(please note this post and review are now 4 years old and the post or comments aren’t monitored by Rogers. Please visit the Rogers website for updates on their services and offerings)
In December 2012, Rogers selected me to become a Rogers Smart Home Monitoring Blogger for a year. What does this mean? They set me up with a complete Rogers Home Monitoring system (more on that in a bit), to check out and review. Does it work for us? What did we like about it? What were we unsure about? (And anyone who attended Social Capital and heard Mary Pretotto speak knows that they do an awesome job with their blogger relationships and really do want to help and hear feedback).
I did an interview on the Rogers RedBoard blog about travelling and the alarm system. I had intended to write about the monitoring system early in the new year, and then time kept slipping away. However, the benefit of this is that I’ve now had the system for six months and have been able to really get to use it and see what’s working for us and what are areas that we would change.
So, here is a brief overview of our experience so far. I expect to do this again at the end of the year!
The Deets
We already had an alarm system. And that’s important to know because for us, using an alarm wasn’t new. We didn’t have a learning curve or comfort level about setting it or dealing with it. We’ve had a system in place since we built this home nearly 10 years ago.
Rogers supplied us with almost all the bells and whistles for the system. This included the outdoor camera (we had a choice to have up to two, but only needed the one), glass breaks, water alarm (set in the basement in case of flooding), carbon monoxide, temperature control, motion detectors and the door/window alarms. Phew, that’s a lot right?
In addition, we have a console that hosts the different functions on it so we can check to see what’s going off, the camera, the temperature – even the weather. It acts as a hub.
When out and about, or in our bedrooms or basement, we also have an App on our tablets and phones to be able to control and monitor our system. This has been really handy when travelling, but more on that later.
The first thing to note is that the installation time that is booked is set in a 3 hour window. Our set up took almost double that. So while the intentions are good, leave your day open to make sure it gets done right that day. In our case, because we had so much being installed, the time took longer than expected. We had some issues at first with the set up and getting everything to work – they have to do a test with the monitoring station and so on – so the day was a full one.
Having said that, each of the Rogers workers who were in and out of the house that day were super friendly and very professional. They kept me informed on the status and delays along the way, which I appreciated.
What’s Been Working
Most of my friends and family when they ask me about the system want to know one simple answer: Do we like it? I can summarize this post with this easy statement and spoiler alert: We are extremely happy with the system (I’ve been known to use the word love) AND will likely be purchasing a plan when my year of review is done. (Stay tuned in December for a final post to see what our final decision is!).
So what are we liking about it? I’ll start with the monitoring set up. It’s very similar to our old system – there’s a station that is monitoring our alarms, and when needed will send police to the home, if we don’t request otherwise. That for us hasn’t changed. However, here’s a big difference. Our false alarms are handled much more efficiently. When we forget to turn off the alarm and open up the patio door, setting it off, we can disarm instantly and rather than having to wait for the monitoring station to call and for us to report a false alarm, if we disarm it within a short amount of time, the monitoring station isn’t notified. Perfect.
Also, we get texts when the alarm goes off. And emails. We are constantly informed about what’s going on when something is set off. We are able to control who receives the texts/phone calls and so on via an online control panel that we can change and update information at any time.
The Camera
Yes, I’ve talked about the camera before on Twitter and Facebook because this may be my most FAVOURITE feature yet.
Why do I love this so much? Because when the doorbell rings I don’t want to answer it unless I know who it is. My old method of checking would be to run to the top floor of my town home, look out the window for a familiar car or delivery truck, then run back down if I wanted to answer.
Now, I simply check the camera from the console and decide if I’m opening it or not. I like this piece of mind a lot. This is the one thing I don’t want to give up.
The App
Oh yes, of course there’s an App as I briefly mentioned, and this thing is pretty awesome. We can arm the system from bed, or change the temperature when travelling. This means on our way home in the winter, after turning the temperature down a bit while away, we can warm the house up. When we first started using it, we found that the App temperature control was having trouble overriding our temperature programming, but that seems to have gotten better.
We can check the camera from the App and monitor any activity that may have happened. We even recently checked to make sure the water alarm didn’t go off after a huge rainfall in the area.
Bonuses
The system will track when the door is opened in the house, when the alarm is disarmed and so on. We do have the option to set up individual disarming codes for different people. For example, if the kids were older, family who are checking the house etc. We haven’t had to do that given the age of our kids and because Andy and I are the primary users for the account, but in the future, this opens up some opportunities. We could have even created a one time use, temporary code for the workers who were doing renovations in the winter, but I was home so it wasn’t an issue.
What hasn’t been turning our heads with awe
Naturally, not everything is perfect and while I will easily tell you about what I love about the system, I would be remiss if I didn’t give you the heads up about things that aren’t working for us.
Glass Breaks
Oh the glass breaks. We have two. One is set beside our patio door and the other in the basement. The intention is to set off the alarm (when armed) should someone try to break the class. This is especially useful in the basement. One of the breaks we had was a dud at first, so it had to be replaced. Before it was replaced, it was setting off by simply putting dishes away. It hasn’t been an issue since the problem one was replaced, although some sounds will still set it off like the opening of the ironing board if too loud or the kids’ drums.
We either bypass the glass breaks or make sure to shut off the alarm if we feel there is a concern.
The Little Things With Technology
The console and App are good, although the console does some weird things sometimes when it’s unplugged to be moved or something. There is a battery back up but it sometimes stops talking to the camera. This is rare, and maybe future models it won’t be an issue.
Sometimes the technology doesn’t talk to each other either. Changing the temperature on the main thermostat sometimes gets confused by programming versus the request on the console. Or the App has trouble overriding the programming.
When the batteries on the carbon monoxide detectors went they were angry. They beeped constantly to be changed, which is fine, but then we had to put each back in the right place (we found they weren’t interchangeable, again fine) and only then, when they still seemed to not be working, did we have to reset the console for them to be happy again.
These are just small things frankly, but things that can cause us stress when first getting used to a system.
(edited to add – I should add that Rogers all along has been very active in answering questions and concerns and sending technicians out to help us as we need it! As I mentioned, the service has been excellent.)
Overall
As I mentioned before, we are very happy with the Rogers Smart Home Monitoring System. I have always liked having an alarm system and this one just has enough extra features to make us want to renew our contract when our free trial period is over.
In addition, when you are a Rogers customer (as we are), you save on bundled packages, which we already are doing thanks to our cable, home phone and smart phone plans but our monitoring package that we choose (more on this when the time comes!) will also save us money. YAHOO!
A huge thank you to Rogers for working with me on this and giving me the chance to try out a system that we were already keeping our eyes on when it hit the market.
For more information, visit the Rogers website.
Do you currently have an alarm system? Would you consider getting one? My Fort Knox protected home aside, there are certainly benefits!
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Disclosure: Rogers has provided us with all of the Smart Home Monitoring equipment and a year’s worth of monitoring at no cost. All opinions and observations about the program are my own. When our review is complete, we will be deciding what monitoring to purchase and continue with based on packages offered at that time. Everyone’s experience may vary. This is not an endorsement or recommendation, just a review of our experience.
Rogers Smart Home Monitoring is a nightmare. We had the alarm installed on Saturday. On Sunday, at 1AM, the alarm went off. Even after we disarmed the system, the alarm continued to blast. We were told that the sound would time out after 2 minutest, but it lasted for 45 minutes. We called Rogers and after waiting for 15 minutes on hold, found out that no one was in the Smart Home Monitoring department to assist us. The “night guy” told us that no support was available from 12AM to 6AM. Wow, did we feel safe. Essentially, there was no one “monitoring” their Smart Home Monitoring system. To make a long story short, we unplugged the unit and removed the battery pack to no avail. The alarm continued to blast. The alaram was so loud that it woke up both of our neighbours – one couple has an infant and the other has a four year old. Finally, the alarm stopped for 10 minutes, only to start up again for another 30 minutes. It may have gone on for longer, but eventually, we and poor dog, couldn’t take it anymore. We had to vacate our home in the middle the night. Needless to say, our dog was more than distraught at this point. Our ears rang for hours. Rogers was not able to send a technician until 6PM that evening. Worst yet, they tried to charge us “cancellation” fees, despite the fact that we were on their “buyers remorse program”, which stipulates that we can’t be charged for a cancellation if we void the order within 15 days. Worst customer service on the planet. Currently, Rogers is still trying to charge us for their faulty equipment. If you are even thinking about getting a Rogers Smart Home Monitoring system, run a million miles in the other direction.
Hi Veronica
My name is Elise and I work with Rogers. Thank you for your feedback and osrry for your experience. We’ve already addressed your issue from another comment you left on another blog post, but let us know if you’re still having an issue and I’ll look into it. Thanks!
Elise
Why would anyone pay Rogers monthly fees (plus sign a contract) when you can many alarm companies can set you up with cameras you can monitor from your smartphone, as well as thermostat and lamp timers you can also monitor from your smart phone? Your monthly fees stay low and while you do pay an up front cost to install the camera, you have a vast selection and can truly customize if you work with your alar company. If your alarm co does not offer this service, it is simple to switch to one that does. It is not simple to switch from Rogers and, if they use your existing equipment, you might find you have a problem if you ever do get out of your Rogers contract. Do some research and skip Rogers. You do not need a music app on your security control pad.
Hi Mimi
Of course there are many other alarm system companies. Rogers Smart Home Monitoring is different in the sense that it offers home security and monitoring and smart home capabilities, all manageable either from your console at home or your smartphone.
It’s also a great solution for Rogers customers, as they already use our network. It’s one less company to deal with, and all your services integrated.
this is one of the most overrated, trouble prone and expensive security systems on the market. unfortunately i’m locked into a 3 year contract which i can’t wait to finish.
I would not recommend the service in its current state.
1. The app can take more than 60 seconds to load. Not ideal when you want to quickly change the temperature.
2. The thermostat doesn’t sync properly. Changing the temp on the console may or may not change the temp on the unit.
3. The smart door is very cool. I get email notifications when the nanny gets home (door open). Very much enjoy this feature.
4. The alarm monitoring in my experience was good. We had a false call and Rogers was prompt. So I think they are responsive on the monitoring side but people should report their experiences.
Overall: thermostat, bad. App, slow. Monitoring: okay.
Objective blogging? To be determined…
Thanks Dan for adding some insight for readers finding this post – We have the thermostat syncing well on the console so hopefully that’s not a common problem.
You do remind me that I should update this post since it’s almost been a year since I posted it and I have some areas that I still really like and some that I would be hoping for improvements on.
Hi David, if you are having issues, would you be able to get in touch with me via Twitter @RogersElise?
Or allow Rebecca (the owner of the blog) to release your email address to me?
I’d like to help if I can.
What was the verdict after the one year term? I am wondering also if the issues that the other posters had have now been resolved.
hi Kim! We have continued with the system. The per monthly cost I think is a bit more costly than others maybe (at least when we first looked into alternatives), but we still wanted to maintain this service and we get a lot included. We get all the coverage possible – If I could pick and choose the major coverage that we’d like rather than the super package I would prefer that, but having said that, I’m happy with the service and offerings. I use the console daily and the camera has been great. I haven’t had many technical difficulties. I find our carbon monoxide detectors go through batteries quickly, but we have an older model I think. Otherwise, we use the app often and love it.
Absolute junk services..!! would not recommend SHM to anyone, planning to terminate their services. No 24 x 7 monitoring is actually done, no one even realised the SHM wasn’t working..they claim it works on wi-fi and gsm..its far from real..
Hello Kv. I am very sorry for the service you’ve been having, and we absolutely need to fix this. I saw that you’ve also reached out on Twitter and someone on my team who can actually look into your issues, book a technical visit if needed, and more, will contact you shortly and look into it.
It was the best way for you to actually reach out on Twitter so that we can look into it as fast as possible.
Elise
I’ve had the service for just over a month. It’s great! I honestly don’t have any complaints. I do have a general question, are any notifications sent to the monitoring centre when I alarm the system? Or do they only get alerted if the system goes off?
Also can you confirm it’s in fact monitored 24/7, 365?
hi! For your specific system questions, it’s best to contact Rogers. I’m not sure all the details but we’ve definitely been happy with the service. Thanks for stopping by!
Just got the system. Can’t access camera from Web Control Centre. Get an error message saying the system is unable to establish camera connection. Advised Rogers and they still haven’t figured it out……Not overly impressed so far!!!!!
hi! Hopefully they can fix it – please note Rogers doesn’t monitor this post but it’s always good for others to hear about different experiences
My husband and I decided on Rogers Smart Home Monitoring 2 years ago and WE LOVE IT! It is extremly easy to use with our iPhone and Andriod phones, I can’t beleive how much technology like this has benefited our family. We can check up on the house anywhere in the world, set rules and times for appliances in our home and simply turn down our furnace without getting out of bed. We save money since I can turn on the A/C 15 mins before arriving to ensure the house is cool without running the A/C all day. I have a log of everytime my front door was open if I want to confirm the exact time I or anyone else left or came by. One night we had a carbon monixde leak from a crack of a back wall garage that I was alerted of immediatly via TEXT MESSAGE. Rogers also called me to let us know of the alert right away and I had the issue repaird before ever causing my family any harm. Every home is different so I would suggest to have a Rogers techician come to your home first to servey your property before making your dissuasion to get any home alarm system.