Ring Front Door Bells

Don't like them.

They're appearing more and more amongst the middle classes - scared and with a bad impression of humanity because of shock Daily Mail headlines and those incessant 'criminals and frauds caught and named and shamed on camera' shows they put on TV every day.

They're activated by movement, so every time anyone goes to the door it sets off an alarm on their phone. Everyone is a potential criminal come to STAB them and steal their pension book.

Also the foolish fence feuders - the neighbour baiters and the peeping Thomases have an ideal piece of equipment for their bad carrying on. Those things pick up speech 40 feet away they say.

There's no chance of stopping their ever increasing march of course. I suppose they'll be universal in a few years. But every technology has its positives and also its negatives.

I think these spy cameras have plenty of negatives.

 

What did they catch you doing ?

 

I agree on this. I think they increase people's fear of crime.

My sister lives in a rural village in Cambs. One of those ones that's a few miles from everywhere, including the nearest big town. She lives in an ex-Council type house. Nothing grand but it's got a little single detached garage at the side and because of the way it's laid out with the shared driveway with next door it's easy to walk around two sides of the house. Anyway, she and her husband and kids were out one day and came home to find... nothing had happened. At least until a neighbour opposite showed them doorbell footage of what was obviously a do-as-you-likely having a wander round her driveway. At one point the old fatty even peered in through the front window, before shuffling away and onto his next treasure hunt location. Nothing damaged, nothing stolen, nothing tampered with.

Cue her announcing she's getting a Ring thingy because he was obviously going to come back and burgle her house. I did point out firstly it was unlikely and if he did, it would probably be at night when the crummy doorbell camera would show nowt anyway but she wasn't having it. So now she has a Ring doorbell thanks to the neighbour's Ring doorbell. It's a clever sales ruse when you think of it!

 

Ring doorbells and Verisure alarms are really being pushed at the moment through TV advertising. Basically you are putting your family at risk if you don't get one, why would you do that, what sort of parent are you ? Be like the nice couple in the tv adverts and immediately get yourself an alarm and avoid being like those terrible losers down the road who were burgled. That could have been you y'know. There but for the grace of god.....and he's given you a warning and a chance to make up for your inadequacies given you clearly don't give a damn about your family's safety and possessions.

 

Got a Eufy doorbell which I think is a cheaper alternative. Apart from one chancer having a good old look around the garage door, it's been pretty uneventful since we've had it. We've changed the settings so only get notifications if someone is within a certain distance of the door and maybe because it's a **** version, I can't hear anyone's conversations unless they're speaking into the doorbell.

 

Not sure why people don’t get one of those XL Bully dogs instead of the doorbell.

 

Had one in my last house and it was great for watching yourself back, pissed as a fart trying to get your key in the door.

I personally think they’re a net good, but more for the often more serious crimes they help solve or assist with that are actually nothing to do with the house they’re attached to.

 

Smoking.

I appreciate people don't like smoking in their house. Fair enough. I don't mind going out for a puff.

But I'm a bit uncomfortable that every time I nip out or back in, your bloody telephone goes off bing.

 

I'm on the fence here (out of sight of the Ring doorbell).

I can appreciate the security aspect. A friend of mine has one. We met up for a coffee before Christmas and his phone went off when a delivery driver was dropping something off. My mate could speak to him and ask him to leave it in a certain place.

It could also be reassuring if you have elderly relatives. For the type of criminal who is looking for an easy win, a Ring logo on the doorbell might act as a deterrent.

But it is also a huge surrender of rights and privacy. How many people have read through the terms and conditions before installing to find out the safety and security of their images?

It is absolutely staggering the amount of data we leave behind us as we tread through the digital world. If people really understood what they were allowing they'd not buy anything online or use an app ever again!

I've stopped using certain things and have changed settings on a lot of things to minimise the impact, but it's close to a full-time job and the onus is always on the consumer.

Most of it is relatively harmless. I understand when people say: "Oh it doesn't bother me, I've nothing to hide," or "I won't buy anything just because of an advert", but given the scale of the data capture going on that's not really the point.

So the Ring doorbell is a no from me, but I'd probably think differently for an elderly relative living alone.

 

Not just middle classes, Clive. I've been delivering political leaflets in a very not middle class neighbourhood and saw a lot of Rings.

They're good for evidence of street crime and may help if your deliveries left on the doorstep get nicked, but I wouldn't have one because of the risk of being hacked or having my data harvested.

 

A mate of mine has one, plus cameras down the side of his house and he was still burgled. In fact the doorbell was one of the few valuable items they didn’t nick

 

On one of my dog walking routes I go past a house which is fitted with some kind of Orwellian device that announces 'YOU ARE ON CCTV'. It's triggered when my faithful hound and I come within 30 ft of the bloody place - on a public footpath by the way, not on the property owner's land.

 

Clive will need to know "Which political leaflets?". You are at risk of being placed on "ignore" !

 

I keep a crowbar by my front door and would not hesitate to deliver a thunderous blow to the swede of any criminal entering my house.

But you people wave your doorbell at them if that's what the advertisers have told you is best.

 

A colleague at work ordered one and the delivery driver left it on his porch and somebody nicked it!

 

Just goes to show never too early to set security devices up!

 

I have one - a cheaper, battery powered one (like, an old, defunct model as there have apparently been several upgrades since).

For me it's useful. I had my phone sent off for repair and they gave me a wide window as to when they'd return it - turned out they obviously chose the only 20 minutes when I was out of the house on the school run. Managed to speak to the delivery guy, persuade him to leave it in the porch and not have to go through the hassle of rearranging and another day without my phone.

It's also useful if the Mrs comes home unexpectedly early. Just enough warning to shut the laptop carefully, put the tissues back and buckle up your trousers.

As for the crime prevention thing, I live in an unlit area. I don't expect that a doorbell camera would deter a determined burglar, but when it comes to Nottingham Knockers, errant gentlemen scoping for scrap/easy pickings etc. I just want my house to be a little more secure than some of my neighbours'. That way they can be the easier targets.

 

Interesting, they're known as Liverpool Knockers down here.

 

We just call them Scouse Boobs.

 

I’ve just remembered a story about a friend of a friend who caught her boyfriend/husband up to no good on one. Apparently the girlfriend was away and the boyfriend/husband brought someone back, he must’ve got them to climb through a window or something on the way in that wasn’t visible on the camera, but apparently the girl just got up and left in the morning and got caught on camera, instant notification to his mrs .

 

Knockers are usually known as Bristols everywhere else.

 

Why are they a deterrent to would-be burglars? Aren't most burglaries spontaneous acts - burglar sees open window and goes through it. Would a burglar ring on the door bell before breaking in to a house?

 

Ironically yeah, it's one of the known MOs for some burglars. If they're not sure the house is occupied ring the bell / knock the door and see if anyone answers. If they do, it becomes "have you seen my dog?" or whatever and off they trot.

Not sure that's what these doorbells are trying to clamp down on though.

 

Well they’re motion activated and generally for a lot of houses will catch anybody that enters from the front on camera, you don’t have to ring the bell, just step into its vicinity, so the deterrent would be getting yourself caught on film and potentially being identified. Obviously a lot depends on the layout of the house. But they’re pretty much as much as a deterrent as a CCTV camera, however much of a deterrent that’s considered to be.

 

They also give you a 30 second headstart to get your crowbar ready for bashing.

 

We don't have one and are the only ones in the local family circle not to despite the many desperate attempts by the local in-laws that they are essential!

In fact they even share each others info so they each get alerts when each others go off as well as their own. So every time one of them get a parcel they all know about it!

As a worker-from-home I don't think my wife cares to hear it ring every time I'm coming and going let alone the other family members.

This is despite none of them ever having any occasion to have been burgled.

It's all fueled and encouraged of course by the retired Daily Mail reader of the family who's paranoid about everything.

 

To pick up on Keighley's earlier post, he'd better hope the householder doesn't have an XL Bully with which to reply.

 

I've heard that the dishevelled look of the apparent ne'er-do-well is actually the current Ring sales personnel uniform.

 

The Eufy ones are good as you don't need to pay a subscription although there are some security concerns if you're worried about others accessing images.

Invaluable for anyone away from home wanting to monitor deliveries or speak to the postman to leave in a safe place. Good if you're looking after old folk as well. Useful to see which of your neighbours is stealing your new garden waste bags.

 

Is the video stored somewhere though or is it only a live feed? The subscription on things like Ring and blink is simply for data storage.

 

Mine came with a base station with hd in that you can also sync cameras up to I think others have SD storage, so all local although I think images are temporarilly loaded to an intenet based system to serve you mobile notifications.

 

Yeah I googled them. Seem quite pricey. I think I paid about 30-40 quid for mine and pay about 1.50 a month for cloud storage.