Seriously, what the hell is up with DoorBot?

[h4lp m3]

I spend about $200 for this video doorbell thing and not only did it not work, but their customer service is like whoa... They're jerks. No seriously, BIG TIME JERKS.

I was one of the tens of thousands of people who bought into their kickstarter pre-order thing. As we waited, they would post updates on their facebook page, telling people it would be only a few more months. That date would pass with no word and naturally people flooded their page until they finally responded. "Just a few more months while we *insert excuse here*" This game would go on for over a year.

I was one of the lucky ones who only had to wait about 6 months to get mine, but when I did, it didn't work. Now, I WAS friends with them on Facebook. That is, until I posted this...

My DoorBot rings to my phone less than 1/3rd of the time and when it actually does, I can barely see the person cause the video's so distorted. As far as the intercom, I can hear them but they can't hear me. Are you guys going to update it anytime soon?

I checked back later that day for a response and not only was my comment gone, but I had lost the ability to post to their page. I couldn't be banned? Not for that comment. Well, I jumped on my girlfriend's computer and lone and behold, I could post comments from her FB account, so I was banned.

They cleaned house on their FB page and now all you see is posts showing how spectacular DoorBot is and pictures of DoorBot installed in homes around the world.

The last time I talked to DoorBot was 3 months ago when I called tech support and I told the gy I wanted to return it. He convinced me to keep it and said they would be rolling out updates in the near future to fix the bugs and if I still didn't want it, I could return it. (I recorded our conversation with Photo Booth, BTW)

I'm not the only one, Everybody has issues. DoorBot has only 2 stars in App Store and 1.8 in Google Play. The reviews have a wide range of upset customers from posts like this:

Chinh Luong Junk Simple as that. App looks like it's written by a middle schooler.

to posts like this

Daniel Corp There should be a class action lawsuit to get everyone's money back for false advertising.

and this

Christophe Smits Does not work I am never notified when anybody rings. It simply doesn't work. They also delete all negative (but true) complaints on their facebook page. Sad.

and this

Tim Zaman H O R R I B L E Ugliest video and audio i have ever seen, accompanied with a 10 second lag in video,audio and the notification itself. Even when kissing the wifi point. Utterly unusable product with founders posing lie after lie and under delivering

and this

Robert Zarranz The inventors and manufacturers should be arrested for fraud. I am only sorry I cannot rated it ZERO STARS.

And this one is my favorite:

Oliver K. The developers don't know what to do. This product is worthless to me. They should pay us all the money back. I feel basically betrayed for my money for a non working product. Keep your hands away from these people!

Oliver is 100% correct. While the developers don't know what to do, I do. We all know what they should do: GIVE IT UP.

Team DoorBot consistently fails and it's clear that they're not going to improve. They need to put the product in care of competent hands. They need new developers, a customer customer service department (no, not your developers) and most importantly, new management. And until they do that, they need to pull DoorBot off the shelf. The idea that they're still selling this product with all of these known bugs is not only preposterous, but it's fraud.
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[MICHAELSD]

The Shark Tank presentation wasn't too competent, and I could spot the amateur nature of this company from a mile away.

 

[andiwm2003]

I funded a few kickstarter projects but I always assumed a 50% failure rate and to be honest they ended up with about 20% failures of the ideas I supported.

Often the idea is good, but there is a whole level to a business that these small startups don't understand and can't fund. Customer service, quality control, repair and return are among them. It's not fraud IMHO though. It's just a high risk unprofessional start up business.

 

[Shrink]

Kickstarter involves risk.

If one does not accept that risk...one doesn't support Kickstarter projects.

I've supported 4 or 5 projects, all were successful and I was perfectly satisfied with the "rewards". However, I am aware that not all projects come to fruition, or if they do...may not work as intended.

That's Kickstarter...risk...

 

[h4lp m3]

DoorBot's been out of the kickstart phase for a while now and they've raised well over 2 million dollars. If you go to their website, they're selling to the public just like any other product. And they've got Engadget, Good Morning San Diego, AskMen, CES and other aboard the DoorBot train, pushing it as if it was a godsend to humanity and is perfectly flawless.


Meanwhile, the owner is running around Hollywood, trying to b.s. even more people into funding reality shows instead of fixing DoorBot,
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303942404579361040224777748

 

[NorthMelbourne]

victim of doorbot

Hi h4lp m3 & others

What a relief for me to read that I am not the only one.

Doorbot is basically a con. I had a similar experience to you. Paid July '13. Received Jan '14. Didn't work. Multiple emails to Doorbot were all answered politely but there was not a single occasion where they actually did anything. Same experience when Zendesk took over their support

Next I saw on Facebook the main dude James Siminoff quoted in the wall street journal and was cast in a positive light by that newspaper. So I started putting negative remarks on their Facebook profile and every single follower until they shut me out. It was a cry for help and I really expected someone from the company to get in touch and make things right. Nothing.

So I started a Facebook page called Victim of Doorbot but I didn't do anymore than start it. Too much bad energy going to this I thought. Though reading this thread maybe I should fire it up again?

A couple of months went by and one night I noticed the doorbot packaging sitting there tormenting me. I had another crack at them. I wrote to James Siminoff, doorbot support, doorbot sales, edison junior, zendesk, christie street (the crowd funders) as well any press/media companies associated with them. I detailed very briefly my issue and included screen shots of the first 3 or 4 lines of each email I had sent them in the previous 9 months.

Success! I woke up the next morning to an email from zendesk. They said they would replace it. And they did! But its still a crap product and a scam. While this one does actually function it only works maybe 85% of the time. And of course the 15% is always a package delivery and they leave a card - you know where this ends.\

The thing that astounds me is that not once did James Siminoff write to me even though i had emailed him and posted on his lame blog.

Hopefully my approach is helpful to others.