C'mon Amcrest, get it together!

[kicker0927]

Let me preface this message by saying I am new Amcrest owner. I am a newbie to surveillance for one simple reason. I have looked into surveillance for years and I have never felt it was "up to snuff" yet. I finally pulled the trigger on a new Amcrest 1080p ProHD wifi camera and received it about a week ago. I gotta say, it has been a pain in the arse so far. First, it took me about 3x to initially set it up. Trial and error, trial and error. The camera would work great while I was in the house, but then when I left it wouldn't connect...or it would work great one night and in the morning it wouldn't connect. I was unable to get it to connect via wifi so I was stuck running back and forth across the house hooking it up to the router and unhooking it. Every time I unhooked it from ethernet it would freeze. Of course its the weekend and there was no tech support to contact. Finally, I got the camera up and running 2 days ago and their P2P servers are down today. There are 20 different Amcrest apps and nothing I've read is very clear on which app to use for what purpose. Some apps are for DVR footage, some apps for wifi footage, some apps for older models/newer models, apps for online viewing, apps for mobile viewing. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!!!! YOU DON'T NEED SO MANY APPS. I had 4 apps installed on my laptop (none of which would allow me to sign in) and only one of which I was supposed to have, I think. I still can't sign in to amcrestview.com on my Macbook, because every time I try to it tells me I need to update an activex driver (which I've done probably 10x now). I tried to call tech support today and waited on hold for 20+ minutes before hanging up. And don't get me wrong, I'm excellent with computers and very tech savvy, but all the unnecessary apps are mind boggling. So I still cannot access my camera over my computer and now its the holidays. I'll let you know if my issue is resolved in about 14 days. I wanted to love this system so much! I wanted to possibly upgrade to a whole-house surveillance system by Amcrest, but honestly its been too frustrating to consider more equipment at this point.

[susan117]

I am 100% with you!! Same issues and same back-story leading up to the purchase. Not only am I totally fed up with the set up, the (lack of) usage, and the multitude of mysterious apps, but now I also have FOUR different passwords for all the site-related log-in's (1 to register on the main site, 1 to register on the cloud, 1 to register for the camera set up, and 1 for the forum! Ridiculous!)

This brand new camera worked on the iOS Amcrest View Pro app for about 12 hours, and I have since spent about 12 hours trying to get it to work again. (Correction, I have WASTED 12 hours.) I have used Windows, Mac OS, iOS (on different mobile devices), ethernet, wireless, P2P, etc. etc.. and to no avail. There are so many things wrong I don't even know where to begin.. but we could start with the fact that when you go to the Amcrest home page for support, the new devices aren't even listed as an option under "pick your device" (yes, you can scroll down and find the IP2M-841B, but the page SHOULD be updated to reflect that!)..

Next, STREAMLINE your apps - nobody needs that many apps for 1 service!! Also, do NOT give us a link to "download" such-and-such app without even writing a description so the user KNOWS what the app is for, it's device compatibility, it's product compatibility, etc. Not to point out the obvious, but isn't that basic app etiquette?!?!

As the post title suggests.. GET IT TOGETHER! Please!! I have 2 more cameras still sealed in the box (1 is for a Christmas gift, 1 is an additional camera for my home), however if these issues are not resolved ASAP, I will gladly return and invest that $300 else where.

[kicker0927]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels unnecessarily overwhelmed with BS from this purchase!

[Melvin]

Sorry to hear some of you are having trouble with our products. Amcrest has a wide range of products and hence the different apps that you see. We were experiencing an outage with our P2P servers causing “failed to connect” alerts on phones. This has been fixed now and it should work on the App. If you are still experiencing any issues, please power recycle the camera and try again and this should take care of the issue. Please feel free to contact our Support by Phone or email for technical assistance. There are times when the waiting period is high but we are working on this and this should not be a problem anymore.

[troubleshooting]

I'm in the same boat. New to IP cameras and needed something simple just to watch the house and alert me to intruders while I was away. Apparently, this is a very difficult task for developers. My Pro 1080P has been giving me very inconsistent performance. The View app for the iphone will not allow me to view saved video from when the camera captures it (if the camera is working at all). When I do get the camera to work, I have to use the cloud app to view any video that was captured during a motion event (if it's working). I had the system sort of working at one point. I used the View app to control the camera and somehow I was able to get it to send me alerts and record video to the cloud. To view the video, I had to switch to the Cloud app. That was at the beginning of the month. When I plugged in the camera to keep an eye on the house yesterday, all I could do is view the video through the View app. Nothing else worked.

[Newcam2015]

Totally agree, the cloud experience leaves a poor impression. Must have spent two hours trying to navigate through all those logins! I still can't visit amcrestview. Com on my Mac, installed the plugins for safari and Firefox at least ten times ! Notifications are not being sent since four hours, I went to my garage twice and it did not record anything.

Any other good wireless camera options Folks ? How is FLIR?

[connieogrady]

I am beyond frustrated with this product!!! Nothing works as it should. The App doesn't work, the wifi does not work and downloading ip config lead me to a corrupt file warning I have had it - I am just going to have to get another product - and trying to get help online was futile - and by phone.... Amcrest is enjoying their weekend while I have have spent all day on this vert unfriendly product.

This is the craziest purchase I have made - Oh, and the NVR does not work either..... JUST CRAZY

[Melvin]

Hello connieogrady ,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble with our product. Our hours of operation are;

8 AM - 7:30 PM CST Monday - Friday
9 AM - 5.30 PM CST On Weekends

Please give us a call if you are still facing issues.

https://amcrest.com/contacts

[tedp]

Sadly, these cameras seem to be plagued with software issues. I am wondering how authentic the Amazon reviews are given all the problems with the cameras.