Amcrest Reviews 115

My experience with Amcrest has been extremely frustrating and disappointing.

The camera system itself is unreliable — setup is a hassle and basic features like notifications don’t work properly. For a security product, that’s already a major problem.

What makes it worse is the complete lack of support. I contacted customer service multiple times and never received any reply. On one occasion, I was even told someone would call me back — that never happened. No follow-up, no accountability.

At this point, it feels like once they’ve sold you the product, you’re completely on your own. I would strongly recommend avoiding Amcrest based on both the poor product performance and the nonexistent customer service.

Horrible wait time for tech support. Horrible connectivity. Horrible instructions in booklets. Tech support might as well speak in their native language since accents are so thick.
The cameras are great. Tech support sux
I am very dissapointed with Amcrest. Especially since tech support wasnt always this bad.
Update:
Called Amcrest back. This time, we talked to "Brent". He helped us out successfully. And professionally. And in a timely manner.
It was a completely different expérience. It was like the Amcrest of old.

Truly awful, nowhere on the packaging for their WiFi doorbell does it state you need an existing wired in doorbel to hook their chime kit into so the internal alert will not work unless I buy an additional transformer. Total waste of money.

I have 32 Amcrest cameras ($3400) & four Amcrest NVR's ($1200). DO NOT waste money on this garbage. A crime was committed at my house & when I went to access the NVR, it will not go to the specific time on the timeline. Instead, it jumps to an hour or so AFTER the crime. A complete waste of money & time. Amcrest says to seek resolution through law enforcement. Is that for the crime or to file charges on Amcrest for scamming customers with garbage equipment?

What a pack of scammers. I have 2 exterior cameras under “monitoring “ contract with Amcrest. My IR died and I requested assistance via the 888 # for tech help.
They couldn’t identify my cameras saying I had to supply model and SN. They couldn’t find my account even though I had been paying these losers for several years. I canceled my account but sure enough, they charged me again.
Beware these scammers

One of the worst security cameras. It loses time if power goes out and does not reset. There is option to sync but not on mobile app. This is basic. i am replacing this garabage camera. Dont buy it.

Wouldn’t give one star. Brand new. Wouldn’t connect to WiFi. Worked on it for 2 days. Even had the internet tech support physically out at my house with no luck. Followed every different trouble shooting advice from the box, to google, to Amcrest to no avail. Threw one camera away and rebooted the second. Tech support guy didn’t even want the thing. Reordered a different brand.

Have had amcrest for several years and you never know what cameras will operate the next day. Switches sites, connections disappear etc. You can make a full time job of trying to keep the difficult to set up Amcrest camera on line.

Some co workers recommend amcrest so I bought their wireless camera because I didn’t want to drill holes in my brick home so the wireless cameras would stop working and I would have to get a refurbished, and customer service sucks I finally gave up after a year and customer service telling me that the cameras would work better if I plugged them in.. wast of so my time and money. I would never recommend amcrest

First of all the expensive kit didn't come with everything you needed and ended up having to fork out a lot more money. Then the cameras don't connect to shit. I tried to use Roku, but that's a pile of crap too. I've been trying for two days to connect my cameras to something and nothing is working. IP address, all that crap nothing works, and I'm ready to throw this expensive system right in the trash. It's pissing me off so bad. Let's make this easier for people that don't know anything about electronics. You have to be a master electrician computer with to even know what the hell you're doing. No Internet needed my ass. Straight power source right to the converter box with ethernet cords, but this shit doesn't work.

I've had this camera for years, and while it took me about a week to configure in the beginning and a few minor glitches here and there, the PC UI and android app worked fine. Sometime around Sept/Oct 2024, the push notifications stopped working, I figured it was because my phone was old. As I've been home alot and also have a separate security system, it wasn't a priority. So, today, I get a new phone and realize the two new apps are insanely inadequate. In trying the View Pro 2, one phone will only connect intermittently. My new phone's connection is more reliable but so incredibly time-consuming the villain could carry off half the house before I could get to the live feed, let alone the playback. The prior View Pro seems to be more like the original in function, but absolutely refuses to send push notifications at all. I'm so disappointed because the UI works great and the cameras are clear. Unfortunately I didn't buy security cameras to sit around the house and watch them on my PC. I cannot believe after all the complaints and online bashing they have done nothing to fix these issues. So disappointed.

I’ve got quite a few indoor and outdoor Amcrest cameras and I have to say I’ve been very impressed over the years, 3 of them are over 7yrs old and still going strong. Whenever I’ve contacted the support team they’re always very helpful and solve my query’s. Read a few negative comments on here so thought I’d give my feedback. Would recommend

3 years ago I purchased these cameras, which never fully worked properly. I had them professionally installed. I kept contacting them about problems for over 2 years without getting a right answer. Then my order was completely erased. I ordered from them directly. NOONE could help. I even sent their receipt back to them, saying I bought it from your company directly. I also told them that I was writing to them for over 2 years because they NEVER worked properly. They just kept saying they could not find my order so they couldn't help. NEVER BUY ANYTHING from this company. Their cameras are junk and their service is worst.

Doorbell model AD110 worked for 4 days, then stopped.
Now the smarthome app and account is not working either. I can't even log-in, let alone use the door-bell cam.
I don't know if it's the app, the camera, or their cloud-server, despite hard-resets, app re-installs, etc. It's been "radio-silence" from Amcrest for 3 days and counting....
in 24hrs, this POS going back, and I'll gladly pay 2x or 3x for a Ubiquity door-bell that actually works.

Buyers beware. My family have me a camera last Christmas and the camera only worked for 6 months. Continually disconnecting from the internet so I get no pictures. The camera can not differentiate between human and anything else. Get over 100+ notifications that are either blank or of just my driveway. Will never use this brand ever again.
Tried working with amercrest for over a month and they couldn't figure it out. But since it was given to me as a gift they will not do anything.

The app is so bad it could take days for it to allow you to go back and look at footage. SO unreliable and the app never works properly to go back and see days. It’s been terrible for years and they don’t care to update it at all. The reviews speak volumes…. Listen. I will be changing to a different system. This is worthless!

Terrible customer service. Camera stopped working out of the blue. I had to pay $15 to get a refurbished one. That didn't work either. Over 50 emails back and forth. They said I would be sent a new one then they pulled that offer and said I could get another refurbished and to take it or leave it and they were closing my ticket. I told them to keep it. I have another one of their cameras that works great so I know it's not my network as they claim.

Inform them that camera live view is cropping out on amcrest view pro app using an iPhone 16 pro max. Gave them the screenshots and ask them to confirm and replicate the issue before escalate to someone that can fix the problem. Respond never address the reported issue or telling you enough information if case has been escalated or ETA for fix.

Customer service is just horrible and it seems like they don’t know what is going on or just don’t care.

WORST COMPANY EVER. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THESE FOLKS.

I deal with CCTV regularly at both work and home. I have my main home and holiday home covered by camera systems. Amcrest build quality is good for the price point and the cameras are pretty reliable which is lucky as the tech support and management of the cameras is dire. Unless you have a Chrome OS device the web client is mostly useless. You can't view live only change settings. They don't support the usual Edge, Firefox or Opera. Logging in can be a nightmare too as i've found it refuses to recognise passwords - even when they are saved! I have changed out all my personal Amcrest cameras (all but one in my workshop). I now use Reolink as they are reliable, great value and the app/web client is great. They also work well with my Synology NAS. Not sure why Amcrest have decided on a path of commercial suicide with the total lack of support, but with the competition out there so strong, their future looks grim.