Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I have had this DVR for 9 months. I have had to make 15 calls to customer service for this DVR to try to set up remote access from another computer when not at home. First, when you call Swann expect at minimum, a 20 minute hold time. On average 35 minutes and up to an hour and 10 minutes. (Often you will call and simply get disconnected from the call after punching "push 1 for tech support" ---- sudden disconnect - no message, nothing)
Each time I have called, depending on who I talk to, I'm given a different thing to "try". Often 1 Rep will reverse what the previous one told you to do. They are polite and friendly when you call (with 1 very notable exception - Kelvin), but nobody really seems to know how to fix a problem.
I have taken 6 trips in the past 9 months and before each trip I have tried to get the thing to work right by calling Swann. In the course of getting help over the phone, one step is to reboot the system - and this is the trick (it took me 9 months to figure this out on my own, surprise, surprise nobody at Swann told me about it) and that is what fixes it - not all the different things thy tell me to try... but rebooting it only fixes the problem for 2-48 hours. So... when I leave on my trip... check it the next day... I cannot get remote access. Of course, I could fix the problem... if I was home to reboot the DVR. (The problem is not my dynamic IP address updating - I've checked before and after I've left to see the IP address unchanged)
Let me give you of an example of a day dealing with Swann Tech Support - this was yesterday.
Call number #1 (40 minute wait)I got Kelvin on the phone - this is the one notable exception. He is extremely rude and condescending. Don't ask any questions because he will let you know how stupid you are and how smart he is. I explained to him that I finally figured out, not what the problem was, but what fixes it - rebooting the system. His "try" was a NEW, JUST RELEASED firmware update that would fix all my problems! I've heard similar 14 times before.
I said I'd try it though. He emailed me the firmware update - (for the wrong model DVR I found out after I opened the email). At the end of the call I asked for the number for management because I did want to say something about the long wait times. I know that never makes a difference, but I wanted to try anyway. He told me to tell him. I told him I wanted to speak to someone in management, not tech support about the long wait times. He told me he was a supervisor (turns out he's not), finally he gave me a number in the US.
Call #2 - I called Customer Service in the US and explained my situation regarding my problems not being able to ever get this thing working right to the woman who answers the phones, all the managers were on the busy - they were suppose to call back - That was yesterday, no calls back. She also left a message with Hugh, the real supervisor at Tech support in Australia, she said he would call back at 4:30pm yesterday... he never did.
Call #3 Back to tech support. (40 minute wait) I got Christan on the phone. I very polite nice guy, I explained my situation to him and he read in his notes that Kelvin suggested the firmware, so he said, "let's try the firmware update", he directed me to the correct firmware update at the Swann website and after 30 minutes we reached a step he was unsure about, he said Hugh knew the system better than he and I'd get a call back within the hour. That was 22 hours ago.
During my wait, I decided that I did not want to "try" the firmware "update". Since nobody told me "ahhh, I know what's wrong, this is your problem and this firmware fixes your issue" I realized this was just the latest thing to "try". I figured at least the DVR records now, it records while I'm away. I just can't check it until I get back.
I have no confidence at all that if we "tried" to update the firmware, I might have a much bigger problem which would lead me to having to replace the entire unit and have to probably wait a month to get the new one (only to have to call tech support again, more wait times, to set it up again... and my guess is I'd probably have the same problem anyway)
I just reached a point where I finally had to say to myself, I'm just wasting a tremendous amount of time on this and my confidence that whatever they tell me to try will not work.
I'm looking into other DVR manufactures now
UPDATE (24 hours after my post above)
I learned a few things over the last 24 hours.
1) Still no call back from Hugh at Swann
2) It turns out I have a friend of a friend who works for ADT. It's pretty telling when someone who installs security DVRs for a living hasn't even heard of a company named "Swann". He told me the brand the pros use but says they are very hard to buy unless you are in the business. I did find one that he recommended (4 channel) on Ebay for 700 dollars. I don't want to say the name of that brand because I don't want to seem like a rival salesman trying to smear the competition.
3) I also learned from a pretty good security cctv installer I called that the cheaper consumer DVRs like the Swann one I own do not have "intelligent" enough computers to handle all the "traffic" in the cable/dsl lines and fail ofter for this reason. He said the most stable systems for remote viewing are the PC based systems. It is possible to by a good (not a consumer one, one sold by higher end dealers) PC DVR card (4 channel for as cheap as 200 dollars. You just need to have at least a 2.8 processor and a non-integrated graphics card with at least 256 of memory. That makes a lot of sense to me and I may go that route.
4) I rebooted my system yesterday and just tried to access it from my laptop... it failed. Once again, it didn't even last 24 hours.
My only question left is does Swann know about this issue and just string customers along until they give up like I did? I guess i wont know the answer to that one since I wont be calling their tech support again.
Good Luck!
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