EN 
DE 
Thomas Christmann
Zittau. Digades is one of Zittau's technological flagship companies. The company has made a name for itself with an indispensable part for luxurious special equipment in cars: remote controls for parking heaters. Whether Audi, Bentley, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, BMW or, of course, VW - almost all manufacturers of distinction ordered these remote controls from Digades. But it was precisely this key product - once the company's cash cow - that caused Digades to run into financial difficulties - because the digital age had passed it by. This was followed by Short-time work, Dismissals and finally the still Ongoing insolvency. And that is why a product that was supposed to counteract the decline is now causing annoyance among customers.
The smartphone - and the practical apps that can be installed on it - took away Digades' longstanding stable economic basis. Instead of giving their customers an additional remote control for the parking heater, car manufacturers increasingly relied on in-house apps - because everyone has a smartphone anyway. Digades was unable to keep pace with this and lost manufacturers as customers. However, the company countered this with its own app solution. But what some customers celebrated for a long time no longer works.
Why a radio remote control was not convenient enough
One of those affected is Klaus Thümmel (69) from Chemnitz. "I've been driving a VW Tiguan for years - always with auxiliary heating," he says. He appreciates this additional equipment for several reasons. Firstly, you can always get into a pleasantly pre-heated car in winter. On the other hand, it is also good for the engine and the environment, because the auxiliary heating eliminates the need for wear and fuel-intensive cold starts. And the remote control for this came from Digades. But there was something that Thümmel always found incredibly impractical: "The range of the radio transmitter is a maximum of 100 meters" - and there must be no major obstacle between the transmitter and the car.
Of course, this is enough to activate the parking heater of the car parked on the street from the breakfast table, for example. But Klaus Thümmel and his wife are still active in sports. "We hike a lot in the forests around Chemnitz or go cross-country skiing," he says. When they got back to their car from a longer tour, they could only switch on the auxiliary heating when they were very close. "When it's really cold, it could take up to half an hour for the car to heat up comfortably," he says.
Practical solution - but suddenly switched off
A few years ago, Thümmel came across the "dfreeze" system developed by Digades - an app-controlled operation of parking heaters - in a car forum on the internet. "It was even recommended by VW," he says. An additional decoder is installed in the car and the customer downloads the app onto their smartphone. The server that controls this between the smartphone, the decoder and the parking heater was operated by Digades. Because this is all done via the internet, you can operate your parking heater from virtually anywhere in the world. "So I could park my car in Greece and operate the parking heater from Chemnitz," says Thümmel.
He was delighted. "Including installation, it cost around 400 euros in 2021," he says. This was combined with a three-year license to use the system - similar to a mobile phone contract. "And I can only praise Digades' customer service to the skies," he says. They were always very helpful during installation and operation. In January 2024, he extended the user license for a further two years - at a price of around 40 euros. The enthusiasm ended recently. "When I recently tried to switch on the parking heater via this app, I got the message: No connection to the server possible," he says. And when he called the Digades customer hotline, he was told: "Customer service is being discontinued." It was only then that he found out about the company's insolvency.
Thümmel is not even concerned about the 40 euros he had to pay for the service. "That's manageable. But there are certainly many people affected," he says. However, he fears that he will now have to pay several hundred euros to install another system from a different provider in order to maintain his usual level of comfort - if Digades does not resume this service. However, this does not look likely at the moment. On the corresponding website, Digades states"We would like to inform you that the insolvency of our company unfortunately means that we are forced to discontinue our dfreeeze product and the associated services." This decision is "a serious part of our efforts to restructure the company as part of the insolvency proceedings and to prepare it for a sustainable future". The same applies to the "dguard" system developed by Digades, an automatic emergency call system for motorcyclists.
Digades has not yet responded to a request for comment from SZ.
