Okay… I have been lurking for awhile and asking questions and reading.
Ready to order a Vera today.
Anyone have any suggestions on who to buy from or avoid? Pricing seems the same
so I am looking for fast shipping and a reliable company.
Les
you can buy from amazon (which i think actually comes directly from MCV)- if you have prime then you get free fast shipping.
then this thread has some deals:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=3236.0
the vera seems to always be the same price but a couple places toss in discounts on package deals. So depending on what other things you might need you can get something of a deal.
I’ve had good luck with ASIHome.com. They are offering a deal with the schlage lock. Barry frequestly posts on this forum too.
http://www.asihome.com/ASIshop/promotions.php
Welcome to the community!
Stay away from ZWAVEPRODUCTS.COM had to get bank involved to get back my money.
I ordered from SmartHomeUSA through ebay to take advantage of 8% bing cashback. If you are not familiar with bing cashback, do a google search on it. Shipping was $9, but I had them throw in a few switches off their website and the shipping cost did not go up.
If you were planning to the the Schlage lock, asihome would be the way to go. I’ve ordered from them before too.
Bazzo1,
I agree… I had two orders (the only two orders with them) that were messed up and they never corrected them. I didn’t have enough there to make a big issue with them but the results led me to purchase from anyone else!
Cute
Cute[/quote]
Haha, I guess that is a slight contradiction
Do a google search on bing, and bing search on google… 
I had no problems with a recent order from ZWAVEPRODUCTS.COM
Why is it that there is such a wide range of prices for z-wave products that seem to do essentially the same thing. For instance, I can get a dimmable light switch for $30.99 but just an on-off switch is $59.00? The pricing for these devices is all over the map. :
I don’t know the specifics but on/off switches are often rated for higher loads and have a relay to perform the actual switching operation.
Lamps are dimmable because they utilize a semiconductor [i.e. special transistor] to adjust how much electricity can flow, but cannot handle certain types of loads well (motors, fluorescent lights, etc.). It is often more expensive to use relays then semiconductors in today’s high-tech world.
Also, just like much tech gear, some brands are just marketed up more than others.
[quote=“Les F, post:1, topic:165640”]Okay… I have been lurking for awhile and asking questions and reading.
Ready to order a Vera today.
Anyone have any suggestions on who to buy from or avoid? Pricing seems the same
so I am looking for fast shipping and a reliable company.
Les[/quote]
You can order from here as well…Price is $249.00 CDN or $234.91 US. This is where I purchased mine last June. I picked it up locally, so no shipping costs.
http://shop.time.ca/catalog/product_info.php?currency=USD&cPath=23&products_id=28&osCsid=hic0fdov747s7v5k2c1066ao61
Call to make sure how much the shipping costs are to the States.
Another place is http://www.aartech.ca/vera.html It's $299.99 but with the currency exchange, it should be a little cheaper. He is very reliable and ships quite fast.
why can you buy a car for 15 grand and another for 150? they all do the same thing- have 4 tires and allow me to drive around?
it has to do with the features and quality and branding/marketing. Plain and simple.
Like many things the prices of these various doodad’s has nothing to do with the cost to make them but rather what the market will bear. People apparently will pay more for something that has the leviton or cooper name than they will for something from GE as an example.
what’s even funnier is that much appears to be the same exact hardware with different brand names. MAYBE with differnet firmware with more or less features- -but plenty seems to be exactly the same. And the prices are vastly differnt. ACT, GE, and Schlage appear to be the same. I think I’ve seen posted that the RCS and Trane thermostats have some overlap.
Another place to look is Smarthome-products: http://www.smarthome-products.com/default.aspx As far as the difference in pricing goes it comes down to components used in the devices, warranty and features. As Michaelk stated you can drive a yugo or drive a rolls-royce both are cars. Is there a difference?
HomeSettings was considered the consumer line by Intermatic - Intouch the commercial/professional line to compete with Leviton(Vizia RF+) or Cooper(Aspire RF). Homepro is some place in the middle depending on who you talk to. There are companies that oem their products. You have to look at what the differences are - if you look at a RCS Tstat and the Trane Tstat you could say that the Trane is the little brother.
One of the nice features about Z-Wave is that it all works together you are not restricted to using one manufacturer. There is definitely a difference in the look and feel between the different manufacturer’s as there is a difference between driving a yugo or rolls.
I have Homesetting, Homepro, Intouch, Vizia RF, Vizia RF+, RCS, Aeon-Labs, Fortrezz, Homemangeables all being used in my environment and all working well together and that’s a great thing. ;D
another thing I forgot to add before about picking devices is the difference in warranties.
the ACT stuff I think has 2 years, but the leviton and cooper have much longer.
there’s chart here that shows you how even the differnt light switches have all sorts of different things going on:
http://store.homeseer.com/store/HomeSeer-Z-Wave-Dimming-Wall-Switch-Matrix-W16C64.aspx
and that’s just listing from 4 manufacturers.
but like Kaldoon says - the beauty is it all works together.
I agree with all those that warn against zwaveproducts.com. They shipped me z-wave products, but none of the ones that I ordered. They sent me two previously installed, non-z-wave functioning, RF9534 dimmers in place of 2 other dimmers that I ordered. They didn’t place my order with MCV until 20 days after they took my money. 6 weeks after the order was placed, they sent me the free lamp module. Horrible experience, don’t buy from these clowns.
I had a similar yet “interesting” experience with zwaveproducts.com. Like many, shipment of my order was delayed. When it finally shipped, it was partial and they had substituted on a few items - strangely enough, to my benefit (more expensive products for less expensive ones ordered).
However, a few of the switches received had clearly been used already and a couple were dead on arrival. But, they were quite responsive in replacing the dead ones.
Overall, my experience turned out fine, but buyer beware.
Same here but they did send me an apologetic email explaining that it was taking a bit of time for them to get everything together, etc.
They did send me a free controller and several free lamp modules. (Two separate orders…Vera and other modules).
I noticed there were NO packing slips / Bill of Lading…NOTHING indicating my other items were on Back Order.
Most established companies will do this.
All in all, even though my order took longer than I felt was necessary, they seemed like nice people who’s business was experiencing some growing pains.