y-cam homemonitor ending free cloud recording

plunet

I've got some Y-Cam Homemonitor CCTV cameras, and when purchased these came with "Lifetime 7 day cloud recording", but it seems that Y-Cam have had a change of heart and T&Cs and are withdrawing the 7 day free cloud recording for devices that have been active for more than one year.

This is obvious a significant change in their service proposition and their T&Cs and what they advertised their products to come with.

I guess others might be picking up on this. Do others have any suggestions on whether we should fight this?

Andywest

I have 5 cameras which i bought on the basis of 7 day free recording and now they want to charge £100 a year. Outrageous ... I would have considered other systems but it was the free cloud which pursuaded me. Cant believe it is legal... new customers, yes, but existing should be honoured.

imtiajmeah

I am very disappointed with them. I called the customer service team and long story short they don't care. I hope someone is able to investigate and assist us if this is legal or not. The 7days free cloud storage for life was the big selling point why I chose these cams over others. Now they are useless overpriced webcams not fit for purpose. Miss sold and liers..... and to top it off 14days notice.
They should have at least given an alternative to save recordings locally before taking the option away.

If anyone on this forum knows if we can take this matter to court or get a refund... please do reach out, any support or advise welcome.

A few upset customers on Trustpilot have already started to make their voice be heard.
The Y-Cam customer service line is continuously busy and can't get through, and if you finally do manage to get through the CS team are being very rude and arrogant on the phone regards this matter.

ballyblack

Just to clarify

is the charge per camera???

.

imtiajmeah

Yes per camera

Biilbo

Same here! When I bought the cameras, it said on the box “FREE for EVER”
Thats why i chose Y cam.
I am also wanting to know if this is legal?

The_Hawk

Firstly, let me be clear that I am not a legal professional and the following is stated by me purely as a consumer.

You may find the Consumer Rights Act (which came into force on 1 October 2015) of interest.

In particular, section 16, which states:

16 Goods not conforming to contract if digital content does not conform

(1)Goods (whether or not they conform otherwise to a contract to supply goods) do not conform to it if—
(a)the goods are an item that includes digital content, and
(b)the digital content does not conform to the contract to supply that content (for which see section 42(1)).

See: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/contents/enacted

Like many Acts there is a lot of cross referencing so, in this particular case, section 16 refers to section 42, which then refers to section 36, but the bottom line is that the digital content must conform to the contract and be as described therein.

In this particular case, it seems to be that there is a clear breach of contract, in that the digital content, i.e. the free cloud storage for life, has been withdrawn, meaning that the goods no longer conform with the original contract.

If you purchased the cameras direct from Y-cam then you are probably best to pursue them, in the first instance. You could also pursue the credit card company (assuming you used a credit card and the cost of goods was over £100) under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.

Ultimately, you could pursue this as a small claim through the courts.

john85

I'm in the same boat and am hoping mad over this.

I've just received five emails from Y-Cam notifying me that my free-for-life 7 day recording, which was a condition of me buying the system in the first place, is no longer free.
I got 5 emails because I have 5 cameras, at a total outlay of about £600. I would never, ever have bought these cameras without the 7 day recording. Its impossible to connect them to any other system, for example your NVR or NAS or any other cloud provider.

At the time I bought them I did wonder if they might pull a trick like this, but because they were a market leader with good rep I thought it would be ok.

These cameras have now just become extortionately expense webcams, and I really do think what they have done here must be, literally, criminal.

sketchy19

I am in the same boat. I have 3 cameras. I spoke the them earlier today and was basically told if i did not want to subscribe tough luck.

As Camera owners we should make as much noise about this as possible on different social media, forums etc as this should not be allowed

sketchy19

If they cant afford to honor there promise of free storage the least they should do is allow the camera to record to a local server or DVR.

Free storage was one of the main selling points over the competition

[Deleted User]

You're lucky you got a year out of them. I bought some cheap Zmodo cameras and even on the box it stated free cloud service. It actually took them over a year to launch the cloud service, even then it only stores images for 36 hours free unless you pay.