Some people have a psychological need to reassure themselves of their own choices by defending them anytime they come under scrutiny by outsiders. Joe is clearly one of them.
What Joe is not taking into consideration here is the chronology of events that may have led even those who did their research into ST to buy into the platform. For instance, I entered the ST world in April moving 218 devices from Iris. You bet I did my research. At that time, the CEO Alex was active in the forum, staffers were talking about some of the new things coming (i.e. Dashboard), and a period of instability was almost over with Alex personally apologizing for it and reporting on progress weekly.
So to have someone insinuate we are acting entitled and āvote with my walletā is highly disrespectful to those who are trying in good faith to work through their issues.
MOTHERGUCKER! My iPhone just all of a sudden stopped working! I mean cāmon itās been working fine since I got it! WTF?!..ST you SUCK!
My wifeās iPhone was having some issues so I loaned her my iPhone because Apple claimed that her phone had to be off during the password recovery process. Put her sim card into my iPhone and turned hers off and I just used my work Galaxy.
Installed the ST app and logged in. Added my Galaxy as a presence device, updated some rules and all was wellā¦
2 days later, my wife got her iPhone going and then we returned our phones to normal operation. All was wellā¦
Left my work phone at work, got home, and nothing worked! Damn you ST!!! ARrgggg!!! Iām tired of this Crap!!!
SmartThings fault?..
I understand that there are issues with the ST platform here and there but I can confirm that most of my issues have been mostly user error. See, you can only have one mobile device attached to your username email. So when I added my work phone (Galaxy), it overwrote my iPhone as a presence device. I tried adding it back but it kept telling me that my iPhone was already added.
The moral of the story is, I believe, that most people are not doing all of the āextraā stuff we are doing on this forum. Most people just get the Hub, get a couple of bulbs or switches, get an Echo or Home and enjoy hassle free HA.
The open platform of ST is one of its major advantages but I also believe that it is one of itās major disadvantages.
āOver Partyā? Wouldnāt say so at all. Perfect? Wouldnāt say so at all. Great for doing awesome HA if willing to do a little tinkering and troubleshooting here and there? You bet!
Stick with the stock DH and stock apps and ST works. Start adding custom DH and Apps then, know what you are signing up for and ride it out. Itās only going to get better.
And you miss my point as well. I have not come under scrutiny. I have entered into a conversation with another that has a different of opinion. That now a days is bad also. One side thinks they are right and need to see it there way but if you donāt you should never ask them to see a different side. Has anyone worked with Microsoft so diligently and vocally. Has anyone spent near the time with them every time they got the blue screen of death and lost all the work you were working on? If you stick with their DTHās and nothing outside their platform it works. I had simpli safe before and I had an alarm go off and didnāt go anywhere why because cell service was down. Is that simplisafes fault. No. Again is it perfect no way. Does it work yes. And all reviews point to that. They get a 7-8 out of 10 in most reviews. Because of the one thing that is a weakness openness. But I rather that then closed. Why I donāt have an IPhone. We can all agree to disagree but I bet none of us complained to their cell company when they in fact still have not hit true 4G specifications. But they have marketed that its true 4G. Their are many options out there for HA unlike cell phones, OS for computers, and a choice of ISP for most. Maybe they should charge a monthly fee to bring in revenue and have more cash to fix this. I think they should allow more local processing that has to do with lights and few other things. But we donāt know the big picture and also how many promises have been broken by other CEOās in the tech world over the years. I donāt think they do it for the hell of it they do it for a reason. And Alex may be the CEO of Smartthings but he probably now since its under Samsung has 5 or more bosses between him and the CEO of Samsung. How many hubs have they sold couple hundred thousand? Once they are sold that the only revenue you have to give them since they allow just about anything on the hub. See if Apple will ever allow that. Or allow the community to make it work on their hub. But I would predict if they continue which I am sure they will stability will not be as much of an issue.
I see everyone point. promises made and broken, not stable for some (which some means perfect) not enough local processing ect. But again this is a baby in tech years. If what I read yesterday is to be believed DYI HA is not going away but it still years away from catching on mainstream. Its still for the very rich to have it professionally installed in the tens of thousands of dollars with its own server in the house. But even with that it can fail. Servers fail. Anyway I am not rich and I was able to get most of what they can get for a few thousand. Do I want more faster of course but one has to see all sides and not just theirs.
That isnāt accurate. That was my exact setup and it routinely failed to work. I had about 3 months of mostly reliable operation. When I first bought ST in July, I had issues with getting a schedule to run from the start. I assumed it was my devices and spent untold amounts of time unpairing and repairing them to the system. It then worked up until November when ST again would fail to turn a switch on at 3am. Support kept giving me a āweāre working on itā line every time theyād email me. Then it started killing the backup batteries every two weeks.
I had a very simple z-wave setup using the default SmartLighting app. Users in this forum suggested CoRE, so I migrated to that. The problem remained the same. It was obvious that the issue was on STās end in the cloud, as even when the app showed a switch in an incorrect state and failed to respond to input, I could still control the device locally via Alexa through the ST hub.
Iām a patient man, but enough is enough. This isnāt a homebrewed Raspberry Pi system. ST should be able to deliver what they market when it comes to basic functions. If they canāt, their management should probably wake the heck up and take action before their competitors take advantage of their failings.
They did have a period it was bad but they sent out a fix that fixed it. Well maybe not everyone. But I had a month of instability and then after a firmware update it fixed it. Also they had an issue with their cloud which they notified all by email. Somethings cant be helped but if they local processed more it would help it allot more. But I am sure we are looking at a more costly hub which I would in fact be willing to pay and hope their is some migration tool. But it would take more memory and probably a faster processor.
Sometimes issues are isolated to a certain few but is not the norm for the masses. I believe they call it bugs. However, you are right, if you have an isolated problem, then ST should do whatever they can to make your issue go away.
Sounds like you have/had a bad device. Or there is some kind of interference or something. I hope you get it worked out.
Saying that, I would absolutely recommend SmartThings to those who inquire about cheap, affordable and simple Home Automation. Itās like a product thatās sold on Amazon that has like a 4+ star rating and majority of the reviews praise the product but then there are some that give it a 1 star because of issues like yours and others who experience user errors and blame it on the company.
Not apologizing for ST imperfections but sometimes we have to look at the pros vs the cons and make a decision based on that. If it was a perfect platform, Iām sure I would not be able to afford all of the HA that I have achieved. For that, yeah, I am on the Band Wagon because I love my HA setup and I love that ST Staff monitor these forums and offer technical assistance, ideas and actually listen to their customers.
In my humble opinion there are some shortfallings with the ST platform, and things promised but not implemented. But all in all it is functioning well. I also feel these negative posts complaining about one or two things not affecting all members is just a waste of time. But I also feel that if a member feels better posting, I am all in favor of this also.
Nopeā¦ my entire system (and iāve expanded quite a bit recently) is working without error since I moved to a different platform. The 20A Z-wave outlet I started with and, for me, is the most important piece of my HA system, is now working without fail and turning on every morning at 3am. My wife is super impressed with the Lutron and Leviton devices Iāve added, and she is amazed that our lights turn on and our phones vibrate if our toddler escapes from his room in the middle of the night. She thought this whole endeavor was pretty stupid prior to this, as I couldnāt get an E61 espresso machine to reliably turn itself on at a preset time with $140 worth of hardware - something I could have accomplished with a $20 appliance timer.
Iām fully aware that users on other platforms have had all sorts of problems and found relief via ST. Without doing a massive amount of data driven research, which Iām not inclined to do, I only have my personal experience to draw from here. I do hope that the issues I experienced with ST get resolved. I still have my hub. If things change and there is a compelling reason for me to plug it back in, Iāll be happy to do so.
Super flawed business model. Is that my fault also?
Tech years are usually faster than regular years. All it takes from their end is the will to be better and money. Are they missing one or the other? Maybe both.
No its not but what I am saying know these things before investing into a productā¦ Which is why I say if you are unhappy go to say like Iris that charges you 9.99 a month just to have āadvance featuresā (that we get that and more for free) like your lights come on at a certain time. And only when the tech is being widely deployed. DYI home automation and security are new and baby in tech world. Or we all keep complaining and samsung decides to fold ST because its not worth it to you then you have a paperweight. We are not talking about a small company. I kind of wish they did stay their own because the people have more power then with a company as big as samsung. They make everything and if they feel they are failing here they are known like google is to just stop. Also samsung is know in the appliance industry for outstanding products. But horrible customer service and service if something does go wrong. I knew that going into my purchase of another samsung washer and dyrer. If I have a problem and call and get the horrible customer service I was told they have that is on me I knew it going into the purchase.
Awesome! You got it working just the way you like. Glad there was an option that worked for āyouā.
My sisterās cousin twice removed is overweight and IMHO quite on the āuglyā side. However, she is happily married and her husband loves her every existence.
Thereās someone or something out there for everyone.
You know, there are ways to express your opinions to other people who may
or may not have opposing viewpoints without coming off as a condescending
asshole. Weāre all a part of this community. Some of us have things
working, some of us donāt, some of us care, some of us donāt. If you
disagree with someone elseās take on something, cool, make your thoughts
known, but try to be respectful when you do it, please. Thereās absolutely
no reason for anyone to be disrespectful in this forum. This is a
discussion, and as adults, shouldnāt we have these discussions without
namecalling and sarcastic rude jokes? Thereās a legitimate reason for
customers to be unhappy, and whoās to say we shouldnāt actually express how
unhappy we are? At the same time that we should listen to other peopleās
opinions and take them into consideration, so should others take our
opinions into consideration. Iām just saying. My email has been going nuts
for the past three days with this back and forth and some of these comments
are outright disrespectful, rude, mean, and completely uncalled for, and
for what? Because someone doesnāt agree with someone else? Grow up, put
your big boy pants on, and be the adult we all know you are.
Not really understanding why youāre quoting a /24 subnet being an issue. Surely if you want to you can change the number of bits in your subnet mask or indeed use different subnets if you require more addresses?
Unfortunately, consumers accept a product that requires re-booting. Or pulling a battery from a sensor. This is wrong. Re-read what @JDRoberts has to go through to pull a batteryā¦
My own case is two hubs in two widely separated geographic locations. Iām in our winter home now & several days ago a switch got dropped at the other location. No way in hell I can cycle power on that switch from here ā and its job is security lighting. So far, Iām still able to monitor temperature on three sensors and the remaining two security lights are still workingā¦
I have an OnHub not staying he does and you canāt change anythinb on Google WiFi at the moment. Nor can you use your own router. I hope they change it. it also uses a weird interanal IP set. Not the normal ones.
If one has an issue or issues then they should have the right and/or ability to express that, in whatever format they choose, listen to suggestions on how to overcome the issue and move on to the solution.
If the solution is moving on is to another platform, then whatās the point of continuing the conversation about how disappointed they are? It gets old real quick and therefore one might go from being open minded, offering advice and showing empathy to some of the ārudeā comments that might have been said.
Sometimes, one might just need to accept that everyone does not share their same sentiment and they might be the minority. Doesnāt make them wrong, just makes for tense conversation.