Mini Smart WiFi Plug

I landed on this product for three reasons: 1) the price, 2) the reviews, 3) the fact that some smart plugs came with 2 outlets. I bought four of the 2-outlet type, and 4 of the single outlet type. I also bought a 2-outlet outdoor smart plug. All 3 orders are on their way back to Amazon as I type this out. I've been an IT network engineer for almost 30 years, so I'm very technical. I bought these products to be able to turn on/off my Christmas decorations outside, as well as 12 window candle lights that have been working just fine with RF switch plugs. I wanted a solution whereby I could just hit a button on my phone and turn all candle lights and outside lights off at once, rather than going room-to-room hitting a button on a remote. I also wanted to be able to see if the lights were on while I'm not at home, so a cloud app was a necessity (I'm able to monitor the temperature of my upstairs and downstairs HVAC systems this way, as well as my outdoor cameras, which I love!). My WiFi router is currently operating in dual-mode (a.k.a Smart Connect). That is to say that it broadcasts a SSID for both 2.4Ghz b/g/n and 5Ghz a/n/ac 802.11 spectrums. So if something only transmits/receives in 2.4Ghz, like these smart plugs, it will accept those connections. I have a wireless AP in my closet downstairs, and a separate AP upstairs. All wireless devices in my house have no issues with signal strength at 5Ghz, so naturally 2.4Ghz is never a problem since that signal strength reaches further. My transmit power is also set to 100% for both spectrums. The set up for these devices is pretty straightforward. The instructions for all devices were identical and not very easy to read, so I just watched videos online. The app did not have a selection for my outdoor smart plug, so I had to take a guess on that one (again a video helped). Now here's where things got unpredictable and sporadic. Units that were farthest away from my AP, but in doors, seemed to connect very easily and stay connected. 2 units in rooms neighboring the closet (where the AP is) constantly showed "offline". These were clearly defective because I moved them into a room where it had clear line of sight, 10 feet from the 2nd AP, and they still showed "offline". The outdoor unit, which sat only 15 feet from the closet, just outside my front door, barely was able to initialize much less stay on the network and respond when I tried to interact with it. Some devices showed "offline" but would then come "online" when I walked into the room. I ended up spending at least an hour or two trying to get these devices to consistently show online, but just gave up in the end. I didn't bother with support, because I already wasted enough time on something that should not be that complicated. Seriously! They make thermostats, refrigerators, cameras and garage door openers that communicate better over 2.4Ghz or even 5Ghz, and can be accessed from home or across the country. But for some reason they can't do that for these smart plugs!!?? These were made cheap for cheap reasons. Buy these if you only have 1 or 2 devices, keep your AP on some table out in the open near those devices, and only operate them from your phone while in your home and maybe you'll get what you pay for!