Extremely poor support from DoorBird

Posted on
Thu Nov 01, 2018 7:21 am
berkinet offline
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Location: Berkeley, CA, USA & Mougins, France

Extremely poor support from DoorBird

While the DoorBird support was never great, it was at least minimally adequate. However, lately they have essentially stopped giving useful support. Turn-around time for an email to tech support is unusable...
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On 14 Oct 2018, at 10:40, Iwrote:
 
...[my] Doorbird started ringing continuously. That is, one or twice per second. I had to turn off ring notification
in the app to avoid constant notification. \I had hoped that new problem might be related to the original issue.
But, after replacing the switch, the problem continues.  I have now disconnected the internal, physical, doorbell
as well. This problem renders our door bird useless since there is now no way to be notified if someone rings.
 
Then, on 16/10/2018 10:50 - I wrote:
This problem has no become urgent. The DoorBird will start, but I can no longer connect to it via IP.

And finally Date: 22 October 2018 at 10:11:36 CEST
From: DoorBird Helpdesk <hello@doorbird.com>

Thank you for your message.
 
We are sorry for the late response...
 
Over week to respond to an urgent message about a DoorBIrd that was totally out of service. But, that is not the worst. The problem turned out to be water penetrating the case. I wrote to them when I found the water inside the surface mount box and asked for help to address that. They suggested I check the installation!! I pointed out that the installation instructions for my D2101KV did not address assuring a tight fit into the box. In fact, the instructions I received were not even for my model. Those instructions were not yet ready.

Finally, on my own, I figured our that 4 positioning screws needed to be set to as low a level as possible. When I advised them there were no instructions, and that they had never offered any pointers, they suggested I call a professional installer. This is really too much for a product of this price.

Posted on
Mon Nov 26, 2018 7:43 pm
berkinet offline
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Re: Extremely poor support from DoorBird

lanbrown wrote:
...The four screws you're talking about are the ones that hold it into the box. These screws are on the backside of the doorBird and goin into the holes on the box where you slide the DoorBird up or down, is that correct? See the attachment from their instructions.
[...]
Also, they now have a hood for the surface mount box. I was thinking about getting one but noticed in their technical diagram that it lacked a hole in the back where the wires come in. So I contacted their pre-sales department and they confirmed it indeed didn't have any holes in the back and the wires would come in from the bottom of the DoorBird. I don't know about you. but why would I want to expose the wiring? isn't that the point of the hole on the back of the surface mount box?
[...]
I noticed that the changelog for 000113 that they improved the factory reset procedure. My new (used) unit was running 000112 and 000114 was the current. .
Yes, those are the four screws I wrote about. There is a small tool provided to adjust those screws. But oddly, no instructions about adjusting, or even having to adjust, the 4 screws. In fact, they need to be screwed in as far as possible, while still allowing for the front plate to be mounted.

I have the hood and simply drilled a hole through it, and then sealed around the wires with silicon. Problem solved. However, note that the hood does slightly impinge on the peripheral view of the camera. Based on the hood design, it looks like it provides additional protection for the DB from vertical rainfall, but not from rainfall arriving directly in its face.

On my last conversation with DB they said they would ship me a newly re-designed button unit. It supposedly addresses the water proofing issue I had noted. However, they had said they would ship the new button back at the start of November and it still hasn't shipped. Since I am not there, I am not obsessing over it. But, I will make sure it is there on my return in January.

I also provided them with user access so they could actually observe first hand the reset problem. Pe haps that lead to the 000113/000114 updates. Though they have never actually responded about finding anything and, because of a network problem I was just able to get fixed, I have not yet confirmed the problem is resolved.

Posted on
Mon Nov 26, 2018 8:57 pm
berkinet offline
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Re: Extremely poor support from DoorBird

lanbrown wrote:
...I had RMA information within a day or two of them agreeing to replace it. So you might want to follow back up with them....
On my first button replacement I received all the RMA stuff and shipping notification, etc. So far nothing this time. I've been traveling for almost a month, but I need to rattle their cage.

Also, today being the first full day after getting the network up again, I received a phantom ring event when the daily restart executed from Indigo. So, at least for me, that bit hasn't been fixed yet.

Posted on
Fri May 10, 2019 1:10 pm
berkinet offline
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Re: Extremely poor support from DoorBird

Major update...

Finally, after almost 4 months of promises to actually log into my DoorBird to find the cause of the phantom rings (I added a user account) and also promising to send the "new improved" button, they just caved and sent me a new main unit (technically it is a model D2100E) and a new button. Magically, my problems have vanished. No phantom rings, even on reset, and, so far at least, no rain problems with the keypad.

FWIW, I am on firmware 000118 and should have 000119 soon.

I am still convinced that (when it works right) there is nothing else even close to the DoorBird on the market. Maybe they have finally fixed their support problems. Hopefully, I won't have to find out.

Posted on
Fri May 10, 2019 4:48 pm
kwijibo007 offline
Posts: 325
Joined: Sep 27, 2013
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Extremely poor support from DoorBird

Great stuff.

I agree, on paper nothing comes remotely close.

The Australian authorised re-seller of Doorbird gives exceptional support. It’s 3rd party support so is limited, but I’ve been very happy with the response I have had.

I’ve been meaning to get this plugin into the plugin store. I’ll make it happen in the next couple of weeks.

Posted on
Thu May 30, 2019 7:20 pm
kwijibo007 offline
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Joined: Sep 27, 2013
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Extremely poor support from DoorBird

Cool, great detective work


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Posted on
Fri May 31, 2019 1:31 am
berkinet offline
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Re: Extremely poor support from DoorBird

The A1101 is a stand-alone control station. Essentially, the DoorBird app on custom hardware. It was announced in France. But, for some odd reason, nowhere else.
doorbird_ise2019_2.png
doorbird_ise2019_2.png (294.02 KiB) Viewed 3640 times
.

The "new button" I received with my replacement main unit was the Premium Soft-Touch Call Button. It appears to be the same circuit board as the old button. However, instead of a thin black gasket between the faceplate and the button, they now have a soft plastic bezel. Since changing buttons, I have not had as much of a problem with the button. But, there are still occasional phantom rings on the local (2-pin connector) doorbell connection. Each time this has happened, I found water in the case. They insist the case is IP65 tested. So, I need to make sure my mounting screws are as tight as possible -- that is tighten them until I cannot attach the faceplate, than back off 1mm.
old_button.png
old_button.png (18.54 KiB) Viewed 3640 times
vs.
new_button.png
new_button.png (14.16 KiB) Viewed 3640 times


As to the D111. I have no idea, perhaps an updated D101?

BTW, They seem to have really changed their support attitude. The person who has been working with me lately is Martin Peter and he seems quite concientious.

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