Parental Control App- FamiSafe Ratings and Reviews

Amazing service!

st recently, have learnt that you cannot control a person’s faithfulness. I was married to my ex-partner for four years with a daughter and i had no idea she was cheating on me with another man in Ohio. The immense love I had for her overshadowed signs that she was being unfaithful. It all started when I observed certain changes in behavior and the way she held her phone so closely. I had to share this with a co worker during my shift at work. He went on to refer mr. Dustin, a ‘top of the line’ private investigator/ cyber security expert. I immediately wrote to his email address at ghosthacker5775@gmailcom and explained what I wanted in details. We agreed on an affordable price with a refund policy if I’m not satisfied with the service. Of course, I didn’t need the refund because, not later than 2 hours, he gained access to my ex partner’s call history, her texts, location, social media apps including messenger and Snapchat. I felt utterly used but at the same time, weirdly satisfied that I finally found out the truth. I could not bear the secrecy for long so I filed for a divorce as soon as I could. I’m really thankful to Dustin for helping me out of my situation. If you ever find yourself in such a predicament like mine, I suggest you send him and email ghosthacker5775@gmailcom

Don’t Buy

It is near impossible to get in touch with someone from the company to provide help. I eventually figured out how to send a message and was reduced to emailing back and forth….meaning I had to wait to receive an email before I could resolve. The issue is, I was never able to resolve. What’s worse is when they would email me, they sent bits and pieces of information that was incomplete so I had to email them again for clear instructions.

Most importantly, the app worked initially but stopped working. It sends me explicit notices from my child’s phone when she isn’t even using it. I let that nuisance go. Then my screen locked for my other child and they told me I had to upgrade controls which I never had to do when I initially installed the app or my daughter’s phone. After upgrading, I had to give control to my computer (because you can only upgrade using a computer) and iPhone to FamiSafe. Now my phone does not work properly….it all of a sudden says VPN at the top and I can’t view the items in my email without removing VPN. If I remove VPN, then I don’t have access to the internet and I can’t download. After searching on the internet, I learned that FamiSafe is using VPN in order to run and has more access than I would like. It also downloaded FamiSafe Jr and I can’t delete without deleting the parent app which the first takes up more storage space. It also required me to redownload the apps that I previously installed.

Think it through before you install

The app is very effective at locking things down on your child's device or whatever.... but it's so effective that its intrusive. It does what it says it will do, but I was expecting more control settings so I could customize the various limits. Ultimately I didn't like the app and tried to uninstall it. That was when things got frustrating. Due to some glitch in their software I couldn't uninstall it and regain control of the device. We had just gotten the iPad for our child and they were very excited... but they couldn't install any apps at all. I will say their customer service was surprisingly responsive for an oversees company, but communication was slow with each exchange taking a day or two due to the time difference. Ultimately they did get it resolved but it took weeks while my kid was disappointed. In summary: the app is effective and does what it says, the settings options are too limited, and their customer service is actually pretty good - but I don't recommend unless you want the device on full lockdown.

Developer Response ,

We apologize for any inconvenience caused and would like to assist you further in resolving the issue. Please reach out to us at customer_service@wondershare.com and our technical team will reply you within 24 hours. Hope that you will give us the opportunity to assist you. Thank you.

Tracks and blocks the parent

I downloaded this app to keep track of my 11 year old son and the websites/apps he’s accessing. I was directed to activate it on the computer but as soon as I did, my phone did a restart. When it came back up, I couldn’t access my apps - including my emails and banking accounts - or search on the internet. I spent over an hour at Verizon and on the phone with Apple to fix it and it was ultimately determined it was the fault of the app as it directly correlated with the activation. I reached out to Wondershare customer service (which there is no option for FamiSafe when you call in, it’s every other application they make). I was able to talk to Carlo who repeatedly offered to email me instructions to troubleshoot (the email I didn’t have access to). After 30 minutes of repeating myself, I asked to speak to a supervisor and he refused. He did send me an email requesting screenshots of the issue. However, I had to reset my phone to factory settings as deleting the app and my account didn’t fix anything. This is a complaint from other iPhone users on an Apple thread. I wanted to like this app - it seemed user friendly (according to pictures in the App Store) and tracked everything I needed. But the poor customer service and the stupidity of it blocking the parent has me researching other parental control apps.

Developer Response ,

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with our app and customer service. We understand how frustrating this situation must have been, and we appreciate your patience throughout the process.

Firstly, we would like to assure you that we take user experience and customer satisfaction very seriously. Could you please provide your ticket number? I will forward your case to our priority escalation team for prompt attention.

Regarding your experience with our customer service, we apologize for the lack of support and understanding. We will take your feedback into account and provide additional training to our customer service representatives to ensure such situations do not occur in the future.

Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience and hope to have the opportunity to provide you with a better experience in the future.

Great concept

I loved the concept of this app but have had a good bit of issues with it to be honest. I use the smart schedule daily with my kids as they watch their iPad for a few minutes before turning them off and going to sleep and the schedule functionality just hasn’t been consistent. Sometimes it works great and other times it doesn’t block the iPad at the set time (like last night) and sometimes doesn’t unblock at the set time (just about daily). I then have to go and toggle on and off several times for it to FINALLY have their apps back... very annoying when you have an impatient 4 year old standing in front of you. The toggle to block everything right then also takes a long time to react. In all I like the concept but wish it worked more consistently. I also don’t like that the new update doesn’t show when an iPad is currently blocked, that was something important for me to be able to check that the app was working right and it’s gone now

Some features work some don’t

The tracking and geofencing work. Downtime scheduling does not work. You can set the schedule and it will lock app on the phone but will not unlock. I have to turn the schedule off and on every time to get the apps to unlock ie school time schedule or bedtime schedule. Tech support will have you uninstall and reinstall the app multiple times this is not work and a waste of time. I have ask for a refund and keep getting the run around with the same repeated steps. The main reason I wanted this app was for the remote scheduling of down time. The app is not working properly and reading the reviews and forums this has been a issue for years now. I have been asked for screenshots of the issue. Ask for more information on what tech support wanted and sent it to them. Was asked to agin uninstall and reinstall. The app will just not do the downtime schedule. I have spent hours researching to make sure everything was setup correctly. Have done what tech support has asked and they will not issue a refund. I ask for a refund on day 7.

Update I did receive a refund.

Too many issues

After downloading the app and purchasing a three months subscription for two devices I had nothing but inconsistent results. When setting the daily schedule and designating times the device would not be able to be used we found that it was inconsistent and more times than not did not work. Also after Blocking or unblocking apps it did not work as well. Even after downloading the program on my personal laptop to control the phones. I requested a refund after only 1 week and was denied. Even though I communicating it was a issue with the app not just a change of mind. Then one of the devices disconnected very easily from the program a second device I went back-and-forth for two weeks with customer support not being able to remove the program. Which left my daughter Phone unprotected and not able to download a new parental app. There was no resolve on their end just run around and no answers. I ended up having to factory reset my daughters phone and not being able to back up the previous profile so my daughter lost a lot of personal items. Think twice before purchasing!

Developer Response ,

Hi there, I do apologize for not providing you with a satisfactory experience. Regarding your concern, would you please give us one more chance to help you? May I know your email? Wait for your reply.

Not Reccomended

My parents have installed a lot of different “device limiting” apps and this is just another one of them. It worked fine initially, but then it started acting up. First, the WiFi was very very spotty. I checked the settings app and found that there were SIX different VPN’s active on my phone. Then, it started to glitch and refuse to give me app time even though my parents unrestricted them. It overall just stopped listening to their inputs and locked all my apps. Now, I am logged out of the app and can’t access and apps. Everything is restricted and, get this right, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to uninstall. It’s like a virus. It says that it’s unable to uninstall because it is required BY itself. So now my phone isn’t mine anymore because all it allows to be used are basic communications apps. Overall, it worked fine initially, but then turned into a stalking, restrictive virus.

EDIT POST RESPONSE: I open the kids app and it just says “loading” forever and I therefore can’t access anything in the app, including setting or feedback.

Developer Response ,

We apologize for any inconvenience you've experienced. To better assist you, could you please provide more details about the issue using the "Feedback" feature in the settings menu? Your satisfaction is our top priority, and we're committed to resolving any problems you may encounter.

Avoid. Avoid. Please, avoid this app!

It had potential but lacks control power. Totally useless for our needs—-we need more specific customizations for a broad variety of apps. There was also a huge lag between the time I had altered settings (such as allowing more time) and the device being updated. ***** The worst part is trying to cancel the subscription without getting charged. They have set up their cancellation/refund policy so that they don’t have to give out any refunds. Read what reasons are not acceptable and what would qualify for a cancel-refund. Lame. I cancelled less than 24 hours of the monthly subscription that was purchased on the 22nd of November. I followed their guidance by contacting support through the account. Since then, I have had nonstop back and forth communication with their support team asking for an egregious amount of information. I believe that they’re making this process painful for the purchaser/user, as a greedy business tactic $$$. —that is downright nasty. ….and my patience has run out. Thus, turning my focus on posting reviews about my experience.

HORRIBLE

I am a child who has this app on my phone, I am 13 years old (girl). The app works good in all but sometimes when I would try to talk to my friends it would block me from the whole app then I would try to go back in and it would log me out of my whole account. This app makes your whole phone SLOW. If your parent set a screen time limit it WONT even give you a heads up saying “5 minutes left”. Its so annoying because I would be listening to music or having a conversation and it would just say “screen time limit is up” then when I try to go back in and everything gets all glitchy. The app makes me feel like If I do one thing wrong I will have a really bad consequence. It also makes me feel untrustworthy of my parents. Then I see other people being able to be free and FaceTime there friends and make plans to hangout and I’ll be just watching them have fun while my screen time is all used up. When I’m on my phone the app causes me to have anxiety because i feel like someone is over my shoulder and i don’t know what is finna show on any of my apps.

Developer Response ,

Hi there, sorry to hear this, I understand your concerns. FamiSafe can let parents control screen time, track real-time location and detect inappropriate content on kids' devices. What we more focus on is to let parents help kids develop a good habit of using mobile devices or PC. So our monitoring is to detect harmful, inappropriate content only.