WakeMate Shipping Internationally

http://blog.wakemate.com/2011/04/04/wakemate-is-shipping-internationally/

by gnemeth • 15 years ago

62 33 15 years ago

blog.wakemate.com

Dylanlacey• 15 years ago

What I really appreciate is they've gone and found a reshipping service, obtained a special deal and are using them to allow them to really ship internationally, not just to three continents.

That's an excellent example of trying to help people buy your product.

OPAS3• 15 years ago

Glad to hear you're on board, Dylan. We (OPAS) are excited to be working with WakeMate and are looking forward to getting this product to a wider audience.

greattypo• 15 years ago

I'm still intrigued by the WakeMade concept. The last HN thread I remember had all sorts of good unanswered questions.. one I remember being: do these bands help you feel more refreshed all day or is it just an initial thing?

Has anyone found more information about how well these work?

dmix2• 15 years ago

Just having the data alone for me is worth $60. How you make it actionable is still largely up to you. If you're having negative sleep patterns, Wakemate will likely help you identify when they are happening or possibly the cause (ie tracking workouts). But Wakemate won't make you go to bed earlier, thats up to the user.

So it might be difficult to find empirical data on whether it improves your daily energy.

I've had a similar issue with my own product that tracks health data.

bennesvig• 15 years ago

I'm a huge fan of it. Even though my wife probably throws off my true sleep score, I still love having the data and seeing what affects my sleep.

kemiller• 15 years ago

I'm fairly disappointed. When it works, the data is really interesting. I'm on my second unit, and they've both been really really flaky, mostly battery issues as far as I can tell. Annoying to use (constantly have to find a little tiny switch and turn it of and back on again).

I guess for a $49 sleep monitor what do I expect? My sense, having had a taste for what it could do, is that I'd rather pay a bit more if it meant more reliability. It's frustrating when your data collection is thrown off by a lost night, or when the alarm doesn't go off at the right time because it lost its connection.

schrototo• 15 years ago

I've had a sleep cycle alarm clock for a couple of years now (they've been available long before this WakeMate thing, and mine also collects sleep data, altough I guess the WakeMate interface is much nicer) and although it kinda works, don't expect to wake up refreshed if you're shortchanging yourself on sleep. If you're only getting 5 hours of sleep a night you're going to wake up tired no matter what.

Since most of the time I don't really have to get up at a specific time, I usually let myself be woken up by the sunlight, which is the most consistently effective way of waking up refreshed that I've found.

dmix2• 15 years ago

It's been 17 months since I preordered the product and I still ordered it (internationally) without a second thought.

keyle2• 15 years ago

WakeMate sounds really cool but I don't sleep alone. It's all about waking you at the perfect time isn't it. That means I get woken up all refreshed and my partner is going to be cranky? Not designed for couples?

anateus2• 15 years ago

Well, if you use any alarm clocks isn't that the case already?

I've been using my wakemate for a few weeks now in a shared bed, but my girlfriend wakes up several hours earlier than me. Since I'm able to ignore her alarm I've never had an issue.

I imagine that since the wakemate wakes up fairly gently (most of the alarm sounds it comes with are pretty calm) and since it tries to wake you up during your lightest sleep, your partner is likely not in their lightest. At worst they could rise to near-awake until you shut off your alarm.

Even if you could have two wakemates syncing together finding a shared near-awake state to wake you both up might be statistically difficult :)

keyle2• 15 years ago

What is your experience with it, do you wake up nice and refreshed? also is it annoying to sleep with that on?

dotBen2• 15 years ago

Another thing to keep in mind is Wakemate works by measuring movement during your sleep.

I've noticed that if I'm asleep with my Wakemate running and my girlfriend is working on her laptop in bed or gets up to fix a drink the movement created can show up on the Wakemate and affect my score.

It's ok for couples but definitely the ideal situation is people sleeping on their own, I think.

mlok• 15 years ago

Some double beds have separated mattresses, which might be a solution for some.

zaatar• 15 years ago

So now that the WakeMate has been out for some time ... does this thing actually give you better sleep/rest, in practice?

joshfraser• 15 years ago

Have they shipped replacement power adapters yet? They emailed me to tell me not to use mine because it might catch on fire, but I haven't gotten a replacement or heard any news about that. Anyone know the status on those?

gnemeth• 15 years ago

We are still working on a solution for the replacement chargers, but unfortunately it is a lengthy process. Don't worry we didn't forget about it and will be in touch once we have a solution!

dschobel• 15 years ago

So what's going out the door to customers today?

jamii• 15 years ago

Since I ordered I have moved to a country that they don't ship to. It's nice that they have a forwarding service but I wish they had told me about it before I sent mine to a friend instead.

TeHCrAzY2• 15 years ago

From what I can work out, shipping internationally is going to set me back ~$65USD, pretty much doubling the price.

  $25  : join fee.
  $15  : monthly fee (cancel immediately).
  $50  : shipping fee (assuming its about 500grams or so).
  -$25 : credit/discount from wakemate.
  = $65

OPAS3• 15 years ago

Hi, this is Reid at OPAS, the forwarding service WakeMate is working with. Just to clarify, we offer two membership plans: the "Package & Mail" plan requires the $15 monthly fee you're referring to, but our "Package Only" plan does not require any monthly fee. So if you don't need to receive mail documents, you can sign up for the Package Only membership and save an additional $15. Hope this helps!

cynix• 15 years ago

Do you happen to know the dimensions and weight of the package it comes in?

TeHCrAzY2• 15 years ago

Thanks for the clarification, I mis-understood the pricing table. The total would then be ~$50USD, still a unpleasant price (NB. I don't think the price is unreasonable for the service, just something "hidden" in the blog post: If it was closer to $20USD, it would be less of a shock.)

SteveC• 15 years ago

What?? That's absolutely ridiculous.The order form made no mention of this. I'm going to cancel my order now. I've looked past the hardware faults and other issues but not being upfront on the overall price is just disrespectful.

rem1313• 15 years ago

I tested the WakeMate for a few days and I have the following comments:

* The software (iPhone) was not really very well thought out/polished. I don't want to scroll and select the time to the minute which I'm about to wake up if the wake up interval is 20 minutes.

* Signup for account via app redirects to web page which is not optimized for iPhone browser/smalls screen.

* Battery life is awful - max couple of nights, but its kinda cool, that it charges from the same USB charger than iPhone.

Overall the feeling is that they rushed to complete the software while trying to look cool and colorful, but forgot about the usability or didn't pay enough attention to it.

I have no opinion (yet) about the product concept/usefulness since I have only been using it for couple of days, one of which I wasn't able to get much sleep due to external factors.

listic• 15 years ago

I don't know how many of the countries this reshipping service actually covers, but they don't ship to Russia, possibly to the whole ex-USSR. ("We currently do not ship to the country you chose" for Russian Federation, "No rate was found. Please contact our customer service." for Belarus and Ukraine)

I think one could use a better reshipping service: if you outsource reshipping anyway (and make your customers sign up for a separate, paid service at that), why not cover all countries as well?

OPAS3• 15 years ago

Hi. We used to ship to Russia, but we've recently had to cancel service there because the country's customs authorities no longer accept personal import shipments. We apologize for the interruption and we're currently trying to find a solution to help you and other members access products like WakeMate.

seabee• 15 years ago

Ordered it on Saturday and got it today. I'm pretty excited to try it out tonight!

andersj• 15 years ago

This looks like just what i need. Has anyone tried ordering it in EU (Scandinavia). What cost should i expect with shipping?

WakeMate Shipping Internationally

Related Stories