Hoobs when it will be delivered. What made me trust was the delivery status on its web pages, and some e-mails telling me it will be sent out soon.

After 1.75 years waiting, on December 28th, 2024, I finally canceled the order. The e-mail was answered by the Hoobs service team. They confirmed my cancellation and acknowledged the refund.

After waiting some weeks, I started asking what happens now, and when I might get my refund. No more answers from Hoobs, unfortunately.

On March 18th, 2025, I gave them a final chance to refund the money until April 1st, 2025

Now it is April 1st, 2025, and nothing happened. Even today, the delivery status says:

"Status: Your order will be processed in the next fulfillment."

That is the case since two years...

I do not hope for the money any more, but will now try legal actions to get it nevertheless. And warn other people from ordering something from Hoobs.

Over a year waiting on a Hoobs pro that was fully paid for and with delivery promised months ago.

Company failed to deliver HOOBS Pro that was ordered and fully paid for since May 2023 with estimated shipping Jul-2023.

Waited more than 19 months with no delivery in sight. I finally cancelled the order on 2-Dec-2024. Was told that a refund would take 14 business days. 3 months later, the refund failed to be processed. Despite repeated follow up and escalation to customer service manager with indication that it will be processed within 5 business days, the refund was still outstanding. Responses from customer support were apologetic but gave no indication of when the refund would ever get processed. I resorted to telling them that they either deliver the product or issue the refund, whichever is quicker. After another month of follow up, I was told that I have been put back on the product delivery queue with no indication of delivery date whatsoever.

At this stage, the company has failed to deliver a fully paid product over an excessive 23 months.

It is deeply concerning and shows signs of fraud. The case has gone beyond the scope of customer support. I have asked for escalation to higher management for breach of delivery and have yet to hear from them.

It appears that the company is accepting fully paid orders for a product that they do not have the capacity to deliver and struggles to issue refunds when orders are cancelled.

Update (order details)
[Order #59263) (May 5, 2023) (paid)
Estimated shipping July 2023
UPS Premium Shipping (paid)

Update (31-Mar-2025)
Support ticket #94
Cancelled order due to perpetual indeterminate product delivery date. Asked for immediate refund. No response whatsoever from Customer Support despite numerous follow up emails.

Update (1-Apr-2025)
Support ticket #94
Emailed Customer Support for the sixth time today and still no response. It appears that HOOBS has decided to go silent after posting a canned response on TrustPilot with no commitment whatsoever over failed delivery for close to 2 years and refusing to refund.

Update (3-April-2025)
Support Ticket #94
Finally got an email response from Customer Support today. Email had the standard canned response of refund process requiring 14+ business days which I and many others have seen countless times. At this stage, I no longer believe that the company ever had any intention of refunding customers.

I repeated that this has gone beyond standard Customer Support and expect a response from higher management.

Update (5-April-2025)
Support Ticket #94
After more follow up, they are now stating that they have reset the order cancellation to 2-Apr-2025 and to allow another 14+ business days for it to be processed. I responded with the following:

For the record, I have repeated the cancellation of the order on 2-Apr-2025 because AFTER your company has FAILED to process a refund for 4 MONTHS (not 14 business days), I offered your company to either refund or deliver the product, whichever is QUICKER. It was then put back on a perpetual indeterminate queue for a product order that was never fulfilled.

I have ran out of patience in dealing with your company over an unfulfilled order approaching 2 years and still have the audacity to withhold processing a refund for months. As such, allowing another 14 business days is preposterous. Please bring this message to your management and remind them that both your delivery team and your office responsible for processing refunds are FAILING miserably.

I EXPECT THE REFUND TO BE PAID WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY.

Ovidiu Mija (CEO & co-founder), are you aware that this is how your company is treating your customers? Do you even care?

Update (1-May-2025)
Support Ticket #94
It’s a month now since I last demanded for a refund for a HOOBS pro that was ordered in May 2023 (two years). Received the usual canned response from Zach the customer support person that I should once again give it 14+ business days. This was my reply to the flippant response which unsurprisingly has gone unanswered.

Appreciate your apology Zach. Unfortunately we have been through this too many times before. I have patiently waited 14 business days as you indicated to no avail. We are now back to perpetual stalling by your office. I have no faith that anyone is earnestly working on the refunds besides stalling with excuses after excuses. This response is no longer acceptable. I want to know EXACTLY when I can expect the refund without further excuses. It has been dragging on since last year.

Final Update (27-May-2025)
After 6 months of repeated back and forth, they finally succumbed to the refund. For those of you with outstanding order, do not give up as it is illegal for them to withhold a refund without customer consent. I will not buy anything else from them ever. Good news is there are better and cheaper home assistant products out there.

I have had the absolute worst experience with HOOBS. As many others have said, the HOOBS box itself is too complicated for a general user. I felt safe to inquire about a return just a few days after purchase due to their 30-day refund policy. I began the refund process on January 3. It is now more than 70 days later and I keep being told I need to wait for my refund. The customer service was absolutely infuriating as I had to explain the same information over and over each time I emailed. They continued to push remote service when I stated multiple times I just wanted a refund.
It is absolutely not worth it to try this product unless you already know how to use it.

Update after reply from Hoobs: On 3/14/25 I was told my refund ticket had been escalated. It's now 10 days later with no communication or refund from Hoobs. A credit card charge dispute has been initiated.

I ordered a HOOBS Pro back in December 2023. More than a year later, I never received the device despite repeated assurances it was shipping soon. After countless vague shipping updates and broken promises—including being told all orders would ship by August 2024 and later again that they had "officially started shipping"—I gave up waiting and requested a refund in February 2025.

They said my refund would take five business days. It's now over a month later, and after multiple follow-ups, I've received nothing but generic, copy-paste responses about being overwhelmed with requests. I've attempted to share my experience on HOOBS's official Reddit community (r/HOOBS), but my critical post was never approved by their moderators, despite newer posts being allowed. I'm deeply concerned that HOOBS is intentionally delaying refunds as a way to retain customers' money without fulfilling their orders.

This has been the worst customer experience I've encountered—do yourself a favor and avoid this company entirely.

EDIT: I submitted a refund request (Ticket #651) as per their comment and I have STILL not received a refund even after 3 weeks. All they say is, "I do show that your request is in queue for our office to handle, we do apologize about the longer than normal wait as we are experiencing more than normal request. Once your request is completed you will receive a confirmation email." My original refund request was 2.5 months ago and this is a second request. I have tried following up many times. How long does it take to issue a refund?!

I have to agree with others that this company does not deliver its products and takes people's money without providing them with anything. I have been waiting for about a year to receive the product that they said would take a few months to deliver. When I pressed them, they first offered me a free year of cloud service and then were unable to provide any insight into when or if they would deliver my order. I noticed that they have been saying that they had people's orders ready for delivery but were waiting for them to complain before delivering the order.

This is a horribly run business and it appears that the principals are sucking all the money out of the business and cannot pay their suppliers for deliveries.

Please stay away!

3/16/25
So now a Hoobs representative responds with an offer for an escalation. When you read the reviews you will find that I am now in the "your credit request is in our back office scam" and it will be processed when they get around to it. My request has been there for over a week. Again, sure does feel like a Ponzi scheme.

Stay away from this company.

STAY AS FAR AWAY AS YOU CAN. They take your money immediately upon placing your order (who does that) then nothing six moths later all I get are scripted meaningless replies. As I have said to HOOBS support, "it is not rocket science." Any reputable company would be able to provide a rough shipping time frame based on information. they would receive when the place their orders with their manufacturing partners. They receive "X" amount of orders and subsequently place an order with their manufacturing partner to fulfill those orders. Their manufacturing partners tell them when they will receive the newly manufactured devices back into their warehouses and thus use that information to provide a shipping date to their customers. The fact that they ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO DO SO IS A HUGE RED FLAG> I have asked for my money back and yet to receive a response. SCAM ALERT! SCAM ALERT! SCAM ALERT!

I ordered my Hoobs Pro in May of 2023! They spent years telling me about production issues, or telling me it was getting ready to ship. I finally requested a refund in December of 2024, and they keep telling me "It will be refunded in 21 days" then "5 days" then "your ticket is being escalated for further review."

It's now almost March of 2025. There are other products out there, HOOBS is not worth the hassle. STAY AWAY.

I submitted an incident report and received precise information on how to resolve my issue with my HOOBS box. My HOOBS stopped working and I went to the HOOBS website and downloaded a new image which restored my device with the latest update. I got a response the next day after requesting support which I found pretty fast. Thank You HOOBS support to an excellent service experience.

German to follow - order number 61386

I pre-ordered and paid for a Hoobs Pro in July 2023. Then nothing happened until I asked. I sent several emails to support and asked for a refund. Selectively answered and I submitted all relevant documents for refund. Support wrote at the end of December 2024 that they had passed on the refund request to customer service and financial accounting. I allowed myself a reminder at the end of January, whereupon I was written that it was still open as a ticket. On my inquiry on 7.2.2025 I noticed that my email address was blacklisted by the support system. That's final enough now. Surprisingly, the Hoobs Pro is still available for pre-order and I wonder how long this scam will be tolerated. So - hands off - I'm not the only one.

Ich habe 2023 im Juli einen Hoobs Pro vorbestellt und bezahlt. Daraufhin tat sich nichts bis ich nachgefragt hatte. Mehrere Mails habe ich an den Support gesendet und um Rückerstattung gebeten. Selektiv wurde geantwortet und ich habe alle relevanten Dokumente zur Rückerstattung eingereicht. Der Support schrieb noch Ende Dezember 2024, dass sie den Rückerstattungsantrag an den Kundendienst und die Finanzbuchhaltung weitergegeben hätten. Ich erlaubte mir eine Erinnerung Ende Januar, worauf mir geschrieben wurde, dass es noch als Ticket offen wäre. Auf meine Nachfrage am 7.2.2025 stellte ich fest, dass meine Mailadresse vom Supportsystem blacklistet wurde. Das ist jetzt endgültig genug. Erstaunlicherweise gibt es den Hoobs Pro immer noch vorzubestellen und ich frage mich wie lange diese Masche noch geduldet wird. Also - Hände weg - ich bin nicht der Einzige.

As someone who considers themselves a somewhat tech-savvy individual (but by no means an expert), I’ve been thoroughly impressed with the Hoobs product. It has truly elevated my smart home experience by seamlessly connecting devices that wouldn’t natively work with Apple HomeKit.

With Hoobs, I’ve been able to integrate all my Eufy Cameras and even set up automations, like having lights turn on when motion is detected. I’ve also connected my ADT system, allowing me to trigger lights when the alarm goes off, arm/disarm the system based on the status of my garage or front door, and more. On top of that, I’ve set up a fun trigger where my iRobot vacuum starts cleaning the floors after my cat uses the Litter-Robot. It’s amazing to finally have a way to make all my devices "talk" to each other seamlessly.

What sets Hoobs apart is not just its functionality but also its exceptional customer service. I ran into an issue during setup, and their team responded within 24 hours with a detailed and easy-to-follow solution. That level of support gave me a lot of confidence in the product.

If you're looking for a way to bring all your smart devices together under one system, I highly recommend giving Hoobs a try. It’s been a game-changer for my smart home!

Ordered Hoobs Pro in December of 2023 and still do not have the product. Many lies stating shipping soon and many lies of your refund is in the works. Company is a failure and unable to deliver on promises and even worse at communication. This is outright theft and a dishonest company. STAY AWAY!! you have choices and alternative products with better performance and support!
Update to this post (1/23/2025). Refund was not given prior to this review. You act as if you strive to be the best and provide the best customer service and are misunderstood. You do not! You only agreed to refund after this review. Shameful that you care about your public review but you don't care about your customers. You failed and lost me as a customer. I have multiple HOOBS devices but you are irrelevant to me now. We have options like Home Assistant and now Matter devices. Over a year to resolve an order is never the way to keep your customers happy!

Stuck with it and got it sorted. A little delayed but they got it fixed for me, that's priority.

Great support. Very fast to respond. Always ensure issue is taken care of.

Had an issue with the latest update. Put a ticket in and support ask me to do a factory reset and load last backup. Working and back to normal. Thanks for your help !

The reason I chose HOOBs was for the support provided by the community and from the company. I wanted something I could get help with when diy didn’t work. Inevitably I did need some help. Zack reached out and set everything up for the support session and it couldn’t have been more helpful. All my concerns were addressed. There was no rushing through issues and everything was at my pace. It completely validates my purchase.

Placed an order over a year ago and it never came so I asked for a refund. That was over a month ago and still no refund processed. Stay away from this company at ALL cost.

They took my money and never sent me the product a year later. Now they’re advertising Black Friday sales. Disgraceful.

We do apologize about the long wait since November of 2023. We are happy to announce that we’ve officially started shipping HPRO-2 devices. As part of our everlasting debt towards your early support we would like to give you 12-months free of HOOBS Cloud+ upon its release.

If you have any questions it's OK to reply to this email, and your ticket will be updated.

Thank You,
HOOBS Support Team

While Hoobs has experienced some growing pains recently their support is fantastic!