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I got a camera doorbell in part for security, also because I work nights and will look on the phone to see if it’s even worth answering, I may be in the garden or bath. Came in handy when an Amazon driver walked off with my parcel but claimed it was in a safe place.
Subscribing to your door. Madness! 😂
Can't see that happening in our house.
Got a Ring doorbell, security light on the garage and a stick-up camera. We have very little crime here, so it’s more of a case looking to see whether it was a cat/hedgehog/deer/otter or pine marten setting it off at 2am. The stick-up camera is used to watch the hedgehogs feeding or whether it’s a rat or weasel that’s burrowing into the garden stone wall. Will see how much the renewal is when it arrives.
We were requested this in our old house. What was the postie/delivery person meant to do if we were out?
How would having a video doorbell help if you're out?
Leave the door unlocked so the delivery driver can just leave it inside?
That might work in Royal Tonbridge Wells, less so in Burnley with three indoor cats.
How would having a video doorbell help if you’re out?
It can connect to your phone so you can advise them what to do.
I haven’t got either a knocker or a ring.
People generally open the door and shout…
Jesus Christ, seriously? I have enough problems deterring people who have a key from just wandering on in.
It can connect to your phone so you can advise them what to do.
Assuming you get a connection and the driver is hanging around for a chat.
Had 4 ring devices. They’ve all gone. The software got slower and slower to the point that some of the recordings had people teleporting around the place.
Ive replaced the doorbell with a Netatmo device. Its ok. A little flakey, but has integrated local storage and can supposedly sync to an FTP site or direct to Dropbox. no subscription and no cloud dependency is good. I think it might be iOS only though.
Assuming you get a connection and the driver is hanging around for a chat.
Honestly, it's not a feature I need. If I'm out I'd rather they left a delivery with a neighbour or came back later, and one would hope this is common sense for a delivery driver. But you could if say you were 30 seconds away and they were playing Knock-a-Door Run. There is a lag on initial connection to the phone but it's not huge, several seconds at worst.
Leave the door unlocked so the delivery driver can just leave it inside?
Are you completely out of your tiny little mind? Fair enough if you have a front entrance vestibule-type setup with the door into the house actually locked, however my front door opens directly into the hall with front rooms directly off the hall right by the front door.
Also, it’s no exaggeration to say that 80% of delivery drivers knock on the door
and then runaway if you don’t answer in less than 0.00001 seconds!
It’s funny how many ignore my doorbell button that’s exactly at eye-level, and instead thump on the door. The delivery I had this evening did actually have the driver ring my doorbell, and by the time I got up and opened the door, about ten feet away, he was the other side of the road. He knew I was in, the lights are on, and he left it on the doorstep.
I was considering getting a Ring system, but now having second thoughts.
Had 4 ring devices.
Blimey. That's some size chateau.
If I’m out I’d rather they left a delivery with a neighbour or came back later,
Exactly. Perfect excuse to maintain neighbourly relations with the neighbours.
Are you completely out of your tiny little mind? Fair enough if you have a front entrance vestibule-type setup with the door into the house actually locked, however my front door opens directly into the hall
Mine opens in to the dining room and I’m with scotroutes on this.
That’s some size chateau
A doorbell, two cameras and a combined camera light, which was supposedly PIR driven, yet somehow had to initiate communication with Amazon before it would turn the lights on. It was all shite.
In true STW tradition I haven't checked the thread to see if this link has been posted...
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2024/02/ring-doorbell-increases-price/
Subscribing to your door. Madness!
Wait till you hear they are also subscribing to their thermostat, fridge and washer.
Can't help but be amused when tech fanbois/evangelists on the spectrum hero's rip them off. The coming to terms with it and justifying the new normal is the best bit. We like nice things don't we!
Get a few dogs, no need for a doorbell ever then! no subscription but food is pricey!
I'm more interested in subscribing to a regular cake delivery.
do they do that?
It’s funny how many ignore my doorbell button that’s exactly at eye-level, and instead thump on the door.
I think they're used to a lot of people's doorbells not working so they take the safe, old-school option.
Mine is a bit unreliable TBH, sometimes needs a couple of presses before it dings.
Fortunately, I have a sizeable passage where the delivery people can put their packages if I'm not in.
I pay €4PM for my Google Nest doorbell and 5 cameras being recorded for 30 days. Mind you it's only sounds and detected movement that's record, not 24 hours a day.
You guys with the doorbells might be interested in this:
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/bmw-launches-heated-seat-and-steering-wheel-subscription-service-uk
(I honestly had to check the date as thought it was April fool)
Fortunately, I have a sizeable passage where the delivery people can put their packages
lucky delivery people! 😉
@winston thankfully the consumer beat bimmer. https://www.thedrive.com/news/bmw-is-giving-up-on-heated-seat-subscriptions-because-people-hated-them
That's the really irritating thing about Ring. The hardware is bloomin' great. The software and backend is, like anything running on AWS, flakey at best, then it's all managed by an organisation who make Nestle look like a nice bunch of guys. I was really hoping someone would have rooted at least the doorbells by now.
Also, I'm a bit late to teasing OP about the thread title, but do you only pay extra if you live on Alphabet Street?
The only thing more satisfying is seeing nerd culture corporatised and said nerds feverishly at the front of the queue with their wallets open "finally we have got the recognition we deserve" followed by the slow realisation of the cash cow they have become!
It was Flickr for me.
Parcels? If we are out the driver leaves them in the summerhouse. Low crime area though, wouldn't work everywhere.
They are useful though. Like the GP doing a house call. No reply at the door but a conversation via ring established the patient needing the doctor had sold that house 6 months before. Seems when NHS24 took the call they filled in the address field from previous calls without actually asking "do you still live at".
Luckily the new address was in the same town. not too far away.
@chestercopperpot except, nerds don't use Ring, we use pro-gear like Ubiquiti and/or our own locally hosted cobbled-together DIY systems 😂 Ring is for the clueless/techno-illiterate who buy off-the-shelf stuff in Currys!!The only thing more satisfying is seeing nerd culture corporatised
Bumping this, with the "amazon spring deals" the blink full system is now £41.99,less than the price of a year's Ring subscription. Think I might give it a whirl, especially with the 30 day money back guarantee
Does no one else use the knock app?
The visitors Applies a Knock to the door and you go to the door and open it?
Does no one else use the knock app?
We have this, it just appears that only parcels knock on the door, as when I open the door, that's all that's in sight...
"the blink full system"
We tried Blink before Ring. Sent it back the next day. Painfully slow and laggy with notifcations to both phone and Alexa. They may have improved in the 2 years since.
The visitors Applies a Knock to the door
I wish they'd ****ing stop it.
I have a Ring doorbell. It is not small, it is illuminated, and when pressed it goes "ding dong" outside in a big loud voice. It is hard to miss and impossible to think "hmm, I wonder if it's working" when rung. So why delivery drivers feel the need to immediately follow it up with BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG I cannot fathom.
One of them actually broke the door, the trim is now duct taped up. The irony is, if I'm working upstairs and they knock I won't hear it, the doorbell is linked to Alexa and rings throughout the house.