Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsThe first one was hopeless, the replacement is much better.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 30 April 2020
INITIAL REVIEW: I had high hopes for this and waited ages for it to come out....sadly it was utter rubbish. Received, charged the battery..(which takes an age,) and installed as instructions. Connected to WIFI seamlessly without issue and I was really impressed with the image quality on live view. But then there were problems pretty much from the off. It didn't work well with the Alexa skill, had to delete and reinstall twice, then it would work for a while then stop responding. Phoned Ring who said it was working from their point of view so was an Alexa issue not theirs, even though it's now advertised as "Works with Alexa". So I contacted them and the skill developers via email... still waiting....as their phones are offline due to lockdown. Then, no sound from outside when testing with my wife, who must have looked like an idiot to onlooking neighbours, repeatedly talking to the wall and then waving to confirm she could hear me. So I contacted Ring support again 2 more times before getting any joy...but that was the usual, check all settings, then remove battery, reset etc. Worked okay for an hour (not properly with Alexa though). Then, absolutely endless false detections to a point where I wanted to turn off the notifications. The final straw was when I received a phone call from the driver delivering my takeaway saying he was outside and that no-one was home...when I was sat in the living room of my house . No notification from my phone or Alexa, no bell ringing, nothing and there he was stood at the front door. Everything was set up correctly but it proved unreliable from the start. I'd like to say it's teething problems and I really wanted this to work but we are talking about a so called security device here, not simply a doobell. So no excuses Ring...if it's not reliable it's no good. Sorry, it's utterly useless and unfit for its intended purpose. I have never given a review like this in my life, but at £179!!! Seriously, save your money...don't say you haven't been pre-warned.
UPDATE: After posting this review I was contacted by Ring who have asked if they can work at resolving the issues, initially by replacing the unit and then working through further issues (if any) remaining. Therefore return put on hold until this has occurred. If successful I will update review with the outcome.
UPDATE 10th May:
Ring replaced the initial unit and since I installed it this one works much, much better. No more false detections and up to now it seems very reliable. It's not perfect and I still can't get it to work correctly with my Firestick, but it's far better than the first one which clearly must have been faulty. Detection is now very good and I've had no false notifications as yet, but sometimes people can still get right to the door before they are picked up on camera. Although I'm sure that further tweaking of the sensitivity could get this right eventually. (#Now sorted by increasing the length of my drive in settings)
It's working well enough for me to keep it now, so looks like I'll have to pay back Amazon who were amazingly quick to refund my money once I started the return. I just hope that the Alexa skill developers get the other problems ironed out. So from an initial one star review up to three and now four star...
However the review is still mainly in it's original form, with updates so that if anyone has any of the issues that I've had, be aware it could just be a faulty unit that a replacement could solve. It's a long review but at this price you need all the info you can get before deciding and I still think it's a bit on the expensive side.
It's also only fair to point out that the support that I've had since my initial review has been excellent and not once did they ask me to amend my review as some other companies tend to do. Thanks Nick.
