First neither is my first or second choice lol. But If I had to choose between the two, I'd pick Alpha every time.
The biggest reason is simple: when you call Alpha, someone actually answers the phone. Their technical support has been excellent in my experience. They provide after-hours support through cell phone contacts, which is invaluable when you're dealing with a shutdown or a customer who needs answers immediately. Their app is easy to use, and whenever I've requested documentation—whether it's parameter lists, software information, or troubleshooting guidance—they've been willing to provide it without making me jump through hoops.
As for Smartrise, our experience has been the exact opposite. The support has been so consistently poor that we've completely removed Smartrise from every proposal we submit. We no longer purchase controllers from them, and their technical support is the primary reason why.
Time and time again, we've waited hours for callbacks that never come. One example that stands out was a controller with ghost hall calls that had been occurring since the day it was installed. I had a new customer standing right next to me while I sat in the machine room explaining that the software appeared to be glitched. We waited over five hours for a callback from Smartrise that never happened.
The following morning, I started calling at 7:00 AM EST, meaning I was likely one of the first callers in the queue. Even then, it still took three and a half hours before I received a callback. Once I finally got someone on the phone and explained the situation, they became reluctant to assist because I was no longer standing in front of the controller. After pushing back, they eventually told me which parameter was causing the issue—only to admit that it was a common problem they had seen before. If it's a known issue, why did it take multiple days and several hours of waiting to get a straightforward answer?
Email support isn't much better. Most responses are along the lines of, "I'll send someone an email and get back to you." Unfortunately, the follow-through rarely happens. Requests often disappear into a black hole, and you're left chasing answers yourself.
My biggest frustration with Smartrise is the complete lack of accountability and transparency. When you call for support, they can't tell you how many people are ahead of you, where you are in the queue, or how long the wait will be. You're simply expected to sit and wait indefinitely. In an industry where downtime costs money and damages customer relationships, that's unacceptable.
At this point, whenever I have to call Smartrise for support, I intentionally make sure the building owner or customer is standing right next to me. I note the time of the call and ask how many people are ahead of me and how long the callback will take. The answer is almost always the same: they don't know. Watching a customer see that firsthand paints a much clearer picture than anything I could ever tell them. It helps them understand exactly why we've removed Smartrise controllers from our proposals and why often the bill is extreamly high as we are on site waiting for hours.
At the end of the day, a controller is only as good as the support behind it and I would take a MCE or ESI before I got an Alpha but I will take ANYTHING over a SMARTRISE.
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