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lkhamer's profile

Thursday, October 17th, 2024 8:07 PM

Outdoor Camera V2 Scam

Anyone else impacted by the Camera V2 scam? I bought outdoor cameras earlier this year when enrolling in the Outdoor Monitoring program and just got an email today, 6 months after that hefty purchase, that the cameras I bought will no longer be supported for the program come December. This is utterly unfathomable to me. The cameras were $200 apiece and now they want me to buy them all over again 6 MONTHS LATER? What will I do with the old cameras? Why do I have to pay for the new cameras? I reported SimpliSafe to the FTC because this is such horrific consumer mistreatment I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it. If you are also disgusted with this, please do the same. SimpliSafe, you need to send replacement cameras to those impacted for free or reverse course on cutting off service to those of us with the "old" cameras we literally just bought from you this year.

Captain

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6.2K Messages

27 days ago

@lkhamer I do understand your position and reasons for not appreciating the chain of events, and yes, SS can greatly improve communication but send a complaint to the FCC for equipment not being current with new technology? My brother purchased Google Nest WIFI literally less than 3 weeks before Google Nest WIFI Pro was released.  Some may argue it was not much of a change, but in the new model any point can be used as a router, has two ethernet ports and accesses WIFI 6 and WIFI 6E.  Yes, bad timing but I don't know what action the FTC will do.

That said, some communication from SS on this topic would be more than nice and expected, including some type of trade in and up program.

1.3K Messages

27 days ago

From another opposing and not happy at all with any of Simplisafes cameras, or service perspective.

No V2s not ever, not in a million years, I'm disgusted enough with 5 V1s @ almost a $1,000. It is that much with two doorbells thrown in.

I'm in the never ever again Simplisafe crowd, learned my lesson the hard way.

Some my own stupidity for believing BS web reviews and not looking in at actual websites that rate them at 1.7 of 5.

Carry on OP, you did the right thing.👍

Stand up for yourself. It's your right.

I'll be right behind you soon enough, not so much for me, but for future unsuspecting victims.

Captain

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6.2K Messages

@dlpsr​ Substitute Simplisafe with ADT in your post and it would fit perfectly for me. Again understand your position especially going through the experience you had.

1.3K Messages

26 days ago

@captain11 I appreciate the thought.

6 Messages

16 days ago

I agree on a few points - I drew a bit of a bigger picture on my testimonial including the whole V2 camera topic - but I would honestly go to the extend to call it a scam as well. Especially with the lack of explanation why the V2 is necessary and the questionable settings that get forced onto you as a Pro Plus Outdoor Monitoring subscriber

see my testimonial: https://support.simplisafe.com/conversations/testimonials/negative-development-of-simplisafe-outdoor-camera-v2-dilemma/671fc870929069498614b550

1.3K Messages

@neva​ I read it all, will refrain from commenting very much. Don't have any V2s and will never be a V2 owner.

As to the service, that's spot on my experience pretty much in two years. I've had better luck with chat actually sometimes, as least they type in mostly the English language. Understand what I'm asking? That's a different story.

I personally want total control of my system. The only way I could have that, was to build my own.

Which is what I did and I am continuing to do as I add more devices and cameras.

Good luck, posts here typically fall into a black hole somewhere within the hour.

I helped bump it anyhow.😉

6 Messages

@dlpsr​ I do understand. Myself I am not a native English speaker - I am German and yet manage to articulate myself clear enough to be understood clearly by the Americans around me. I wish the support I call - would be capable of the same…

I actually liked that SimpliSafe was DIY and gave you a lot of options yourself. Yes the options were limited but enough what I needed. But at this point instead of pumping money into them I might as well go to UniFi - change my infrastructure as I intended to anyways and implement their cameras … I can call the cops myself if I need to…


I suppose I am going to receive absolutely nothing from the SimpliSafe support or customer service.

So I will give back the exact same - the moment my free Pro Plus Monitoring ends, I won’t continue paying.

At this point it’ll take quiet a bit to change my opinion after all these shenanigans …

1.3K Messages

16 days ago

@neva  I almost took a job in my youth that that required flying to Germany to meet with the founders of Behringer Saws (Operate the USA division).

I only had one year of German in high school. That language gap and for other reasons, I declined to pursue the offer.

I have no major issues with with SimpliSafe sensors, other than they're useless for other automations such as lights on, etc.

I have 5 solar powered V1s, two Doorbells Pro and about 35+- sensors.

Haven't ever been completely happy with the cameras operation. Slow live view wake time with both Mesh or similar WiFi required and a solid RF signal from the base station to wake them up. Regardless of performance mode, fast protect or anything else. Orbi Mesh and two access points.

They even gave me a 2nd base to try to improve RF signals. Helped some, but no cigar. I can't link the bases together as one system.

I even loaded the unofficial Simplisafe Home Assistant integration in my Home Assistant hardware, but that made the sensors even more useless for automation. HTTP polling is also slow versus webhooks. I've since deleted the integration from home assistant as useless.

My ZigBee sensors have relegated the SS sensors to backup redundancy alarm while they last.

Unifi as you mentioned are supposedly good cameras. Home Assistant compatible too I think.

I'll probably go Reolink power over Ethernet as they're a bit less expensive and have an excellent integration for my home brewed system. Eventually. SS cameras are still hanging out there for live view only and to remind me that I'm an idiot.for buying them.😉

Hopefully you get to read this before they mark it Private or something and then who knows what happens to the post.

They don't like other brands being discussed much, although this time I wasn't recommending a brand as much as just discussing them. 🤔😉😁

From here out, I'm open source, local to my LAN as much as possible and eliminate as many clouds as possible.

Good luck!

6 Messages

@dlpsr That’s quite the interesting story! Thanks for sharing that!


That’s usually the best attempt - get away from the cloud. Only reason for me to even consider a cloud solution is to gap the time until I have my own home and not rent. Which shouldn’t be too far away - the moment that happens I am going to spend all my wonderful Benjamins at another company instead. I just wished the good time with SS would have lasted longer…

If they end up marking any of these posts as private - that’s a good testimonial of themselves. If you need such community guidelines, it tells you what company you work with :)

And that’s also why I have all these posts printed to a pdf ready to go somewhere else 😊

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