725 Messages
Another Burglary Attempt, Another SimpliSafe Failure
A while back I posted about how someone had walked into my driveway late at night to check my car doors and how my SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro ($180) failed while my Wyze Cam v3s ($30) worked just fine. (Even the Wyze Cam v3 that is inside my house pressed against the window, that is further away from the driveway than the Doorbell Pro worked!)
Unfortunately I'm here to report it's yet another failure of my SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro. This Sunday I was woken up by a loud noise at 1:30AM and checked cameras to see a vehicle across the street from my house. I checked my SimpliSafe footage, nothing. I checked my Wyze and Reolink cameras (which I own because my SImpliSafe cameras cannot be relied on!) and they both caught someone walk into my driveway at 1:17AM to check my car doors and then walk to a vehicle parked across the street and over a bit. (Which, it turns out, the people driving it had stolen.)
I called 911 at 1:35AM or so and the first police SUV arrived at 1:55AM or so. The second SUV arrived around 2AM or so. The SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro did not capture the suspect in my driveway or any of the police arriving until 2:08AM. At that point the Doorbell Pro captured the officer driving the second SUV walk around the side of his vehicle facing my house. (But didn't alert when the SUV, which is MUCH larger than a person, pulled up.)
To add further insult to injury, many of the clips it did capture while the police were there, including my going in and out of the house to talk to the police, "did not upload correctly" and so most of the clip is missing.
Before anyone asks, the Doorbell Pro is and has always been set to:
- Motion events On
- Sensitivity Day and Night set to High
- Motion type of All Motion
Also while I do use a mask for motion detection but none of it is even close to the area where motion occurred during this event. Connection checks routinely show results of Good to Fair despite the Google Wifi puck being on the other side of the wall from the doorbell and 6 feet away. Oh and my porch light is always on at night and I have motion activated lights for my driveway.
In my experience your cameras are, by far, the worst part of your entire product offering despite being, by far, the most expensive accessories you sell. This is deeply frustrating. It's also, frankly, unacceptable that in my experience every single one of your cameras, old and new, are beaten out on price, performance and features by a camera that sells for $30. (And they actually record footage, all footage, when and how they're supposed to!) You all should be embarrassed that this is the case. This applies to every camera of yours that I own (which is at least 1x of every camera you sell by the way) and not just the Video Doorbell Pro.
What am I supposed to do with the near useless 5x cameras that I bought from you? Replace them? I'm not going to spend the $600+ it would take to do that. Sell them used and recoup, if I'm lucky, 25% of the cost? Neither of these options are in any way appealing to me though it feels like the second option is the only I have.
So please, tell me, what can I do that will actually get your two expensive, feature lacking, overly expensive cameras to do the bare minimum of what they're supposed to do and actually record motion when motion happens. I'm all ears. And anger. Mostly anger, actually. :P
emily_s
Community Admin
•
3.3K Messages
1 year ago
Hi @worthing,
I'm really sorry to hear about this, this isn't the experience you should have. I've escalated your case to our Support team - a senior specialist will reach out to you soon to make this right. Keep an ear out for their call.
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worthing
725 Messages
11 months ago
Bump. 17 days and counting.
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lance843
1K Messages
11 months ago
In my experience the video doorbell does pretty well but only to a certain point and I only use it to see who is at my front door but I do have an outdoor ss camera there as well and it picks everything up all the way to the street and it's about 40 feet away. I think the doorbell is only good to get people at the door, and at night it's not the best either so another reason I have another camera in this area.
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s13n
35 Messages
11 months ago
The lost video is SUPER common. Just check Reddit for loads of people complaining.
My camera is literally 3 feet from my Eero access point that is just on the other side of the wall from the doorbell. I thought maybe I had a defective unit but just got a new one and that is having the same issue. My best guess in my case is the stucco on my house has wire mesh in it and that's obstructing the WiFi like a Faraday cage. At some point I may put an AP in my garage window so the signal doesn't have to go through the wall.
One other issue I can think of is if you have a Mesh network then it is possible the doorbell could connect to a mesh node that isn't the closest one leading to a weak signal.
But, if you have wood only walls, no stucco or metal siding then I think there's something else going on. However... given the frequency of complaints I honestly think it is probably poor design of the hardware either antenna placement, antenna design, or power supply issues or self interference issues.
Furthermore there's literally NO excuse for losing footage. A tiny amount of built in storage would let the camera buffer days of recordings for when the connection is eventually recovered. As it is it seems as soon as there are connection issues the file is truncated - that's just BAD design to save pennies in h/w costs.
I really hope SS is readying a v2 of this device that will be available soon. If so please do let me beta test it! Here is my wish list:
1. Better fidelity in setting ignore areas, current ones are just too course.
2. Built in storage or allow user installable microSD like pretty much every other security camera then connection drops will never result in lost footage
3. Longer batter backup and make it end user replaceable. Put an industry standard 1850 in there!
4. Consider Wifi6 or even 7 for ultimate range and multihop connectivity
5. Better motion detection - many new cameras support pet detection so you don't get notifications when the neighbor's cat walks by
6. Allow me to record all motion, but select what types and areas trigger a notification. This lets my camera record cars parking out side of my house - who might be staking me out for a burglary - but won't wake me in the middle of the night unless someone comes to the door.
7. Offer a dual camera version for package detection. I have a second camera that tracks people in my front yard and can show me if there's a package so I don't need it, others probably have a similar situation so I think having two versions of hardware is a good solution.
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kennybryant
99 Messages
11 months ago
I have experienced similar failures of both the outdoor camera and doorbell camera. Missed events and clips that don't upload or get truncated. We just bought a new house and I installed Ring doorbell and 3 Blink outdoor cameras. Before installing at the new house, I installed them on my current house adjacent to Simplisafe cameras. The Blink and Ring picked up so much stuff that Simplisafe missed. I think this completely rules out my home network being the cause. I also had Simplisafe set to:
- Motion events On
- Sensitivity Day and Night set to High
- Motion type of All Motion
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Davo17
17 Messages
11 months ago
I've had same issue. Contacted support and sent a new Doorbell Pro. Hooked it up and same issue. Have gig speed internet w/ 2 extenders along with a $300 Wifi router. Network isn't the issue. Videos drop, don't record, miss activity. Looking at the other posts along with mine that was merged into another thread, this issue has been ongoing for over a year. I would think a solution would've been found by now. I stand right in front of the doorbell and doesn't go off. I have set to what others suggest. We had an incident with one of the neighbors cars got stolen and neighbors camera showed they were in my yard but doorbell didn't capture. Cars are right in front of the camera. I don't feel safe using SS. I am going to find a new security system as this should not be allowed to be sold.
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