(NEW) Blink Video Doorbell (Damaged Packaging)

I'd give it zero stars if that were an option. First of all, the system is just WAY TOO SLOW!. By the time a video loads, whoever was at your door is long gone. Door bell does not ring inside the house unless it's hard wired to a preexisting chime. What good is a doorbell that doesn't ring inside the house? Activity recording at your door is hit or miss. Sometimes it gets recorded - sometimes not. I've often opened my door to discover that a package has been delivered, but no alert from Blink and no recording. Doorbell eats expensive lithium batteries. Two year claimed battery life is an outright lie. Two months is more like it. I just had to install the third set of batteries in the 5 months I've owned the thing. New Energizer AA's read 1.8 volts - when the system tells you that you need to replace the batteries, they still read 1.5 volts, so, I suppose I could reuse them in another device... System went "off line" after 5 months and is now no longer recording activity at the door. I'm getting alerts on my phone, but when I open the app it says "No Recent Activity" and nothing has been recorded. Even when it was working, the videos are so slow to load that you get recordings of what happened - not what's happening in real time. The system is also triggered by events far outside the activity zone. I got lots of videos of cars passing by in the street - way outside of the activity zone. This, of course, helps to drain the batteries. Don't waste your money - buy something else. Update: After posting my initial review, I was contacted by Kevin from Blink customer service. Kevin requested permission to review my system logs - which I granted. After reviewing the logs, Kevin said that my doorbell appeared to be defective and sent me a replacement. I installed the replacement doorbell and saw some slight improvement - in that I was seeing less false alarms from cars driving by. The latency (which is, apparently built into the system) makes it pretty much useless as a doorbell or as a security device. Notifications are still hit or miss. A few anecdotal examples: The other day I had two events scheduled. Someone from my lawyer's office was coming by with some papers for me to sign. I was also expecting someone to come by to test the fire alarms. The fire alarm people had given themselves a 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM window to show up. So, I was, periodically, opening my front door to see if they were in the area. On one occasion I opened the door to find a young lady from the law office standing on my stoop. She had pressed the doorbell, but Blink told me nothing. If I hadn't been checking for the fire alarm people, I would have missed her. Later I heard someone banging on my door and opened it to find the fire alarm people had arrived. Reviewing the recordings later, I found that the young lady from the law office had walked up and rung the doorbell - there was a video and audio recording of her ringing the bell. Blink, however, told me NOTHING, The fire alarm guy had also rung the doorbell and when he got no response, pounded on the door. Video and audio recording shows him ringing the doorbell - all I heard was the pounding on the door - in both instances, because of the latency in the system, the notification on my phone must have come after I had already answered the door. Another time, I heard someone pounding on the door. When I opened the door I found that the mailman had walked up to my door, dropped off a package and pounded on the door. No notification from Blink and no recording - no NOTHING. A few days later, the "new" doorbell went "offline" (again). Troubleshooting guide said to remove the batteries, wait a while and then reinstall them. No effect, so I pulled the batteries again and checked the voltage with a multimeter. One battery read 1.5V and the other read 1.45V, so I replaced them both. Blink did not give me a low battery warning - just went "offline." I've had the Blink "doorbell" for 9 months. This is now the FIFTH time I've had to replace the batteries! So, the "new" doorbell is eating batteries just as fast as the original "defective" doorbell was. Two months, MAX! To reiterate, the "Two year" battery life claim is a flat out lie. The doorbell was now "working" again. Unfortunately, I was again getting notifications, but no recordings - Just the "No Recent Activity" response (again). After futzing around with it for a couple of days to no effect, I though maybe I'd try unplugging the Sync unit and then plugging it back in. After plugging it back in, the Sync paired with the doorbell and I am, once again getting recordings of whoever WAS (as in the past tense) at my door - nothing you are able to view in real time. Bought a Fire HD tablet which would, supposedly, work with the Blink to allow me hear the doorbell and view whoever was at the door, but it turns out that the Fire HD shuts itself off after a few minutes of inactivity, so that was, again, useless. Finally bought an Echo Dot and now I get an audio "someone is at your front door" alert when someone presses the doorbell. So, I've ended up spending another $150.00 just to try to get the damned thing to ring inside the house - which, by definition, is what a doorbell is supposed to do. Again, however, there is so much latency built into the system, that whoever was at your door is, most likely, long gone before you can find your phone, open the app and pull up a video to see who is (was) there. To say I am extremely disappointed with the Blink "doorbell" is a gross understatement. I'm flat out pissed off with the damned thing. The advertising copy implying that you will be able to have a video and audio conversation with the smiling people at you door is just outright fraud. The advertising copy about the Blink "doorbell" is blatant false advertising. Update 11.22.24: If the above wasn't bad enough, to add insult to injury, I'm now getting f'ing ads for other Blink crap when I open the app in response to a notification... POS. Update 12.27.24 "Doorbell" went off-line (yet again) yesterday. I kept getting Notifications on my phone, but when I open the app it just said "No Recent Activity" (again) and no video clips had been recorded. Figured it was probably the batteries (again), so I pulled the doorbell and checked the batteries with a voltmeter. One read 1.63v and the other read 1.62v - so, they should have still been good. System cryptically told me that the batteries were "OK" (very helpful). So, I reinstalled the batteries - no go. Next, I figured I'd try unplugging the sync module and restarting it - worked once before, so why not give it a try? Still no go. Sync module now will no longer connect with WiFi - even though it is sitting, literally, right beside my router. Figured I 'd try replacing the batteries even though they still read good - again, no joy. System is now completely off-line. No notifications, no recordings, no nothing. System will no longer connect to WiFi, which means it's not connecting with Alexa or my Echo Dot. Nothing works. I, once again, have an "ornamental" video doorbell which doesn't record video and only rings outside the house. I really cannot express how pissed-off, and disappointed I am with this poorly designed, poorly implemented, and poorly supported POS. It, simply, doesn't do ANYTHING that their advertising copy claims it does. Useless as a video doorbell, hell, it doesn't even wort as a doorbell, doorbell.