It’s been almost two months since Insteon mysteriously shut down their servers with no notice. It’s been about a month and a half since Insteon owned up to what they did and changed their website to a weak apology letter, blaming everything but themselves for the sudden shutdown. And now it’s been about two days since Insteon servers seem to have risen from the dead and started responding again.
As of this post, no one has taken ownership for the sudden resurrection. If you’ve been sitting around wondering what to do about your broken smart home, and it’s suddenly started responding again, you may think that you’re saved. I’m here to tell you that there’s only two things you should do when you see a Zombie. Either blow its head off, or run.
I’m not going to delve into the alternative solutions here. Anyone that has spent the past couple of months transitioning over to Home Assistant or Hubitat or other solutions to keep their Insteon devices working knows what they’re doing, and knows they are keeping potentially end of life devices on life support with a band-aid. Full disclosure, I’m still doing it for my pool light out of laziness.
At this point, anyone still using Insteon devices is either being lazy, like me, or stuck in what’s called “the sunk cost fallacy.” This bias shows up in many aspects of life, from cars, to investments, to houses, relationships and more. You may have heard of it as “throwing good money after bad” or refusing to cut your losses. The sunk cost fallacy is a belief that by sticking with the thing you’ve already invested time, money, or effort into you can avoid future costs or hardships. It rarely works out that way. The way to break out of the sunk cost fallacy is to look at the situation and say “would I buy into this today?” In effect, every day that you continue to stay in that situation you are saying “yes” to that question. So I ask you, would you buy Insteon devices today?
For me the answer is a giant HELL NO. Even if Insteon’s build quality hadn’t been sliding for years, or their skill hadn’t recently disappeared from the Alexa store, this is a company that abandoned their users. After abandoning their users the took no responsibility for doing so. They may only be back temporarily as part of a court order for all we know. No matter what you spent on Insteon devices or how invested you are or how well your workaround works, is this really a brand you’re proud to have in your home? Or do you wake up every day hoping they still work?
I’m sorry for those that were heavily invested in this company and for the hardships you’ve experienced. I’m sorry if, like me, you feel a moral conundrum even trying to sell or give away your Insteon devices. I can’t bring myself to sell mine even to a willing participant who knows what they’re getting into. But if the return of the Insteon servers has given you hope to keep your smart home alive, you’re going to get eaten in the end.
