Dear Signatory,

On March 19, I handed over the signatures to Vorwerk officials. In this post, I’ll report on the meeting. For those who find this too long, here’s the bottom line: As expected, Vorwerk made no promises. But the petition did have an impact.

Now, let’s start from the beginning. I had contacted the Vorwerk Group’s press office. I received responses from Mael Tomissi (Customer Care Director at Neato Robotics) and Michael Weber (Head of Corporate Communications). Both gentlemen had traveled to Hamburg to speak with me.

In controversial discussions, there’s that saying: “The talks were constructive and characterized by a positive atmosphere”—clichés that don’t mean much. In our case, it was like this: The atmosphere was actually positive and friendly. It was a pleasant conversation. I wouldn’t call it constructive—I hadn’t expected that from a meeting like this anyway. So how did it go?

I had a plan for the conversation: Numbers > People > Thoughts > Emotions. I wanted to move from the raw numbers (5,456 signatures) to the people (your photos—thank you so much!) and on to the detailed thoughts (your comments, 2,880 in total).
Your signatures were on a very thick stack of paper; printing them out took about 2 hours! I brought the photo collage in A2 format so that your faces (and your Neatos) would stand out well.

Mr. Weber and Mr. Tomissi seemed impressed and took the time to let it all sink in—especially the photos.
I explained how I interpret it all: You didn’t just sign the petition; you also left detailed comments. Some of you sent me photos from your personal lives. This shows just how much Vorwerk’s decision is affecting your lives and how deeply it moves you.
I found Mr. Tomissi’s reaction remarkable: He said that it was an emotional issue for him as well. Of the 120 colleagues he worked with, most have now left. He continues to care and provide support. That struck me as genuine, and I could empathize with the feeling of losing so many colleagues.

Over 2,000 comments are nearly impossible to process manually. I therefore conducted an analysis using AI and presented the results to the two gentlemen in the form of word clouds and a text. The central finding of the analysis: “The cloud shutdown is reframing Vorwerk from a premium, durable brand into one associated with loss of control and post-purchase value destruction.”

That concluded my presentation, and we moved on to an open discussion.

Mr. Weber said that he could not make any promises. Vorwerk would take the feedback seriously and analyze it. Mr. Tomissi asked if he could improve communication. He saw it this way: migration and continued operation were not possible, and this message had apparently not been properly conveyed.
I disagreed here. As a software developer, I can challenge statements like “impossible.” Migrations are always possible—it’s a question of effort and investment. This perspective was not addressed.

I also said that I am not the right person to evaluate the communication, since I—like many others—have lost trust. I mentioned analyses from the community showing that the firmware of Neato and Vorwerk robots is very similar. Mr. Tomissi countered that this only applied to early models and that the product lines had developed separately.
I had my doubts here: My understanding of corporate acquisitions is that synergies are leveraged. Two separate development departments for the same product group do not seem plausible—especially since Neato has since been shut down. It strikes me as odd that the expertise wasn’t consolidated beforehand.

The Vorwerk representatives did not elaborate further on the reasons for the cloud shutdown and referred to existing statements.

I still have a little hope, though: They both knew exactly who I was and had come prepared. They had been following the petition and were familiar with details like the photo collage and the rise in signatures driven by media coverage. That showed me they take the issue seriously.
Two points fueled my hope: Mr. Weber said he would get back to me. And Mr. Tomissi said that while there are currently no plans for continued operation or source code release—the door isn’t completely closed yet.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to share our thoughts in a direct conversation. Vorwerk still has a chance to repair the damage to its reputation. I’m curious to see what they’ll do with it.

And I thank all of you for your support. Without you, we wouldn’t be where we are today!

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

(Some of you will receive this mail twice. I apologize!)

We expect to hand over the signature lists as early as next week. We won’t be making a big event out of it. I am no longer seeking your direct participation—as described in a previous update.
However, a petitioner from Canada came up with the idea of collecting photos of the people affected and presenting them as a collage. This will vividly demonstrate to Vorwerk the impact on people—and at the same time, it will effectively highlight the international scope of the petition and the cross-border protest.

So here’s the call to action: Please upload photos of yourselves to this address: xn--schcke-yxa.de/nextcloud/s/YNnRG3SXK38azXG — ideally with your BotVac, but more importantly, you. We want to show the people.

The deadline is Tuesday, as I’ll also need some time to prepare everything. If enough photos come in, I’ll use them—if not, I’ll scrap the whole thing. I’m excited and looking forward to your photos!

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

We expect to hand over the signature lists as early as next week. We won’t be making a big event out of it. I am no longer seeking your direct participation—as described in a previous update.
However, a petitioner from Canada came up with the idea of collecting photos of the people affected and presenting them as a collage. This will vividly demonstrate to Vorwerk the impact on people—and at the same time, it will effectively highlight the international scope of the petition and the cross-border protest.

So here’s the call to action: Please upload photos of yourselves to this address: xn--schcke-yxa.de/nextcloud/s/YNnRG3SXK38azXG — ideally with your BotVac, but more importantly, you. We want to show the people.

The deadline is Tuesday, as I’ll also need some time to prepare everything. If enough photos come in, I’ll use them—if not, I’ll scrap the whole thing. I’m excited and looking forward to your photos!

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)