Nest Wants You To Be A Pro Dealer

Nest products seem too residential-y and basic for mid to large integrators to bother with picking them up, but I could see where this might be a good fit in the trunkslammer end of the spectrum.

A lot of consumers are familiar with the brand, especially for the thermostats, being an "authorized Nest reseller" could lend an air of credibility to smaller outfits. IMO the biggest piece here is the thermostats. On any resi burg or camera (non-Nest cameras most likely) setup you can upsell the thermostats while either quoting or installing the cameras.

I am a Nest Pro. The margins are terrible and we haven't received one lead in over a year from their website where we are listed. Nest works standalone and really doesn't need any integration. We do automation as well and integration of everything sounds great but just isnt practical in day to day usage. The Nest is a set it and forget it learning thermostat and it does that well so why do you need to be fooling with it all the time? If you need to make that rare adjustment just use the app which is excellent.

With that said the residential security market is moving towards the do it yourself market with Amazon Echo/Dot and Google home bringing a lot of these devices together fairly simply and effectively. You can do some really easy automation with all of the Nest and Iot devies.

Here is the problem: Flash forward 5 years from now every home will have dozens of these internet connected devices with dozens of vulnerabilities creating a very insecure world where NVR attacks will be the least of our worries.

I would not be interested in being a Nest Pro Dealer, there doesn't seem to be much of an incentive to do so.  However, I've installed Nest Protects and Nest Thermostats for some of my residential customers.  I provide the installation only, but they must purchase the product on their own.  This way I am not on the hook should they have difficulties or technical questions.  I make it clear that I am only providing installation and they must call Nest for any technical support issues.  I do not stock replacements.

Unless there is a way to work out an RMR situation such as a maintenance agreement or sharing cloud service fees, it seems that becoming a Nest Pro Dealer is like installing local (not monitored) alarm systems. 

I had one call back on a Nest Protect, one of two, that went off line with the customer's WiFi.  The customer bought the Nest Protects at her local Best Buy and I installed them.  I suggested she restart her modem, but she said her WiFi was working just fine and she did not know how to restart her modem.  I asked her to log into the Nest website for troubleshooting tips and she complained that she  was not that technically astute. I gave her the Nest Technical Support telephone number, she did not seem happy but grudgingly agreed to call them.  It seemed she expected me to respond to her home to figure it out, free of charge, since the Nest Protect was installed within the past year.  Now, I'm reevaluating my offer to install, or suggest, Nest Products, even though I think their products are very good.

Even though the Nest Protect was off line with her WiFi, it was still performing as a smoke/carbon monoxide detector.  This was proven when she recently burned some food in her kitchen and the Nest Protect sounded the alarm.