Ring doorbell - price hike 40%

soolin

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

A quick question for those that have cancelled.  Is the cancellation immediate or can you choose to cancel at the renewal date?  I don't intend to renew but am happy to to let it run until the renewal date which is mid April.  I've deleted my payment method anyway just in case

I cancelled mine this morning , there were 2 options, cancel at renewal or cancel immediately. As my renewal was after the price hike I opted to cancel immediately, my acknowledgement re the refund for the remaining months came through straight away and I immediately signed up again and have confirmation of that.

moneysaver1978

peteyh said:

Roogy123 said:

I've just received notice that the annual subscription for our Ring doorbell is jumping by 40% to £49.99. This was also raised by 40% in 2022. I want to vote with my feet and use something else, has anyone found a similar product to this which doesn't have a fee or a much lower one?

https://www.standard.co.uk/shopping/esbest/gadgets-tech/best-subscription-free-video-doorbells-b1093512.html

EUFY wins... £99 no sub pays for itself in 2 years Has AI , 2K Video and excellent reviews.

Some people paying £80 subs a year... Crazy - Vote with your feet.

They draw you in by making it accessible / affordable, then commence a phased approach of making it increasingly a rip off, £80 today.. £150 in time. For videos they keep for 60days that you very very rarely view.

Amazon took 9 years to make a profit. Each business is loss making until they have their user base. They love blind loyalty. 

That was one of the reasons I went for a Blink as I wanted to avoid becoming a prisoner to the subscription ecosystem.

I heard good things about Eufy but one of the issues was that the recordings are actually on the doorbell itself which defies the point? I like Blink because I can store recordings elsewhere on the home network.

To_be_Free

400ixl said:

If you are paying annually, you can cancel and re-subscribe at todays price and get a refund on unused time. Only a short term answer but saves you some money.

I done that yesterday 

peteyh

moneysaver1978 said:

peteyh said:

Roogy123 said:

I've just received notice that the annual subscription for our Ring doorbell is jumping by 40% to £49.99. This was also raised by 40% in 2022. I want to vote with my feet and use something else, has anyone found a similar product to this which doesn't have a fee or a much lower one?

https://www.standard.co.uk/shopping/esbest/gadgets-tech/best-subscription-free-video-doorbells-b1093512.html

EUFY wins... £99 no sub pays for itself in 2 years Has AI , 2K Video and excellent reviews.

Some people paying £80 subs a year... Crazy - Vote with your feet.

They draw you in by making it accessible / affordable, then commence a phased approach of making it increasingly a rip off, £80 today.. £150 in time. For videos they keep for 60days that you very very rarely view.

Amazon took 9 years to make a profit. Each business is loss making until they have their user base. They love blind loyalty. 

That was one of the reasons I went for a Blink as I wanted to avoid becoming a prisoner to the subscription ecosystem.

I heard good things about Eufy but one of the issues was that the recordings are actually on the doorbell itself which defies the point? I like Blink because I can store recordings elsewhere on the home network.

No they are on the "chime" ie electronic WiFi device that both acts as a doorbell chime and storage device. Which connects to your network and thus you can access from anywhere, not just when at home but remote also. So.... Totally secure. It's video footage of amazon delivery drivers , it's not your wedding photos, it works great. It even comes with a memory card.

Cancel. Your subscription now and re order, you've beat the system for one year. Pointless. They'll increase each year. Then make certain devices unsupported forcing you onto newer ring devices..... And the con goes on. Wake up people. Eufy are upping their prices because alot of people are seeing sense.  Equiv to ring - 1080p version is £85 with £15 voucher off at present. Was £75. Dont blindly miss out any longer.

Blink you need an added sync module (basically your storage network connector) so added cost to doorbell, but not expensive £60 approx but reviews have said night-time viewing real poor and access to footage slow and laborious. 

timmy963

Folks buy in to all this smart technology for their home which is reliant on constant service from the manufacturer.

When prices inevitably go up, customers are forced to either pay the higher price or tear everything out and buy the next thing. This is assuming the manufacturer doesn't go bust or stop the service which means you are left with an expensive paperweight.

JPankhurst

I'm surprised suppliers are not using this as a promotion opportunity but Ring seems very dominant despite all the complaining (Amazon are similarly showing excessive greed with their Prime offering and will continue until people walk, not just moan!). I want good quality video recording but don't need long retention (several days) so SD local storage suits me. I am keen to move, but alternatives are far from clear.

FFHillbilly

Eufy is subscription free at the minute, but the quality of the product and size of the company leads me to believe its a simply a free trial or "freemium" business model where they make it free at first, gather up a sizeable market share and then introduce a subscription. 
the thought of £80 a year is too much , If you price it over 10 years the extra in sub fees could buy you a professionally installed CCTV system with intercom (that has no fees)

Mutton_Geoff

All those that took advantage of Martin's money tip to cancel/renew before the last price hike on 11th March 2024 be warned that year at £34.99 is coming to an end and as far as I can see, there is no alternative to paying the £49.99 to continue so I've cancelled choosing "at next billing cycle" so as not to pay after the end of the cheaper year to March 2025. 

ic

ajarv19 said:

How can this be justified?

Rocket fuel for Blue Origin doesn't come cheap, and Bezos wants to touch the stars.

At the end of the day, like many web based devices, doorbells, cameras, thermostats, security systems, etc, are backed by systems that cost.  Their continued development costs too.  They were probably introduced as loss leaders, and now the backers (be that Amazon, Google, venture capitalists, etc) want to make a profit - so they've waited for people to become dependent on those devices before beginning to wring out the profit.