HKC SecureComm Notification problems

sadbob

Hi, is anyone having difficulties with receiving notifications through the HKC App. Have it in a few weeks and had been working fine but earlier this week I wasn't getting any and same again today. Have set and unset from the keypad directly numerous times this evening and still no notifications came through. I have every notification set under the settings. thanks. Bob

fred funk }{

Working okay for me.

sadbob

Thanks, installer is looking into it. Frustrating as it was working perfectly. Have the app on 3 devices and none are getting notifications. Nothing worse than an intermittent fault.

fred funk }{

sadbob wrote: »

Thanks, installer is looking into it. Frustrating as it was working perfectly. Have the app on 3 devices and none are getting notifications. Nothing worse than an intermittent fault.

Do you pay your installer for the subscription or do you pay it yourself?

sadbob

fred funk }{ wrote: »

Do you pay your installer for the subscription or do you pay it yourself?

Pay it myself, I set up an annual direct debit with HKC for the €60 - got the invoice but it has yet to be taken from my bank account. That's not the issue though as I can still log on to the app and read the log and use it to set/unset, it's just no notifications are coming through. All my testing tonight appears on the log.

kub

In your app did you by any chance switch the notifications off?

sadbob

kub wrote: »

In your app did you by any chance switch the notifications off?

Thanks but I have them all on. Have the app on 3 devices and none are getting notifications.

Evolution1

Have you given the app permission to send you notifications in your phones settings? What phone are you using ?

sadbob

Evolution1 wrote: »

Have you given the app permission to send you notifications in your phones settings? What phone are you using ?

Have done all that, thanks. Everything was working fine on the HTC phones and one tablet we use until this week. Have installer out next week so will update re. the problem then. I thought it was something wrong with the securecomm cloud as we've changed nothing on our devices but it seems to be working ok for others.

Evolution1

Working fine on all my stuff. Try delete and re install the app providing you have the site ID and password for that id eg "secret ".

sadbob

Evolution1 wrote: »

Working fine on all my stuff. Try delete and re install the app providing you have the site ID and password for that id eg "secret ".

Hadn't thought of that one but just tried, no joy. Cheers anyway.

Evolution1

sadbob wrote: »

Hadn't thought of that one but just tried, no joy. Cheers anyway.

After you re install it.
You need to arm/disarm the system from the app. Then trigger the alarm. Are you getting texts?

sadbob

Evolution1 wrote: »

After you re install it.
You need to arm/disarm the system from the app. Then trigger the alarm. Are you getting texts?

Just tried and that - didn't last night. When I set off the alarm we got the text to say the alarm went off but didn't get another text to say it was unset - should we have got a second one, we used to with the old text set up on an Eircom line.

Still no notifications trough the app though even when the alarm was set off. I tried it twice.

thanks for the suggestions.

altor

sadbob wrote: »

Just tried and that - didn't last night. When I set off the alarm we got the text to say the alarm went off but didn't get another text to say it was unset - should we have got a second one, we used to with the old text set up on an Eircom line.

Still no notifications trough the app though even when the alarm was set off. I tried it twice.

thanks for the suggestions.

If you P.M. me the site ID I will have it checked for you.

Evolution1

Try now.

sadbob

Evolution1 wrote: »

Try now.

First of all, thanks Altor for the offer but I'd be vary wary giving that info out on such a medium.

Evolution1 - what did you do? it's working again now! Was there a problem somewhere?

sadbob

sadbob wrote: »

First of all, thanks Altor for the offer but I'd be vary wary giving that info out on such a medium.

Evolution1 - what did you do? it's working again now! Was there a problem somewhere?

Its gone again :-( Evolution, was something done to the system last night when you asked me to 'try now'? thanks. Bob

altor

sadbob wrote: »

First of all, thanks Altor for the offer but I'd be vary wary giving that info out on such a medium.

That is no problem. Just so you know, I am a licensed installer.

nicnac

We are getting the exact same issue with HKC's app.

The application stopped sending nofications late last week. This continued all over the Paddy's weekend. No notifications at all. Then this morning after 9am the notifications started coming through again. There is obviously a lack of redundancy in HKC with this system. They are not monitoring their IT systems to ensure that services are up and running.

As soon as the Paddy's weekend is over and their staff knock back into the office the notifications start again. This is just all too much of a coincidence.
Other alarm providers are not charging for this service. If they charge for it, then they can bloody get it right and ensure that it is up and running by putting some redundancy and monitoring in place.

The whole solution is sub standard - and their support for customers "Call your installer" is a complete cop out.

We got a HKC alarm installed at the beginning of February. Close to 1000 euro spent on monitoring, WIFI card and GSM card etc and none of it works consistently. I am left now with a piece of crap installed in the house. It is no better than the Airtech 350 I ripped out. This is just one of many issues with the alarm.

KoolKid

Can I ask did you get any notifications of the service or network being down.?
What other issues have there been?

nicnac

I got no notifications since Friday.
There were no "System Set", "System Unset" messages at all.
Then this morning that aspect of the service seemed to resolve itself.

At 14.16 today I got a "Connection Lost" notification.
At this point I could not log into the panel via the app.
5 minutes later I could log into the panel, but I had not received any notification to say that the connection issue had resolved itself!
No information in the log file about that the "Connection Lost" issue was.

Then at 15.48 the exact same issue occurred - "Connection Lost", cannot log into panel, 5 minutes later can log into panel, no notification that connetion issue has been resolved etc.

sadbob

We're still getting no notifications at all, even today. Very frustrating considering the cost we incurred. I couldn't log onto the app at 1.30 am on Tuesday to set the alarm as it gave me a message saying 'securecomm is currently undergoing service'. Plus I spent a fortune on a new phone as my one couldn't handle android 4. Very annoyed at this stage.

nicnac

sadbob wrote: »

We're still getting no notifications at all, even today. Very frustrating considering the cost we incurred. I couldn't log onto the app at 1.30 am on Tuesday as it gave me a message saying 'securecomm is currently undergoing service'.

Well, you're not on your own Sadbob. It is a HKC Software issue, clearly. It is more than likely untested code put live on Friday in an unmonitored environment. We also have neighbours with the exact same issue. So this is independent of installer, configuration and gsm location.

sadbob

Well, I got a notification this evening, maybe we were too early leaving the house this morning. If I thought I was signing up for a part time service I wouldn't have bothered.

sadbob

Well, I got a notification this evening, maybe we were too early leaving the house this morning. I've tested it a few times since I got home and it seems ok but if I thought I was signing up for a part time service I wouldn't have bothered. We've had this issue since last Tues 10/03 so unless HKC have a week long Paddy's Day celebration I imagine it's a bigger issue.

nicnac

sadbob wrote: »

Well, I got a notification this evening, maybe we were too early leaving the house this morning. I've tested it a few times since I got home and it seems ok but if I thought I was signing up for a part time service I wouldn't have bothered. We've had this issue since last Tues 10/03 so unless HKC have a week long Paddy's Day celebration I imagine it's a bigger issue.

Actually, you're right. I only raised it with the installer on Saturday. It had been an issue for a few days before that. It is just an unreliable solution - it is a paid security system. It should work.

Small claims court is one route that can be followed in this instance.

sadbob

nicnac wrote: »

Actually, you're right. I only raised it with the installer on Saturday. It had been an issue for a few days before that. It is just an unreliable solution - it is a paid security system. It should work.

Small claims court is one route that can be followed in this instance.

Apologies for the duplicate - I cant delete/edit the first one for some reason.

Yes I'm thinking along the small claims route too. If the house was broken into and it came to light the security system wasn't working as it should I wouldn't want to be dealing with an insurance company under those circumstances. You'd be better off having no alarm system and pay the higher premium. I agree it should work and any downtime should be notified in advance.

KoolKid

sadbob wrote: »

We're still getting no notifications at all, even today. Very frustrating considering the cost we incurred. I couldn't log onto the app at 1.30 am on Tuesday to set the alarm as it gave me a message saying 'securecomm is currently undergoing service'.

Well this message alone confirms the issue is their end.If you are paying HKC direct for this service how can they pass it back to your installer?
I also thought, from another thread here, that all network faults would be notified.

sadbob

KoolKid wrote: »

Well this message alone confirms the issue is their end.If you are paying HKC direct for this service how can they pass it back to your installer?
I also thought, from another thread here, that all network faults would be notified.

Yes they should be notified. We're paying a company called Security & Risk Communications Ltd on behalf of HKC Ltd. I don't know the link between the two.

I've tested again (logged on and off as engineer) and got instant notifications. Maybe they've fixed whatever problem they had but their silence is deafening and not keeping customers informed of issues is a poor reflection on the company.

Again I'd ask Evolution1 why on Sunday night he/she told me to 'try now' at 22.44 - it would appear they might know something about the fault?

nicnac

I heard from my installer that the issue with the notifications was due to a "Google" and "Android" issue. I don't believe it for a minute. None of our smart phones have had any patches in ages. The only reason that could occur is if they applied a change to the software on their side without testing it.
They even have a setting in the app for "Notify on Tech Zone Events".
Wouldn't it be fitting to push notifications out to their customers in the event of a fault like this via the phone or email? They have all the email addresses, as you require one in order to sign up.

They aren't handling it very well either, as they have updated notifications on the application to have the installer's name and number.

Customers are supposed to contact their installer to resolve these issues? They have @ 1000 customers on this securecomm, or so I heard. That is 60k a year. In effect, they haven't thought through their business model. They need to have someone on call in there to monitor the servers and report any issues to the customers via the different channels available.

BING BONG .... anyone else having issues with their HKC alarm please post here.

altor

nicnac wrote: »

I heard from my installer that the issue with the notifications was due to a "Google" and "Android" issue. I don't believe it for a minute. None of our smart phones have had any patches in ages. The only reason that could occur is if they applied a change to the software on their side without testing it.
They even have a setting in the app for "Notify on Tech Zone Events".
Wouldn't it be fitting to push notifications out to their customers in the event of a fault like this via the phone or email? They have all the email addresses, as you require one in order to sign up.

They aren't handling it very well either, as they have updated notifications on the application to have the installer's name and number.

Customers are supposed to contact their installer to resolve these issues? They have @ 1000 customers on this securecomm, or so I heard. That is 60k a year. In effect, they haven't thought through their business model. They need to have someone on call in there to monitor the servers and report any issues to the customers via the different channels available.

BING BONG .... anyone else having issues with their HKC alarm please post here.

That is correct. It was an issue re google. If you had a apple or windows phone this worked with no problems. I am not defending the issues re this and I do agree with you that it should of being handled better by HKC.

sadbob

They're selling the app on the android market - it should work or if it doesn't they shouldn't have released an android app for it until the sorted it. I bought a new android phone that had v4 to cope with the app as my other phone was a bit older and couldn't upgrade to kitkat. Had I known I might have bought one with a different OS....... What annoys me more is we purchased a load of other HKC products to enhance our system at the same time. I may yet recall the DD for the annual sub.

nicnac

altor wrote: »

That is correct. It was an issue re google. If you had a apple or windows phone this worked with no problems. I am not defending the issues re this and I do agree with you that it should of being handled better by HKC.

We have 3 smart phones in our house with the HKC app. None of the phones had any sort of android firmware upgrade in the last 3 months and the HKC app stopped receiving notifications out of the blue.

HKC made some sort of untested system changes or had some sort of infrastructure issues which affected notifications on all android phones.
We can't blame Android and Google for that, just because whatever change they made in there impacted/wiped out coverage to Android customers. That's like saying that it is Audi's fault if the car won't start after the engine has been knicked.

If they did not know about the issue, after a week, then they aren't monitoring. The fact that the issue occurred in the first place shows that they aren't testing their software before making key changes.

It is pretty much unacceptable.

sadbob wrote: »

They're selling the app on the android market - it should work or if it doesn't they shouldn't have released an android app for it until the sorted it.

In the end of the day they are using their customers as Guinea Pigs for their system enhancements and changes. I'll bet that they have no test team in there at all. Just a developer there, some lanky nerd in front of a PC slugging cheap coffee from a straw. That's how it comes across HKC - untested, unfinished and unprofessional.

Then expecting installers to take the rap for it.

KoolKid

sadbob wrote: »

Yes they should be notified. We're paying a company called Security & Risk Communications Ltd on behalf of HKC Ltd. I don't know the link between the two.

Basically it's HKC
2 of the same directors. Same owner.
http://www.solocheck.ie/Irish-Company/Security-And-Risk-Communications-Limited-417550

sadbob

Thanks, so effectively same company as from the consumer's view point. Still, poor service and the lack of communication/interaction from them is really really poor.

I don't chase my Sky installer for faults if they occur with the service, I pay Sky a sub and expect a service from them as one would expect as I now do with HKC.

Sysiphus

None of this addresses the issue we are having of the WiFi cards crapping out our network... when the card is enabled our wifi / local house network shuts down.. a reboot of the router sorted it.. for a while.. now with the wifi card (€150) fully disabled .. wifi is fine, no issues....

Anybody else?

(I can give a better more tech view.. but we'll leave it at this for the moment)

nicnac

"Connection Lost" at 02.59.

fred funk }{

nicnac wrote: »

"Connection Lost" at 02.59.

Have you contacted your installer about this problem?

nicnac

fred funk }{ wrote: »

Have you contacted your installer about this problem?

Yes

fred funk }{

nicnac wrote: »

Yes

And?

nicnac

Just like to add that HKC are actually very keen to assist customers experiencing any issues with their product. We raised our issue with them and they are working with us and our installer. It is looking like a piece of faulty equipment was behind the majority of our problems.

Argo foc yourself

I have been having this same problem with not getting notifications via the app. Had tried everything. Just on a final effort, I turned off the WiFi on my phone and hey presto the app notifications started to come.

The wifi is not connected to the alarm in any way. The alarm has its own gsm card.

So while I have identified the problem I dont know how to fix it. Is it an issue for my broadband provider?

Mr. G

Argo foc yourself wrote: »

I have been having this same problem with not getting notifications via the app. Had tried everything. Just on a final effort, I turned off the WiFi on my phone and hey presto the app notifications started to come.

The wifi is not connected to the alarm in any way. The alarm has its own gsm card.

So while I have identified the problem I dont know how to fix it. Is it an issue for my broadband provider?

Try using WiFi from somewhere else. HKC weirdly uses port 50001, some networks block all ports apart from 53/80/443 just to allow web traffic. This is common in workplaces or large corporate networks. Also check any firewall or security software on your device may be blocking it.

If it works on 3G/4G then it's unlikely to be hkc issue

Argo foc yourself

I have done some further testing and realised that that app notifications are working with wifi on and off. However, it does not notify me if the panic button is pressed. This is the case whether the alarm is on or off