HST Support is Great!

[kesterf]

It's clear a few HS users are very frustrated with HS support. I rarely contact support and rather rely heavily on the many, many knowledgeable HS users on this forum to help with my system issues. Yesterday one of my Z-Nets quit working. I searched the HS forums a bit and tried a few troubleshooting ideas to no avail. So yesterday afternoon at 5:06 PM, I created a service desk ticket. They system immediately sent me an email confirming the ticket. Today at 10:53 AM HS Support responded back, stating that it appeared my Z-Net was corrupted. They provided very clear instructions on how to reimage the SD card.

The also offered to send me a new SD card if I was unable to reimage the card.

I opened the Z-Net Case, pulled the SD card, reimaged it per their instructions, and I'm back in business all within about 4 business hours. I couldn't be happier with HS Support!

Forrest

[macromark]

It's clear a few HS users are very frustrated with HS support. I rarely contact support and rather rely heavily on the many, many knowledgeable HS users on this forum to help with my system issues. Yesterday one of my Z-Nets quit working. I searched the HS forums a bit and tried a few troubleshooting ideas to no avail. So yesterday afternoon at 5:06 PM, I created a service desk ticket. They system immediately sent me an email confirming the ticket. Today at 10:53 AM HS Support responded back, stating that it appeared my Z-Net was corrupted. They provided very clear instructions on how to reimage the SD card.

The also offered to send me a new SD card if I was unable to reimage the card.

I opened the Z-Net Case, pulled the SD card, reimaged it per their instructions, and I'm back in business all within about 4 business hours. I couldn't be happier with HS Support!

Forrest

Thanks for posting this 👍

I'm glad you were able to get a resolution so quickly.

[goldriver]

Agree, I had a issue with the Node-Red integration 2 day's ago. I also placed a ticket at 21:00 and the next morning the issue was fix and a Node-Red integration package was available before 12:00 !

[Eman]

While not trying to frustrate or sugar-cote anyone, I haven't asked support in as many years but used the forums to search for anything which comes to mind. For example in your case, a short statement (Faulty ZNET HomeSeer :Just add HomeSeer to your topic) in Google yields this : https://www.google.com/search?client...+ZNET+HomeSeer Do you notice something .................? A lot of questions similar to yours have been asked before the many years HomeSeer has been around

• While it frustrates the inquirer so does the people who have to answer the same question over and over again
• No I don't work for them or excuse their explanation for not jumping in any time a lot here would want them to .............but there you go!
• I and others have tried to help others who don't know how to search the HomeSeer database for the FAQs but sometimes got scolded for "the not so on topic" right answer!
• Again, just search Google first before you take it out on anyone.....but also just look around you and the world over to see what's happening to mankind.....
• Need we say more?............

So to end up on a good note.......Please enjoy automation and everyday learn new things (Search Google). That reduces the stress.......But then again if you have the Kids and the Wife screaming at you .......that it's your tern to take the dog out! Please stop! Stop and think again.........or even better lock yourself in the Man Cave


Eman.

[mulu]

I am glad you guys are getting responses and even fixes within less than a day. I have to admit that in the past I did have a few requests and they were usually addressed pretty quickly.

In any case, I submitted an email more than 10 days ago. Apparently it wasn't automatically converted to a case so I didn't get a response. That's not good but I let that slide. Then somebody on the forum told me to submit a ticket (I knew about the ticket system but thought it was only for bugs and feature requests). So I did submit a ticket 5 days ago. A couple days ago I responded to somebody else with a similar experience and we were told a) you can get a refund b) write to the Rick. I didn't really want to write to Rick but since it was suggested by an employee I did so. No response yet.

There was no response to the original ticket either until macromark asked somebody to check. I think somebody might actually have tried to look at my system yesterday. Unfortunately, in a bad coincidence, my system was down for some time yesterday probably due to a major Windows updated (bootup was slow, even after bootup the system was VERY unresponsive for a long time and afterwards my Start menu was modified which is why I think it was a Windows update). So maybe HS did check during that time, hence I can't blame them for yesterday. But it seems nobody tried today.

Fact is, that for 3 days nobody responded to my ESCALATED ticket. Also it took the help of Mark (which I appreciate a lot) to have somebody else than Matt look at my ticket. And it seems today nobody checked, either. I start to think that either

a) HS put me on some black list (I doubt that's the case)
b) HS prefers to handle simple cases rather than somebody who lost all events and more than half of the devices so the entire system is down. Maybe the hope is that if somebody has a system that is completely down that person will just start from scratch again while somebody who just has a smaller but still significant issue will keep on bugging them.

[Guest]

I would opt for b

[kriz83]

I have to chime in here. The few times I had the need to contact support, replies where very very swift.

Response to pull requests and bug reports is another matter though.

• While it frustrates the inquirer so does the people who have to answer the same question over and over again

One could argue that more should be done to prevent the issue, so no tickets need to be created. Rather than having to respond to similar issues all the time (which I know is very boring), the issue should be fixed so it will never happend again. The best ticket, is the one that was prevented by development.

The cost of software bugs (or lack of sw quality principles) is often underestimated. And I think that is something we are seeing here: support is getting overrun because not enough thought went in to the design and development process (e.g. we have not seen data corruptions on HS3 with the database backend).

On a side note: could you limit the use of ................? I get what one dot (.) and 3 dots (...) mean, though the meaning of 10 dots is unclear to me :-)

[mulu]

<snip>[/LIST]So to end up on a good note.......Please enjoy automation and everyday learn new things (Search Google). That reduces the stress.......But then again if you have the Kids and the Wife screaming at you .......<snip>

There is MY frustration that the entire system is down for almost 2 weeks now with no help from HS. Already before I had to endure the mockery of my wife (and others) that things didn't work quite right yet (though some were also rather impressed). My wife also complained about the amount of time I spend with HS. Now that nothing is working anymore it just became so much worse. It took some time to get the family to appreciate home automation but that went down the drain very quickly after HS went down and especially for the amount of time it is down now. The wall mounted tablets are down and Alexa doesn't respond to anything. VERY FRUSTRATING!

[Eman]

This :

@kriz83,

On a side note: could you limit the use of ................? I get what one dot (.) and 3 dots (...) mean, though the meaning of 10 dots is unclear to me :-)

I like like a lot and own it. Although this is not a spelling and grammar contest but I use a lot not to annoy but stop people for long periods of time from skip reading my posts but think again before they attack me but there you go!

I commend you for pointing that out. And noted!

Eman.

[Eman]

mulu ,

On many occasions I have offered to show you that there are so many ways to make HomeSeer work for you but you have pushed back vigorously that you didn't want to man so many systems, but here you go :

• Although HomeSeer was designed for Windows, it runs well on Linux and Docker ( once installed correctly) I commend this post #6 https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...93#post1434893 for the The Post Of The Year (works a treat!) The beauty of it is you can save your good working container settings in a safe place for the rainy day and up and running in no time. And save new ones as you add new stuff. The problem with Windows 10 and it's updates break things and people often times jump to conclusions that it's HomeSeer's fault. Believe me I use it as a desktop and have seen blue screens in the middle of doing something! Especially the recent updates block anything (I mean even the ones you are trying to use normally). So you have to keep going into the action centre to allow this and allow that!
• Now we all know that there isn't a HS4 Z wave plug-in yet...but people forget and go ahead and use the HS3 plug-in. Although it appears to work, it's the one that breaks HomeSeer from time to time. And that too has had many updates over the years and never seem to work perfectly. Some of my HS3 plug-ins stopped working and the devs don't seem to want to fix them for HS4
• Now this...am not going to repeat to you to have amazing automation for your family and will only cost you only $40 for the price of a Raspberry PI and here goes : Download and install ioBroker on it then you will be off to the happy hours of hell no!..what have I been missing? It's German but was designed so well that you just # sudo raspi-config to change locality and turn off the German. It has Node-RED as one of the plug-ins so add the HomeSeer Nodes.
• The combination of these two system is like a marriage made in heaven! Node-RED is the chain link and HomeSeer is the Event Engine then ioBroker as the Data provider

If you need hand holding we will be here

A small note though, Blade's plug-ins seem to work in HS4 but I may be wrong (I don't have many)

Eman

[Eman]

And for HST, I suggested this : https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...the-status-quo a while back. So if you take into account my previous post #10 to mulu you would well see that data corruption may not occur in HS4 due to incompatible HS3 plug-ins while you perfect HS4


Eman.

[ewkearns]

I don't quite grasp any reason or justification for this, nor do I really understand the mechanics of much of what you suggest.

Although HomeSeer was designed for Windows, it runs well on Linux and Docker ( once installed correctly)

HomeSeer being designed for Windows, should operate properly under Windows. Otherwise, "designed for" has no meaning. I doubt that HomeSeer is going to offer any substantive support for a hybrid system that they don't recommenced and/or have in house. Your "warranty' is void.

The beauty of it is you can save your good working container settings in a safe place for the rainy day and up and running in no time. And save new ones as you add new stuff. The problem with Windows 10 and it's updates break things and people often times jump to conclusions that it's HomeSeer's fault.

This sounds great, if you have the desire and expertise for (yet) another workaround. I don't have any other programs that break with updates, only HomeSeer and I can't tell you how long it has been since I have seen a BSD, Windows ME, maybe. But then I'm running one OS with one program and with no VMs or other contributing issues.

Especially the recent updates block anything (I mean even the ones you are trying to use normally). So you have to keep going into the action centre to allow this and allow that!

I haven't had any issues with that since HS3 was less than 2 years old and then, ONLY on the computer running HS3. Deja vu all over again, methinks.

Now we all know that there isn't a HS4 Z wave plug-in yet...but people forget and go ahead and use the HS3 plug-in.

What is it that they "forget?" Users and Developers, alike, were TOLD by HST that HS3 PIs would run flawlessly under HS4.

Some of my HS3 plug-ins stopped working and the devs don't seem to want to fix them for HS4

How do you fix something that isn't (according to HST) broken. The onus is on HST to fix the broken HS3 PIs because HST broke them, not the developers! Again, the Developers and Users, both, were told that they were good to go.

...amazing automation for your family and will only cost you only $40 for the price of a Raspberry PI and here goes : Download and install ioBroker ...

This sounds like an amazing tinker project, for those that want to play. I don't think, though, that the average user should have to (or would want to) install two automation platforms, learn Linux, and buy superfluous ancillary hardware just to get the one paid program to perform the function(s) for which it is advertised and intended.

[mulu]

Eman Yes, indeed, I don't want to run HS in Linux or on Docker

• I only know the basics of Linux. So I don't to have to learn another OS, put another box somewhere that I need to maintain, etc.
• I am not sure HS even officially supports your homegrown Linux solution, only their own hardware solution based on Linux.
• Based on inputs on this forum HS does not support HS on Docker.
• How shall we use z-wave devices on HS4 without using the HS3 plugin? The HS4 version still doesn't exist yet...
• I haven't seen a blue screen for a long time. In general Windows works pretty well.

The most important point is that you totally getting off topic. This thread is about "HS Support Is Great" and I simply posted another perspective to the same topic. Your attacks on me are totally misguided.

[ewkearns]

Eman Your attacks on me are totally misguided.

I did not attack you in any way and I'm sorry you feel that way. If a particular method works for you to get HS to work, that's fine. I did contrast your "patience of Job" with the expectations of the average user. Clearly, your level of expertise and knowledge put you in a category far above the average user. (Bear in mind, HST has gone on record in the past that the average user doesn't even post here.) I did point out that HS Support is most likely nonexistent on hybrid systems.

FWIW, if you care to search, you will see that I have given credit where credit was due and lauded HST's support in getting back to me extremely quickly, even over a Sunday, which I thought was more than exceptional.

However, one reading the forums can't miss the fact that a lot of people are not getting that level of service. Personally, I'm troubled by HST's recent attitude, which is a million miles from the good service I have received from them in the past.

There doesn't seem to be an answer or even a consensus.

[Eman]

You guys must understand that am not bashing anyone in any shape or form if at all you read my first post at #4 and understood it. When I come to the table I approach with skills (interpersonal) that try to engage everyone but not antagonize

• The reason I advise on work-rounds is at least to reduce the stress and also show the other side what could be and it's free. But not bash them around because no one knows what's going on in their lives especially in this current situation. So I give them half a chance to engage but they usually run away after a post or two. But this can be something only they can explain.
• I don't even bother to ask any questions but the way I have learned how to do stuff is to read threads of interest and thus the trick I mentioned above of the FAQs
• The dev. enigmatheatre is the only star who has offered me help when I have thrown a tantrum and kudos to him.
• Am not even any good at Linux but just follow the instructions. For as long as you don't stray off in the terminal and do what you have not been told to do, all is well and there are even a lot of short videos on YouTube to show you everything all the way to anything you want to know about Linux.
• Docker is even the easiest when using a GUI Like in Synology. So HomeSeer not supporting it is not an issue. When you have a HomeSeer container it behaves just like any other install but one advantage of saving a good working install should things get stuck. Docker containers run a bit similar to Android apps. They run in their own user space so one container can't break another. I would suggest one to try it out as a backup test system before one affirms to production. You can create any number you like depending on the power of your system

Let me leave it there for "they" have responsibility to answer the business questions because like I said, I don't take a cut so why should I bother?
Your concerns don't go without notice (may explain the reason why the gurus hardly ever appear in the forums)

But if you like one's work like Michael McSharry just give him a shout with a PM and see that he helps everyone. But for HST...Please unless you explain why you also may be unhappy with your customers then...


Eman.