Well I pulled the trigger on the Echo and some other devices, and after a few days I have to say that, overall, I am well pleased.
I purchased the Ecobee3 thermostat, the Philips Bridge and 4 bulbs, two LIFX bulbs, (arriving today), and a Ring Doorbell, which has nothing to do with the Echo.
The ONLY problem I have encountered with Alexa, is when I was doing the Football Trivia skill, once, during the 5 questions, when I answered "4", to one of the questions, she kept repeating, "Your answer must be a number between 1 and 4." However on one of the other answers to the 5 questions, I answered 4 again, and she accepted it.
It's only happened once and I'm thinking maybe it was my accent, even though I went through the voice training option they give you with Alexa.
One of the most pleasant surprises was that I have it centrally located and she can hear me from the living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, and my bedroom, which are the places I was hoping would pick her up to eliminate the need for the remote.
As one member said, I do like the being able to turn the lights off and on and I really think I will like the Ecobee3 once it warms up enough to use it, as it is cool enough down here in Florida to have our house open and the A/C turned off, for the time being.
Lastly, I see on the website they are working on an update to use with the Liftmaster MyQ app, so I can open and close the garage door from the Echo.