Arrived not working; after 1 hour on phone to India it was decided one bulb was bad.

I generally do not have a reason to write a review, and I’m just posting this because of really terrible product performance and customer service. The set up of this product appears easy, but has been a tremendous time sink because of performance problems. Initial set up was relatively simple, but the system has lost connection requiring system reset and technical service multiple times with no resolution. I’m estimating that more than four hours has been spent troubleshooting problems with the system and performing restores, in addition to all of the time on Belkin’s customer service. Technical service was incapable of addressing technical issues and customer service was incapable of providing refunds despite promises otherwise. Their database has had wrong information for my account entered on at least two occasions prompting poor or no follow-up. If convenience is the reason to purchase these devices, do not buy it — assume that much more time will be wasted in set up and maintenance and operation will be unreliable. I would wait until a time-tested product becomes available.

What a total waste of time and money. Do not purchase Wemo products if you have an Apple router; after my experience, I’d be hesitant to purchase them at all, no matter what kind of router I had. We have an Apple wireless router and Apple devices. If you look on troubleshooting websites you’ll see that Wemo devices do not work well with Apple wireless, which I now know thanks to hours of completely wasted time and increasing aggravation. However, since this “glitch” is never discussed in the product description or in any documentation produced by Wemo or Belkin, I purchased this product in good faith and spent HOURS yesterday trying to get it to work, including rebooting and reinstalling several times, reconfiguring my wireless platform, etc., etc. Wemo troubleshooting guides are poorly organized and contain conflicting or incomplete information–totally maddening. I tried for live chat, but there was never a customer service representative available. I finally picked up the phone, and got a customer service rep fairly quickly, which was good, except that she was unable to spell my first name or last name, or get my address correct after several tries (she was based in the United States–no language barrier, just incompetence). She was nice, but completely incapable of offering assistance (has she ever used a Wemo device, I wonder?). Completely frustrating experience. If, after this experience, I thought Wemo had good product support, I might consider switching to a Belkin router (my own conclusion, however, since Belkin never actually says that this would be helpful, and instead lets potential customers twist in the wind). However, given the abysmal troubleshooting documentation and unqualified technical support, I will not take the risk of screwing up my entire home network for the convenience of remote control of a few light switches and coffee pots. Oh, and by the way, be careful of the promise that the switch will help you turn on coffee remotely (the FIRST feature listed under the switch). I can’t say for sure, because I could never get my switch to work, but if your coffee maker doesn’t have a switch that will set permanently to “on” (not a button or a spring lever), then the Wemo switch won’t work to turn on your coffee maker. Perhaps this should be obvious, but, then again, perhaps Wemo should engage in a little more honest marketing for its products.

Not ready for production. App crashes every time you try to make a schedule. Very disappointing, would not recommend.

Does not hold programming. Poor product documentation.

I received a WeMo Switch for Christmas, and could not get through the initial setup using my Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) smartphone. It would sporadically connect to the WeMo wireless signal, but would invariably drop the connection before the setup was complete. I called Belkin support and they recommended trying the setup with an iPad or iPhone. There is no alternative setup for Windows available and I do not have an Apple device, so I had to return the WeMo for a refund. I would recommend against buying the WeMo switch if you will be using it with an Android phone.

Don’t buy this item; it sucks.

If you are not experienced with Wi-Fi router settings, then avoid this product. This product creates its own Wi-Fi network and it also uses your router’s Wi-Fi network. Before using it, you will need to get the WeMo app from the app store. We have a Kindle Fire HD and so we downloaded the app from the Amazon store. It is also available for Apple and Android mobile products. When you plug in the WeMo insight, you will see a new WiFi network on your mobile device. It will be something like WeMo.Insight.* . You need to connect to this network. Start the WeMo app and it will display other WiFi networks in the area. Pick your regular WiFi network and it will ask you for a password. After entering the password, the WeMo Insight will try to connect. Here is where the problem occurred. It would not accept my password. I tried several times and with several networks. No luck. The WeMo insight right out the box would not connect to my router with WPA2 security. This is a ASUS RT-N66W router. I have had at least 10 other devices connect with no problem so I know this is a WeMo problem. I called WeMo technical support. I got right in and the representative spent a lot of time trying to help me. No luck. The next level of support wasn’t available so I started experimenting on my own. I found a solution:

1. Change your router settings to no security. Before you do this turn of all Wi-Fi devices except the one running WeMo. If you don’t want to do this change your router setting to WPA.

2. Unplug the Insight. Reset the Insight by holding down the tiny button for 15 seconds. While holding the button down, plug the Insight in. release the button after 15 seconds. Wait about 30 seconds to give the WeMo time to reboot.

3. Connect your mobile device to the WeMo.Insight Wi-Fi network.

4. Do a hard stop on the WeMo program and run it again. If it doesn’t connect to your router’s Wi-Fi network with no security, then box it up and ship it back.

5. If it does connect, install the latest firmware. I believe I went to settings the first time but later I recall a green arrow appearing next to the options. My Insight required two firmware updates.

6. Go to your router and set the Wi-Fi security to WPA. Repeat steps 2-4. If you Insight doesn’t connect to WPA ship it back.

7. Repeat step 6 except set your router to WPA2. Voila! WPA-2 now works.

Note that reconfiguring the router caused my Wi-Fi printer and a laptop to be disconnected from the Wi-Fi network and I had to manually reconnect them.

It is inexcusable that a company that is known for their routers can’t figure out WPA-2 security for the WeMo.

A five word evaluation of the WeMo app. It’s a piece of junk! It is extremely slow. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I have finally gotten used to its many problems. Here are a few tips:

1. To see the energy statistics tap in the blank area of the device entry. If it says it is calculating and the data is not available, tap on the entry to hide the data and tap again to display it. This usually works. If not try a hard stop on the WeDo app.

2. It takes a day to get average energy use. It takes a couple of days before everything settles down.

Everything seems to be working now. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Updated 01/03/2015
I just found something else to dislike about the WeMo Insight. I bought the insight to measure power usage so I want move it around to various outlets and measure the average power used at each outlet. To do this I need to clear the power usage data. You can’t clear the power usage data from the WeMo app. You must reset the WeMo insight which means going through the initialization process again. Was this thing designed by the Marquis de Sade?

Android mobile app is functionally horrible. If you manage to get the thing connected to your WiFi network, you’ll definitely have problems switching on/off if you’re not connected to the same WiFi network. Even flipped Remote Access on/off and reset multiple times. Great idea executed extremely poorly.

I received one as a gift for christmas gift less than a week ago. It worked great for the only 1 time. I went to plug it back in today and the thing doesnt light up or work. Terrible product if it breaks after 1 use. I was hoping for a reliable product. Belkin chat support is useless.