Selling Cameras & Not supporting them??

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greeman
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2017 2:19 pm

Selling Cameras & Not supporting them??

Post by greeman »

I have an IP3M-943 on my front porch and just purchased one for my back porch. I also have 5 IP2M-841 Amcrest cameras throughout my house. I recently updated the firmware for my IP2M-841s so I could use them with modern browsers on my computer. I inquired about the firmware on the IP3M-943 (just purchased this week) and was basically told that it was discontinued and would not be supported. I now cannot use all of my cameras with the same browser. The 943 will only work with the discontinued explorer browser. It just doesn't seem right to me for a company to continue to sell a product they do not plan to support? RE:

Re: IP3M-943 James.S 2019-08-12T14:02:04-06:00
"
IF a device is discontinued this means for us that we will not be making more and or likely not providing new firmware for this model.

We will still likely have many of new devices and will continue to sell them as there is nothing wrong with the device. We discontinue when we bring out ner versions or if the product did not sell or had many issues."
James.S

Re: Selling Cameras & Not supporting them??

Post by James.S »

greeman wrote: Tue Aug 13, 2019 10:02 am I have an IP3M-943 on my front porch and just purchased one for my back porch. I also have 5 IP2M-841 Amcrest cameras throughout my house. I recently updated the firmware for my IP2M-841s so I could use them with modern browsers on my computer. I inquired about the firmware on the IP3M-943 (just purchased this week) and was basically told that it was discontinued and would not be supported. I now cannot use all of my cameras with the same browser. The 943 will only work with the discontinued explorer browser. It just doesn't seem right to me for a company to continue to sell a product they do not plan to support? RE:

Re: IP3M-943 James.S 2019-08-12T14:02:04-06:00
"
IF a device is discontinued this means for us that we will not be making more and or likely not providing new firmware for this model.

We will still likely have many of new devices and will continue to sell them as there is nothing wrong with the device. We discontinue when we bring out ner versions or if the product did not sell or had many issues."
Yes, the product is discontinued in terms of us ordering more and firmware updates but regardless we will still offer lifetime support. If there is an issue with the product we will work with you to resolve the issue.


All of our products come with unlimited lifetime support.
greeman
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2017 2:19 pm

Re: Selling Cameras & Not supporting them??

Post by greeman »

The issue is that I am unable to use this camera (IP3M-943) on my browser (Chrome) along with my other 5 cameras (IP2M-841). Nor can I use my IP2M-841s on the same browser (explorer) as my IPM-943, since I have upgraded the firmware. It doesn't seem fair that cameras that were once compatible with each other now are not (and it will no longer be an issue with Amcrest). Maybe it is normal business practice, but it doesn't bode well for the customer. I'll stop here.
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Revo2Maxx
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Joined: Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:05 pm

Re: Selling Cameras & Not supporting them??

Post by Revo2Maxx »

Hello. I am not sure as I don't have any cameras on FW update of the new type... However I wonder if you run into the issue with your cameras adding them to the ASP Amcrest Surveillance Pro. You can find the DL to the program here....
https://support.amcrest.com/hc/en-us/ar ... llance-Pro

Just an Idea as I don't know what happens with Multi Cams after Update... Maybe that will help
Be Safe.
otyg
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Aug 23, 2019 4:10 pm

Re: Selling Cameras & Not supporting them??

Post by otyg »

lol I also recently purchased a 943 camera from amazon (still expensive $69) to find out firmware was last updated in 2017, what a load of crock "Simple, Reliable, Secure" - yeah right , you are telling me a camera from 2017 is "Secure"?

On the main website it's not even listed under Discontinued, which means it should still be supported and updated.

Doing some research these are just rebranded Dahua cameras and looking at IP traffic coming from these cameras is pretty concerning .

it keeps checking these ip addresses
54.84.228.44
35.169.221.250
35.169.214.193
13.52.137.202

if you completely block the internet then the motion detection stops working, going to contact amazon see if I can get a refund, I will never purchase another amcrest product again.

the hardware seemed good and video quality was ok, but lack of software updates is really concerning for a "Security Company", just imagine if your security and privacy depended on this company....oh wait.
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Revo2Maxx
Site Admin
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Joined: Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:05 pm

Re: Selling Cameras & Not supporting them??

Post by Revo2Maxx »

Sorry you feel that way you do. While I don't work for Amcrest or Amazon and my ideas are just that... I live by 1 simple rule... "If it isn't broke don't fix it"

Also I checked Each of them IP addresses you have listed and all of them are Related to the Cameras cloud, P2P or other things linked to the ability to use the camera over the network and get notices when your away from your network. All of them come back as being part of Amazon.

Now if I was worried about something going out to the Internet and talking with some IP address in China, or some other area that has a large amount of IP Traffic for stealing our data or spying then I would worry...
Be Safe.
Darkstar
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2019 10:10 pm

Re: Selling Cameras & Not supporting them??

Post by Darkstar »

Having just bought a couple if the IP3M-943B cameras myself and as a long time software engineer I thought I would chime in on this thread also. It is a seriously bad practice for a company to suddenly announce the end of engineering support for a product and that there will be no further updates to it's firmware. This will lead to distrust by customers as to whether any product they purchase will be supported with future firmware updates.

The best industry practices for a company is to give an "End of Life" notice at least a year ahead along with plans for a final firmware update for the product (before support is terminated) to close all outstanding bugs related to that product. Once "End of Life" is announced then the company does not have to take any further bug reports concerning that product. Customers purchasing that product should be made aware of the pending end of support for the product and typically can buy the product at a greatly reduced price to compensate for the fact that the product is in an "End of Life" phase.

Issues such as the inability to view live images in a number of different browsers has been well known by Amcrest engineers for quite some time. If indeed it is the case that Amcrest will not be providing a final firmware update for this and other cameras/products that have reached "End of Life" then it is unethical for Amcrest to be still selling these particular cameras, without informing customers that the product is broken, that the product will not meet common expectations, what the known problems with the product are, and that there will be no further firmware updates released to fix these known problems with the product.

As a customer who recently purchase a couple of these cameras, without any knowledge that there will be no further updates made to the firmware of these cameras, to fix known problems, it will make me a very unhappy customer if indeed this is the case. I and all customers should expect Amcrest to clarify it's plans for this camera and if they are wanting to phase out the camera, to put an announcement on their website where this camera is still being sold, that this camera has reached End of Life, and when engineering support for the camera will be terminated. I also expect Amcrest to release a final firmware update which fixes known outstanding problems with the camera before the camera is finally phased out.

In another post, I have asked Amcrest engineers to explain what kind of bug tracking system they use, but haven't received and answer yet. This is an example of why having a formal bug tracking system is so important and why both engineers and customers should be able to track bug reports, progress made, and conclusions reached.
Darkstar
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2019 10:10 pm

Re: Selling Cameras & Not supporting them??

Post by Darkstar »

It is interesting that I started a thread asking the Amcrest software R&D team to describe their software processes and methodologies. While my intent was to give Amcrest an opportunity to show us users the quality of their software development work. They instead responded by saying that they are unable to talk about their software development processes, methodologies and tools and immediately locked the thread so that no further comments or discussion could be made! My takeaway is that perhaps they are not using any rigorous technology for creating quality software? In my experience, as a long time software engineer, most mature companies are more than happy to describe their efforts, methodologies, and processes to their customer base, to show how they take software quality seriously, and as a means of marketing their products and building customer confidence.

The sudden cutoff of support for a product, i.e. the IP3M-943 as described in this thread, while still marketing it as a fully supported product, implies that customers can expect firmware updates to fix bugs, is both quite disturbing, unethical, and yet another sign that customer confidence building is not being rigorously addressed at Amcrest. As mentioned, the camera described in this thread is still being marketed on Amcrest's website with no mention that it is a discontinued product. While Amcrest's intention to produce quality products and build customer confidence may be sincere, their processes for doing so does not appear to be something they can brag about. If this is indeed the case then Amcrest is failing to demonstrate to their customers that Amcrest software can be relied on. IMHO....
TincanJoey
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Mar 22, 2019 12:55 pm

Re: Selling Cameras & Not supporting them??

Post by TincanJoey »

Oh great. This ticks me off. Been waiting forever for them to get these MAC compatible (even though that is what they advertised when I bought them). I guess their solution to that problem was to just discontinue the line. What a bunch of jackasses. And before someone from AMCREST jumps on here to tell me they can beused with blah blah blah...NO..that is not what was advertised!!
wtf911
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2019 9:17 pm

Re: Selling Cameras & Not supporting them??

Post by wtf911 »

My negative feedback left on reddit and amazon urges people not to buy anything because the software is left outdated slow buggy and insecure. Customer support doesn't get back to us. People on this forum don't get back to us. It's like either no one knows or we're lied to that an update is coming because the IP3M-943 is still supported. Empty words. Update it and I could change my reviews but in the meantime I encourage people to steer clear.
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