So one of my Roomba Schedulers died a week or 2 ago. Yes, I owned more than 1 Roomba Scheduler. Yes, carrying the Roomba one flight of stairs is more work than I would like to do.
My Roomba was making a quacking sound (like a duck’s quack) when I would tell it to go clean. It actually sounded more like a short ‘meh’. Going through iRobot’s FAQ, I found this article: What is Roomba saying to me? The 2nd row appeared to be my problem: “Ehh” (Play Sound)
It suggested: The cliff sensors are dirty or malfunctioning, or the battery is need recharging
The battery definitely doesn’t need recharging as it’s been charging for a week and the color is green. I took a can of compressed air and started squirting at the cliff sensors. At first I had no idea what cliff sensors were, but apparently there’s 4 of them around the front bumper which helps detects stairs and drops so they don’t go charging downhill. If you still can’t spot them, you can take a look at their diagram here: What are Cliff Sensors?
That didn’t help along with their other suggestions. I submitted a support ticket and their reply was basically the same. They said if that didn’t fix it, I should provide them with the serial number of my Roomba and they can escalate this, which I’m assuming they’ll send a replacement part or even a whole new Roomba. Interestingly enough, after a night of having the Roomba sit on my desk, it started working, but failed about 5 minutes later making the “ehh” sound.
Their customer support has been great. I believed I mentioned this already. Last time the plastic thing on my Roomba’s trash bin was starting to rip and they said they’d ship me a new one immediately. However, the trash bin was out of stock, and instead they shipped me a compatible trash bin (which was of a different color) and said after the correct color trash bin was in stock, they’d ship that one to me too.
However, I decided to take the easy way out. Given the fact I purchased this from Costco last July, I brought it back and got a refund and purchased a new one. The guy asked me if there was a problem and I was honest and told him it stopped working and would make a beeping sound. I asked if they had anymore in stock and if there was, can I do an exchange. He goes (as I expected him to say), that he would have to refund me the money and I could go and purchase the new one and there were indeed 23 in stock.
Interestingly enough, the Roomba was currently on sale. Online, it shows ($269.99 – $50) $219.99 shipped, but in store, the actual price was $209.99 ($259.99 – $50). So I made off with $50 + tax difference. Sweet!
While I was at Costco, I also got my tires rotated and rebalanced. I’m always skeptical about their system as they never needed me to verify my identity when I picked up my keys. I guess people here are just that honest. I told them my car was the silver Honda Civic and they told me it would be ready in 2 minutes. They handed me my invoice of $0 and told me to bring it over to the garage. After showing them the invoice, they handed the keys over to me.
Another funny coincidence happened today. Since I had plenty of food at home, my only damage today was a Roomba Scheduler, which couldn’t really be considered damage as I walked out of Costco with more money than I came in with. Take that for a change. Anyway, while I was waiting for my car to be ready, I was enjoying the nice warm weather eating a churro. There was another man who’s only purchase was also a Roomba Scheduler. I thought interesting…
Then I walked into the Tire Center and there he was. He was also getting his tires rotated. Another coincidence. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the same car as me. Oh well, I thought those 2 coincidences were interestingly enough to share.