To be fair, Wyze did make several efforts to make this clear. On the lockbolt product page they specifically advertise that there is no cloud connection and that it uses Bluetooth [instead of WiFi]:
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And they post on the box again that Bluetooth is the connection medium they chose:
That’s at least 4 attempts on the front page of the product page and the packaging.
They said they originally did this as a “security feature” so it can’t be remotely accessed through the internet since there were a number of people who complained that the original lock had internet access which made it less secure. I personally think that even if that were true, they could’ve set it up to allow for both sides to be satisfied. If they allowed a gateway connection then people who wanted it could use it, and people who didn’t want to (for more security) could simply not use the gateway. Simple.
But it is true that not having WiFi is big downside for many people, including me. I have long advocated that Wyze should and should have made WiFi possible for this device from the beginning. It is the main reason I didn’t put these on every single entrance in my house. My wife loves the Lockbolt and wants 3 more of them, but I refuse to get anymore primarily because they don’t have WiFi.
Still, it is also true that many people buy things with false assumptions of what a device may include, no matter what a company may do to try to be clear about things. This is a good example of why a return policy is important. For anyone who thought a product included something, then learns it doesn’t have that after all, a person needs to be able to return things that are a deal-breaker for them. Since these things happens, that is why Wyze offers:
For anyone who isn’t satisfied with their purchase when they learn it doesn’t meet their needs or expectations. To me, that’s a fair way to handle it.
While I’m not a moderator, I am one of the Wyze volunteers, and I can guarantee you that the Wyze volunteers, Mavens and Moderators alike probably give Wyze more critical feedback on everything than anyone else, both in public, as well as non-public backchannels, and including beta testing app and firmware releases. For one example, here is one of my more famous critical feedback posts to Wyze that the entire company read about what I felt their shortcomings were:
Wyze has lost it way - #23 by carverofchoice
That is among one of the all-time upvoted posts on the forum and it is a lot of constructive criticism about how Wyze had changed and strayed from their roots of what made people love them.
It’s true most of us volunteers are big Wyze fans…if we weren’t, we wouldn’t even spend time here to help people or care to learn about Wyze stuff and how it works. We know so much BECAUSE we are big fans, but that doesn’t mean that we never criticize Wyze. It also doesn’t mean that we are blind yes-men or that we aren’t allowed to share our true opinions, especially where they have shortcomings. I could point out several other posts where I even more harshly criticize them about things, such as how they have Edge/local Person detection included in the new V4 camera, but locked it behind a paywall instead of made it free to everyone like other competitors are starting to do, such as TP Link Tapo’s C120 model. I consider that one of their biggest all-time mistakes. There are several others. I also have more fix-it-friday posts submitted than anyone else, and more accepted Fix-it-Friday bugs accepted and fixed than anyone else by an exponential amount. I point out Wyze’s flaws to them ALL THE TIME. I also do a lot of this AMA’s, and often ask them tough questions in the hopes other people will upvote and basically force them to address things. I am just saying that volunteers like me do like Wyze, we’re “fans” or we wouldn’t do this, and we have a lot of Wyze stuff and love helping people in here, but it doesn’t mean we enable Wyze to make mistakes or don’t ever criticize them when they deserve or that we don’t share our opinions. We do a lot more to help improve this company than most people realize, and we enjoy doing so. Many of the regulars here will easily confirm that I criticize and such wherever I honestly feel such criticism is deserved and shortfalls are blatant.
Moderators and Mavens are allowed to be our own persons. Wyze has not told us we are only allowed to be positive about them, and many of us have demonstrated this many times, though we generally try to be constructive about it so that we are actually listened to and avoid causing natural human defensiveness and dismissive reactions. Just because we don’t swear and attack and get emotional about a weakness, bug, shortcoming, or other thing that disappoints us, does not mean we do not criticize, etc. We like to focus on what we CAN do and what reality currently IS. If there is a workaround we can use to help someone, we do that. If we can leverage our influence to get things added or fixed or improved, we leverage that. We often escalate things to various employees who we know something applies to. The moderators are here because they like making this a good environment for people. They clear out the spam, they remove the personal attacks, they uphold the guidelines, but their opinions of Wyze are their own. They have received no instruction from Wyze to be apologists or defend them or only say positive things. Quite the contrary. They have been told they can be themselves within the bounds of the Forum guidelines just like everyone else, and so they are.