I just read through a long thread by some unhappy customers who had quite a laundry list of complaints regarding their cameras and Wyze’s customer service. It was so unlike my experience that I thought I’d take time to make a counterpoint.
My day job has been robotics and factory automation for the past 40 years. So I’m toward the geeky side with home automation and gadgets in general. Up until a couple years ago, I ran a Linux box in the basement running Zoneminder with several security cameras around the place. This was a great system and Zoneminder has the ability to fine-tune motion detection, but it’s hard to get it set up right and it required regular maintenance.
I was intrigued by the Wyze cameras and bought a couple v1’s. They were nice for indoor information but not ready for security (and Wyze didn’t claim they were). Then I got a couple v2’s and the video quality and motion detection got noticeably better. About that time one of my outdoor cameras died and I put a v2 out front while I decided what camera to buy for the Zoneminder system. And it worked well enough.
Meanwhile Wyze was going through the person detection/CamPlus debacle, and I was a little miffed at being asked to pay for person detection after having it for free. But it would sure be nice to have the unlimited motion clips.
So I thought about mothballing the Zoneminder system and putting up v3 cameras with CamPlus. The motion detection wasn’t as good, but it was good enough. Three CamPlus subscriptions are $45/year. Of course I don’t want to pay that. But then a little math showed that I was paying over $150/year just for electricity to run Zoneminder. And if the house burns down, the video files most likely go with it.
Also, I never opened up Zoneminder to outside access because of security concerns and I didn’t have any inclination to become a Linux security guru. With the Wyze cams, I can get video from anywhere and it’s as safe as any other similar platform.
So for me, I am willing to accept a few less features and an ongoing CamPlus contract as a replacement for the Linux/Zoneminder box, and save $100/year on electricity in the process. YMMV
Nice to hear a positive once in a while.
I agree. I AM one of those disappointed customers, in my case with a WYZE Lock. My frustration lays not so much that there was an issue (because these systems certainly are complex and feature laden), but rather the way that I (and as I have come to find, a great many others) have been treated.
What happend in my case was just so… strange! I’m used to just being told that, having purchased a product for some reason fails to deliver, “I’m sorry you feel that way” by a manufacturer. That’s what most companies to.
But WYZE was diffferent, “Oh, we’re working on that. There will be a fix before you know!”. Time and time again! At some point, it has become clear for me that it’s just not gonna’ happen.
Most users have an okay experience because the product NORMALLY DOES function correctly within the design parameters. The test for WYZE’s organizational structure is what happens when everything does NOT go as planned. That is where WYZE fails.
Not just to meet those situations with dead air, but to meet them with false promises of a pending solution in the immediate future. What an odd and unpleasant response.