Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

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3,713
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #793 most helpful out of 571,544,897 reviews
★☆☆☆☆
Worked well for ~2 months
I bought 4 of these light switches about a month after they were released. I had been adding motion detector lights, dusk-to-dawn lights, etc., to both improve energy efficiency and safety in my house. My purchase was designed to move further toward both of these issues, along with a new Kwikset lock and some security cameras. Installation was relatively simple, even for someone who is not an electrician. As long as you have the proper wires and follow instructions, as other reviewers have mentioned, installation should not be too difficult (check before ordering though). Connecting to the WiFi was also not difficult for me. I have a Linksys router in the basement with a Linksys range extender upstairs and WeMo did not have any problems connecting when I followed instructions. The initial firmware update took quite a long time and the initial iPhone app version that I downloaded was *very* slow to detect the switches each time I loaded the app, but they seem to have fixed the latter issue. Once it was all setup, I LOVED it. I used IFTTT to automatically make sure lights were turned off at night and on in the morning, among other things. I really like the look of them and changed out many of my fan switches and other switches to the decorator-style to make it look even nicer. Really, really like the look of them, although I could see it not fitting as well in certain instances (I am definitely not an interior decorator). I do wish that these would work with 3-way lights (where you have two light switches that control the same light) or as dimmers, but unfortunately they don't. Here's the problem: two days ago, the power to the router went out for about 30 seconds, then turned back on. The internet and WiFi loaded fine and all of my devices worked fine - except two of the 4 light switches could no longer connect to WiFi! They would both just blink orange non-stop. I tried all of their support instructions on their website, which was minimal, and included resetting and restarting the device. Of course, now one of the switches started blinking green and I could no longer even turn the lights on manually. So I caved and called their support number (difficult to find, but calling the corporate headquarters 800-number routed me to support). Here is where it got really frustrating because, among other things, the person on the line spoke very poor English. It took about 35 minutes to get through the initial questions around model number, what lights were blinking, when I purchased the product, etc. In between each question, she would tell me to "hold on a second" and mute her line, before often (at least 10 times, no exaggeration) returning and asking me a question I had already answered. Multiple times, she forgot to mute her line and I heard her joking with her friends. But, OK, I only hold Belkin partially accountable for that. After over an hour, and having me try everything I already tried, she finally said she would send me a new one. For now, I have two switches that cannot connect to WiFi and one that cannot even turn the lights on. It is simply not worth all of this hassle just to be able to remotely turn some lights on and off. To make it worse: they only provide (poor) customer service for free for 90 days! After that, you have to pay to talk to someone. Luckily (unluckily?), mine broke after 60 days so I could get someone on the phone. I really wanted to like the product, and I would have if there was some quality control or better customer support, but unfortunately for me it didn't work out.
November 2013 · Tools and Home Improvement · verified purchase
the product in question
Wemo F7C030fc Light Switch, WiFi enabled, Works with Alexa and the Google Assistant
4.1★ · 5,558 ratings, as of 2023
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