Hmmm, I could use an interest free mortgage.

I don’t want to know which turd is the best smelling turd. I wanted to know what’s wrong with the nest so I can explain to the client why they can’t use it.

What product would you prefer to install at the door?  Or none at all?

Elan has their own door station that they have brought out.

Fins, personally, I stopped arguing with customers.
I pre-wire for what I need but if they insist on getting something of their own, I let them do just that -- buy their own.
I install it as time and materials and obviously any service calls or quality issues are either a billable or be left to the manufacturer's tech support people. As in client calls tech support since I don't know or own that unit.
Of course all of this is discussed ahead of time and they know what they are getting into.
Inevitably, most were claim that we never had the conversation or they forgot.
I'm not trying to put them on the spot. I just tell them flat out that they bought the unit they are responsible for it.

Funny thing about that.

After years and years of installing M&S Intercoms with door stations, room stations throughout the home, and patio stations, I found that damn near every client didn't use the system.

Come to the home, ring the bell, and NO ONE ever used the intercom to ask who was there. They ALWAYS just came to answer the door.

Got into installing Aiphone video door stations and it was almost exactly the same.

For the most part I agree with you. However in this case, this individual has been a client for a long time. I know when to give in to her way and how to contest her ideas when they are bad ideas. She made me move an inwall sub because it could be seen from the foyer when people entered the house. She will hate the nest doorbell stuck on her front door that costs more than the average home.

Yes. They look way too commercial. I'd expect to see them outside an office building, at a hotel, at some multi dwelling complex, or outside some old ass bank. Not on a gorgeous high end residence. The ring elite is way better looking for residential market.

I don't see the Ring Elite as being less "commercial" looking. And I guess "gorgeous high-end residence" is whatever you think it is. What about a "gorgeous" Contemporary House? Mid-Century Modern? If you want a little less "2018" for your taste you could do worse than the Channel Vision in dark bronze.

By the way, unlike the Siedle, Doorbird, Halovision etc. does the Ring Elite have:

Trigger contacts?
Custom Engraving?
SIP Call (Audio and Video)?
Contact Closure Relays?
RFID Reader?
Biometric Reader?
Panasonic Phone System Ready?
VoIP Audio Video Ready?
Tell me when to stop.

At the end of the day I think we may be working in entirely different industries. Maybe if you work really hard you can be on the CEPro top 100!

I see the usual suspects still sound like a bunch of whiners who would rather complain than offer a solution....

how about you take a regular old button, connect that to a contact closure on your AUTOMATION SYSTEM, then make the SPEAKERS DING DONG, and then have your AUTOMATION APP notify the client someone is at the front door and then show the camera you mounted in the soffit or elsewhere pointed at the front door.

and from that camera add an NVR that you manage for $10 per month and offer 60 days of record time.....

This house has no eves to mount cameras on. Also, your solution doesn’t allow the client to talk to someone at the door

I could save about $450/month if I didn't have to pay property tax.

FWIW, I haven't seen all of the options, but I was looking at the Ring until I found out it didn't do real time video which may have been changed by now. I did watch someone installing Nest cameras, doorbell and smoke detectors and saw the video quality- better than I had expected and it can be zoomed without pixellation. Night video looked good, too. I recently signed on as a Nest dealer, but haven't bought any yet- margin is decent, labor rates are good- it makes more sense than buying from a distributor but even then, if I need something to add to a job quickly and it's already profitable, that's not as bad as buying Sonos through distribution.

I haven't heard what happens when/if a Nest product dies, so that's an unknown- if it's like pulling teeth through my ass, I'll stop. The call to tech support was informative and didn't take forever to get through, so that's a plus.

They (Nest) have training on their pro portal, too.

I seem to always be the one who has a question that requires people to totally understand their product. Yes, it took very little time to get through. It took asking my question -- is there a way to connect the Nest that does not require a doorbell already in place -- to reveal that they cannot think their way out of a paper bag on anything that's not already in the instructions. This may change as they get more experience with different applications, but as of three months ago, they didn't want to hear about it. And of course had no solutions as a result.

If doorbell button pressed and TV on switch to doorcam input.