Sorry if you think I am “bitching” but my system which I paid over $1200 for rarely works with all the server side and app issues. I think I have he right to “bitch”.
Playing devil’s advocate here a bit, but how much of that $1200 actually went to SmartThings?
(rhetorical… not trying to get into your personal purchases)
Don’t get me wrong, I expect the SmartThings services and mobile apps to work without bugs as well… I just know that I can’t use the $X spent on home automation argument since most of my hardware was not purchased from SmartThings… that’s at least one bright side of the platform – it works with all my Z-wave hardware from before SmartThings and all the new hardware I’ve purchased from third party retailers after I moved to SmartThings.
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I totally agree less than $200 which is a big part of the problem. But if this system keeps failling it will cost me little to switch to a different hub so they lose customers this way. So I hope it gets better.
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Well, out of all of my stuff… I’ve spent exactly $99.00 to SmartThings.
But, I’ve tried Wink… crap! and then I did my research…
Yeah, there’s bugs… there’s problems… and there’s all the other crap…
But, right now I’m not having a single problem with my system. I’ve now gone 3 or 4 days without
any problems at all.
Hell, today I’ve been walking around bored looking for some kind of HA thing to fix… couldn’t find one.
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Something to be thankful for this thanksgiving 
You can fix some of my issues, assuming you have access to the server side of things that is. Polling never works rendering 5 of my temperature sensor’s useless. Scheduled events work randomly making them useless since I need to check every day to make sure my heat turned off, so I might as well just press the off button while I am at it. Yada…Yada…Bitch…Bitch… LOL
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Lucky you, man! I can’t freaking move and slightly tipsy wife and niece wants me to put up the Christmas tree tonite.Not happening! Tomorrow. 
E’rhing working! Will try the aeon doorbell tomorrow while they go shopping.
I have to let you know… All of my problems went away when I did this:
- Stopped changing modes and using SHM
- Stopped using Smart Alarm and SHM Alarm arm/disarm
- Stopped using any routines at all
I did start using this:
- Trigger Happy
- Rule Machine
Both of these take the place of all of my routines… I’ve just given up on the alarm perspective and why use modes? I just figured that I would use specific times. This works for me because my house is like a circus… I have 8 kids… ranging in age from 2 months to 23 y/o. Parents are in and out every day and the front door should be a revolving door… so, modes were pretty much useless. lol
But, overall… I’m very satisfied and it’s working great.
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- I don’t use modes
- I don’t use smart alarm or SHM alarm
- stopped using routines at all. What does this mean ?
Don’t know what Trigger Happy or Rule Machine are…where do I find them ?
I really only have one timed event. M-F 7am turn off heat S-S 9am turn off heat. It works 95% of the time but the other 5% causes me to have to check it every day rendering it somewhat useless.
Other then that I have 5 zxt-120 ir senders which have temperature sensors inside. I would like to use them to turn on AC or Heat based on temperature reading but unfortunately they don’t send the temp reading they expect the hub to poll and we all know how well polling works. Would trigger happy or rule machine address this polling issue ?
Read through the threads… These two apps will make your life easy.
They are kind of difficult to use until you figure them out, but ask plenty of questions… the forum is here to help.
https://github.com/bravenel/SmartThingsPublic/blob/master/smartapps/bravenel/rule.src/rule.groovy
newbie here- one question and one thought:
I have routine that is set to “automatically perform at X am” It’s also set for “Dont automatically do when in one of these modes: away mode”. Well i was away for thanksgiving 3 nights and the mode was set to “away” but still everyone morning at X am it ran the darn routine. So I’m new to smarthings- is this a problem in the android app, the device’s firmware, or their cloud whatnot? Or am i totally not understanding what “don’t automatically do” means?
a thought- seems there’s a “few” bugs in the system. Do they have beta testing? Why not? I’d gladly sign up if that gave me a way to quickly get bugs reported and addressed.
Rarely, as far as I am aware. They have a challenge to figure out what types of testers are appropriate; but really, most of these are just QA (Quality Assurance) issues that should be caught in automated regression testing. Perhaps SmartThings is just not at that level of IT maturity yet, or they are rushing…
Some (all?) Beta’s have been under very restrictive and broad scoped Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). I don’t think that’s appropriate (which has kept me from further Beta invites, I’m sure). Sorry, SmartThings – I was doing you a favor, not the other way around. I shouldn’t need to call my lawyer when you’ve asked me to help.
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I see no issue with a NDA when you are beta testing unreleased hardware. This seems quite normal to me.
I do however think SmartThings is doing a TERRIBLE job with testing. Honestly I think the employees don’t care anymore. I joined just before the Samsung purchase when the employees were still hungry for success and cared. I am guessing that the employees have no drive anymore to succeed, they have already been bought out.
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It’s also required for software, and has an outrageous scope and duration. It requires a formal request to revoke otherwise it is in effect for 5 YEARS. And I was not informed it was required until AFTER I drove 1 hour to the office.
Don’t be so melodramatic and also spread false information. The team have not ‘peaced out’ at all, they’re working harder than ever and probably with more passion before, you lot keep WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY over estimating what the Samsung ‘deal’ did for SmartThings and are taring them with the same brush.
I took to the time to message Ben and I was grateful he messaged me back discussing the recent issues and I walked away from that conversation feeling very confident about the future of ST.
? ? ? ? Please share? ? ? ?
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Do you mind me asking how long you’ve been with SmartThings? I guessing it hasn’t been very long.
What if you were experiencing these issues for more than a year and a half? Would your confidence still be high after a chat with a marketing guy?
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I can only speculate, but in my experience Korean, Japanese and European companies are notoriously stingy comparing to North American companies when it comes to employee incentive programs like stock options and bonuses. They just pay you base salary and think you should be eternally grateful for not being let go.
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And this is why I work for the Germans, and the US government!
Not too long, no. Do you mind me asking how many other platforms you have experience with? I had my doubts about Wink right from the start, Ben Kaufman is… was… well, Wink couldn’t get a buyer and SmartThings got funded by one of the biggest companies in the world.
I’ve never once defended ST and said everything was perfect, I’ve never once said I don’t have any issues on the platform myself. ST has a lot to answer for, and they will…
Just about all of them. But TBH, I was most enthused about SmartThings’. Unfortunately, over the last 18 months, it has turned more to pessimism. It has gone from bad to worse, and I am frustrated given the amount of effort invested.
I came to SmartThings from Indigo/Insteon for the purpose of more flexibility and reliability. It has been anything but.
You didn’t really answer my question regarding confidence, did you?
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