Anybody have experience with this outfit?

quote:

Originally posted by BrianC:
Anybody have experience with this outfit?

My in-laws use it, without the central station monitoring, which I don't see the point of then.

So you will be notified someone broke into your house while you are away, but then nothing after that?

We purchased for my cousin as a housewarming gift. She purchased a townhouse and it made sense since she may outgrow the place.

We had a hard-wired system installed years ago. I wish I had done it when we built the house.

WiFi can be flakey, but SimpleSafe is a pretty easy install and if the WiFi is good, should be all set with that system.

As for monitoring... we do pay for monitoring with Alarm Relay at a very reasonable rate. If you can not afford the monitoring, I'm thinking having a siren go off is better than nothing.

When my FIL passed away last month, we ordered a system for his home and his business, neither of which had any alarm previously and would be totally unoccupied.

Set up was very easy. We've had two false alarms at the residence, one from sunlight tripping a motion sensor that subsequently needed to be relocated. The other was a different motion sensor that fell off the wall due to the double sided tape not holding. That was likely due to not prepping the wall properly before installation. The business has not had any false alarms at this point (knocks on wood).

The only issue I have with them is their continuous attempts to upsell us from the standard monitoring to the interactive, which is $10 more per month. Due to the circumstances, there is no need for the enhanced monitoring, but every call to customer service and/or login to the website yields an attempt to get us to upgrade.

Been using them for years (I don’t recall how many but I’m on my second system from them). I have zero issues and am pleased with them, I pay for the upgraded monitoring where I can access my system via smartphone. I will say their warranty is good, I forgot that the base station uses rechargeable batteries and put alkaline in it. It ended up destroying the batteries which corroded the connections and even though it was my mistake they gave me a replacement.

quote:

Originally posted by tk13:


The only issue I have with them is their continuous attempts to upsell us from the standard monitoring to the interactive, which is $10 more per month. Due to the circumstances, there is no need for the enhanced monitoring, but every call to customer service and/or login to the website yields an attempt to get us to upgrade.

That's the only way they are making any money on all this.

I have been researching this and other such systems. SWMBO and I decided to go with Ring.

Reasons for Ring over Simplisafe:
1. Ring has significantly more/better equipment available.
a. Outdoor cameras and the doorbell cameras are not available with Simplisafe.
b. Ring motion detectors have more options to customize monitoring and can be used outdoors.
2. Ring monitoring is currently $10 per month. Simplisafe is $15 for basic. If you want phone app interface it is $25 per month
3. Ring comes with phone app interface

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by BrianC:
Anybody have experience with this outfit?

My in-laws use it, without the central station monitoring, which I don't see the point of then.

So you will be notified someone broke into your house while you are away, but then nothing after that?

I have a different system with no monitoring. I get a text if a sensor trips and can call the police on my own. No need to pay someone to make that call.

Very happy with SimpliSafe for several years now.

I decided to NOT switch to Ring, even though there are things I like better about Ring, for the sake of not having all of my eggs in one basket so to speak.

Also, didn’t Amazon just buy Ring? I might have to switch doorbells.

-Rob

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
Very happy with SimpliSafe for several years now.

Same here.

quote:

Originally posted by armedprof:
I have been researching this and other such systems. SWMBO and I decided to go with Ring.

Reasons for Ring over Simplisafe:
1. Ring has significantly more/better equipment available.
a. Outdoor cameras and the doorbell cameras are not available with Simplisafe.
b. Ring motion detectors have more options to customize monitoring and can be used outdoors.
2. Ring monitoring is currently $10 per month. Simplisafe is $15 for basic. If you want phone app interface it is $25 per month
3. Ring comes with phone app interface

Didn't Ring just get busted for employees unauthorized viewing of home systems?

Yes Amazon now owns Ring. What could go wrong?

Privacy concerns?

there are quite a few articles online about how easy it is to hack or disable SimpliSafe.

When I sold my house in CA, we lived temporarily in an apartment and we bought and used Simplisafe. It was basically the one real solution for our needs and the price was right. Easy to install and use. When we moved out of there, we took the system with us, my son will use it when he gets his own apartment next year.

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
there are quite a few articles online about how easy it is to hack or disable SimpliSafe.

Anything and everything tied to a computer can be hacked. Even wired alarm systems can be defeated. Everything out there has its faults, something is better than nothing and alarms are just one layer of protection in home security.

The girlfriend has it on her house we are selling. I have been impressed... once it sells we will move the system here.

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
there are quite a few articles online about how easy it is to hack or disable SimpliSafe.

I use Simplisafe and have been really happy with their service. I also have an ADT sign in my yard,just so the crooks will not have a heads up on which system I have installed.I would never advertise which system I am running,they all have their flaws.

I’ve used them for a while now. The original equipment was kinda lame, the new “2.0” version equipment is a vast improvement. Outdoor cameras are supposedly coming out eventually.

I had SS for a month or two but kept having problems with one sensor. I got fed up and I saw the video on easy of disabling the base station. (google and you'll find videos showing how to disable the base station.) As I was removing the sensors on the windows I found many that were just about to fall off. (Replacement windows - don't remember but think they are aluminum windows.) I think the heat must of messed up the sticky tape they use for the sensors. The glass break and movement sensors were working fine with the tape.

If you go with SS skip their camera. We never found a good place to put it and the field of view is not great. My brother has SS and they felt the same way about their camera. Skipping the camera also allows you to go with the base monitoring plan.

I will say that SS is a stand up company and let me return everything for a full refund.

We moved to a national company. Have sensors on the doors, movement sensors and the ring doorbell. But the thing we like best - the app tells me if I shut the garage door. Might sound dumb but sometimes I drive off and wonder if I left it open.

quote:

Originally posted by armedprof:
I have been researching this and other such systems. SWMBO and I decided to go with Ring.

Reasons for Ring over Simplisafe:
1. Ring has significantly more/better equipment available.
a. Outdoor cameras and the doorbell cameras are not available with Simplisafe.
b. Ring motion detectors have more options to customize monitoring and can be used outdoors.
2. Ring monitoring is currently $10 per month. Simplisafe is $15 for basic. If you want phone app interface it is $25 per month
3. Ring comes with phone app interface

I'm currently using Ring alarm, Ring Doorbell, and Ring Spotlight Cams. All devices, fully monitored with cloud recording, for $10 a month.

I get into bed, I tell Google to turn off the lights, I glance into the hallway to check the alarm status (I have a base station in the hallway with a light that glows Red when the system is Armed), and then I tell Alexa to arm the Ring in Stay mode. I pretty much live in the future.

I also appreciate that Ring has good customer support (I called in about my Doorbell freezing out, and they sent me the newest Doorbell with the upgraded hardware), and that they're always improving the system with new features (they just added a feature that an Alarm event will turn on all of my exterior camera lights and have the cameras start recording).

My $10 a month also includes device insurance. If someone steals my exterior cameras (and the theft is caught on camera), they'll replace the camera.