Transfer of ownership from a deceased relative

Hey

My Grandfather passed away eariler this year.
We’re in the process of selling his house, but we decided to keep the Ring Door bell and chime.

However we’re unable to transfer the ownership of the device from his account to mine.
I know his username and password however the 2 phase authentication is requesting that I enter a code sent to his email

I cannot access the email as the account no longer exists (It’s an @eircom.net email, Eircom shutdown all the old free email addresses last year)

I have no way to remove the device from his account.
Any idea what to do here? (It seems very difficult to get in contact with Ring Support)

Thanks
G.

Hi @grahambo2005. My condolences. To transfer ownership, please call into our support team. They will request some documents that you can email in and start the process. Please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. We’re taking additional steps to protect our team and help reduce the spread of COVID-19, so this has resulted in longer than normal wait times. If you are outside of the US, please read our response to COVID-19 here to see how to contact support.

Tom,

I am in the same situation, my Mother and Father had a ring account. My father passed away and my mother sold their house. She purchase a new home that already had a Ring. I had no problem installing the new ring door bell to my parents account as she had Ring app and Account already on her iphone. It worked well for a year untill my mother updated her phone, then Ring App asked for a password, which we knew and entered then it sent a two-step code to my fathers email address which is no longer exisit. We were on the phone for well over an hour.

I setup my mother a new Ring account however Ring app would now allow us to add the Ring Door Pro onto her account because it was assigned to the original owner, which is the account my father setup. The Ring representative told us it would take 24-48 hours to release the existing Door Bell from my fathers account so that we can add to my mothers account. Unfortunately nothing happened.

1 Like

Hi @Nickmjr. For this concern, it would be best to follow up with our support team. As this is a neighbor to neighbor support forum and not a direct line to support, I am unable to access any information to assist. Once you are verified over the phone, the support agent will able to assist and make sure that this gets resolved. You can reach the support team using the link in my previous post.

I am having a very similair issue. My Aunt passed away, we are selling the house and would like to factory reset the Ring to our account. I am being told that this cannot be done but have been offered a discount to purchase a new doorbell. I am at my wits end…please help~

Hi @boldtg. You will have to contact our support team to transfer ownership of the Ring Device.

This answer seems to be duplicated over and over. I have repeatedly contacted Ring customer service. I am a new homeowner. This is a smart home. The former owner is deceased so there is no way to get her to cancel her account (the only remedy offered by Ring customer phone support). In my attempts to activate my Ring app, the Ruckus router apparently pings Ring, so they show it as a “recent event” and offered no further assistance. In reality, I am informed by Ring that my only remedy is buying a new Ring Elite which is a $300+ doorbell. I hope Ring gets it together because I am certain I am not the only buyer of a deceased resident’s home that on the surface, has all these pricey upgrades. I even offered to send the decedent’s death certificate and our new deed as proof. Support does nothing to help but offer a discount. If anyone gets a different result, please share.

1 Like

I just got off the phone with C/S. I’m requesting my Mom’s Ring device be released to me. I was told they would submit the request and I would have to wait for 15 days. I see that part of the process involves emailing my Mom who’s deceased and her email account has been deactivated. Seeing as how Ring won’t be getting any reply from my mother, am I on the hook to get a new device or will they eventually release it to me?

Hi @user12614. We don’t have any information on your account details and where in the process your request is at. You’ll need to wait to hear back from our support team, or follow up with them for more information.

I submitted the request yesterday, but I was a little unclear as to what would happen. I expect they will email my Mom’s email address but since it has been deactivated, there can be no reply. is it just a matter of waiting the 15 days before it gets released or if there is no reply, there is no release.

@user12614 As mentioned, we do not have the details or information on this process. If you have follow-up questions on your request, please reach out to our support team to clarify what to expect and where in the process your request is.

I have contacted Ring customer support several times to report the death of an account owner. I spoke to three different team members during three different calls (Rica, Priya, Shyer) and each team member said, “I can’t help you until the owner of the account calls in to request her account be closed. Ring can’t access accounts without owner’s permission.” None of the employees understood that the account owner is dead. Finally I was transferred to a “supervisor,” after being disconnected twice. The supervisor repeated the same concept of “needing owner permission” before accessing the account. When I told the employee he (Nico) was not helpful and that I was going to file a complaint, then he explained the steps needed for me to “take ownership” of the account by submitting the death certificate. Ring needs to offer better employee education to its front line team, so they can provide accurate information for a really sensitive and sad situation – having to report the death of a family member. The supervisor said he would email me a link for submitting documents to Ring…still waiting.

Had similar issues myself. My father passed away a year ago but I had access to his ring doorbell account on my phone so I could monitor my Moms house. She’s 86, frail and lives alone. I changed my phone 2 days ago and now can’t access the Ring App as I don’t know my Dads password. I called yesterday and was told I’d have to wait 15 days. I escalated my call to a manager and was told it’s fine, we will sort this. Call back with your Dads death cert and his will. I explained that in the uk we send the will to HMCTS to obtain a grant of probate. This provides evidence that I am the person chose by my father to administer his estate. The will becomes a public document but is not required by anyone. She was happy that I send the death certificate and the grant of probate. So I called back today. I’m told they can’t accept this and I have to wait 15 days. This is unacceptable. An old vulnerable lady now has no security for 15 days due to their archaic policies. I will be contacting the CEO and will recommend to anyone I speak to never to buy anything from Ring. I’m fuming.

Hi @SteveFoster. We’re sorry to hear about this. Feel free to send us a private message on Facebook @Ring for assistance.