Rounding out its portfolio of front-door security products earlier this month, August launched the August View, its first wireless video doorbell, earlier this month. It turns out that some users have been reporting issues regarding signal strength and reliability on wireless mesh networks, in particular, and as such August is pausing shipments on the View doorbell for further investigation. August isn’t yet divulging the specific issues that appear to be causing a less-than-stellar experience for some customers, but is citing general “performance challenges” that don’t meet up to expectations.
August is offering full refunds to customers who have purchased the unit, in addition to letting these same users keep their August View for free. This offer is available for the next seven days, so if you’ve purchased an August View and would like a refund, head on over to August’s feedback form. Users who haven’t activated their August View can also just return the unit to the place they purchased it from if they don’t wish to keep it.
This is an impressive goodwill gesture from a company that’s smaller than the Nests and NETGEARs of the world; companies that also have similar issues even with their own products as well.
The Arlo Ultra 4K wireless security camera also saw similar delays and setbacks, owing to an issue with the WiFi chips inside of these units. Whether or not August is facing the same kind of issue with the View remains to be seen, but August is stressing that they’re dedicated to working out the kinks in their product and delivering a solid experience that’s worthy of the August name.
We’ve reviewed August’s products in the past and loved them. Based on user feedback, it seems this is a common feeling toward the company and its products.
August is not discontinuing the August View doorbell, rather, it’s working on tweaking the product and delivering product updates in the near future, as well as resuming shipments once the bugs have been worked out. Similarly, our own review will be waiting until August’s final product is ready for showtime, and we plan to bring you the results of their work once it’s ready.
There are plenty of hypothesis for these issues, including the fact that the August View is a completely wireless product and could possibly have issues with low power states and the availability of wireless signals in mesh networks. As a rule of thumb, a mesh network is far more complex than a standard wireless network, as it’s made up of several wireless access points, all of which work together to bring your devices the best possible signal strength throughout your home.
While these mesh networks can be miracle workers for larger or more complex homes, they can often cause havoc for certain products if there’s some sort of incompatibility. Several technologies are required to make these networks sing their best, and it’s likely that August’s issue with the View is a software-related issue that can be solved with updates, just as the Arlo Ultra’s issues were.