Excerpt:

I swear, if Ring doesn’t fix these buggy cameras soon, I’m about to toss this thing in the trash. Everything works except the one feature I actually need — the LIGHT. What’s the point of a “security camera” if it can’t even light up at night?

Let me just get this off my chest because I am so tired of Ring and their so-called “smart” devices that don’t even do the basics right. I’m not talking about the doorbell camera this time no, I’m talking about the standalone Ring camera that I mounted above my door outside. It’s got a solar panel, a fully charged battery, and everything hooked up the way it’s supposed to be. But for some reason, the light — the one thing that should automatically turn on when motion is detected refuses to work.

I’ve done everything a customer could possibly do: unplugged it, plugged it back in, reset it, restarted the app, updated the firmware you name it. The siren works, the camera records, the notifications come through, but that light stays off like it’s mad at me. And the worst part? When I try to manually turn it on through the Ring app, nothing happens. The button moves like it’s supposed to, but the light itself doesn’t even flicker.

I have a solar panel connected to keep it charged, and it’s showing full battery power, so don’t even tell me it’s a power issue. I’m honestly starting to think Ring just makes half-baked products that they push out fast to stay “relevant.” Because let’s be real this isn’t the first time they’ve disappointed me.

When I had the Ring doorbell camera, I ended up returning it after a few months because it was just as unreliable. The video quality was grainy, the delay in notifications made it useless, and trying to talk through it was like playing a bad game of telephone. You couldn’t hear the person on the other side clearly, and they couldn’t hear you. The connection constantly cut out, and it felt like the whole thing was running on dial-up internet from 1998.

Now, this outdoor camera which wasn’t cheap, by the way — is turning into the same kind of nightmare. It’s like Ring puts out these products that almost work but never quite get it right. You’ll get a notification five minutes after someone’s already walked away. You’ll go to check the live view and it just spins forever. And now, when I actually need the light feature for safety reasons, it’s completely useless.

I’m getting to the point where I’m seriously considering switching to Vivint, because I’ve heard their system actually works like it’s supposed to. People say you can clearly hear and talk to whoever’s outside, and their security cameras are way more reliable. Plus, Vivint’s customer support doesn’t seem to make you jump through a hundred hoops just to get a simple fix.

Ring really had potential I’ll give them that. The concept was great when it first came out. But now? It feels like they’ve gotten lazy. Their software updates seem to break more things than they fix, and every time you contact support, they walk you through the same “have you tried resetting it?” routine. Like yes, I’ve reset it five times, Susan that’s not the issue!

At this point, I’m done wasting my energy on this. When you’re investing in home security, you expect something reliable. You want peace of mind, not more stress. The whole reason I even got the camera was to feel safer at night. But now, instead of feeling secure, I’m standing outside in the dark waving at a camera that refuses to turn on its own light.

So yeah, Ring do better. Either fix your hardware, fix your software, or stop pretending to be the gold standard of home security when clearly, you’re not even close anymore. I’ll be looking into Vivint next week because at least they seem to understand what “reliable” actually means.