While I agree with the level of reaction has become a bit extreme I do your position too is on the extreme side, in the opposite direction. This was a zero-day shutdown. It came without any warning and a vague and alarming explanation. It’s hard to argue that it was a poorly executed strategy by Blink. Had this been handled properly, with advance notice and more truthful, disarming language I’d agree completely.
I have no dog in this fight, I steered clear of Blink after they pulled RBoy and other 3rd party integrations back in January. Blink was pretty clear back then that their support of RBoy’s integration was temporary. Keeping that in mind, it’s hard to argue that RBoy is completely absolved of responsibility. He has continued to advertise his as the official integration ever since despite offering no disclaimer that Blink had signaled their intent to stop supporting SmartThings at some future time.
I didn’t say it was fair by any means in the way that they went about it. But they are going to do what they want at the end of the day, and for them to do it without notice, I’m going to bet there is a pretty big reason behind it.
Nor do I. I was interested in getting a couple earlier in the year as well and this also had me rethink purchasing those.
And as for what ultimately caused the demise of this integration, I’m sure more news will be forthcoming over the next few days.
For those that paid RBoy for just this SmartApp, I’m not going to touch that. Dont need another frenzy stirred up out here. I’m a paying customer for the Door Lock SmartApp and Universal Device Handler only and it was money well spent.
Clearly. It’s just a shame that Blink is not being forthcoming about this. In the absence of details people use their imagination to fill the void. It’s this human nature why some are reacting as they do.
Spot on, and good choice to avoid Blink! I’m a lifetime customer of his too and have not regretted that decision. But again, a little information, an honest and transparent disclaimer.
Ya, that’s a fine line there. Not going into all the legalese. Even though it wasn’t supported by SmartThings, he worked directly with the engineers at Blink to create this integration and they even documented that it integrated with SmartThings and so if it wasn’t Official from their side, I don’t think they would have marketed it the way they have on their website. Outside of the pandemonium that ensued back in January. Official Unofficial version?
My whole thing is people went just a little too crazy. Counterproductive crazy. Some people posted some great constructive emails that they sent to the company and others just went into an uncontrollable panic and frenzy. I understand the frustrations and being upset, but absolute insanity that went over the top, especially when there is nothing that anybody could do about it. This won’t be the last time that something like this occurs. As they say, plan for the worst and hope for the best.
Haven’t done my homework to see/know if Blink is publicly traded or if it is a private company and/if this applies… But, I recall hearing if/when a company is compromised from a security breach, they have “n” number of days to publicly broadcast/announce the event so that users can take required/necessary actions to better protect themselves. If this applies to Blink, they might still be within that window before announcing and just stopping/shutting things down… We would know soon if that was the case, else they would be slapped with huge fines and lawsuits for not properly disclosing.
Or like someone else mentioned, the blink security system they are gearing up for release is in direct competition with ST and they may have to withdraw all connections to the community as a conflict of interest prior to release…?? Perhaps the same crap that Samsung did to Sonos (been in the Labs area for years).
Either way, I decided to call the Blink Tech support number and file a RMA/Case to return my 5 Camera Setup I purchased in October. I used this everyday with @RBoy 's Device Handler and SmartApp, which worked GREAT!.. Looks like a lot of us that are upset and returning are back to the drawing board for another product.
Damn. This is annoying. I’ve been running Blink for years as my inside system (with Ring on the outside). I’d love just one system to rule them all, but Ring is ill equipped for inside use… I’m halfway leaning toward ripping everything out and doing hardwired Hikvision throughout, but I love the Ring doorbell features.
Honestly I don’t think we know if they offering refunds yet. After the original email, they have gone completely silent on me when I asked for clarification. Even in their forum, a support guy will ask my case number and then crickets…
Last thing I want is to send my cameras for refund for them to tell me refund isn’t possible and have trouble sending me back cameras.
tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
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This is another hit against the smart home industry; but in perspective, these hits are not resulting in any substantial injury overall. We’re all “still here”.
In no particular order some random musings:
Google kills Revolv (with over 1 year’s notice); still offers refunds.
Staples kills the Staples Connect Hub (powered by Zonoff and DLink).
Chamberlain disconnects MyQ from SmartThings integration; later also adds $1/month “cloud fee” even for IFTTT (I think?)
Stringify is purchased by Comcast, a rather disliked mega-corporation.
Nest is acquired by Google. Employee morale issues make headlines.
Samsung removes SmartThings TV integrations.
Quirk and Wink split, with Wink sold for pennies to a supplier, in turn sold to a musical “artist” with a highly unsucessful tech investment history.
Best Buy folds the PEQ product line; consisted of Centralite ZigBee components, iControl based cloud, with required $1/month fee.
WigWag raises $500,000 on Kickstarter and delivers a fraction of rewards, include completely useless hubs
Oomi Home raises $1.7 million years later (despite failure of WigWag, consumers never learn…). Product is released very late and very buggy.
Yeti currently raising money though equity based crowdfunding. Very ambitious project with total venture + crowdfunding totalling under $500,000. Not even enough to keep the engineers paid for 1 year. A chance to own a fraction of the 12% capital allocated to crowdfunded equity. Campaign link appears to have gone down already … perhaps temporary glitch? https://twitter.com/YetiSmartHome/status/942501949441822720
Atmos uses extensive Facebook promoted posts to desperately try to raise trivial amount of funding $100k to build another extremely ambitious touch-screen / video intercom home hub product. Impressive demo video (obvious simulation) only gets 1,300 views
Brilliant raises $21 million in venture funding for, well, absolutely Brilliant looking smart lightswitch mounted 5" touch screen control panels with cameras, Alexa, and much much more. Each unit is $199 to $349 and pre-sales have “sold out”. With Alexa and Google Home prices plummeting, outfitting a home with Brilliant in each room would add up to a cost unlikely to remain attractive to middle-class households.
Smart Home industry overview info-graphics go out of day a week after publication and ;leave out the most prominent players.
In other words; Blink’s pivot, acquisition, or failure are all possible and all … completely normal.
V[quote=“tgauchat, post:158, topic:111047”]
Google kills Revolv (with over 1 year’s notice); still offers refunds
[/quote]
Ummmm no! There was not a years notice given. Technically, they killed the product from the day of purchase. There was a promise to keep the revolv cloud operating forever but 6 weeks later gave notice they were discontinuing the cloud in a timeframe of 2-3 months. But it did take over a year for most to finally get their refund.
LOL sorry for my rant. I am still bitter about that situation.
Blink saying the integration was not official is the most absurd statement I have ever heard. They plastered it all over their website and used it to draw in customers. Bait and Switch??
No question. A polite, but firm discourse will go much further than the vitriol I’ve seen thrown around. Although now from what I’m reading, it seems the promise of refunds might not be honored too. Honestly, at that point I can’t say as I blame them.
This is due in part because smart home tech is considered by many to be a hobby at this point. At some point these companies are going to have to clean up their act or the consumers will lose interest.
Consumers have a short memory, but even so they do grow weary of being ripped off by mis-behaving corporations. One need not look further back than the meteoric rise in popularity of imported automobiles in the US back in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Many consumers got tired of over-paying for under-perforrming, unreliable vehicles that lacked innovation and fuel economy. The auto industry in the US nearly collapsed as a result.
If they don’t give refunds that they said they would will be a big hit against them. The hit won’t be because they refuse to pay the refunds on a product bought a year ago. The hit will be that they said they would, then changed their collective minds to not give refunds probably after realizing it would be more costly than they expected initially. Normal refunds within the typically short time frame are not the same thing. Company integrity and customer support go along way in retaining customers and getting new customers.
Trying to find if there is any more news on this. The last thing I heard was the email response I got from Blink was that they were going turn the ST integration with RBoy’s latest version back on temporarily. Has anybody heard any more on this?
that was a copy/paste response from when they turned it off in January. Some customer service rep probably found it in there system and incorrectly sent it out as a response. All signs point to this being dead.
I just submitted my 1-star review on Amazon and plan on ripping down and eBaying my 5-camera system. What arseholes.
What are people moving to? I have Ring on the exterior and was using Blink inside. It would be nice to have one surveillance system, but Ring doesn’t really have an indoor option. Arlo? Guessing all the Samsung cameras are junk?
I mean, Ring has the spotlight cams, and there might be a way to disable the actual light so it doesn’t go off and blind you inside. The other popular alternative is Arlo, yes. Otherwise, Foscam/Amcrest would be another option though wired.
I was thinking that. Or just moving to Amcres/Hikvision on my own DVR. So annoying.
I need to dig more into the Ring integration. Can motion detection be enabled / disabled with CoRE? I just leave my doorbell cam enabled all the time (for obvious reasons), but wouldn’t want that in my living room.
I don’t think you can disable native motion detection on the Ring via ST/CoRE - the motion/doorbell presses will continue to go off and be reported regardless. Also, looking through the device listings in ST, I’m not sure there is even support for the Ring spotlight cams at this time.
Keep in mind that for many, including myself, IFTTT has been extremely slow. I use it to turn on my porch light when my Ring Stick-Up cam senses motion. It usually takes 10-15 minutes for the porch light to turn on after Ring notifies me there is motion.
