Abode Reviews 2.901

Great product! Love the HomeKit integration!!!

Abode has been awesome for my home! I am away for many hours during the day, but I know that my house is secure. I particularly like the small cameras. In fact, one of them (on my front porch) enabled me to discover "who" kept hitting my mailbox [it turned out to be a *school bus*! - I live 1 block from a school.] I was able to email the clip to the bus superintendent - and since then *all* the school buses which pass my house, drive much slower (as they should!) Thank you Abode!!

The abode system seems to work great! It was easy to install and the support is really good. I bought it because it was on the Apple.com list of HomeKit certified products. Before switching alarm systems I had already set up my smart home with many HomeKit devices. The abode Gateway does a good job of coordinating with the Apple Home app and it’s nice that it pushes notifications through the Home app. I am a little disappointed that it does not work with other HomeKit certified devices like my smoke/Co2 sensors and security cameras. The smoke detector compatible with abode is not Homekit compatible. I bought the same brand but a different model that is HomeKit compatible so they can’t be monitored by abode. It would really be nice for HomeKit users if we could view and store all security camera video recordings in one location (either iCloud or with Abode) and view them in one app. Ideally I’d like to have access to everything from the Apple Home app and I’m pretty sure all your customers who use the Apple architecture would agree. The only other minor issue is somewhat minor but for me, a plan that allows me to store video (or allow me to store it in iCloud) without paying for monitoring would be perfect. In my case when the police are called they won’t come on my property because it is gated and locked. So, if abode ever calls them they will only do a dive by and if they do that more than once per year without finding evidence of a break in the charge me for a false alarm. Overall I would recommend the abode system.

I like your products overall and am very appreciative of the integration with HomeKit.

My issues are with customer service. It is arduous to connect with customer service at times. I have also had quite a few technical issue with product in the past.

It took a bit of time to get the everything running smoothly. A couple of the wifi connections were flaky at first. But after some updates, it’s all working great. The real plus is the automations. The auto away and home work beautifully! The 3rd party integration is sweet.

I purchased this system for the sole reason that it was functional without a monthly subscription. They’ve since hidden critical functionality behind a monthly paywall so that the system is worthless. In particular, the replacement of specific notifications with generic notifications make the system useless and actually make the system a net negative in your house. It doesn’t appear that this was done because of the extra cost of those features or because they represent an upgrade but rather to extort loyal customers into paying a monthly fee. The functionality without a monthly plan was Abode’s biggest selling point. They’ve now turned themselves into an irrelevant tenth best security company with a monthly plan. I refuse to pay this company another cent and will put up with the worthless notifications until I can justify spending the money to purchase a Ring or Nest system

Customer service response times were poor using the chat, extremely difficult to troubleshoot any issue. Spent nearly 3 hours in the chat, with response times of approx 10-15 minutes any time I sent a response wasn’t really able to accomplish anything. No phone option which is a bit ridiculous. When I returned the product it took more than a month to completely process the return, i had to reach out to customer service numerous times to process the return, i suspect the return would have taken even longer if I hadn’t. Again no phone option to speak to customer service, all via chat or email. I would never purchase again from this company.

I have never felt miss-sold by a product & service. It's shocking how poor the service is. Just call their support number. If you are lucky enough to get through to some (they only seem to have 1 person on the support centre) You will probably end up speaking to 'Lurch' the most unhelpful support person I have spoken to. It's unbelievable. I really don't understand how they have achieved their 5 star reviews?? The software is buggy, the hardware is ok, and support is non-existent. PLEASE DON'T BE FOOLED BY THIS COMPANY. SAVE YOUR MONEY.

Originally, abode offered free self monitoring . Without a plan you would get detailed push notifications when a sensor was tripped or an event (ie low battery) occurred. Now they require a paid plan for any notification details. Without purchasing a plan, the only message you will receive is that “an event has occurred in the abode system”. The following from their abode site states “ Every Abode customer has free access to immediate alerts and live video feeds. Upgrade to our Standard Plan for just 20-cents/day to get even more features.”. It does not mention that the alerts are of no value unless you pay for a monthly plan. Without a plan, there is no way to distinguish between a low battery or breakin. Abode used to provide a great alternative to simply safe, ring, and other solutions requiring a monthly fee, now they have lost that competitive advantage.

The camera connection process sucks! there's no way to get in to the camera to see if its connected or to see why? After over a month of working with customer service. it still wont connect. Even tried two new cameras. Still working with customer service but they want me to troubleshoot their issues. Ridiculous! the only reason I give it two stars is their door sensor systems works. Don't sell me a camera that doesn't work!

Bought the doorbell camera. Although it works for a little bit of time, it would suddenly stop without warning. The max battery life I got out of it was three days before going offline. I understand that it’s winter and the cold cuts battery life but I would expect more the three days. More testing is needed before releasing to the customer. This is the only product, and I have many, that did not meet expectations I switched back to the Ring camera.

I have received immediate response to my questions and any problems I have with my system. I appreciate the great work!

The ecosystem they’re selling over promises and under delivers. I chose it because it had a wide and affordable range of accessories and HomeKit support. With the exception of the most basic security system features, almost every aspect of the system is buggy and underwhelming.

They did not have a solution for water leak sensor but kept me informed and are working on a solution with a cord to put in pump pit.

System and customer support is very good. Disappointed that 3- and 7-day monitoring plans were discontinued, it was unique among your competitors.

I cannot count on this equipment. I have wasted hours trying to sync, connect, get the paid membership to recognize my account, get the devices to actually work. I'm so over it. I have dropped over $400 into something that has brought me no use

The Abode Cam 2 is absolute junk. The motion detect feature is horrible and if you don't pay for a monthly plan, they have a "cool down" period which won't record any motion for about a minute and a half if I detects and records motion which half the time doesn't record anything anyway. The cameras live feed time and date freezes and the picture goes from color to black and white and you have to power cycle the camera constantly to get it to start working again. Audio is also jumbled when you try to speak through the app or web to the camera. And it's not my network connection as I get 250 MBps down and 20 MBps up.
The app is glitchy and does not work half the time and freezes up. You can't view any recorded videos without it locking up.
The customer service is terrible. They blame you for their products not working stating it's your wifi or your router or you ISP. I am a computer consultant and verify that everything works properly on my end and there are no other problems with other devices working on the network. DO NOT BUY THEIR PRODUCTS UNLESS YOU LIKE THINGS THAT DON'T WORK.

I had an issue with the Gateway and Abode replace it right away.

- Syncing the iota required me to chat with you guys (twice).
- Door and windows syncing was very good and easy
- the door bell is a nightmare: it took me 2 hours and multiple reboot to have it sync. Battery life lasted less than a day in Canadian winter. You should offer me a full refund for it.
- lightbulbs I was never able to have them sync.
- push notifications are too vague: it should identify what components had been triggered.