Hive: most-reported complaints
Automated analysis of 1,040 public Trustpilot reviews published 2025-12-31 to 2026-09-23. TrustScore 4.1 from 52,669 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is Hive legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.
Reviewers most often report issues with faulty products, citing 219 complaints which represent 35% of the total identified complaints. Support-related problems are also frequent, with 159 reports of unhelpful assistance and 102 reports of unreachable support, both showing a rising trend. Additionally, 136 complaints regarding account and app problems were noted, accounting for 22% of complaints and showing a falling trend.
The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2018-02-08, uses Trustpilot’s paid features, uses Trustpilot’s AI-assisted replies, and last replied to a negative review on 2026-09-22. Trustpilot ranks it 167 of 193 in Electronics Store. We last checked this profile on 2026-09-23 and found 29 new reviews. These are facts Trustpilot publishes about the profile, as of our last harvest.
Forum footprint: 27 MoneySavingExpert forum discussions mention this company (browse). Roughly 0 of the top, relevance-sorted search results were posted in the last 90 days — an approximate figure by construction, not a true recency count. Recent thread titles: “Hive Home”, “Hive Home Hub/Alexa Echo or Alexa Echo plus”, “E: 04/09 Win A Hive Home Lights Pack (Twitter)”.
Elsewhere: 4.9★ on Feefo (30,663)
TrustScore over time
4.1 → 4.1 across 13 census measurements since 2026-08-11. Our own record, independent of Trustpilot’s display.
Reply behaviour over time
Solid: % of negative reviews replied to. Dashed: typical days to reply. Both as reported on this company’s Trustpilot profile, recorded whenever our census re-checked it and a figure had changed — the gaps between points are not equal: 2026-08-11 (100%, 1.5d) · 2026-08-14 (100%, 1.5d) · 2026-08-20 (100%, 1.5d) · 2026-08-24 (100%, 1.5d) · 2026-08-27 (100%, 1.5d) · 2026-09-01 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-09-04 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-09-07 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-09-11 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-09-14 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-09-17 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-09-20 (100%, 1.6d) · 2026-09-23 (100%, 1.6d).
Severity: 16% of this company’s 619 graded complaints were classified as severe (money lost, an essential service cut off, or a problem unresolved for months). See the harm index.
1★ share of negative reviews over time
Share of 1–3★ Trustpilot reviews that were 1★
In May 2026, 69% of 78 one-to-three-star reviews were 1★; in September 2026, 69% of 49.
Counted from May 2026 onward — the period for which our capture of 1★, 2★ and 3★ reviews is complete for all three. Months with fewer than 10 such reviews are omitted.
Reviewers here waited a median of 0.9 days between the experience and publishing their negative review (676 reviews record both dates).
Independent findings
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint about this company’s advertising:
- 2026-03-04 (National newspaper (paid ad)) — A national press ad for Hive promoting solar panels didn’t have enough evidence to demonstrate that ‘up to’ saving claims could be achieved by a significant proportion of people an
These are the findings of the named independent body, reported here with attribution — they are not our conclusions and are separate from the review analysis above.
What their policy promises
refund window: 14 days
“you’ll need to raise a return within 14 days of receiving your Hive products.”
refund window: 14 days
“you’ll need to let us know within 14 days of installation.”
Quoted verbatim from the company’s own published policy (source page); complaint counts are census classifications. As of 2026-09-12.
Policy-page monitoring
We monitor this company’s published policy page for changes. 1 change detected since we started watching on 2026-09-01:
- 2026-09-15: +16/-12 lines; added: * Offers | Get winter-ready for less with our latest Hive offers; removed: * Smart heating | Stay cosy for less with our bestselling heating tech. (snapshot)
Automated change detection on the company’s own published policy page — a record of when the page changed, not a judgement on what changed.
Measured reply time: across 673 negative reviews that received a public reply, the median wait was 0.9 days — the company profile reports an average of 2 days.
Reply quality: of 673 company replies to negative reviews analysed, 70% engaged with the specific problem and 19% were generic templates.
What employees say
Employees rate Hive 3.5★ overall from 79 reviews on Glassdoor — the inside view, kept separate from customer complaint statistics. Read the reviews there.
Review provenance: 395 company-invited reviews in the recent window average 4.52★, while 93 organic (uninvited) reviews average 1.96★.
15% of its 327 recent 5★ reviews came from accounts that had written only that one review when we captured it (the median across companies is about 39%). A high share is a reason to look closer, not evidence of fake reviews.
Sector benchmark: faulty product makes up 35% of this company’s complaints vs a 26% median across 186 ranked companies in its sector.
Review velocity: 11,831 of this company’s 52,669 Trustpilot reviews (22%) were written in the last 12 months.
What are the most common complaints about Hive?
Faulty product
219 reports · 35% of complaintsrising since 2026-07“The thermostat disconnects from my phone once a month and is a complete nightmare to reconnect.”
The company replied on 2026-04-29: “Hi Matthew, I'm so sorry that this has been your experience. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. I'm sorry you had trouble pairing your heating up to your app. We have lots of online…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Spent £6000 on a hive heating/ hot water system for it to have already failed twice after just 9 months.”
The company replied on 2026-05-01: “Hi Adam I'm so sorry that this has been your experience. I've sent over an information request through Trustpilot - if you fill that in we'll be able to access your account and get in touch directly…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“we’ve had no end of connection issues. Hours on the phone to reconnect”
The company replied on 2026-01-12: “Hello, Thank you for your review — I’m sorry to hear you’ve been experiencing connection issues. Reliable connectivity is essential for Hive devices, and we’d love to help you get everything working…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Support unhelpful
159 reports · 26% of complaintsrising since 2026-07“The thermostat disconnects from my phone once a month and is a complete nightmare to reconnect.”
The company replied on 2026-04-29: “Hi Matthew, I'm so sorry that this has been your experience. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. I'm sorry you had trouble pairing your heating up to your app. We have lots of online…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Spent £6000 on a hive heating/ hot water system for it to have already failed twice after just 9 months.”
The company replied on 2026-05-01: “Hi Adam I'm so sorry that this has been your experience. I've sent over an information request through Trustpilot - if you fill that in we'll be able to access your account and get in touch directly…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“we’ve had no end of connection issues. Hours on the phone to reconnect”
The company replied on 2026-01-12: “Hello, Thank you for your review — I’m sorry to hear you’ve been experiencing connection issues. Reliable connectivity is essential for Hive devices, and we’d love to help you get everything working…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Account/app problems
136 reports · 22% of complaintsfalling“app recent update are a disaster. hive heating app was working until then.”
The company replied on 2026-05-05: “Hi I'm so sorry that this has been your experience. I've sent over an information request through Trustpilot - if you fill that in we'll be able to access your account and get in touch directly to…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“the website and App can't register the account, and their online and telephone support will only talk to me if I've registered”
The company replied on 2026-05-15: “Hi Rhodri, I'm so sorry to hear this and thank you for brining this to our attention. I've sent over an information request through Trustpilot - if you fill that in we'll be able to get in touch…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“It is hopeless and after many, many wasted hours, I give up.”
The company replied on 2026-04-20: “Hello Wayne, Thanks for taking the time to share such detailed feedback. I’m really sorry to hear about the experience you’ve had — I can completely understand how frustrating and disappointing this…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Support unreachable
102 reports · 16% of complaintsrising since 2026-07“no one has shown. I was told they would be there shortly after 8am, I waited until just after 10 no one has shown still.”
The company replied on 2026-08-18: “Hi Sarah, We sincerely appreciate you taking the time to share your experience with us. We are truly sorry to learn about the repeated cancellations and lack of communication regarding your EV…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“It drops out regularly and takes about 30-40 minutes to get everything connected.”
The company replied on 2026-06-22: “Hi Roger, Thank you for your review and I'm so sorry to hear of your poor experience, both with our equipment and phone support. Just to explain a bit: Hive devices use a wireless protocol called…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I am still waiting for it to be set up”
The company replied on 2026-06-09: “Hi Mrs Kay, We're sorry to read that you've had bad service when it's came to the installation and the hive devices. I'll be contacting you shortly and sending an email if I'm unable to get a hold of…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Poor core service
80 reports · 13% of complaintssteady“Unreliable connection - is prone to stopping working at random times”
The company replied on 2026-05-12: “Hello Tom, Thank you for taking the time to leave your review. I’m really sorry to hear how frustrated you’re feeling and that your experience has led you to feel this way. I’d like to clarify that…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Absolutely crap looses connection all the time workes one time out ten”
The company replied on 2026-05-11: “Hi Paul I'm so sorry that this has been your experience. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. We have lots of online help to assist you with this at https://support.hivehome.com/portal…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“The engineer left me without heating which is still waiting to be rectified after 9 days”
The company replied on 2026-05-05: “Hi Marcus, We're very sorry to hear about the heating issue, I see from the engineers report that an issue was identified with your boiler and he advised on replacing the boiler and that a quote has…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: a replacement.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Other
33 reports · 5% of complaintssteady“NOTHING EXPLAINED HOW THE THERMOSTAT AND/OR BOILER WORKED”
The company replied on 2026-05-18: “Hi John, Thanks for your review and I'm so sorry to hear this. You'll find lots of helpful tips and guides at out support site, here: https://support.hivehome.com/portal/ss/ And if you need support…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Hive discontinued their home security camera product and did not open source the software/hardware leaving me with a waste of money”
The company replied on 2026-08-10: “Hi Tom, I'm sorry the decision to discontinue our cameras has left you frustrated. It wasn't a decision that we came to easily, which is why we gave 3 years notice that support would end for our…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
“Finding it hard to work out and with no handbook hard to operate”
The company replied on 2026-04-30: “Hello Keith, Thanks for your review and for choosing Hive. Our set‑up and installation guides are all available within the Hive app, or you can access and download them as PDFs here: 🔗…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
Compare Hive with…
Method: reviews are classified into a fixed complaint taxonomy by an automated reader; every category shown is backed by at least two verbatim quotes from distinct reviews. Trends are computed from dated review counts only. Negative reviews are deliberately over-sampled for evidence depth; headline percentages use an unbiased recent sample only. Report updated 2026-09-23.