This is getting worse and worse. I remember complaining in the beginning about the slow service and now I would give anything to go back to what now seems like a speeding bullet. I called you FOUR TIMES last week about the IR issue and do you know what you told me??? NOTHING because nobody would answer the damn phone. And when I did get ahould of someone, they told me the techs would call me back and, of course, you didn’t. I did get ahold of Kelsey (not a tech) and she tried to help by me asking her a question and then her asking you guys but between the crappy phone service you have and the fact that she had to put me on hold for 20 min EVERY time I asked her something to go ask you guys, we lost connection. Lastly, I got in contact with a new girl there and she told me that you (CJ) said to put a help request through VERA and you would get right on it. Yeah! Nobody has ever got right on it when I sent a help request. I know this because nobody has ever even helped me at all on ANY of my help requests. WTF is going on over there. Stop trying to go big so fast and fix the things you’ve started. Stop spending all your time in meeting with bigshots and remember those who are helping to get you where you are, US…The CUSTOMERS!
Here Here!
I understand you are frustrated, but resorting to this kind of posting is truly not needed.
Hey maybe it’s just most peoples breaking point.
How many purchasers here paid for a Beta test Vera?
From what I hear it’s being sold as a working product now.
I am sure much of what is said is true.
I think it’s time to be out of beta and a final WORKING release!
I’m one who bought it as “Joe Consumer”. I’ve gotten some help via email from them on a few occasions, albeit a day or two later, and that’s fine. It worked as advertized IMHO. The delivered product was a non-luup release. Once I upgraded to 939 I lost a couple of features which are broken in the beta, but I gained others.
I’m patient, I’ll wait for newer releases.
Just another opinion.
I am also a full-paying customer. I feel that this is a great product, but I must agree that support is a little lacking. With that said, I called with a HUGE issue and had 2 hours before leaving VERA and they helped me, but there were times that my emails were answered almost 2 weeks later.
Lots of friends and clients want to have my set-up for their condos, but I am reluctant to recommend Vera because they will not be able to set it up alone and MCV does not really have customer support. Sales individuals are readily available, but technical support is lagging behind.
I am only stating facts in the hopes for continual improvement. I love MCV and my VERA, but setup issues and firmware upgrades make her more painful than most end-users will tolerate. The new Luup seems to be working much better and VERA is working well.
This kind of post IS needed. I want to know what’s going on. I didn’t call anyone names. My headline might be a little out there but as far as the post goes, I have simply stated the experiences I had which, if that’s what bothers you, i completely agree. They bother me too. I paid 200.00 for Vera and lets get a breakdown of the features of the products. First, IR, my favorite. Can’t do anything, remotes don’t function. Took a decade to get the adapters to even be supported and can’t use them for anything…IR is DOA. Remote Controls: Don’t work right. Two different install procedures. You lose different key functionality depending on which method you chose no matter what. SMS takes 20+ min. I had to get a new dongle to get my door lock to work and now hear that the new dongle might have to be replaced. STILL no native iPhone app. Vera stability issues and bad tech support. Don’t get me wrong, I love the tech support. CJ gets my problem resolved each time. Getting through to him, however is the problem. I feel like a bounty hunter trying to track a perp when I need to get a hold of tech support. Timing each call…putting tickets in…sending help requests…sitting on hold…waiting for just the right time to SLIP IN UNDER THE WIRE and hope the receptionist is in the bathroom and CJ happens to be walking by the phone closest to his office while on his way to refill his mocha late and hears the phone ring because there was a commercial on the radio and someone turned the volume down and WHAM…he answers it and I’m fixed for another week. I got into Vera as opposed to every other Home automation because of the strong base they were working on and the promises of all the right things in the future and, while I still have high hopes for Vera, it’s very frustrating that not only have NONE of the promises been filled, my “strong” base has been replaced, changed dongle, might have to change dongle again, and I don’t even think we have a single completely working firmware that’s been released yet. I’m waiting…like everyone else…for MCV to finish up on just one of the pieces…just getting less patient each day.
Keep in mind that the dongle issue has nothing to do with MCV. This is out of their hands but unfortunately is makes them look bad since any bug in the dongle causes stability issues in Vera. They even offered to rectify the problem and pick up the tab only to find out the new dongle has another possible bug. Despite what you think my hats off to MCV for a great effort.
I bought my Vera knowing that I will be testing for a while and I love doing that. In most cases I have all 23 of my Z-wave devices working. There are issues at times but keep in mind the price you paid vs. the cost of other home automation systems out there. The compatibility of hardware is outstanding and improving weekly.
interesting.
So the dongle issue is not MCV fault. Well they chose this company not you or I .
Maybe you folks are just satisfied with a
Vera happens to be the only product of it’s type. There is not product that can compare. size power consumption ect.
I’d like to pose this scenario. If you had purchased this Vera from someone who installed it and other Zwave stuff…Who Might you be calling if it is not working?
How much time would you expect them to spend. What most uf ask is that Vera be stable and have components not lock up. That is all one asks for. Maybe MCV has implemented too many features in this little box. Who knows.
MCV has been working diligently to get thing right. I hope that soon things will be fixed.
Not that it really matters but how are you so sure MCV is coughing up the cash for the dongle replacement? Seems like if it was a “bug” then the manufacturer would be at fault, not MCV, and they would replace them. I would me more apt to say that there was some type of swap-out program in place with MCV and the dongle makers. If there wasn’t and I was MCV, I sure wouldn’t be ordering from their company anymore. Anyhow, whether or not they footed the bill for the replacement dongle doesn’t change the fact that the product that THEY are selling doesn’t work as stated. My point was that, while I am getting by with what I’ve got, I would rather have the very most basic features working solid and not have them telling us about all this new stuff to come then throwing it out have finished. Give us a working base, don’t excite us with all the soon-to-come features. Get the new stuff completely working BEFORE you tell everyone about it.
I hate to add to this, but… Except for the code that shipped with the VERA, everything else has been labeled as BETA. When you accept BETA code, you have to expect that you may have issues. While the production code didn’t do everything I’d want long term, it did function and was stable. I waited 'till this last BETA release until I upgraded. So far, I have no real complaints. If you want to push the envelope with a lowcost solution, expect problems. If you want a full blown, no problems solution, hire a company to install and warrant one.
MCV, Kudos. It does work as advertised, most of us who jumped into the BETA fray appreciate what we signed up for and are generally happy with what we have.
What code shipped with Vera?
If there is a problem with the firmware and the 5.02 library in the dongle when the problem is figured out - it should be a simple update to the dongle as the new ones are firmware upgradeable - remember 5.02 library has the beaming technology for the Schlage Locks.
So you feel that the pre-luup firmware was fine. Are you kidding.
1)MCV Never worked the bugs out of the mobile GUI. They never finished the MObile GUI. They dropped all production for LUUP.
2) There were plenty of other bugs. Yes some were because of the dongle.
3) The dongle comes with VERA is there another Zwave dongle that works?
So soon how one forgets.
I hope they get it going fast. There are other gateways in the works.
This kind of post IS needed. [/quote]
I fully disagree. I think it is ok to say that there is something going wrong. It is also ok to do it in this forum. I’m sure you are adult and it’s your personal style, but what do you think will be better after you attack these guys in that way?
I really have several good experiences with MCV’s support. They called me back, had some walkthroughs and mails. On working days as well as on weekends.
I hope you can cool down a bit…
Don’t take it the wrong way. I’m not breaking things on my desk while I type 
I am a man of great respect and I do have the upmost respect for MCV and what they are doing. However, I am very adamant about doing what I say and it just aggravates me when MCV says something before they are even close to being even partially done with it and then waiting FOREVER to finish it up. Then, by that time everyone has been complaining about the time it has taken since the announcement and it seems like they just buttoned everything up in such a hurry that it didn’t get the proper attention that it needed. I have spoken to MCV and I know they are short-staffed but that’s all the more reason not to be taking on so many new tasks at one time. I don’t mind a wait. I can (hard to believe ) be patient but give us something. Tell us a long out date for completion and surprise us if you get done early. Don’t give us an unattainable finish date and have us chomping at the bit for weeks/months to follow.
I completely feel your frustation Nolos. As long as Micasaverde doesn’t give up on this project, I’m waiting and testing patiently.
Good Comment Mark, I’m with you. I was hesitant to jump into this but I do understand where folks are at. I’d like to do some installs with Vera but as of now that’s simply on hold until we see some of these issues go away and stability comes back. I am 100% on the bandwagon that MCV needs to freeze new features, fix and improve whats there and most importantly make it stable. If timers and scenes fail to work, this really screws things up if you are dependent on Vera. Kind of reminds me back when I was using a hawking gateway to do Z-wave…
I do really appreciate what MCV has done, and the version I was using for 6 months was extremely stable until I recently did the Luup updates…now it’s shaky, but 80% of the time it’s fine but I don’t appreciate my timers barfing cause the dongle froze,etc.
Im patiently waiting for a more stable release and in the meantime I’ll test, and continue to help by adding important info and how-to’s to the Wiki.
I think it is a pretty big issue that they lock up consistantly. Since the dongle replacement one of my Vera’s won’t even work with a nightly auto reboot like it used to. Now I have to unplug it about every 3 days when it stops working. I’m still using .616 as nothing after that has worked at all for more then a day for me.
It’s a big issue because I’m using these to track door lock usage and change codes for a vacation rental business. When I’m not on site for days at a time and someone checks out I also like to delete the door code and turn off the A/C. When it fails I’m pretty unhappy that I have to drive out there and deal with it. In that case Vera is wasting a lot of energy in electricity, gas and time.
A $300 Home Automation Controller that does what MCV is doing was unheard of and practically still is. I’m rooting for these guys. These guys are innovators. They do need to freeze the features and start nailing down the bugs though.