"home false sense of security" :P

[Sully]

I've been mainly ignoring this thread because of where we live and our current living situation but just got a visit by Amp Smart talking about integrating a smart home alarm. Usual sales pitch where they say they'll front the cost of equipment and stuff. He mentioned alarm.com which I know I've seen mentioned here but anyone care to give me a quick break down of what this all is. Have you heard of Amp Smart? Anyone using them? Is this deal something to look into or just a usual sales pitch and gimmick to get you to sign up and have all their shit in your house?

[WRXtranceformed]

Have not heard of Amp Smart but Alarm.com does a lot of the monitoring and mobile app integration for the carriers. Frontpoint uses Alarm.com

[JustinG]

yea, think of alarm.com as the backend, and Cust Service/Monitoring is handled by the Dealers/Partners (ie FrontPoint)

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[Sully]

Hmm it doesn't mention amp on that page. I mean the only reference was when I asked him if all the smart stuff they'd install would play nice with Google home. He said no but it works with Alexa and said you could say "Alexa, tell alarm.com to change temperature" or something

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Apoc]

I got the sensor I ordered online after about nine days; I never got a tracking number.

You're supposed to be able to use the app install new sensors, but I had problems. When I tried adding equipment, it listed the previous two sensors I added and had me agree. It wouldn't detect the new sensor, so I had to call Frontpoint to sort it out. They were able to add it within a few seconds, but the app had already renamed those two older sensors to their default names. Now I have to go back in and rename them.

As far as the actual kit, it is installed on my handgun safe under the bed. I set up a three minute "left open" notification, just in case. Un/fortunately I actually walked out of the room after leaving it open this morning and tested that it does indeed work. The handgun isn't the only thing in there, that's why I had it open. With a crawling kid, it's a good reminder to stay vigilant. He's not usually allowed in our bedroom, but you can't be too safe.

That reminds me... the panel spells safe out as S-A-F-E instead of saying the word, despite it being in their sensor name drop down. The CS rep said some words don't have speech programmed, which is pretty lame.

[WRXtranceformed]

I just finally quit procrastinating and ordered 4 more GE interlogix sensors on eBay for $20 each shipped. This will give me full first floor coverage. Still no word from Amazon on when the Skybell I ordered on Prime Day will be shipping out though

[WRXtranceformed]

I want to find a reason to hate Frontpoint, because almost anything that requires me to enter a long term contract every month is annoying. But I really can't, their service is so damn exceptional. The battery crapped out in our control panel so that it works when plugged in but shuts off when power goes out. Not exactly ideal for this kind of control panel. Frontpoint instantly offered to replace the battery free of charge and I got a $0 invoice in my inbox before i even got off the phone with them.

Our contract ends tomorrow so i may try to rake them over the coals for a monthly discount and / or upgraded equipment (this SimonXT control panel is trash and i innings of want monitored fire / monoxide sensors vs the non monitored ones we have now). As much as i hate committing to a service provider for three years i really can't find a good excuse to switch, especially since I've already bought all their hardware and most of it doesn't transfer to other providers like my cable company.

[WRXtranceformed]

Renewed with Frontpoint, the first line CS rep can only offer $50 in concessions. The "cancellation" level rep offered me $250 in credits toward either service discount or hardware. So i scooped two free monitored fire alarms since the ones our hone came with are not monitored and knocked like $6/month off my bill for the next three years. Frontpoint for life it looks like!

[WRXtranceformed]

My discounted Skybell ($137 on Amazon) finally showed up last week while I was on the west coast and I installed it this weekend. Should have listened to the MM peanut gallery in the first place, it is a vastly superior piece of hardware than the Ring units we had and the picture quality is much, much better especially at night. The app is worlds better and instantly connects to live view without glitching. The only complaints I have are that the doorbell itself is really big and the circle shape is weird, so I have to refill and repaint some old holes in the door trim now. The second is that the motion sensor seems to be finicky, it doesn't have the programmable zones like Ring had and isn't nearly as sensitive. For some reason it picks up motion better on the medium and low settings than it does on high sensitivity.

Either way, for less than $150 and free cloud storage for whatever it is, like 2 or 3 days it's leaps and bounds better than the Ring units

[JustinG]

Somewhat good timing given you just received yours...

My Skybell I snagged from FP started to have some connection issues and I walked up the other day and it had completely lost power and cycled back on with a button push.

So, called FP, did some trouble shooting, and mentioned the back looked to be bulging like the backup battery was almost swelling.

So they sent me a new replacement, which is the slim.



Battery bulge



New one seems to be more responsive and quickly connects via the FP app. The round one was always hard to push to activate the doorbell, and would sometimes lately not ring at all. I'm thinking it was a bad unit, cause the slim has none of these issues thus far.

[Apoc]

Both still way too big for my application. It shouldn't be that hard to make a slim/small one, given phones can do it.

[WRXtranceformed]

Nice yea that looks like a bad battery (obviously) and/or unit. Hopefully ours doesn't do that too. I waited on the slim to finally come out but the HD had much better overall specs. I don't think you can go wrong with either one.

[JustinG]

Yea....I was a little disappointed the slim ONLY has 720p video....I can't see the door dings on the cars pulling into my driveway now....

But, I'm surprised at its size, I'm with Chris, how can they not get it into a smaller form factor and just charge $25-50 more.

[WRXtranceformed]

Seriously!

At first I tried not to get hung up on the 720p / 1080p difference, but our Ring was 720p and you could barely make out the faces of people at your door. You can switch between 720p and 1080p on the Skybell HD and there is a noticeable difference in clarity but the 720p is still manageable...I'm just beginning to think that Ring's hardware is junk

[JPolen01]

How much are you guys paying for your monthly bill with Front Point?

[WRXtranceformed]

How much are you guys paying for your monthly bill with Front Point?

Mine just dropped to $38.99 or something like that.  If you are shopping systems and decide to go with Front Point, holler at your boy and I might get a referral credit! (I think you do too maybe?)

[JPolen01]

We are in a contract I think at like 30-35/m for the next year. Just gauging for now. I don't have any smart devices or monitoring from my phone ability though.

[JustinG]

With video monitoring/home automation it is $45 a month.

[WRXtranceformed]

Justin, did you ever have issues with the motion sensor on the HD not always picking up motion? It seems real hit or miss. It's a shame if I can't get that to work because that's one of the biggest reasons we got a video doorbell with motion capture. We want to see when a package is being delivered.

[Apoc]

You know what picks up motion well and has customizable sensitivity and motion window? The camera I told you to buy like a year ago.