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VERY UNHAPPY CUSTOMER - TURN BACK ON YOUR TEXTING SERVICE

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    #1

    VERY UNHAPPY CUSTOMER - TURN BACK ON YOUR TEXTING SERVICE

    Yesterday, I discovered that my Insteon devices stopped sending me text messages. I troubleshot for a while and had to re-install the phone app to find out that the option for sending txt messages was gone.

    I use the texting option to help me ensure my kids are safe and it notifies me if a door opens and closes. This is the BEST option and ONLY reason why I still have the Insteon Hub. All other automation is done with the ISY in our house.

    I have tried to use the email option but it's significantly slower and MUCH MORE unreliable than your text service.

    When my door opens, I would get a text within 2 seconds of the door opening. i could easily check my cameras or call my house to talk with my kids or simply be comfortable that they are home safe. With the email option, the messages are delayed or I don't receive them at all.

    I live on a lake and if the door to the lake side opens, I know there could be a child outside. Again, this was MUCH more reliable than email.

    Also, on phones, if we use your service, the messages are all under one thread. With the email option, the emails all come from a different address/number and my text app fills up with tons of messages from different senders. Not nearly as nice or easy as it was from your texting service.

    PLEASE, PLEASE, turn the service back on. I've got over $1000+ invested in Insteon and this is one of my favorite options.

    If this is not going to be turned back on, please let me know how I can send my devices back to insteon for a refund so I can turn to another product.

    ###### PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH YOUR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TEAM #####

    I'm sure I'm not the only person that is unhappy. When I spoke with your tech support, they told me that they are getting many calls from unhappy customers.

    I hope you get the message and understand that this is service is very useful

    If you are a customer of Insteon and also use this service, please use this thread to voice your request to have this turned back on by replying to this thread.

    This is a big investment that was turned off by Insteon without any communication or notice from your company.

    Very Unhappy,

    EddieRock

    Keywords: Insteon Txt Service stopped working
    Last edited by EddieRock; 04-15-2015, 04:50 PM. Reason: Edited for verbiage
    Tags: None
    • Likes 2
    #2
    Ideally you should have created a POLL so those impacted could have their voice counted. Very few people have used the *Like* button as its intended so it gets lost pretty quickly.

    As a reminder, the TOS (Terms Of Service) you agreed upon when enrolling your HUB device clearly indicates services, features, etc will change at any time with out notice or consent.

    This is why any cloud dependant service are a terrible idea for the long term. Moving forward, you will need to balance what services are really mission critical vs nice to have.
    Teken . . .
    • Likes 1

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      #3
      TFitzpatri8, After searching for the email message, I found it, it was hidden in my inbox among all the spam. So, you were right about that. The push method should work but that requires me to have the insteon app on my phone. Right? I didn't need it any longer using the txt service. Now I guess I do...

      So, can we have multiple accounts on the hub or in our account? One for my wife, my kids and me? I really don't want them with the app on their phones that can change the insteon setup for our house. So, I guess, I'm asking if the push method works with multiple phones with the app on it...

      EddieRock

      Comment

        #4
        Originally posted by EddieRock View Post
        So, can we have multiple accounts on the hub or in our account? One for my wife, my kids and me? I really don't want them with the app on their phones that can change the insteon setup for our house.
        Great idea. I requested that here http://forum.insteon.com/forum/main-...0421-guest-app

        Add you support

        Message from Forum Admin: stusviews passed away in April 2018. Stu was a huge fan of Insteon and a huge presence on both the Smarthome and Insteon forums, helping thousands of us along the way (he had nearly 20,000 posts to his name). We thank him for his contributions, dedication, and passion for making the Smart Home a reality. He will truly be missed.
        Saving energy is not always free. Be a world saver.

        Comment

          #5
          If you still want SMS notification, all of the major cell providers have an e-mail to SMS bridge. With Verizon, it's [10digitphonenumber]@vtext.com, and there are similar for AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.

          Comment

            #6
            Here's a list.
            Message from Forum Admin: stusviews passed away in April 2018. Stu was a huge fan of Insteon and a huge presence on both the Smarthome and Insteon forums, helping thousands of us along the way (he had nearly 20,000 posts to his name). We thank him for his contributions, dedication, and passion for making the Smart Home a reality. He will truly be missed.
            Saving energy is not always free. Be a world saver.

            Comment

              #7
              I have wasted a lot of time trying to figure out why I wasnt getting text alerts from Insteon sensors ... then I came into this forum. To my dismay, though i should know better, we have another vendor that has decided to drop a feature and to hide behind "we sent you an email about it." Crappy.

              BTW, my experience thus far has been positive with Insteon (over X10) but this latest change in service level makes me wonder if I should invest heavily in Insteon. I tried to work with their API but it too is sloppy and poorly documented. Now routing emails to SMS is a hack-solution. The SMS notification via AT&T for example comes from a dynamic address making it impossible to add to contacts, as each text is from a "new" contact, so I cant set a proper text tone/sound to differentiate it. My wife is not too happy and of course is asking me why Insteon is doing all these things (like I know).

              INSTEON, please restore the SMS capability...

              Comment

                #8
                Two problems so far...

                Is there a way to keep the app from filling up my notification bar with all the Insteon messages? After the family leaves for the morning, there are 6-10 notifications I have to clear out. This "New" feature for "Push" notifications is causing me to swipe on my phone for every event.

                Also, I can't figure out how to make the event make sound. Currently, the push notifications end up with just a vibrate of the phone. The SMS TXTs had the same sound as my phone notifications.

                Please help...

                Screenshot_2015-04-15-19-30-32~2.jpg
                • Likes 2

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                  #9
                  The push notifications are not a good replacement for sms text. Before I could have a unique sound for my Insteon door sensors but this is not possible with push notifications. Also filling up the notification bar with many Insteon Icons is not as nice as text messages grouped together by sender. Also when I called the tech support person told me that I could not use the Verizon email to phone service, It doesn't work because you can't respond to the contact approval message sent out by Insteon because the length of the message is to long and get cut off. So even though they have a web page telling you that you can do that, they haven't done proper testing and it fails. Not very well thought out by Insteon and makes the door sensors worthless. I too have about $1000 invested in Insteon products. Needless to say I'm not happy.
                  • Likes 1

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                    #10
                    I received an email from Elliot @ Insteon support and he states there are no plans to restore SMS capability and push notification are the solution forward. I have replied with similar comment as Jerry - push notification sounds are deficient compared to sms, and email to sms, from AT&T, arrives as a new contact/address, making it impossible in current IOS to set up a distinctive ring tone for insteon.

                    This doesn't seem to have been user or market-tested before pulling the plug on SMS and gives me pause about Insteon customer support. I am reminded of HP doing these kinds of things with their products (touchpad, dreamscreen).

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Originally posted by TFitzpatri8
                      That said, it sounds like you are using the Hub as a safety notification device. I recommend *strongly* against this, as the Hub and door sensors designed for automation do not have the same low battery and supervision alerts that alarm sensors do. Having someone drown because of a low battery in a sensor or in your phone is a tragedy no one wants.
                      The risk of Insteon removing an alert feature from their product is much higher than me or family member forgetting to change batteries in the sensors. A combination of door and motion sensors providing redundant coverage strikes me as more than adequate for monitoring. If not, Insteon needs to change their product marketing.

                      What do others think? Do folks in this forum use Insteon for home monitoring and safety?
                      Last edited by jtashiro; 04-17-2015, 05:03 AM.

                      Comment

                        #12
                        The Insteon support web page dated April 8, 2015 with instructions on how to set up mobile phone number Email does not work. The text they send for confirmation is too long so it fails. The solution would be to put the confirmation link at the beginning of the message. But this shows they didn't try there own suggestion.

                        http://www.insteon.com/support-knowl...r-mobile-phone

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Yes, After losing the ability to use SMS/TXT, I also had to setup my wife to use email. I tried it as well and BOTH of the confirmation txt messages had broken URL's in them. Neither worked. Unfortunately, I can't copy/paste out of Android/Google's new sms messaging app. It was extremely difficult to get the confirmation URL to work.

                          A simple search for a open source URL shortener (which I use for another project) would fix this problem... http://yourls.org/ could be used to make it easy. Simply install on Insteon's to something like http://s.insteon.com/ would give the customers a better experience.

                          Both the URL's had hyphens in them that didn't work. Screenshot_2015-04-17-13-52-32.png

                          Comment

                            #14
                            The solution would be to receive Mobil Email Alerts.

                            The Insteon support web page dated April 8, 2015 with instructions on how to set up mobile phone number Email Alerts does not work. The problem is the automated confirmation text is too long and the link information is cut off. Verizon has a 140 character limit.

                            http://www.insteon.com/support-knowl...r-mobile-phone

                            The solution would be to put the confirmation link at the beginning of the confirmation message. That way it would come through, the unnecessary text would be cut off but that would not cause a problem. This should be a simple programming change by Insteon.

                            Looking forward to being able to use the Email to SMS for alerts. Hope they get there own suggestion working.

                            Comment

                              #15
                              I set-up everything to receive SMS alerts using email. I did received text message but there were missing content!
                              " We can't show some content in this message "
                              Is there any wat to try to resend confirmation link?
                              I'm using Windows Phone 8.1 and T-mobile network
                              You do not have permission to view this gallery.
                              This gallery has 1 photos.

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