Wyze Customer Service vs. Reolink Customer Service - No Comparison!

Cameras
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1

Well after nearly 2 years on Reolink’s I had my first issue, not a major issue just an annoyance. The camera order would randomly change from my set preferences.

Called their 800 number and immediately spoke with a technical support agent. They were unable to help at the moment as it was an issue for the engineering team once issue was explained.

Within 24 hours they sent an email with a solution, their engineering team member called me back the following day and asked if I was able to implement fix.

Totally different customer service experience than what Wyze offers.:rofl:

So keeping score only 1 issue in nearly 2 years and rapid response to my issue… Step up Big Time Wyze,:rofl::rofl::rofl:

2

Meh. Individual case studies prove nothing. Depends on the issue, etc. I’ve been in forums for Reolink and they have a ton of people complaining about how horrible their customer service is too. And then there are also examples of people talking about how awesome Wyze’s customer service is compared to other brands.

You can find examples both ways or any way you want to believe if you already have confirmation bias.

But, generally speaking, I do think Reolink has slightly higher rated customer service. Both are objectively rated with aggregates higher than 3/5 stars and less than 4/5 stars for their customer service.

From what I can tell, both have extremely similar customer service policies and methods.
Email ticketing, online submission forms, and active community forums, and phone support options. Wyze also has live chat (uncertain if Reolink does).

Both often require basic troubleshooting steps for hardware defects. Though Reolink is often more criticized about not honoring warranty or other claims if proof-of-purchase or gift status complications arise, while Wyze tends to give users the benefit of the doubt and often still offers gift cards even if a person’s hardware is out of warranty, going above and beyond the policy in lots of cases.

Wyze is criticized a little more for having seemingly scripted interactions to make everything more consistent (though in AMA’s they have addressed this and said scripting is not a requirement with their agents). Reolink tends to be more rigid with diagnostic tests before honoring a replacement, and has a lot of people complain that they do too much back and forth unnecessarily with multiple tiers.

IDK, from what I can tell, they’re pretty similar and more alike than they are different. I see the same things positive and negative in both forums. I really think they’re only significantly different if you want to believe they are significantly different and look for it with confirmation bias. I think it partially depends on the issue in question. Every company out there has people saying they have the best and the worst customer service from individual customers. :man_shrugging: I worked customer service in college and people would say I was the absolute best agent ever and the worst ever and my company had the best customer service and the worst customer service even when I did the exact same thing between the 2 cases.

I think the primary benefit of Reolink isn’t their customer service, it’s the fact that they have free local Edge AI detections (on some of their more expensive cameras), and “Works with Home Assistant” certification (on some of their more expensive cameras). That’s really the main benefits over Wyze, but they also have a lot of downsides to trade off on. It all depends on an individual’s primary use-case and what they value more. I have counseled many people on smart cameras, and Reolink is better for lots of them, and Wyze is better for lots of them. I don’t think it’s zero-sum binary game. I refer people to both of them depending on their long term needs.

3

I must have went to a different Reolink website than you :rofl:

I did not have to jump through hoops as you do with Wyze for service:and just the call created the ticket over the phone.

Also I would say only 1 issue in nearly 2 years compared to issues constantly with Wyze and their updates is a big difference too.

The SD cards that would randomly get corrupted by the Wyze cams and need a reformat to record once again, just work fine in the Reolink’s and have NEVER randomly corrupted. I still see the SD cards have issues on Wyze cams (how many years has the SD card issues been going on :rofl:)

I will admit that only one Wyze product is superior and you seem to have been overpowered by it :rofl: The Wyze Kool-Aid :rofl:

4

I think there are 2 factors to consider - 1) Quality of Product and Software and 2) Quality of Customer Service.

My experience with Wyze Customer Service was positive.

  • Installed Wyze Thermostat at rural property with high latency LTE internet and kept getting “Device Offline” - very frustrating when not on-site.
  • Tried all the proposed solutions on this Forum except “connect the Thermostat to a Smart Plug and recycle the Plug power to get it back online”.
  • Called Wyze Support and issue was escalated. Took about a week but they shipped me a new thermostat.

Since I had concluded that the issue was my high latency internet, I returned the unopened box to Home Depot for full credit and bought an Ecobee thermostat.

The Ecobee thermostat has worked flawlessly at my rural property for over 16 months.
I can’t comment on Ecobee Customer Service because I’ve never had to use it!
I don’t even know if they have a User Forum like this one … their website had videos and info to answer all my questions.

The free Wyze Thermostat is installed at my urban condo apartment with low latency fibre internet for over 16 months.

  • Once in a while it shows as “Device Offline” - when there is a power outage the thermostat tries to connect before the modem restart is complete. If I’m away I ask the Super to cycle the furnace breaker.
  • Not a big deal if it fails completely … I have heat from the surrounding apartments + I kept the manual Honeywell thermostat.

I would not trust the Wyze Thermostat in a house that I am away from a lot.

I also have 5 OG cameras and 1 V4 camera that satisfy my needs - local SD recording with no subscription.
I consider these as “observation” cameras … they are NOT “security” cameras.
I have turned OFF Auto Firmware Updates and only update after I review feedback.
I am thankful that this Forum exists to help me when things go wrong.

I accept that Wyze lower price and lower product and software quality will require workarounds from time to time.
The V4 camera was purchased 6 weeks ago … I trust Wyze cameras with the above caveats.

I haven’t yet been pushed to another camera brand … but my guess is Reolink (like Ecobee) falls into the category of More Expensive so can provide High Quality of Product and Software and probably High Quality of Customer Service … but you’ll rarely need it.

I would not recommend Wyze cameras to someone who is not technically proficient.

I would never trust Wyze Home Products … especially a door lock.

Lastly, I don’t understand how others can defend Wyze so strongly after the recent 3.23 app debacle that cut off Android users access to their Thermostats.

Knowledgeable users worked around this by using an IOS device or restoring the previous App version.
The non-technical users were frustrated and reset their thermostats … some based on advice from Wyze Customer Service! These Thermostats were bricked until a Hot-Fix was issued 6 days later!

There has been no acknowledgement, explanation or apology from Wyze.

5

Wyze support had been consistent since I bought my first cam. Every time is a poor experience.

6

I know some people have had a problem with this, but I have over 80 cameras (every model except for the V1) recording 24/7 on various mSD cards of various sizes and types and don’t have any with this issue. :man_shrugging: though to be fair, I gave my only pan V3 to my brother because I didn’t really it, And I hear it has had SD card problems more than most, but My brother hasn’t had it happen to him.

IDK, I haven’t had any bad experiences with Wyze customer service, myself. Quite the opposite. They have made exceptions to their policy in my favor.
I think most dissatisfaction (not all) turns out to be entitlement for something that the majority of companies would’ve also handled similarly in the same situation (eg: product malfunction after the warranty date where the user still thinks they deserve a refund or replacement) or are a case-specific error of a rep who misunderstood what they should do (things applicable to every company). There are certainly legitimate complaints for customer service for every company.

Meh. I call Wyze out a ton where it is merited. I bet I’m at minimum in the top 1% of the people who share the most criticism with them, even if you only count my public statements alone, let alone all my back channel feedback which has a ton of critical feedback. It’s true that the majority of mine is productive and constructive though instead of being a pointless troll. This is why they listen to and trust me to represent the general community of users. They aren’t looking for me to tell them they’re perfect and amazing. Their looking for me to tell them what the problems are and what can be improved and why it matters. The majority of my interaction with Wyze is giving them criticism without being a troll. That in no way means I’m drinking the Kool aid. I have cameras from at least 6 competitors and my primary smart home platform is home assistant.

I feel like I’m reasonably objective and honest where they have deficits and need improvements, but reasonable objectivity is offensive to some people sometimes when they have a desperate need to vent a black and white binary view within psychological “splitting” as it’s called. I get it. But seeing only bad with no good or only good with no bad means the death of one’s credibility. I don’t jump on emotionally charged hate-wagons and people who want to vent will sometimes resort to ad-homonyms to pressure conformity, but they don’t change the facts. :man_shrugging: It’s all good though. I do understand that emotions and cognitive biases push us toward psychological splitting and things like cognitive dissonance by default. They affect all of us, even me. I use skills and techniques to try to help manage such things but they certain influence me as well. Though, I in no way think Wyze is flawless and perfect or blind to reality. But I also don’t blindly accept misrepresented emotionally exaggerated catastrophizations either. And I’ve worked customer service (starting entry level and up through training and supervisory and maven roles) for 4 fortune 500 companies, as well as owning companies myself, enough to know what good and bad customer service is and I can say with reasonable confidence that Wyze definitely does not have bad customer service. It’s pretty standard and actually a bit above average in that it frequently makes exceptions to the industry standard policies in the customer’s favor. :man_shrugging: sure, you can always find companies that have better customer service. Some of them have had such great customer service that they completely put themselves out of business through bankruptcy. It can be hard to try to hold companies to a standard like that. Sometimes, in order to compensate a company would have to raise their prices significantly. And that would just mean in some cases that I am paying higher prices for subsidizing the people abusing and taking advantage of customer service (ex: demanding and getting refunds and replacements when they don’t deserve them in certain cases but the company does it anyway just so that they have good customer service, For sending free technicians to come help a person with the technical problem that really only needed somebody pressed the power button or other such things).

As I said above, Wyze isn’t the best option for everyone. I recommend other companies to other people all the time. When someone finds another brand or model that better suits their needs, I’m happy for them. I’m glad you like Reolink. I do too. I’m glad it meets your needs better. :+1: I wouldn’t say it automagically makes Wyze worse. Part Of it depends on which reolink models you pick too. Some of their more affordable models and earlier models have an insane amount of problems, bad history, and complaints. But they have redeemed themselves with their newer more expensive models. Those are phenomenal, at least for the things I highly value in a smart camera (other than price considerations). I love the competition either way so all sides are pressuring each other to offer more for less. We all benefit from that. :slight_smile: