Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This device has been made essentially impossible to set up for elderly parents. Here’s the deal: 1) A smartphone or tablet is required to set up this device. Why? I dunno. That’s completely inane. It IS a tablet. Anywho... 2) Your ELDERLY PARENTS don’t have a smartphone or tablet. No worries. You use yours. Log out of Alexa on your phone, then log back in with the new Alexa account you create for your parents. 3) Whoops! Alexa just imported WITHOUT ASKING all of YOUR CONTACTS to YOUR PARENTS’ ALEXA. No worries, you say? How will your elderly parents handle it when they try to call you and they get Alexa saying, “Did you mean AAA Roadside Assistance?” or “Calling the pizza shop near your kid’s house!” Not well, I’m guessing. 4) No worries — just go undo that setting, right? NOPE. It’s IRREVOCABLE. Those contacts will now be on that Alexa account FOREVER. Apparently, you should have taken away the iOS Contacts permission from the Alexa app (which, AGAIN, doesn’t ASK if you want the contacts imported!). But you forgot. And it won’t take those contacts away for anything. You’re sunk. And if you DO remove the permission, you’ll endlessly get a dialog telling you to turn it on! (See the picture.) In short: this device is fine if it’s for you and you’re in the Amazon ecosystem already. But if you’re trying like so many to have a simple voice-activated device to stay in video contact with non-techie parents — this isn’t it. I mean, it COULD have been, that’s what’s so frustrating. But the software is SO poor, the support SO poor, the appreciation of what this device could actually be is SO poor.... it’s just astounding.