‎Upgrade Path Leaves a Lot to be Desired | SimpliSafe Support Home
 
john1545's profile

Thursday, November 24th, 2022 5:43 PM

Upgrade Path Leaves a Lot to be Desired

There really is no proper upgrade path if you have a legacy system.  I purchased the upgraded base station and simply wanted to transfer my monitoring to the new base station and new sensors.  However, I was planning on using the legacy system without monitoring to monitor other parts of my property.

The first time I called Simplisafe, the customer service rep was helpful and cheerful and she helped me get the new base station added.  That was fine, but my old system sort of disappeared.  While I was trying to figure out how to control the old system, I somehow managed to get signed up for a monitoring plan for BOTH systems - this was not what I wanted.

The second call to Simplisafe landed me in MEXICO - yeah, you know what comes next. Someone that doesn't speak or understand English properly.  After answering a bunch of what turned out to be, unnecessary questions, I was transferred to a somewhat surly person in customer accounts.  After re-explaining everything again, she disconnected the monitoring on the legacy system, which has now become a BRICK.  That's right - whatever she did, I cannot use it as a standalone, which to the best of my knowledge was supposed to be possible with Simplisafe.  I don't have the time or energy to contact these people again - God only knows whether I'll get proper support.  This has become all too common with "service" companies in the U.S., and Simplisafe is the latest casualty.

When I first got the legacy system, it was easy to setup and intuitive. Now it has been dumbed down to the level of a third grader, providing you NEVER had a system.  If you are familiar with the system and are trying to upgrade equipment, it is not going to be straight-forward.  If Simplisafe wants customers to buy new upgraded equipment, then there should be a separate upgrade path for existing customers to follow.  The gen 3 system has been out for a while, so there really is no excuse for this.

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

2 years ago

Hi @john1545 ,

Unfortunately in this case, the agent did the only thing that they could.

It sounds like what you wanted to do was to cancel Monitoring Service on your older system, but still continue controlling it through the SimpliSafe app. This is not possible with the Original SimpliSafe.

The Gen 3 SimpliSafe can connect to the service (both Monitoring and the App) via two connections: your home's WiFi, and its own built-in cell. That latter connection is activated, and paid for, by your Monitoring Service. So if you cancel Monitoring Service, you'll still be able to control your system through the app, because you still have the WiFi connection.

The SimpliSafe Original does not have a WiFi connection, only the cellular. If you do not have Monitoring Service, then it cannot connect to the SimpliSafe app. You'll be able to control the system through your Keypad, and it can function as a local-only noisemaker, but that's it.

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