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My job involves surveying work in the street and often need to have a good look at the front/side of houses from the street, walk up to the front door for a better look, and if I still can't see without poking around in the front garden behind the bushes I'll knock and ask permission...although often people have already spotted me working in the street and will come out for a chat as I'm normally there for a few hours.
Lots of houses have the video doorbells but despite doing this job for a year and surveying over a thousand properties, I've probably only had a 'remote' answer via a ring doorbell 4 or 5 times (and two of those are when I've waited, and then walked out via a different route i.e. front gate when entering via the drive so the owner has then spoken up to challenge what I'm doing as they can see me looking at the house as I leave)
I've never had a video doorbell speak up to me on the many occasions I've got to the front door but can see what I'm looking for straight away so I'll pause to note it down without ringing the bell, as far as I'm aware the bell should have alerted the owner that there is activity?
Is it hard to answer the doorbell via your phone? Or slow so I've gone by the time they can reply? (I often wait a fair while as otherwise I need to come back)
Perhaps they think I'm selling so just ignore me (sudden idea, I could replace my tool belt with a cardboard parcel so they think I've got a delivery for them!!!)
Or are people generally a bit frightened/intimidated/shy of the tech and just don't want to talk even though they are watching me?
I'm very aware that every house could have a camera tucked away so its a proper deterrent that stops you from just having a quick nosey if there is no answer.
Can I record a message on these things even if there is no answer? If I know they are either watching, or its recording, it means I can just give them a 30 second explanation of what I'm up to, and when they do see someone disappearing into the front garden, at least they will know when they review the footage that I'm not looking for an open window!
They are pretty slow to respond - I have a Ring doorbell as well as a light/camera on my garage. Most times it activates an alert on the phone the postman/delivery driver is back in their vehicle and driving off. I’ve got a good WiFi connection/speed etc. Fortunately, we don’t have any security issues, more often than not for monitoring the wildlife that wanders across our patch.
My ring doorbell only alerts my phone when the button is pressed. It does however capture and record (video and audio) and motion. So if you walk onto my drive, have a chat to yourself and leave, I’ll be able to view and listen to it later. I don’t want the false positives that come with having a shorter drive so don’t have the alerting on.
My Nan gets alerts on her phone and chime to all motion so could talk to you while you’re wandering around out front.
I’ve only used the talk feature once when I was ‘unable to reach the door’ - just to say I’m here please don’t take my parcel away with you.
We have a Blink camera system. The default is for it to finish its clip-recording before it notifies you via the phone. Hence the delay.
Mostly turned off. Gets turned on when MrsSC is working in the garden office and we are expecting a delivery. The delivery guy will generally hang around on the doorstep writing a note and MrsSC then has time to communicate via an Echo device.
Ours is mainly used to confirm that Thud has actually walked the dog like he's promised when he's home alone. Also used to confirm that Thump/ Thud have returned home at late curfew if I've already gone to bed 🙂
We've got Ring. Like Dovebiker, the person has often rung, waited, and f****d off before the notification reaches the phone
I have a Ring doorbell, my alerts are pretty instance, I live answer if not home, and people are still there to speak to.
regards
Or slow
This. I returned mine for a refund because it sometimes took more than a minute to alert my phone when someone pressed it. That, and I hadn't realised I'd need to pay them an ongoing subscription just to access/save footage.
Thanks, I'll practise my talking to camera piece! I'm normally there for a few minutes versus a delivery driver rushing back to his van so I think they'd have time to talk to me if they wanted.
too slow.
although im more interested in the fact you are rummaging through peoples gardens with a tool belt. What are you doing?
Surveying for fibre broadband. We only build to the edge of the public highway but to avoid disappointment/wasted days off work for the customer, if you choose to order, we record if your existing line is in a duct visible at the house (good, 1 day install) or buried (bad, 2 stage appointment to chat to you about digging up your lawn (or brand new drive) or if overhead, if we can access the overhead line using a ladder/hoist (good) or need special equipment. We also survey our network in the street in detail.
So on the whole, people are happy to see us turn up, although you get the odd person that isn't interested and refuses permission, unfortunately that means I have take the worst case/best guess scenario which could delay a future order they or the next occupant places.
As above with Ring cams if you see the light on it's activated.
Just talk to it and it'll record your message for viewing later.
There is an 'answering machine' feature on Ring doorbells you can turn on. Plays a message, and then takes a message that you can listen to later. Called Quick Reply in settings.
Ours is pretty quick, it's just the time to find the phone, unlock it, open the app etc. Our postie and delivery drivers know to wait a bit.
I once rang a ring bell and had a conversation with the owner who told me she was by a pool in Greece, and when she would be home.
Struck me as a very silly thing to do, as I knew for sure there wouldn’t be anyone home for a week.
It depends.
Most of the stuff you're describing are settings, some of which require a paid subscription, so you can't assume anything. For instance, I've disabled motion-triggered recording on mine because my front door opens straight onto the pavement, it was pointlessly recording every passing car and pedestrian.
The bell rings (Alexa) instantly, but alerts to a phone are laggy.
As above with Ring cams if you see the light on it’s activated.
Just talk to it and it’ll record your message for viewing later.
This isn't right, for doorbells at least. Dedicated cameras might be different. If you can see the light around the doorbell button, it's mains powered. If it's running just on battery the light doesn't come on, but that doesn't mean it's not working.
Recording a message rather hangs on the home owner reviewing them. It's never occurred to me to even check, you don't get a 'you've got a voicemail' alert.
I'd forgotten about quick replies, I need to revisit that. I turned off a lot of features because it was chewing through battery, I've got it powered now so might be able to tweak it.
Eufy here. Works very quickly.
This isn’t right, for doorbells at least. Dedicated cameras might be different.
They are hence me saying Ring cams not Ring doorbells.😉
There's a blue LED comes on when the camera is active.
Get a standard message printed on a card and hold it in front of the camera for a few seconds to tell them what you are going to do or what you want them to do.
They will probably not see it or ignore it but it is quick and easy
and might help
Ring is garbage, but easy to set up & they advertise heavily hence they’ve become the standard. Eufy are supposedly a lot better. There are other options which are a lot better but need a bit of tech know how to setup! Dahua for example is a proper IP cam and will connect directly to a NVR, Push notification to phone is instant also.
We have a nest which is wired to a proper bell as well as several nest devices and our phones. Unsurprisingly the bell is instant. The nest devices around 5s behind and the mobile app at some point after, normally 5-10s after the nest devices. The mobile notifications are but far the slowest and sometimes arrive minutes later.
I often talk to ringer, it's quicker than running from my office and handy for deliveries that would otherwise go to the depot.
I've the Google Nest Doorbell and I find it's normally very fast. Of course if you are in an area of poor cell coverage then it will suffer.
We’ve three ring devices: door bell, stickup cam and floodlight cam. They’re all utter cr@p. Slow, buggy, riddled with security holes (the cam connection to the ring servers is via an unsecured SIP call), potentially privacy breaching and trap you into a subscription to do anything at all useful.
The doorbell is as described above: likely to provide a connection to the driver clearing off, that is if you get past the spinning arrows of waitness at all. The real bag of absolute dross is the floodlight cam though. This has a PIR. You’d think this would turn the light on. But no, it appears to trigger a request to the ring servers asking to turn the light on.
Really wish someone would jailbreak them as the hardware itself is great. It’s Amazon’s junk on top that lets it all down.
Arlo bell here.very quick to pick up movement and differentiate between humans, vehicles or animals. Ringing the bell causes my phone to ring instantly
I have a Ring doorbell, my alerts are pretty instance, I live answer if not home, and people are still there to speak to.
Same here with the fairly instant notification.
However , if I’m not home and I don’t know you , then I’m not going to tell you I’m not there 😉