Hive dropping support for their smart cameras

tommaule

This morning I received an email from Hive, notifying me that they intend to drop support for their smart cameras, of which I have 4! In 3 years time, they will forcibly remotely-disable all their cameras forever.

See: www. hivehome .com/product-news (without the spaces - MSE won't let me post links yet!)

Is this even legal? Can they forcibly turn £500+ of my cameras into useless cubes? What rights do we have to either be compensated to buy alternative cameras, or force them to reconsider?

Oh, and the irony to cite a focus on Net Zero when this decision will send countless otherwise-fully-functional cameras to landfill (because let's be honest, most will just put them in the bin!)

Would love to hear from people in same situation, or about similar situations and how you handled a company forcibly doing this?

debitcardmayhem

Well I guess that is what you get when you “buy” into an ecosytem, sonos , free storage , etc.. But you may find that they can still be useful of course there are many foss workarounds about fo many things

flaneurs_lobster

I'm not saying that what Hive is doing is right, ethical or sensible but I'm willing to bet that there is a clause in the T&C you agreed to when you signed-up for whatever ongoing service Hive are supplying that says they can do just this.

tommaule

I could 100% understand them dropping customer support (with appropriate notice) or even revoking their cloud storage subscriptions, but to remotely disable devices that we've paid for up front, thats madness, no?

debitcardmayhem

https://www.hivehome.com/product-news there you go I will have read later

bob_a_builder

tommaule said:

I could 100% understand them dropping customer support (with appropriate notice) or even revoking their cloud storage subscriptions, but to remotely disable devices that we've paid for up front, thats madness, no?

That seems to be exactly what the FAQ is saying 

"Your camera will still work until the three-year support period ends on 01/08/25.
After this, you can take it to your local Household Waste Recycling Centre..

"

k_man

I would be grateful for the 3 year notice.

Sonos gave about 6 months, albeit they did then back track after a revolt, and the old products still work in a limited mode, and still work 2 ½ years later. Unless of course they will stop too after 3 years!

I was never convinced Hive was going to be successful with non heating products, I wouldn't be surprised if lights are next (albeit they are much simpler).

Andy_L

tommaule said:

I could 100% understand them dropping customer support (with appropriate notice) or even revoking their cloud storage subscriptions, but to remotely disable devices that we've paid for up front, thats madness, no?

Are they remotely disabling them (ie sending a "self-destruct" code to brick them) or is it just the nature of them that they wont work (fully?) without connection to the hive server?

crazy_crow

They say the cameras will ‘no longer function’ after August 2025 so they aren’t talking about limited functionality.   I’m really annoyed by the decision. (and even more annoyed by their ridiculous justification as to why they are doing it).  It’s not just the cost of the cameras it’s the fact that the functionality of my whole hive set up won’t be as good.  

It’s crazy that the cameras are still on sale at places like John Lewis.  

There are 1.9 million Hive customers but I wonder how many hive cameras have been sold.  It’s must be a lot.

tommaule

Does anyone know if this move is legal?

I buy a product with X features, then after Y years the manufacture effectively remotely disables the product by dropping support for dependent services, rendering the product useless. How can that be allowed without an up-front warning when purchasing?

MattMattMattUK

Andy_L said:

tommaule said:

I could 100% understand them dropping customer support (with appropriate notice) or even revoking their cloud storage subscriptions, but to remotely disable devices that we've paid for up front, thats madness, no?

Are they remotely disabling them (ie sending a "self-destruct" code to brick them) or is it just the nature of them that they wont work (fully?) without connection to the hive server?

The user never communicate directly with a Hive camera, the communications always go via their server, so once they shut that down the server the camera will no longer work, they do not appear to be bricking them, merely removing the server support. Someone will no doubt find a way to use them independently of the Hive service, how many people will want to go down that route is another question.

tommaule said:

Does anyone know if this move is legal?

Yes it is legal.

tommaule said:

I buy a product with X features, then after Y years the manufacture effectively remotely disables the product by dropping support for dependent services, rendering the product useless. How can that be allowed without an up-front warning when purchasing?

There will be a warning on the packaging, as well as in the terms and conditions of usage. They cannot be expected to provide servers indefinitely to facilitate the product. Whilst I agree that three years does seem somewhat short they are perfectly within their rights to do this.