Comments on: Piper Security Review

By: Taffeta Lace

Taffeta Lace — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 16:40:45 +0000

I bought this camera a few years ago to check in on my dogs (and their walker) while I was at work. It was OK — setting it up was quite annoying, and I wish it were smarter so it could detect the difference between my dogs moving around and a person entering a room.

I actually needed it for home security for some upcoming construction work on my home, and the stupid thing DIED. At first I thought it was the spare batteries — even though it was plugged in. Well, at least now I can upgrade to a much better camera, as I would NOT buy this camera again.

By: mike casey

mike casey — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 16:38:50 +0000

As a long term user and early adopter of this product, I can say that there are a lot of issues with these units. I have been using a pair for over 4 years. When they work, they are wonderful, when they don’t work (which is often) they can cause a real headache. Installed at your primary residence helps as they need to be manually rebooted often. I have my units at a cabin hours away. I have had issues with reliability since day one. After 3.5yrs of support through email, they have finally come to the conclusion that they are not compatible with Satellite internet due to the high latency. Unfortunately now that its past the 90day period since purchase, they will not take the units back even thought it took over 3.5 years to diagnose the issue. When the units go offline, they are unusable. For instance, if you have the piper set to turn on lights or external siren when it detects motion, it will do so, but if the unit does this and has lost connection with the network, you are unable to shut anything off, which results in a trip to the location to unplug the units, remove batteries and reset. I have had times where an external siren was on for over a week because I was unable to get to the location. What is almost worst is that the units are unusable even when you get to the location and get on the same network. Piper units NEED to be on the internet to function at all. End of the day, interesting product, but definitely not a security device. I have been reviewing many other products over the years and this is by far the least reliable. Save your money and invest in Arlo or abode.

By: RFL

RFL — Sat, 04 May 2019 23:08:25 +0000

In reply to Jack Ludlow.

This is a huge problem, I wish they would fix it, everything else is just fine for me.

By: David Johnson

David Johnson — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 02:51:01 +0000

Piper sucks. I just need to video monitor my dog pens. One inside and one outside.I lose connection and then spend hours trying to reestablish connection. I can get one to work but can get a second camera to work is impossible. Don’t try to call in because their voice recording says there are too many callers. I can’t imagine why. Such a waste of time and money. This is going into the trash.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 22:46:23 +0000

I don’t think this is worth the purchase, no night vision and it doesn’t call the authorities! These are big features that I consider important so maybe it’s worth it for others but my personal take is it’s something I would not utilize. I can see some reviews here sharing their bad experience, so yeah. It’s a no from me.

By: Skip Middleton

Skip Middleton — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 18:43:12 +0000

Totally agree – customer service is either just weak enough or smart enough to keep you working until the warranty runs out – I bought 3 units during their fundraising and used one in my office – then finally plugged in the other two at home, NONE worked – Just take a match and light $300 and you’ll get more satisfaction – this company is WEAK and the product is POOR – and their Customer Service SUCKS.

By: Jaycee

Jaycee — Thu, 24 May 2018 18:37:24 +0000

Piper will be irrelevant soon enough. Came in with hype with their fundraising but there’s no benefits in going with this low quality cam over a monitored system. If you are trying to cut costs then go with the SmartThings (or any DIY monitored system) but don’t count on this ‘all in one’ magic camera working as it’s hyped up to be. Not to mention you need to buy 5 to cover a home which comes out to be $1000, more than most monitored companies.

By: Jack Ludlow

Jack Ludlow — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 18:28:52 +0000

Piper is a waste of money – Have 3 piper cameras in my vacation home. On a power and/or network glitch, the camera loses its connection and gets stuck in a yellow blinking light state and does not automatically recover. It needs to be manually powered cycle by removing the batteries and unplugging the power cord before in order to bring it back up to the working state. The bug has been around for a while but the company is not interested in fixing it.

By: Jerry DuVall

Jerry DuVall — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 20:05:04 +0000

I bought thr Piper and it worked for a week or two. Cannot get them to replace it. You could say I just wasted $200 and back to looking for the right alternative.

By: Jonathan Wogan

Jonathan Wogan — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 03:35:51 +0000

I bought 4 Piper units in January last year. I started using them in April or May of last year. The first unit stopped working towards the end of last year and now 3 of the 4 units have all stopped working. They will work on battery power only but will not work via the power cords. From my experience, the shelf life of the hardware is from 9-16 months. That’s far from acceptable when the warranty is only 12 months. I would strongly advise not to buy these until they offer a longer warranty.