Why so many negative reviews?

General Discussion
21

@timothyoconnor a couple people have flagged this post as inappropriate. Despite it’s negative bent I think that is about your colorful use of language. Perhaps you could clean that up a bit.

For our part we are striving to improve the platform every day. We know we are letting some people down. Despite all the work that we see as needed and what people point out here in the community and elsewhere, most people are satisfied with SmartThings. The negative app reviews are mostly about things we don’t have, which I think is a little unfair. Rating us low because we don’t have “Homekit support” or “Siri support” is like rating a Star Wars movie because there weren’t enough Klingons in it.

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22

What we all need to understand is that there is no I and you in this community but just plain and simple “us”. It’s a family for some of us with ups and downs, good, bad and uglies! If we all stick together and contribute in any small (est) way, we are doing something for fellow mates. We are all in this together and we will make it!

And this is what distinguishes us from other communities! Cheers, Luv and peace!

23

Ben you have seen my reviews, I assume, and its not about the things ST doesnt have, its about the what I do have that doesn’t work, hub app whatever it does not work as advertised and the last update has done nothing but make it worse, even the st devices don’t work properly with the st hub, so I say again that people are using the colorful language to describe the complete frustration to ST hub, devices or app and lack of support to devices contrary to advertised capabilities. I even have issues with Samsung mobile phone, I wonder how Samsung can fix this for me.

24

I’m not so sure why my experience has been so different than every body else’s in this conversation. A lot of people here are upset about the ST platform. I feel like I have not had that many troubles. Granted, I haven’t been using it for security. Very occasionally does ST actually fail on me. When it does, it’s really just an inconvinience for maybe a couple hours at most. I’ve found ways to make the system work for me. I agree about the app being slow as annoying, but usually I can close the app and restart it and it works just fine. I don’t usually write reviews, but if I did, I would be one of those 5-star people for ST. I enjoy getting in there and tinkering with the system. If you are tired of the tinkering, then ST might not be at the place you want it to be yet. We will just have to wait to see where it goes.

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That’s the key, Eric… don’t ever use ST for security.

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Ever? :cry:

Crying for at least 20 characters…

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27

I have 74 devices and lots of apps. There was a stretch where things did not work well, but overall my stuff is running pretty reliably again these days.

Having put the Action Dashboard on Wife’s laptop and mobile devices she is satisfied and day to day I am pleased with what I have works.

Sure, I had to troubleshoot a bit, like realizing I needed a zwave range extender…once I did that a whole host of problems disappeared.

Yes, there is much for SmartThings to do yet, and and improve, but overall this user has gone from very frustrated to content. Not evangelist levels yet like last summer, but seeing the direction as positive now.

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28

I am betting that it isn’t all that different, just that some may be depending on it more than you. I see the principle requirements of a home automation system to be:

1.) Energy Savings. But having things left on when they’re not supposed to be doesn’t save energy.

2.) Convenience. But being woken up in the middle of the night by false motion alerts, having no hot water in the morning, or having lights that should be on but aren’t, is hardly convenient. Nor is having the mobile app not showing correct states, forcing me to have no less than four other third party apps on my phone to verify what is actually on or off, open or closed. Oddly enough, I don’t recall any of “them” ever lying to me.

3.) Security. Not everything is fool proof here, and a battery operated, wireless system should not be depended upon to be so. However SmartThings monitoring of it is, too often, an annoyance.

I came to SmartThings for the purpose of improving reliability over my old PL based system. I almost bailed when I discovered it was internet dependent, but I was willing to accept that access to the net was required (installing power and communication backup methods in case of failure in that regard).

What I was not prepared for were issues with the platform itself. Online systems can be (and many are) fast and reliable; just not SmartThings. The state of HEAVILY advertised integrations are bare bones at best, with only the bare minimum of capabilities supported. If the same mindset exists within the platform in general, it would go a long way in explaining all of the issues.

I’d give 2 stars to SmartThings, you’d give 5. It really just depends on what your expectations are. SmartThings is smart, quite clever actually, and I don’t see the cloud being all that much of an excuse as to why it is unreliable. What they designed, no matter how clever, is what is unreliable. At the time of purchase, when I voiced my concerns about it being cloud based, I was told it would be reliable. I expected it to be reliable. My expectations have not been met… hence the 2 stars. (c;

29

I am continuously getting “there is a motion in your hallway or bedroom” blah blah from ST 2nd gen motiin sensors even though they are set up to notify in Away mode. I am very much in “Home” mode. I luv ST but every single day there is something or the other going on and me trying to debug and a pis@ed missus!

How ever much I love ST here’s my rating for things missus (non-techie and being a teacher makes it worse) and I care about the most (understanding the fact that they are in labs)…

Philips Hues and family: 2 stars lately. Pre update 3.55.

Harmony Home: 0 stars. Not applicable. Doesn’t work. DONT CARE.

Sonos: 2.5 (with my personal app: 3.5)

Zwave in my household: 5 stars (Never ever failed me)

ST STAFF AND COMMUNITY: 5 stars. Priceless.

Best non supported device: Five Fibaro motion sensors 4.5 stars.

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30

I have to agree once again! ST is not loading the dashboard, I am very close to scraping this. In the last two weeks nothing but problems. Lost connections, no event triggering, lost dashboard, motion not working, lock not locking and in it goes. Come on ST what is going on? And tonight no dashboard?

Very very frustrating!

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[quote=“Misterwinefine, post:30, topic:10665”]
And tonight no dashboard?
[/quote]If it matters, the dashboard is back.

As for the topic, I haven’t rated ST yet. Why? Because it’s too fluid right now for a proper review.

I realize I’m not a kickstarter backer, but I’m certainly testing a product that’s still being developed. However, I knew that before I got started.

Even then, I don’t think it’s fair to rate it (for me):

I expected that I’d have to write or modify code (and for me, that was a positive aspect.) For many, that’s a huge negative.

I knew that it was cloud based and that would cause me headaches. (I was right, too.) That’s a negative, but one that ST claims they are working on.

I don’t mind that it doesn’t have WiFi, as I PREFER devices with a real Ethernet jack. In fact, if the device is only wifi and doesn’t support EAP, I have to add all kinds of exceptions to my router to deal with it. (Non-EAP connections on my home network are extremely limited.)

Given all this - how can I give a rating that means anything to anyone else?

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32

Thank you all for the responses to my initial question. I might wait until the new hub comes out in April to see if there are any improvements made. I like the idea of having something to indicate the doors are open or detect motion around the place. It would also be nice to have lights on timers, etc. when I am out of town and maybe even trigger the Sonos speakers to play audio that sounds like someone is home. But if it doesn’t work well my wife is just going to be upset all the time as will I, because I don’t have hours on end to mess with things on the occasion the system breaks!

Thanks again.

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I totally agree. Right now dashboard showing door unlocked and activity monitor showing locked. Both are in st app.

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