I bought into the ST platform almost two years ago. I still use ST but only because I don’t want to go thru the brain damage of trying to move my things to another platform. I’ve ran my own IT company for 20 years and have never bought a product that’s been such a complete piece of you know what. Spare me replies of, SmartThings isn’t for everyone. Interesting how they don’t mention that in the advertising. I don’t see the phrase “meant for hobbyists” anywhere on the website except in the forums. The reality is, after you get it setup and work out the initial bugs it will never work “as advertised”. I’m just stuck with a system that doesn’t work anywhere near al the time and at this point I don’t believe it ever will.
A home security system? Ha! What a joke. My home was way more secure when I was manually turning locks with my hand and pressing the garage door opener button with my finger. If I actually installed a siren my neighbors would have me flogged.
I’ve got around 30 things all purchased thru SmartThings and only run standard SmartApps. At this point I’m down to 9, 13 if I count that some apps do multiple things. I live in a small townhouse so device range isn’t an issue either. All my sensors report properly. ST simply does’t respond properly at the proper time . . . sometimes.
The tech support is horrible. No phone support center. SY is the only company I work with of it’s size/worth that doesn’t offer it, not counting Google of course. I have to e-mail back and forth or chat and the support I do get is a joke. My last experience was contacting tech support in an e-mail that ST wasn’t getting sunrise and sunset right. There response was to adjust my SmartApp by adding or removed 90 minutes from sunrise or sunset. What’s the point of even saying ST can track sunrise or sunset. Another was my good night action wasn’t occurring at midnight. I was told to change the time as ST gets stuck sometime and then of course there’s the pat followup “we’re working on it” response. Are you kidding? They might also mention that if you’re using your iPhone as a presence sensor, you need to wake up your phone when you get close to home. My tech and family members who have the app all unaffectionately refer to it as DumbThings.
My initial reason for purchasing ST was twofold. One, I just plain wanted home automation. Two, I was going to use my house as the demo house and sell ST to my clients. I wouldn’t sell ST to my worst enemy much less a client.