While a glitch in a smart home product is by no means uncommon, Nest seems like it might have a pretty big problem in the form of a rash of delayed notifications to owners of its relatively new Nest Hello doorbell, a product that received no less than a 4.5-starred review here at Digital Trends.
Just on the Nest community forum alone, users have reported delayed notifications, outages, random disconnects, and false notifications, with one user referred to a line in the product’s terms and conditions that reads, “We cannot and do not guarantee that you will receive notifications within any given time, or at all.”
As first reported at Android Police, the company has officially acknowledged the problems on its forum, saying that it’s actively launching an investigation into the current state of affairs.
“We’re aware of the delay of some notifications, and we’re actively working on improvements to prevent delays,” wrote “Sheila D.,” a Nest Community Manager for the company’s forum. “In some cases, folks have expressed frustration with situations like a late notification resulting in a missed package or guest, and we’re in no way satisfied with those delays. We’re diligently working to bring about a resolution.”
While it works to resolve its technical problems, Nest will provide complimentary Nest Aware subscriptions (a cloud recording service that normally runs between $5 and $30 per month for subscribers) for every affected doorbell, and is reaching out to customers who have voiced complaints.
There are also a few clues to future developments in Nest’s forum post. The community manager nodded to requests for the notification cooldown period for Nest Hello to be adjustable by customers, not set by default. While Nest didn’t have anything to announce, they did acknowledge they are evaluating the request.
More concretely, Nest said that a feature that will allow customers to record both sides of a conversation between Nest Hello and a mobile device is actively in development and the company should have an update to announce in the coming months.
“Purchasing a premium product that fails to live up to expectations is a frustrating experience, and below our standards,” stated the company representative. “We can see where you’re coming from and we consider your feelings valid. Change and development takes time, and we hope that you’re willing to bear with us as we strive to make things right, and rebuild your trust.”
