First off, let me be clear, my response is not directed toward OP or trying to change anyone’s mind who has already made the decision to leave Wyze. I respect that. In fact, I am glad that not everyone loves Wyze. It is GOOD for everyone that some people don’t love Wyze. This helps improve competition, innovation, and make Wyze continue to work on their chosen values so that we all benefit…both Wyze customers and non-wyze customers benefit from the competition and having alternatives to Wyze out there. Plus, arguing and debating with people rarely to NEVER changes someone’s mind. So I have no intent to change the mind of someone who has made up their mind. That is not the intent of this point. I respect such decisions and wish every such person well. Everyone helps Wyze in their own way, whether they patronize them with business or support the competition to make Wyze work harder and innovate. All have their place in the long run, and I am totally here for both sides and wish all well.
Instead, my comments are more directed to other observers with thoughts a bit more like mine, as well as other people who might be seeking some other insights on the topics brought up.
This phrase is usually used with intended derision, but it always has the opposite effect on me. Perhaps it is related to my aversion to convention or my affinity for contrarianism and going against the flow, but in my experience with Wyze, this phrase has come to be seen as more of a compliment to Wyze and as derisive to everyone else since it has come to mean the opposite for me…I have used multiple other companies, including big-name companies, and so far I have not found any of them to be “better” than Wyze…more expensive, yes, but I did not get more from any of them by paying more to give them higher profit margins…I found I was just giving them more money that the owners and shareholders took for themselves without more features or better reliability, quality, etc. I have mentioned this a few times, including in a partial jesting response about my Wyze “addiction” here:
However, there are hundreds or thousands of variables that make different things work better for different people. There are countless different routers and varying protocols that can make a difference, as well as an astronomically high variance of settings and environmental factors.
What I can say is that it is absolutely possible to have consistent, reliable, fully functional Wyze cameras just like many other people, including myself have. I have over 40 Wyze cameras (as well as some cameras from other companies), and I don’t have connectivity issues with Wyze. So, if Wyze was the problem, then I would expect everyone (including me) to have problems. But if some people have perfect connectivity, then the question is what is the difference? It could be many different things, but they are more likely issues with something at the person’s house.
Here I made a list of some of the most common connectivity culprits I have found:
For anyone who is struggling with connectivity, it may not be your “fault” in such a sense as “fault” goes in our society, but it can still be your responsibility to find a good resolution for yourself. In some cases, the easy way may be to simply keep trying out different brands until you find one that works well with your environment. Keep in mind though, that this is less about “this brand is better” than it is “this brand fits my current variables better”…I say this because I promise you that for ANY brand you pick, I could find dozens of people saying the exact same thing about how HORRIBLE their connectivity and reliability and functionality is. I can find people with Wyze who will tell us how horrible that other company was by comparison. We could do this for every single smart home company. Guaranteed. Sometimes it’s not that the other company is better or worse. Sometimes, if you get the right router, ISP, etc then you can even have every brand work pretty fantastically…and with similar or a balanced list of feature options…at which point, the main difference is price. Then once the issues are no longer your router or ISP limitations, “you get what you pay for” becomes derisive of the expensive high profit margin rip-off ones and a compliment to the affordable low profit margin devices like Wyze has. This is why I have come to see that phrase as a huge compliment to Wyze and derisive of the competition…I kind of think Wyze should wear it with Pride the way they have done with their core value of offering “too good to be true products” even though that phase has conventionally been used negatively too, but is taken as a sort of badge of honor here because their prices have been disruptive and caused industries to copy them and lower their prices, which has benefited everyone. Love or hate Wyze, they have done a lot to benefit everyone in the smart camera and smart home industry and brought some copycats along for the ride and pushed their main competitors to do many things they did first which has been great for all of us.
So…too good to be true, and you get what you pay for…I have no practical disagreements with these phrases, but they mean something a little different at Wyze, and to me. I see them as complimentary to Wyze in the way I interpret them.