I want a refund!

Cameras
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I’m finding it more and more difficult to support Wyze products any longer. Today was the end. I’m done with your neglect of your customers.

I’ve posted again and again (as well as others) about the chronic problems with the v1 Wyze cams (and iOS app) and, at first, Gwendolyn was nice enough to show concern and pass concerns on to the dev team. Now I guess she (and Wyze) is tired of hearing about it.

So here’s what you can do to make things right. You can either fix the problem NOW, or you can replace every one of my v1 cams with a version that works. Simple as that. If you’d rather refund my money, that’s fine too.

This is absolutely ridiculous that this 3 second issue on the v1 cams persists while you continue to release new products and update issues with those products only. You’re essentially telling all v1 customers to go to blazes.

Your “security” cameras are failing at the most important feature—providing security. There have been times when I’ve needed to view footage to see a supposed threat to our neighborhood—only to fail at this because your product loses TWO ENTIRE SECONDS of footage. Are you kidding me?

I SUPPORTED YOUR PRODUCT AND YOUR COMPANY FROM THE START—AND THIS IS HOW I’M BEING APPRECIATED?? I can’t wait to see how you treat a customer you DON’T like. Oh wait, I think I do see that now.

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Somtimes We Disagree

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Try flashing the firmware on your camera to the current or previous version.

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Sorry, but I’ve tried that before as it has been offered as a fix in previous threads about this problem.

It appears to be the iOS app as the problem was corrected with an app update—only to have the problem return with another app update.

I want this company to acknowledge that a problem exists with their original flagship product.

I’m sick of tech companies building their fortunes on the backs of people as their planned obsolescence forces their customers to either upgrade or toss a product.

If this is indeed the iOS app, this can be corrected. I’d be more than happy to help the dev team with whatever information they need to make this a better product.

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I don’t have V1 cams so I can’t speak directly to your particular issue however, my experience between using iOS or Android with my V2 cams has been vastly different. I found the Wyze application for iOS to be highly unstable when trying to view live streams and inconsistent in providing notifications. It would consistently lose it’s connectivity to the cameras and error out or not connect at all only to state the camera is offline requiring a reboot.

The experience using the Android version of the Wyze App, has been vastly different in which the stability has improved tremendously and similar errors occurring have been few and far between. Notifications seem to be consistent as well. I’m not suggesting you should ditch your V1 camera’s however, it is standard practice within tech companies to provide improvements and correction through versioning of their products.

At some point, these V1 camera’s may have limitations to what can be resolved due to any number of reasons e.g. hardware limitations, unforeseen software incompatibility issues etc.

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I certainly don’t want to ditch my v1 cams because they have worked fine for me—until this issue. The v2 cams work great.

That’s the thing that blows my mind. If Wyze doesn’t care enough to make the app stable enough to support every version of their cams, then offer a swap program or SOMETHING. I’d be happy to pay $10 for a v2 or v3 cam in exchange for my v1 cams. Something, anything to make it seem like they care about their customers and want to do right by those customers that were there at the beginning.

Also, isn’t there enough e-waste out there? They should offer a recycle program to take in old product when upgrading.

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The V1’s were a preliminary release long ago and have less memory and hardware capabilities. And they were never promised to be a true home security camera. Heck, they were just 20 Bucks, and Wyze only makes a few bucks on each sale.

As newer products appear such as the V2, V3 (for $20) and the PAN and WCO for $10 to $15 more, you cant just expect a company to forfeit all their previous sales just to make someone happy! If you buy a 2017 Chevy and now in 2020 want to buy a brnd new car with all the new features and capabilities, do you expect the dealership to refund all your money or just give you the new car? I dont think so!

Be civil and reasonable -you only spent $20 on each one. If you dont like the 3 second wait time, give them to a friend or relative (who has nothing) as a gift. It is simple and a very small thing for you to do. Merry Christmas!

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I’ll be civil and reasonable when Wyze tells me basically what you just said—that we were tricked into buying a product touted as a security camera, then they destroyed the functionality of the only way to view the content.

The three second “wait time” as you called is nothing of the kind—its a three second gap in video. So close your eyes and count to three, open them and then close them and count again. That’s basically what it’s like to view footage in a v1 Wyze cam. They’re worthless.

I guess I’m a bit old fashioned in that, if I pay for something I’d like it to work longer than a year or two. Feel free to send me $20 x 2 cams since you are so rich.

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Do you own a smart phone? Clearly you do. Does the original iPhone 3 work on today’s towers??? Not really. Do the original Mac computers work like the new ones??? Old tech is old tech, every company develops new tech and the old tech sometimes can’t be supported. It’s facts, don’t ask for the world due to new advancements your old products can’t produce, it’s expected to happen and upgrading at YOUR OWN COST Is up to you for better tech. See I can do capital letters too

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Shows how much you know. I still have the first iPhone and yes, it still works and it still works on the AT&T cell network. That phone is 13 years old.

Just like the Newton that I have that also still works and can browse the internet. It’s over 20 years old. Do I use it? No, but it STILL WORKS and can be used. Also my 1984 Macintosh still works just fine.

So your argument isn’t valid. Stop making excuses for a company that doesn’t care about you as a customer. If you want to complain about my post, make your own thread so people can hijack it.

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Just in case anyone from Wyze is still out there—I’m still waiting for a response.

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I realize that making a $40 investment several years ago for 2 separate webcams must have been a strain, but nowhere in Wyze literature did they ever market these as “security cameras”.

At that same time 3 years ago I bought 7 Arlo Pro 2 cameras at $180 each, and glad to have them. I Still use them! I was however, thrilled to buy my 1st V2 for $20 when it was released and other than not being waterproof it had 95% of the same capabilities.

Now I have added a total of 2 WCO’s and 11 PANS and V3’s at my primary home, and 15 PANS at a second location and 17 V3’s at an out of state home. They all run fine except a bit slow (about 8 seconds) to actually send push audio text alerts, and often Wyze updates introduce errors that were not there before and take days to fix. Back in the 1980’s I founded a software company for Business and Medical applications, and we only had a total of 64k of ram memory to work with. I can appreciate how hard it is to fit every feature into a camera that you would like to have@

I really wish the programming department would add additional experienced staff to correct this, and to make a simple PC based Web Interface which has been lacking for years.

The new V3’s are an absolute marvel! But I would never consider asking for complete refunds on my earlier cameras. And I have run the PANS outside for years. I figured if one failed, it was just $20 (the cost of lunch). I am just so happy to be working with a company that really tries to hold the prices down, and I can afford to be patient with them.

They have given everyone 14 days of cloud storage for free, and if you want it 24-7 it is just $1.50 per month per camera (WOW). Most other firms are at $30-$50 month!

And now, beginning in Feb 2021 they are offering complete MONITORED HOME SECURITY for $5 a month and including a V3, keypad, 3 sensors if you pay yearly in advance ($50). The new PIR and contact sensors are high speed and longer range as well (I will have to upgrade my sensors for the true fast response “security service”) That’s the total fee for the whole house, no matter how many triggers and cameras you add to it!

Am I going to ask for complete refunds of all my older equipment? Not on your life! I have enjoyed the benefits from a small consumer oriented company who is no doubt understaffed and overworked with the massive expansion over the last 3 years, but I look forward to the ride into the future with them.

Merry Christmas to all Wyze employees and customers alike !

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Would you expect to buy a laptop and have the operating system quit after three years with no fixes or alternatives which renders the laptop useless? Would you have a problem with that and expect a fix? Or would you say “whoops” and shell out more money for another laptop from the same company?

I can’t believe I have to explain myself over and over about this!

I’m glad your v3 cams work great. What happens if, in a few months, the app refused to connect to them? What would you expect to happen? If you’ve been reading here and other threads about this issue, the problem appears to be with the iOS app. The cams appear to work fine and they’re not the issue.

At this point it’s the principle and I refuse to buy anything more from this company until they can prove to me that they care about correcting this problem. It’s as simple as that.

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Preaching to the choir here. This is their business model. They simply distribute a vast array disposable products with the hope that the customer will remain “Brand Loyal” and buy the latest gizmo because it’s trendy. Everything they sell is a toy to be played with, not a tool to be used. Wyze cameras are eye candy. Nothing more.

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I just received the v3 cams I pre-ordered. If I could have actually gotten to the cancel section to cancel the pre-order I would have but since wyze seems to make absolutely sure it’s as difficult as possible to contact them I never bothered and hoped for the best.

Well that just goes to show that I was an idiot for not working for hours to just cancel it. Because after setting the cams up last night I wake up today to the app crashing when I click on a camera and if it doesn’t crash it just makes it to step 3/3 and fails to load them. I have 6 google wifi mesh routers in a 2 story house with impeccable coverage all the way around and outside of my house. I can’t find a single area where the coverage isn’t too notch. Yet the app says something about wyze needing to be set at 360p in order to connect. What a joke this company is nothing more than a pop up cash grab and I feel bad for anyone that gets suckered into buying from them.

Everyone here should immediately start letting others know what a joke this company is before others are harmed as well.

Oh I should also mention that the wyze scale will vary in weight by about 40-50 lbs every time you step on it. 1 time it will be 200lbs the next time 245lbs the next time 180lbs. Wow thanks wyze for letting me know the around 100lbs ballpark of my actual weight.

I dare anyone to grab their phone and try to submit a support ticket I DARE YOU!. You will instantly realize that it’s nearly impossible to even type properly. My guess is that they do this so that they can toss out any complaints or requests for a refund.

THIS COMPANY IS A SCAM NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS!

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I don’t have V1s but the OP does have a valid point about expecting the products to work the way they did when he first bought them.

I note that he isn’t complaining about the hardware. What he is pointing out is that due to buggy software updates, his recorded events are missing 3 seconds worth of significant frames.

Now if it were me, I’d toss them out and get new ones. But still, he has the right ask Wyze to fix the software that Wyze broke.

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I don’t understand the complaint. I’ve been buying computers since they were first invented. I have paid out the nose for the latest tech, only to have it outdated the next year.
Examples: my first hard drive was 5 Megs in size and cost me me $600 in 1982. My first laser printer cost me $5000. My annual income was $9000. I was and am a computer nerd.
I can go on and on, but all of many thousands of dollars allowed me to play with toys I loved. Every time a new product comes out, I move on, counting the money lost as part of the deal.
It’s technology, not a shovel or hand tool. It gets outdated almost the day it is released.

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Look, maybe you haven’t read the previous posts or the threads about what the actual issue is.

The problem doesn’t seem to be with the hardware—it’s the iOS app that seems to be the problem. Of course we don’t know that for sure since Wyze isn’t responding to this or any other posts now.

We can agree to disagree perhaps, but NO—tech isn’t obsolete the day it’s released. Apple has proven that by updating their software for both their phones/tablets and the Mac. I’m typing this on an eight year old Mac that the speed still screams. The iPhone 6s (2015) still runs the latest version of iOS.

Wyze is dropping the ball and they’re going to lose customers if they continue to dismiss them.

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I concur with most of the negative posts here. I think Wyze got to wrapped up with more products than they can support. As a result, their primary camera products have suffered, and the poor quality is showing big time. I have been a big fan of Wyze from the start. Heck, I even have three pre-orders in the works with them for the front door ring cam, the new outdoor V2, and for the security services.

But frankly, based on what I am seeing, I do not have a lot of faith in their ability to succeed, unless they react to to their customers complaints here.

Regards

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