Amazon Dash Wand

Product Description

If you're annoyed by grocery shopping the Amazon Dash Wand is here to help. With the ability to scan barcodes and speak into... [Read more]

Top Reviews

The short and long of it...
by Reichard Könige (3 out of 5 stars)
June 29, 2017

I'm writing this review in sections related to the device and services used.

tl;dr

The dash wand will be one of the cheapest entries you have into Alexa's world. Basically free to you after the $20 credit. It's use case of a device for quick simplified home, kitchen, pantry, or business reordering is a great idea but the service falls a bit short. It's link to most Alexa services (with one major omission) however still make it a useful tool for home.

Do you need this if you have an Amazon Echo/For? Probably not but this is simpler to use than asking the Echo for new items. However for reordering previous purchased items the Echo is a nicer hands free option. Do you need this if you don't have an Echo? Again probably not. There are a great many things we don't need if you think about it. But would it make life a bit easier? Very much so. I travel often and the number of times I find myself asking Alexa to do something while at a hotel surprised even me. It also drives me nuts since one of those items is turning off all the lights/tv and setting the house alarm. So for an entry price of $0 you can experience using Alexa and decide if a more capable Echo is right for you.

Device:

The form factor was well thought out. Loop for hanging and magnetic for your fridge door. And they even provide the hook if you don't have one. Batteries are included so when the say free to you they mean it. The only way this will cost you $ is if you rarely order from Amazon and can't use the credit. Setup was painless. More so than Amazon's Echo or Dot. Basically point to the website and let the Amazon app on your phone do the rest. I did this on Android so perhaps it's more complicated if you use just a web browser and laptop. Using the device is just as simple. The instructions remind me of when wetnap manufacturers would put directions on the back (open package, unfold napkin, and use). This is basically point at barcode, press button, product added to shopping cart. Or you can use the "old school" Alexa ordering technique and ask for the product. Similar instructions of press button, say product name, view in shopping cart. Most but not all of Alexa's abilities are supported. If you have smartphone devices then go ahead and ask to turn on the lights. However one major omission is the timer functionality. For a device that will most likely be in your kitchen or pantry it should have supported this from day one.

Services:

Here is were Amazon fails to deliver on the use case for this device. Their very description mentions it's use for replenishing groceries and other household items. However the problem is that Amazon fails even without the device to provide competitively priced dry and food goods. I've found in the past that with the exception of some items on my regular shopping list Amazon is usually exponentially more expensive. Take any soda/soft drink. You'll pick up 24 cans at the grocery store for $7 but on Amazon the pack is $25. And yet they ship Fiji water cheaper than picking it up at Walmart. I'm sure this will change in the future now that Whole Foods has been purchased by Amazon. Had this device provided price comparisons similar to Google Shopping it would have been perfect. It would also allow Amazon to track where the gaps in their service exist. In the end it lets you scan or say an item to add to your cart in review them there. The next time you're at the grocery store you can just compare against your Amazon shopping cart and decide where your purchase will be made.
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Not even close to ready- Quite literally worthless
by PW (1 out of 5 stars)
June 18, 2017

In a rare miss, Amazon has put out a product in the dash wand that is basically useless. There is so much wrong with this device (and some things wrong with Amazon's sales platform in general that this device exacerbates) that it's hard to know where to start.
1) The feedback from the device is not easily interpreted. When trying to scan an item, it often beeps immediately and the scanner shuts off making you think it's accomplished something. Most times it has not and there is nothing in your cart nor any message telling you what's wrong.
2) Virtually nothing scans. I scanned 30 national brand items in my house and only three were even identified. Of those three, one just brought back a general product (i.e. just sunscreen vs Coppertone 50SPF). The other two properly identified the products but linked to ridiculously priced versions of the product which brings us to the next issue.
3) Amazon allows sellers to mark everyday items up sometimes over 1000% in what seems to just be the hope that somebody won't notice before purchasing a single bottle of 409 for $47 or a single bottle of wood polish for $98. It's insane that Amazon makes no effort to police this stuff and now produces a device that basically encourages you to be taken in by these scammers.
4) Voice recognition is poor and it also never picks the right product. If you're lucky, you might receive a general category like "hand soap" but most people want something more specific. You're much better off just searching on your phone or computer which makes the wand again a wasted bit of effort.

Really pitiful device and I'm not sure how this got past testing. Amazon really needs to work on this a lot before pushing this thing any harder.
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18 bucks for a box of cereal?
by Brian LaShomb (1 out of 5 stars)
July 4, 2017

If Amazon can't stabilize grocery prices or offer these items first hand so third party sellers aren't marking things way way up, this will fail.
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I really wanted it to work, but sadly it disappoints
by zac (1 out of 5 stars)
June 21, 2017

I wish it was good, but its not.
2 major issues with this:
1: when you scan an item it doesn't give any real feedback that the item has been scanned and no indication of the price of the item it just added if it did a scan. what ya needs for it to read back the item that it scanned and the price of the item it will add, kinda like when you ask aleaxa to add an item. like " you just scanned pickles, they are $2.95. I just added them to your cart"
2: no verification as I kinda said in 1, but you cant tell apart from a beep, the beep also sounds when it dosnt take a scan so you have no idea if its picked up the item. so with the $20 cash back, i can say it was worth everything I paid for it :P
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Strip Clubs ??!!
by Dawn (5 out of 5 stars)
July 25, 2017

So, I am sure you have read through many reviews before getting to mine, so you already know that this can place orders, answer questions, recommend restaurants, give you the weather forecast, and tell you stupid jokes, but here is something you may not know...

When we got this, we proceeded to ask Alexa a variety of things, having no idea that our questions and, in fact, our voices were being recorded, so imagine my surprise when (while perusing the Alexa app) I happened across a writen list of things we had asked her in the last week, along with an audio clip of us asking the question.

Also imagine my boyfriend's surprise when I questioned him about why he was asking Alexa about strip clubs in the area.

Imagine his further surprise, after denying his query, when I played him a recording of his own voice making said query.

Thanks Alexa.
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Room for improvement, Concerned that CS is giving wrong information
by Dj (4 out of 5 stars)
June 19, 2017

Things I like:
1. Essentially being able to verbally, and easily with the scanner, add things to my shopping cart on amazon.
2. Add things to my shopping list (via Alexa)
3. Convenience of having Alexa in the kitchen w/o having to purchase another dot

Things I don't like:
1. Where I can scan and add things to my shopping cart on amazon, they automatically go to my fresh cart.
2. The wand so far seems to be built for fresh, switching back to w/o fresh will likely be a difficult transition. Not to mention the people who don't have fresh in their area. I'm curious to see what the app looks like w/o fresh.
3. No timers???? This seems like a total oversight. You're marketing the thing for the kitchen - what were you thinking?!
4. Despite my directly speaking with CS about whether or not the $20 promotional credit is good for fresh, or any amazon prime eligible item, and being told it was good for any amazon purchase - the credit is only available under my fresh shopping cart - NOT my regular shopping cart.

This I hope will improve over time:
1. When you scan or say items that need to be defined before being put into cart - these items should be put into a shopping list format on amazon. Searching for items that you want seem to be limited within the small pop-up.
2. Integration into the Alexa app, instead of the Amazon app.
3. TIMERS!!
4. Using the wand as a remote
5. Being able to scan things onto shopping list in Alexa app instead of into shopping cart on Amazon app

Although it seems the bad out weighs the good, I'm still excited to be on the ground floor of what could potentially be an amazing time saver and help me enable the anti-social girl inside of me who dislikes grocery shopping.
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I hoped to be at least marginally pleased with this latest concept
by Joe Thornton (1 out of 5 stars)
June 23, 2017

Swing and a miss on this one. I'm such a HUGE fan of Alexa and our two Amazon echo devices, I hoped to be at least marginally pleased with this latest concept. However, I went to our refrigerator and pantry to try to create a shopping list by scanning items. It seemed really cool, until I went to my cart and found a box of graham crackers for $19.99 and a container of mustard for about $8. I can tell the wand to turn on my family room light, which is cool, but I already tell Alexa to do that via Echo. I can ask the wand how many cups in a gallon, but I can already do that with my Echo - and I don't have to physically grab the device and push a button to do that.

Hopefully I can use the $20 credit for something (other than for a $4 box of graham crackers) to recoup the price of the wand. Unfortunate, but true. This one is a dud. But that's part of the risk of being an early adopter. I would still give 5+ stars to our Echo devices.
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Works Great as a Echo Remote has the potential to do so much more
by Tommy (4 out of 5 stars)
June 22, 2017

Got this because it was essentially free ($20 but you get $20 in credit for activating it) and was pleasantly surprised by how much I like it. The setup process is extremely easy, you pop in the batteries, you fire up the Alexa app on your phone, and it automatically gets the device online. It works similar to an Echo remote minutes the playback buttons but it's a lot snappier, has voice feedback (tiny speaker) and a barcode scanner. Alexa is built in, so it can handle a some of the skills like controlling your smart home and unit conversions but Amazon does exclude many. For instance, you can't set a timer or use it to stream audio, the latter is understandable but I question the former. In terms of using it to order things, it's a hit or miss. The barcode scanner gets most of the items I've tried it with but when doing it via voice it gets it wrong 30-35% of the time. Stuff is only added to your cart and not shipped out right away and this is a good thing because sometimes the items are marked up 1-5X the regular going rate, which is insane. There's a lot of potential for what this device and the Alexa-platform can do, but currently, I use it mostly to get info from Alexa and occasionally use it to add this to my shopping list and chart. Is it worth trying? Absolutely! It's basically Free for Prime users and you also get to try 3-months of Amazon Fresh for Free.
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Love it! Just know what to expect...
by Seoul (5 out of 5 stars)
June 27, 2017

Just to preface, I already have an use an Amazon Echo. I purchased this as an extension of what I already have and it works well! I keep it at my desk and use it to control lights, change the thermostat, add things to my shopping list, ask simple questions, and whatever else you can do with Alexa. Since you control when to speak with the button, Alexa responds so much faster with the Wand than it does with the Echo. There's so much delay when using the Echo because it has to determine when you start and finish speaking, and sometimes it just doesn't hear you, especially when you have loud music playing. The Wand solves all of those problems.

With that said, know what you're getting. It seems that people are buying this as their first assistant-enabled device. Not the right idea. This uses very stripped down version of Alexa and you should expect as much, especially if you're paying $20 (or essentially nothing) for it. You can't expect too much out of it. I haven't tested the scanner extensively, but it appears to work. I don't use it primarily for that, though.

It's not perfect either. One time I wanted it to lower the thermostat and found that it added Ecobee3 to my cart sometime later. I don't remember the situation, so it's hard to criticize. Oh well, delete the item; move on.

All-in-all, if you already have an Echo product, I think this makes a perfect extension.
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Ceases to Function After 2 Days (Eats Batteries). Marginal Value as Shopping Tool
by IlDavo (1 out of 5 stars)
June 28, 2017

Fresh batteries die and Dash Wand ceases to function after 2 days -- irrespective of whether or not Wand has been used for anything.

When it works (i.e.: before batteries die), it does effectively scan barcodes and accept verbal product requests, but Amazon finds the product I seek only about 50% of the time and the products it places in my cart are often over-priced even among Amazon offerings.

Just arranged a return with replacement. Amazon reports replacement will require more than 2 weeks to arrive? I guess my product issue wasn't unique. I wish it was easy enough to change my "return" request into a "refund" request.

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