Ring Video Doorbell 2 & Solar Chargers & VERY BAD Customer Service

I am a disabled user in the UK. I have had a Ring products for about the last five years.

I have a stick up camera in my outdoor craft room for security. This seems to work well with no problems.

I have a spotlight camera in my back garden for security. This has a wired solar panel which appears on the app under device, and says solar status connected.

I have an indoor camera for home security.
My final item is my Ring video doorbell 2.

I have had this for approximately two years. As my health has deteriorated I decided to get the solar panel for the ring video doorbell 2 as it would mean I don’t have to change the battery every other day as my front door is in direct sunlight approximately seven hours a day.

I ordered the solar charger on Amazon and it arrived two days later. Unfortunately although I definitely ordered the correct charger, as advertised for the ring video doorbell 2, it arrived with a micro USB connector on it, and not the two pin connector which is on the back of my ring video doorbell 2.

I phoned Ring on 02.09.2020 and spoke to a gentleman who I assumed at the time was in training, as his product knowledge seemed very limited and he did not seem to know what I was talking about.

It took about 30 minutes for him to understand what my situation was, and that all I needed was to confirm if there was a different connector for my solar charger. He finally said he could resolve the problem by sending me the correct solar charger and I can return the old one.

I explained that due to the current Covid situation that I was not going out and I am still shielding due to my health, so I can’t get to the post office to return the original solar charger.

he said he would arrange a collection and asked me when I would like it collected. I said that he could arrange the collection for the Friday.

He said he would have to charge my account for the new solar charger and that I would be refunded when they received the return.

On the Friday the new solar charger was received but the old one was not collected.

I fitted the new charger on the 5th September. Not an easy feat for me to do, and it took me a while due to my health.

After fitting the new charger I wondered why it was not seeming to be working so I change the battery for a fully charged battery and waited a while longer. The battery went down and the solar charger did not say connected on the app.

so I decided to phone ring and talk to them about it. Also to remind them to collect the old one.

First of all they said they would collect the old one on Monday.

The lady I was talking to then went on to ask me really basic silly questions even though I reassured her I knew what I was doing as I am a technical person. and I know that I’ve installed the doorbell correctly with the solar charger.

She then asked me to take a photograph of the doorbell in place with the charger so I did & emailed this to her.

she confirmed I had it set up correctly.

She then tried to tell me that sometimes on the app it doesn’t say connected on the solar charger when I know it does.

I then asked her if she had to use the products herself, even handled or seen the products herself. I asked this question because she seemed to be reading from the website, she did not seem to have any product knowledge firsthand of her own. She told me she has never use the products and has never handled them.

At this point I asked to speak to somebody who had firsthand experience and knowledge of the products. She told me there was no way to put me through to somebody she told me there was nobody who could help me except her and even if there was somebody else they would say exactly the same as she did. I also asked where they were based, and was told that they were in Egypt.

She said somebody would call me back. It is now 10 days later, the solar charger has not worked at all in that 10 days, and guess what…… I have not heard from anybody.

so I currently have two ring solar chargers, neither of which work with my doorbell.

I am waiting for at least one of them to be collected.

I am waiting for a call from somebody who knows what they’re talking about who can help me.

I cannot believe how bad the customer services is, for a company that seems to have very good products.

I am currently losing all trust in Ring and hope that somebody might get in touch and sort this out.

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Hey there, @UK_Disabled_User. This is not at all the experience we intend for our neighbours, and I am sorry to hear of these concerns. Our support team is intended to provide solutions and be experts in helping you. As you have been in contact with support in the past, we recommend reaching out for further assistance and confirmation. Please read our response to COVID-19 here to see how to contact support. We’re taking additional steps to protect our team and help reduce the spread of COVID-19. This has resulted in longer than normal wait times.

As we always value our neighbours feedback, this will be shared with our teams here to ensure we are operating efficiently.

Thanks for the reply

But if you read what I have said you will see that the problems I am having a mainly because of your call centre in Egypt. They have no knowledge of your products, I could tell your customers more about your products then they can.

They do not even know how to answer the call properly and keep somebody on hold for ages getting the details wrong.

I’d like somebody either from the UK or the USA to call me and sort this problem out. I don’t want to talk to another person in Egypt, who has no product knowledge and no experience of using your items and to quite frankly shouldn’t be in a call centre.

Hello Ring

are you going to help me???

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Hey there, neighbour. As the Ring Community is a peer to peer forum, it is not a direct line to support. While there are Community team members and neighbors here to make suggestions or share helpful articles, any advanced or account specific troubleshooting or concerns are best resolved with our support team by phone. Please read our response to COVID-19 here to see how to contact support. We’re taking additional steps to protect our team and help reduce the spread of COVID-19. This has resulted in longer than normal wait times.

Hello @UK_Disabled_User ,

So sorry to hear about your bad experience, and coupled with your health issues and this ongoing Covid-19 mess. It must not be easy for you. Current times are not normal with the virus, and with Ring’s reduced manning and split-shifts to avoid the virus, I can perfectly understand your frustration. As you await guidance back from Ring, there is something that you can do in the meantime.

First, I want to confirm that you connected the wires of the Solar Charger correctly. In the attached picture, do you remember if you indeed connect the wires with the word “UP” both facing you and according to the “UP” arrow? If you definitely remember you did it, then great. But if you have any doubt the wire polarity might be incorrect, I would double-check.

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005468786-Installing-your-Ring-Video-Doorbell-2-Solar-Charger

Then I would highly recommend performing a " Hard" Factory reset on your Ring Video Doorbell 2 while it is connected to the solar charger. The reason is during a Factory Reset, you will restore your Video Doorbell back to its original factory firmware programming and you totally clean out any downloaded firmware since then. There is a possibility that your doorbell might have some slightly corrupted firmware and/or not the latest newest firmware download. It will be starting fresh and clean, and will eliminate any possible malfunctioning caused by previous slightly-bad firmware.

                   <u>To accomplish a Factory hard Reset on your Video Doorbell 2:</u>
  • Prepare for the setup: Have your mobile phone ready to complete the Doorbell setup by logging onto your mobile phone Ring App, and turn on your mobile’s GPS function (if it was off). With your GPS location service “ON”, and I would even take your mobile phone outside for a little, so that it has the opportunity to ‘see’ some GPS satellites). Your mobile should already be connected via Wi-Fi to your home Wi-Fi. Also have your Wi-Fi SSID Name (what your router Name appears as) and your W-Fi router password written and ready (the Doorbell may or may not ask you for it).
  • Use the orange Ring screwdriver, the ‘star’ Torx-15 side of the bit, and remove the security screw that keeps the doorbell’s faceplate on, and remove the faceplate.
  • If the Quick-Release-Battery-Pack is low, recharge it before proceeding with this factory reset.
  • Hopefully you can complete this while at your Doorbell’s mounted location, as long as you have a good Wi-Fi signal. This will avoid you completely un-mounting the doorbell and solar panel to bring them closer to your Wi-Fi router.
  • It is best to have the Solar Charger connected to your doorbell during the setup. Although it is suppose to be fine to connect the Solar Charger after a complete setup, I’ve heard people have had better luck during the setup when the external power-wires (house doorbell wires or Solar Charger wires) are connected. Some claim the setup ‘senses’ the power during the adjust settings portion. I dunno if this is true, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to mention this.
  • With a good-charged battery, your mobile phone with you, and while your Doorbell is still connected to the new Solar Panel, Push and Hold the reset button (that was under the faceplate cover, in the upper-corner) on the Doorbell. You should hold the button for 15-20-seconds, but I like holding it for about 30-seconds , and then release.
  • After you release the Reset Button, the doorbell will take a minute or two to ‘wake up’ and then automatically enter the Setup Mode.
  • Proceed and complete the entire setup, and when you get to the part where the App offers you to “Skip”, DO NOT. This is a delicate part of the setup, where it is going to download all the latest available Firmware. This could take upto 5 or 6 minutes, depending on the speed of your Wi-Fi. Even when your hear her say, “Your Ring Video Doorbell is now ready” still wait and do not continue for awhile. Continue on the next App pages until reaching the page that has the “Skip Button” and stop there. Wait until this page steps to the next page on its own. Even after your App goes to the next step, I wait another minute. Yeah, I’m a little paranoid and I don’t like to rush this part. You want to provide your doorbell the opportunity to get a nice, clean firmware download, without proceeding on to change settings as this download is simultaneously occurring. A little patience here can help avoid having to start all over again with another Factory Reset.
  • Reassemble your Doorbell faceplate and install the Security Screw (just snug). No need to crank this screw down super tight.

Now according to the online Ring Support information (link below), the Doorbell’s “Device Health” should continue to show that the power source is still a battery, and not indicate that Solar device is connected (but again I’ve heard some say it does, which could be due to newer firmware). You do not have to change/adjust any settings ‘to activate’ the Solar Panel. You should notice a “lightning bolt” in the center of the “Battery Icon” during charging on the Doorbell’s Device page, when there is sufficient direct sunlight to affect “trickle-charging” of your battery. Hopefully your doorbell is not located in a shady location, because the solar charger requires a certain amount of direct sunlight in order to power the Ring Video Doorbell 2. Below is another link which includes a nice video on the setup, and it has multiple links of commonly asked questions!

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005463323#After_I_mount_the_Ring_Video_Doorbell_in_the_Solar_Charger,_do_I_need_to_activate_it_in_the_Ring_app

I understand during this Covid-19 craziness, your reluctance (health reasons) to go to the post office to return the original solar charger. But maybe you can have a friend do that for you. You don’t want to delay the return of the wrong Solar Charger too long and possibility run past the allotted time in their “Return Policy” and thus creating another headache problem.

I recently returned a Ring device, but due to the Covid-19 hectic mess, I did have to call back to check. We just have to have extra patience during this “very not normal” period of time where stuff can easily “fall through the crack.” During my callback, everything was quickly straightened out, and I received a refund on my credit card shortly afterwards. My recommendation is that your should not wait for a call-back after a day or two. Telephone them back to ensure your case hasn’t accidentally fell into that forgotten “crack.”

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036196372-Get-in-Touch

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19, their available hours have been changed also: https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041597471-Ring-s-Response-to-COVID-19

I wish you luck, and again sorry to hear what you are going through. Hopefully my information turns out helpful to you. :slight_smile: I’d be curious to hear on how your painful saga ends . . . my “Fingers-Crossed” LOL :slight_smile:

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