As I reported earlier, I had let an AI/LLM analyze the 2,880 comments that have been put on this petition site. Today, I want to share the results of this analysis: Here it is:

Cloud Shutdown Impact on Brand Reputation
Why this decision creates disproportionate reputational risk for Vorwerk

1. This is NOT perceived as a technical issue
Customers do not interpret the shutdown as a failure or limitation.
They explicitly frame it as a deliberate company decision.
“A working product becomes useless.”
👉 This shifts accountability directly to Vorwerk as a brand, not to technology.

2. Perceived destruction of customer value
Customers emphasize:

• They paid for a working product
• The product still functions physically
• It is made unusable post-purchase

👉 This creates a critical perception:
Vorwerk is seen as actively destroying value customers already paid for
This is significantly more damaging than product defects.

3. Emotional reframing: Product → Waste
Dominant language across comments:

• useless
• waste
• obsolete

👉 These are strong negative anchors that persist in memory
👉 They transform the product from an asset into a symbol of loss

4. Trust erosion at brand level
Vorwerk is traditionally associated with:

• durability
• premium quality
• long-term reliability

The shutdown introduces a new perception:

• dependency on vendor-controlled infrastructure
• loss of control after purchase

👉 Result:
Customers no longer trust that a Vorwerk product will remain usable over time

5. Strategic risk: Spillover beyond this product
The issue is not isolated to Neato devices.
Customers implicitly ask:

• “Will this happen again?”
• “Can I trust future products?”

👉 This creates portfolio-wide reputational risk, not a single-product issue.

Bottom Line
The cloud shutdown is reframing Vorwerk from a premium, durable brand into one associated with loss of control and post-purchase value destruction.

Recommendation (strategic)
To mitigate reputational damage, Vorwerk should consider:

• restoring functionality (even in limited form), or
• enabling local / offline operation

👉 The goal is not only technical recovery, but restoration of trust

And this is it. I think this pretty much sums up what many of us think. Let's see what Vorwerk makes of it.

(For the sake of transparency, I will share the prompts that I used. Basis was the pure text of all comments added, in all languages. At first I created two word clouds by translating all texts to English and anlayzing the frequency of words/topics.
Within the same context, I then added the following prompts:

1. bitte noch mal analysieren, und nur den einfluss der aktion auf den ruf von vorwerk herausarbeiten (Please analyze this again and focus solely on the impact of the actions on Vorwerk's reputation.)
2. erstelle mir die perfeke 1-seite slide mit genau diesem argument, so formuliert, dass ein entscheider sie wirklich erst nimmt (Create the perfect one-page slide for me using exactly this argument, worded in such a way that a decision-maker will take it seriously.)

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)