Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Ok, so I don't typically believe in leaving one-star reviews. They are often posted in anger or out of frustration, and often in haste. However, I truly have found that a combination of multiple unsuccessful setups, less-than-helpful customer service, and unreliable service from the doorbell and wifi extender have elicited my one-star review. Let me begin: I am confident and comfortable with setup of electronics. I know what I'm dealing with here. In the box: -BEAM: the wifi extender and "hub" which is supposed to link the doorbell and accessory alarms to the home WiFi -DING: the video doorbell you think you want -POWER ACCESSORY: nobody's really sure what this actually is. Seems like it just prevents your doorbell from ringing. -Door/Window alarms (magnet-type alarms like you'd get at the dollar store, only they link to the BEAM and alert your phone) -Instructions (poster format, not booklet) I know how to follow directions. I followed the directions. It still doesn't work. I followed all of the setup instructions, confirming that I was, in fact, operating by all Zmodo's rules: -You must be on a 2.4 GHz WiFi connection, NOT a 5 GHz. -You must have an already-existing mechanical doorbell (DING doesn't work with electronic) -Your doorbell must be regulated by a 16 V transformer (I was later advised by a Zmodo agent to change to a 24 V transformer) -Your WiFi SSID cannot have any spaces in it (so, I had to rename my WiFi something without spaces) -You must have the patience of Job. I downloaded the Zmodo app (which, by the way, is clunky at best) and started setting up the BEAM (extender) as per the instructions: Plug in BEAM, open app, teach it your WiFi creds, done. Everything seemed hunky-dory. I read the instructions further. I drilled the holes in my brick-front townhome and hung the DING (doorbell) as per the instructions. Hooked up the wires. Seemed fine. The BEAM WiFi extender was one sheetrock wall and maybe 20 feet from my home WiFi Router, and my DING doorbell is maybe another 25 feet from that, on the other side of a brick facade. The front door (where my DING is) is near the edge of my home WiFi's capabilities, due to walls and whatnot, so I placed the BEAM around the midpoint, in a hallway leading directly to the DING. (are you confused yet?) I tried ringing the doorbell- it rang once, and then nothing. Gave it a little while and it seemed to have straightened itself out...? Went to the indoor chime and there is an audible and obnoxious electrical buzzing sound, so I install the "doorbell accessory" that is included. A mystery object with two wires coming out of it. Instructions say to install if there is a problem with buzzing or whatever so I install. Now the doorbell doesn't work at all. No ding dong inside. Removed and threw it back in the box. Now I'm irritated because I'm not living with a constant buzzing/humming/rattling sound. Not in my house! I check the feed from my phone. I get signal, but it is on about a 15 second delay and it is an inconsistent feed. Jerky and out of sync. Not cool. Definitely not suitable for answering a door. I tried talking to myself through the app. Glitchy and jerky and useless. Whatever. All seemed well enough and it was working, so I went out to dinner. At this point I had put in about 2 hours of work on this thing. After dinner, I wondered why I wasn't getting alerts of pedestrian traffic and decided to check in on the place, so I logged into the (clunky) app and found the DING was offline. Weird. When I get home, the DING was flashing some color (maybe blue at this point?) and the BEAM was flashing green. OK but why? SO I figured I'll just reboot the BEAM from the app. I tried that but it didn't do anything to solve the problem, so I hit the reset button and deleted the BEAM from my phone. Fresh restart, here I come. In doing that I decided to delete the DING as well, since it was secondary in the installation process originally. BIG MISTAKE. During the setup process you teach the doorbell your Wifi SSID and password so that (presumably) it can link to your BEAM (which *should* be broadcasting as your home wifi now, as I understand- think of it as a silent assistant to your home wifi- same name and invisible). Well, I figured I'd just hit the reset button on the DING doorbell and start fresh. NOPE. THERE ISN'T A RESET BUTTON FOR THE ACTUAL DOORBELL (don't look online and tell me there is because THAT one has one. This one DOES NOT. Note the differences). Matter of fact, when I contacted the online customer service about how to reset it, they asked me "why would you want to reset your doorbell?" Cute. WHELPP, my doorbell decided to stay linked to my home WiFi (not the beam, which is now not functioning) and I can't access it through the app because I deleted it so I'm lost as to what to do, but it is now showing solid blue saying it's still attached to something, I just can't access it. Anyway, to circumvent this issue, I guessed I would just have to rename my WiFi ...YET AGAIN (meaning I now have to re-sync all of my home's wireless devices AGAIN just to set up this damned doorbell.) Now I have to start over again with the BEAM. Fine. Did it. Now I can link up my DING because there isn't a network it has creds for so it's blinking green looking for a new network. Awesome. I'm back in business. NOPE. The BEAM then begins restarting and becoming unreliable. It begins flashing blue then solid green then flashing green then flashing blue and then no response to the app. The DING, however, seems to be connected not to the BEAM, but to my home WiFi. It's still functioning, but again at a slower and glitchy, delayed, and useless speed. I reset the BEAM and started over. (in all seriousness- this is probably going into the 8th hour of actual, hands-on dealing with this hot mess of a system) So here I sit, 11:00 PM and I have put an aluminum foil parabolic reflector behind my router and hoped for the best for now to achieve less-than-acceptable performance from the doorbell and I'm holding out hope that Zmodo reaches out to me for either replacement, upgrade, or at the very least a return and assistance in repairing the bricks damaged by their truly awful product. Regarding customer service: To add insult to injury, the online help was obviously outsourced and mediocre at best. There was a definite language barrier, and response time was minutes between and the person often misunderstood the question (despite my best attempts at clarity and simplicity). I did call customer support as well during business hours and spoke to one lady who advised me "it seems that this product doesn't fit your application and I would advise you to return it and find another product" (HA!) So I asked her if Zmodo would cover shipping back and the repair to the damaged bricks and she got sassy and we got disconnected. I called back and spoke to another rep who advised me to purchase a larger transformer and it should fix all my buzzing problems with the chime, but at the time that was my only concern. TL;DR Buy something else instead. I spent 8+ hours on this Piece and I'm over it. Customer service has yet to help.