ByeBye Smartthings, you're too unreliable!

Thanks, I’ll try again by moving the hub.

Every system has pluses and minuses. :sunglasses: Both Vera and Homeseer have developer communities at least as large as SmartThings, and probably larger.

And Wink is certainly not a toy-- it fits into the same market niche as SmartThings for anyone who wants a low-cost home automation system and is willing to stick to a more limited set of devices and rules. But technically, it is in some ways more advanced than SmartThings, with more functional radios, built in migration, the ability to use multiple hubs easily, and more local processing including the ability to use the app on your phone to control the hub even when the Internet is out as long as they are both on the same LAN.

SmartThings has tended to lead the way in cloud to cloud integrations, and it works with more zigbee devices than most competitors. And certainly it has an excellent community in this forum. There are a lot of reasons why someone might use it. But there are also a lot of reasons why someone might use a different system. The trick is to find the one that best matches your own needs. :sunglasses:

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And here’s a little forecast as to what Abode has in the works:

Abode has its own pluses and minuses. I looked at it when it first came out, but the limitation on the number of rules and devices is just too low for me. I understand they did that for stability reasons, it’s just not a match to my needs.

I think smartthings and it’s community here are impressive and I’m really liking my experience and what I have setup thus far. However I’ve got enough tech experience to know how important backups and a viable restore process are. I assumed incorrectly this would be here. I can’t go down this road any further with the chance of being stranded. I would be more than happy to live with the quirks of ST, but from what I can see homeseer will take care of things like local processing, broader support of devices(insteon), can do scripting in .net as opposed to learning groovy, and includes dead simple backups and restore. I will feel more at home with HS, but ST is still great, just not the right fit for me.

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I think you might want to choose a word that fits SmartThings a little better than robust, maybe like more flexible or more compatible with more 3rd party devices than other like Home Automation hubs, but I’m sorry, robust it is not, and do not call it reliable and dependable either. Be realistic here. Defend it all you want, but if it talks like a duck and walks like a duck…

++Definition of robust++

1 a :having or exhibiting strength or vigorous health
b :having or showing vigor, strength, or firmness a robust debate a robust faith
c :strongly formed or constructed :sturdy a robust plastic
d :capable of performing without failure under a wide range of conditions robust software

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Here my last correspondence with Samsung:

Hello Tanya, I have an update. The hub shut down completely and without warning. I tried to reset and hard reset it but no use. UPDATE: now just goes on and off like crazy every so many minutes.
How is it possible that a praised company like Samsung makes a costumer go through this? Your costumer service says to bring the system to the retailer knowing fully well that the warranty is expired (last month, good timing!).

Is there anything else I can try before I put the entire system in the garbage bin?

To summarize:

  • Multi sensors shut down due to low battery and without warding leaving my house unprotected on holiday
  • Presence dongle brakes down while I try to change the battery due to the battery stopper being too fragile
  • Motion sensor stops working properly after a year
  • Hub shuts down completely after 13 months of use
  • Systems needs continuous updates to correct bugs
  • No new device are supported since I purchased the system
  • Costumer service is completely unsympathetic to my situation and provides me answers every four days on average, claiming the system does not replace a conventional security system (is it the comedy channel?)

Well done Samsung! It goes without saying that I will not buy any of your products again after this odyssey.

I called Tech support before and I was awed by the patience and time they take to help you with the issues. Hats off to them… They have to help you trouble shoot a product that on each case is different.

Homeseer is good for a lot of people who have strong technical skills. But it doesn’t support zigbee devices. There’s customer migration in both directions. As you know, it just depends on your own particular needs as to which will be the best match. :sunglasses:

True, that is a definite limitation of HS. fortunately I don’t have any zigbee devices in my house. My limited understanding is that zigbee is somewhat fragmented and you can have proprietary zigbee devices/hubs.

Are you serious? Them why they don’t provide a telephone number? They don’t even dedicate the appropriate number of resources to debug their crappy product.

We should take te courage of bring Samsung to court. I can’t accept I need throw 300£ worth of equipment in the trash bin.

Update
Yesterday my alarm went off for no reason, and the hub was offline to kill the siren, I had to turn it off manually.

This are the comments that get to me… You are obviously not trying and all you want to do is bash…
:roll_eyes: Stop bashing…

https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/200902450-How-to-contact-SmartThings-support

I believe the previous poster is in the UK. SmartThings does not have a phone support line in England, only in the US.

https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-gb

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in all fairness he has a point, not the number but the whole system is so unreliable. Plus why sell Scout security and then say you need another system?? No entry/exit delays without serious work…i think Id rather work harder at setting up the system (openhab etc) and have it be local and work than this mess. No delays really annoy me because this is a stupid stupid design decision. Who was the guy who said hey lets try and push a security monitoring company but the minute you step in your door the alarm goes off because no one can think through basic logic.

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Did not know that. If that’s the case. Than BOOO for Samsung support!

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I understand your and his point.
What I don’t understand, Why rely on something which is not meant for “Real” Security monitoring…
On the Samsung side, They should stop pushing that future! Stick with home automation and done.
Leave home security to Ademco (Honeywell) company’s that have been doing this for years…

And Samsung you are a worldwide company! Provide world wide support the right way!!! :rage:

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Perhaps I didn’t mention that I have exchanged already 15 emails with the costumer support over many weeks. And the result is that the situation deteriorated to a point that the hub goes on and off intermittently and the siren goes off inesplicably.
I’m an engineer and quite clever with computers. Believe me, this system needs still a lot of work from Samsung.
I live in UK and here Samsung does not have a call center for smart things unfortunately.

However I’ll keep trying and update the forum with the results.

UPDATE 26/06/2017
After a new reset the hub seems stable, but my second motion sensor is always stud on motion or no motion for hours at time. Have you faced this issue before?
I asked support to get the hub and the sensor back for a diagnostic, but it normally takes four days to get an answer in UK.

UPDATE 28/09/2017
Malfunctioning motion sensor. Samsung is going to replace it. :wink:
Erratic hub behavior: so far unexplained, off for a day then goes back on but connecting and disconnecting erratically. Next time I shall video it.

Also if you experience issue with geofencing I have been told this:
This is something we have been made aware is affecting a number of our users following the iOS11 update. Please do be assured our engineers are working hard with Apple to figure out what might be going wrong so that a fix can be rolled out. In the meantime, it may be worth using Life360 as your Mobile Presence. To set this up, here are the steps (as a note, step 3 is actually More, I’ve fed this back): https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-gb/articles/202334244-Connecting-Life360-with-SmartThings

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I have some hope for the new Nest security, but I am a little concerned by their inexperience on security either. Perhaps I should keep my security and the automation separate. I also have the Amazon echo, can’t blame me for trying to unify everything.

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I’ve had my ST and 60 or so sensors, and it definitely is not reliable. I wouldn’t recommend it as a security system. For home automation, also has a lot of downtime and annoying “HUB offline” message frequently. I wanted to love it, but the unreliability is making me hate it more everyday.