Automations not working reliably

I recently purchased some smart wall plugs to try out some automations using Home Kit. I’m using an iPad as the Home Kit hub. I find that the time-based automations work well, but the automations based on leaving or arriving work only half the time, maybe not even that. Is that a common experience or am I missing something?

In addition if I try to activate the automation from my iPhone it will usually just spin for a long time saying, “Updating”. It’s much quicker to just walk over and flip the switch.

I’m hoping that there is an easy fix for these problems.