Oskar P.

A few days ago, I received emails I believed came from Optimum. These emails included my name, address, account number, and billing information. I just learned today these emails were NOT from Optimum. While spoof/fishing emails are pretty normal, these ones contain personal information that indicate Optimum's database was hacked. This data breach has NOT been notified by Optimum, perhaps in hopes it will never come to light. The most upsetting thing here is that they never alerted us about it, so I am pretty certain some customers have followed links from those emails and given away the payment methods. I already reported this to the Attorney General's office, but please beware: this company is shady AF and cannot be trusted.

I've been a Nest customer for over a decade. I loved the hardware quality and the Nest app -- could have not been happier. Google then purchased Nest and proceed to kill a perfectly-good product by forcing customers to use their Google Home app, a subpar product that seems to be suspended in a continuous beta development stage. Here's a summary of issues I encountered in the past few months:

* First generation cameras may or may not load on Google Home. If I move them back to the Nest app, they work great. (Now I have half of my cameras in each app -- not the most convenient solution.)
* Live view inconsistent for all cameras.
* Audio stream mixed, so you might be watching a recorded video from Camera A and listen to yourself talking in real time in Camera B.
* Video recordings can take really long to become available.
* Continuous notifications for person or pet detected, even though you turned notifications for those events off.

These (and other) issues were reported to Google multiple times. They simply don't care. To make things worse, they consistently misrepresent their willingness to help and compensate you for the inconvenience. For example:

* They will offer you a free *one year subscription* for Nest Aware in one call, with instructions to call before the auto-renewal date.
* Upon that call, you learn that the offer was for 6 months, not for 12 months. Their gaslight runs high.
* Upon turning off the auto-renewal of Nest Aware (which they instructed me to do), Google automatically offers a 50% off deal for staying, which is better than their 6 months for free when paying full price for a year.
* So you learn that the hours you spent on the phone did not result in a better product and the "offers" they promised you were simply lies, and much worse than the deal you were going to get anyway by simply leaving auto-renew (a 10-second trick all Nest Aware users should use because, honestly, $150 a year for this half-baked product is a scam -- such a shameful money-grabbing).

What a joke. I can't emphasize enough how much I loved these cameras and the Nest app and how much Google has ruined the experience for me.

This is a great app! What truly blows my mind is that I was able to get all relevant updates from Lawfully, whereas the USCIS seems unable to manage email technology. So thankful for Lawfully.

My very short experience with FTMO has been a mix: on the one hand, I love the idea of taking on their demo and/or challenge and learning trading techniques in the Forex market, on the other hand this company has huge communication issues. Let me explain...

I devoted 8 days over the past couple of weeks to work on the FTMO challenge. As a newbie, I had a vague impression that maybe the low equity I reached in some of the positions would be problematic, but my MetaTrader account kept running and the FTMO app indicated that the challenge was still "Ongoing." Additionally, I never received any email or push notification from FTMO indicating that I failed the challenge... so I kept going on under the assumption that I was still "in the game."

(Take, for contrast, the response of MyForexFund: My wife failed her test, and her account was immediately disabled on MetaTrader, her app indicated the challenge had failed, and she received an email reporting the failure to pass the challenge.)

After long hours, I managed to bring my balance from the brink of extinction to an amount that suggested I was on track to pass the challenge. To my surprise, yesterday I accidentally found out that my Max Loss and Max DL had been violated, which apparently is code for "you failed."

Now, I am not disputing the failure. I am aware that I have LOTS to learn about trading, and I am willing to continue putting the work. What I find unacceptable is that this company never thought their platform should immediately notify the user about this critical detail. I should not need to find out that I had continued putting long hours of work, many of them until late at night, on an already failed challenge by accidentally clicking on an account that clearly indicated that the challenge was still "Ongoing."

I am still waiting to hear back to my email to FTMO support. In addition to providing feedback, I requested a free repeat, which in my opinion is reasonable considering the reasons I pointed out in my email. I have a good feeling about this company, but I need them to prove they care about their customers. If their response does not satisfy me, I will have to move to MFF.

Regardless of their response, however, I am hoping they remedy their poor communication issues.

Follow up:

I just heard back from FTMO and: (1) They are not willing to offer free repeats. (2) They insist that they only way to know you failed the challenge is by checking the app's Account MetriX, which indicates they are unwilling to listen to my feedback on properly notifying users about the status of their challenge.

I am accordingly downgrading my original rating by one star, and will seek future opportunities with other companies, most likely MFF.


Addendum 8/24/2023

FTMO communicated that my review, which is completely genuine and truthful, violates their T&C 10.1 and that I should remove it if I plan to use their service again in the future. This confirms my previous impression about this company, and may explain the very high ratings: those who had any complaints to share were likely forced to withdraw their reviews under threats of retaliation. Below is what I got in an email today:

“As mentioned in the T&C 10.1 acts in any manner that may damage the company's good reputation in this case in the form of public review. Although we do not restrict you from voicing your opinion publically, the review needs to be based on the truth and genuine experience. The grade of the review questions our good reputation and might cause future conflict if you decide to utilize our services again in the future.”

This downgrades my rating by another star. Such a disappointment.


Addendum 8/28

In consonance with the rest of my experience with FTMO, I just found out that they terminated my account, restricting access to challenge and demo accounts.

This shameless extortion is clear from this explanation I received from their team leader: "As was mentioned to you previously the review is a reflection of your stance towards our company and as a result, I have temporarily suspended your registration with its service as understandably utilizing our services while objectively being dissatisfied with it is contradicting. Therefore, if you wish to resume our cooperation we will need you to clear your stance with our company by either removing the review or edit it accordingly."

I wish I could recommend Wise. I have been using it for almost two years now to send small amounts of money to my fiancé in Thailand and, with a few exceptions, it always worked great: the money was in her account within seconds pretty much every single time. But not this time... and this was the one time I happened to send a large amount ($12,000) to help her pay off her mortgage after selling her house, so she can finally prepare to come to live in the USA.

Working with Wise to try to solve this issue has been the most frustrating and draining experience. The people taking my phone calls are great (professional and nice) but day after day all I've been getting is empty promises that the issue would be resolved by the end of the day or by the following day. As of now, the money is still in transit ("Sending") and there is a *really high* chance that it will arrive too late for her to keep her current appointments with banks and government entities to finalize her paperwork. I am still holding my breath, but also losing my hope as reality sinks in. (Obviously, at this point, canceling the transaction is pointless, as it would take longer for me to wait until I receive the money to send it on a regular wire transfer with my bank.)

In sum, use your judgment. I wish I had known better.

The quality of this pendant is impressive! It arrived within the promised date, impeccably packed, and in a nice box with an LED that surprised everyone. My girlfriend loved it. I will certainly buy from Glamira in the future.