We recently installed the Blink brand (from Amazon). Not at all happy with trying adjust the sensitivity. They either barely capture the back of the delivery person as she departs, or ar going off all the time from branches blowing or other motion. We evidently have bats and moths and lizards and such in front of our cameras daily. Not to mention tree branches waving in the breeze.
I was out of town at Halloween and got to see a couple of my students spot the camera and dance in front of it!
Neighbors have Ring. Several months ago I returned their toddler who had wandered across the street to my house and mother and the neighbor’s H saw it on his cellphone at work. Just a few days ago she and I were chatting at her open front door. The open door/whatever announcement came on at least twice. For her it is great to have more than a sound when a door opens like we have- her kids have figured out how to defeat locks and it helps them for that. We’re home (retired) so much of the time and can see out so not as useful for us. Pet peeve of mine is that package delivery is too often done without using the doorbell or even knocking- perhaps a camera with a warning would help.
We have three Nest cameras at various points under our eaves, and one Singled (which uses an app called Snap) that my H wanted to try out. The Nest cameras are far superior and we’re happy with the entire set up. The resolution of the Nest cameras is great, even at night, and the app works well.
My neighborhood is very safe and has few houses, and not any through traffic, but it’s nice to know when packages or visitors arrive.
Our neighbors got some kind of video doorbell. They caught their teenager son sneaking out very late at night.
Hahaha if the teenage son was smart, he would have figured out a way how to temporarily disable the IP from the router to the doorbell…
And there’s this… https://www.technocracy.news/is-amazon-the-embodiment-of-orwellian-surveillance/
“In what appears to be Bezos’s latest strategic move in the quest to replace God as knower of all things is a hybrid monster of facial recognition software and a doorbell camera widget manufactured by Ring, a company that Amazon bought earlier this year.
In a gross assault on the right to privacy, a patent filed months ago essentially describes a product that captures information on people who as much as walk past a doorbell, sending real-time information to police databases. It also will allow customers the ability to upload to law enforcement photos of anyone they deem might be a sketchy individual.”
Aside from the 1984 overtones, facial recognition just isn’t that good. Soon it won’t be necessary for bigots to call the cops on black people going about their day. The Ring doorbell will do it for them!
Love the comment on the article:
“You fail to mention that you have to buy this stuff. They’re not going to have UPS sneak up on your porch and place it. If privacy is a concern for you, DON’T BUY THIS STUFF! Don’t buy little boxes that can record everything you say. Don’t buy little boxes that will allow your pet bird to bankrupt you by buying things on Amazon. I’ve been a Prime member since in was invented and you won’t find any of that garbage in my home. It seems easy enough to me.”
I agree with your post, @BunsenBurner.
Perhaps it is because I’m in a safe neighborhood and my life isn’t very complicated but I don’t feel compelled in the least to get video doorbells or allow the Alexas of the world into my house. To a large extent, I feel like companies are creating these products then creating a desire for them. They don’t provide services I personally need and I certainly don’t trust them not to be intrusive or to pretend my privacy will be protected.
@wis75 - re post 21: Our delivery people used to always ring the doorbell. When we installed it, the UPS folks stopped ringing and now so has Fed Ex. At first I thought this was because they preferred not to be on video, but I am now wondering if this is coming from their corporate team. example: if something was stolen from your house and if you had the video to prove they were there the day of the theft…
We don’t have video and rarely have delivery folks ring our doorbell either. I don’t understand—we are home and they can see us they screen door. They just place the package, rush back to trick and tap the horn as they leave.
I think in this day and age, every second counts for these drivers to meet their delivery quotas/routes. Many get paid by delivery not a salary so no time for pleasantries.
UPS and USPS always leave the package near the door, or hide it behind a column or shutter and ring the bell - just to let us know it’s there.
Fed Ex, which is awful around here, throws everything over the fence and you’re lucky if it’s out of the rain and doesn’t break!
Most package deliveries are by Fedex Ground. Unlike Fedex Express or UPS, Fedex Ground runs its ground delivery system on an independent contractor model and they are compensated by piece. Guys who hustle (my delivery guy makes much $$$ but busts his butt) do okay. Blame the compensation model for incentivizing poor service.
We now have a Lorex camera system from Costco that records to a dvr kept in a locked closet. Dh installed it, and he didn’t want one with third party storage. The capacity isn’t as large as I’d hoped, or maybe we just have the sensitivity of the cameras set too high, but the dvr can’t keep more than a week’s worth of footage before it starts to copy over previous recordings. Every so often we save a video clip or take screen shots if we need them as proof.
While the cameras have been handy for checking on package deliveries, the greater value has been in proving that various service techs and others were not doing the job for which we’d paid. We’ve had several pest control techs sit in their truck instead of checking the Sentricon stations as they reported, yard guys who claimed to have spread fertilizer or weed killer when they had not, painters who skipped the priming that was in our contract, etc. The camera system has more than paid for itself.
@Kajon Our video doorbell records activity even if the doorbell isn’t actually rung. Therefore, it wouldn’t make sense for delivery companies to tell their employees not to ring the doorbell so that they can somehow avoid being on video because will be on video just by virtue of stepping on your porch.
good point!
We have Nest, it was a great addition for our Google smart home.I personally like the Hello’s design, because it actually looks like a doorbell and it’s narrow enough to fit on most door frames.
I’m resuscitating this thread because I am thinking of getting a Ring motion detector floodlight and camera for along the side of the house. (The problem with drugged out zombies in our town is getting worse, but that’s a separate thread).
Does anyone have one of these? What should I look for and/or ask the installer?
We have a Ring doorbell and a motion detector camera at the back. Installed it after a burglary attempt at the next block in plain daylight (safe, middle-class neighborhood). Installation is simple (DH did it) and it records well. The main problem we have with it is that it records too many things, like cars passing by in front, raccoons and cats in the back. There are just so many events we mostly stopped checking them, which kind of defeats the purpose.
I’m hoping that just having the motion detector camera in plain view deters burglars. I’m hoping that the installer can set it so that cars passing or birds flying by don’t trigger the chime.