Well, there are a lot of comments there. To
the people with no problems great!
To the people with few problems and say that
“its expected, because of generic or
inexpensive equipment” sorry but thats bull.
As the pricing is very attractive, if the
equipment does NOT perform as promised then
the price is completely irrelevant and
nothing more then a “yesman’s” way of putting
up with things. Don’t settle for things just
because that’s the way they are, be a
visionary and think of how things could be or
at the very least should be.
As many of you, I was very excited with my
purchase of $650, found the site to be a bit
tough to navigate, and forums even harder to
find until after the purchase. Once I
promptly received my order I decided to
connect everything to ensure functionality
prior to a lengthy install. To my dismay, the
quality was poor on the “vanguard” camera.
Since quality is often relative to price, I
figured it was my own darn fault for spending
so little on it ($500ish).
As for the software and integration with the
camera(s) is where I have a real gripe.
Since I did NOT need a vanguard camera at
all, the only reason it was purchased was for
the vanguard software. The camera itself
would not consistently zoom/pan/tilt. Also,
some computers saw the web interface as an
invalid or corrupt active-x add on. (regards
to the
http://gate.x10.com/ page) The
programs resources and networking usage
proved to be a hog for both. With pretty up
to date computer systems, the software still
found a few hurdles to just run and not spit
out dll errors.
After some time on the phone with a tech, I
was told “I have other calls to get to.. so I
have to let you go” I then said “um, ok, fine
I will just return all of this” and to be
honest this was not a way to keep my sale. I
truly wanted this thing to work, I was
willing to put up with the poor quality, and
the resource hog of a program, if only I
could get the thing to “function” as
described. The tech indicated they never saw
the problems I was describing before. For a
company so old that’s frustrating.
In the end I am now waiting what I was told
could be a good 30 days for a refund all
because the tech did not want to take the
time to help troubleshoot. I do not need help
installing equipment, merely running THEIR
software. Which yes, is their responsibility
to ensure functions as described. Without
zoom/pan/tilt the bulk of my order (about
$500) was useless, and I could of just
purchased the other cameras separately.
For the person below that mentioned “toy” or
“hobby” type of equipment. That is totally
right! But my suggestion would be to not
spend the money for these toys as you can
easily find much cheaper toys out there that
actually function. And to finish up about the
“price” comment being so cheap and what would
a customer expect when they didn’t spend $20k
I say that, you don’t need to spend that much
either, and when money doesn’t matter and you
contact x10 for some REAL advice about what
to order, these problems should be mentioned
or the product line not even offered, because
as a customer EVERYONE expects their purchase
to function as described. For me to buy a
system with a camera worth $500 that I
wouldn’t even use I think that shows just how
much the money didn’t matter in my case.
NoTaReTuRnInGcUsT