WeatherFlow Tempest Weather System

Long litany of lame claims to shift blame followed replacement device with an almost flat battery that took a month, rather than 4hrs, to get above full operating voltage.

None of their advice enabled connection with hub, but I found a way. But not for replacing old device with new. In an undocumented swipe, accesss to all old data was list too.

They initially claimed I was probably doing something wrong, I had to send a pic to prove proximity. Then they claimed I was 'wrong' as what I reported app was showing, instead of what they thought it should, was 'impossible'.

I gave them the very recent release date and version number of app I was using, which I re-installed and got same 'impossible' messages. Their response: 'I need to check if my app is the most recent release'. If they don't know then how am I meant to?

But with data finally coming from replacement, they claimed their analysis showed it was not getting enough sunshine to properly recharge, even after a month. They then said 400W/m^2 irradiation would be adequate, but my low level Ozzie winter sun meant that it was often getting over 800W/m^2 on vertical recharge panels.

But something weird suddenly happened one day, it suddenly started increasing its recharge and within an hour, they claimed it was finally above that minimum voltage and could be deemed a success. Yet that higher recharge rate, despite lower irradiation, was still only a tenth of what their support site said it should have.

They then said i had been 'misled' by all those technical details on their web site, without saying how, and asked me to suggest different 'verbiage' to avoid whatever misleading they might have meant.

But then, rain recording became erratically wrong. Hour after hour it was recording 'High' and 'Very High' rainfall when not a drop had fallen. They claimed it was caused by vibrations of nearby deck as I was walking on it. But I had not been, and the support is rock solid on a 4x4 column securely mounted to brick walls under that corner of deck. I sent video showing no vibrations on water as I jumped up and down next to it.

They then claimed rain was caused by birds landing on device. What? Every minute, hour after hour, day and night. No bird is that bird brained. Support said I needed a bird guard ' but the video and pics showed it already had one.

They then claimed it needed calibrating. But that would only work if it was consistently making similar rain recording errors - mine was still behaving erratically, up to VeryHigh sometimes and below High at others, all while none falling. Although they said they had been following all my data, they asked me to click on an undocumented link to duplicate that data for them for their (hopeless?) re-calibrating.

After reporting it had suddenly stopped falsely reporting rain, they claimed that was a software feature that only allowed rain recording if other sensors (from neighbouring devices working ok?) or forecasts said it should detect some. It had previously alerted me every time rain commenced. By over riding that, even those previously perfect alerts were rendered impossible. How much 'data' sent to Weather Bureaus, for which they get paid, is so simulated rather than actually recorded on-site?

From time to time they have said they would send a properly working replacement if I want. Initially they said that might also fail. I suggested they properly test it first. They said no need as their Quality Contol was excellent. Yet had asked me if the one that arrived almost totally flat was switched on or off when it arrived. Now, instead of replacing the device with well proven failures, with one that is working properly, they have started re-sending those already de-bunked excuses. And now I have pointed all this out to them, they claim I am being un-cooperative and I've heard nothing from them since. Sobyes? truly revolting customer support.