I have only now just been made aware of Wyze’s “update” with which they BRICK your cameras unless you pay them more in the form of a subscription. My outdoor cam has worked for years without a subscription. Now it doesn’t work, and I was told I had to pay more to make it work again.
When I purchased my cameras, when Wyze got their money for them, they didn’t tell me that, at some point, those cameras would no longer work unless I forked over more money. Had they told me that when I bought the system, I wouldn’t have bought it.
This is really something that needs to be disclosed when you buy the product, not later. Imagine you buy, say, an electric car. You drive it for two years and then the manufacturer “updates” your car so that it will no longer drive unless you send them some more money. That’s what’s happened here.
Do you own another Wyze product? Scale? Vacuum? What now prevents Wyze from “updating” your vacuum so that it no longer turns on until you send them more money? Nothing does. They did it with the cameras - there is no reason why they shouldn’t try to get more money from the vacuum, scale, or any other Wyze product, that you bought.
I don’t blame them for making money. However, what’s super wrong is taking away a product’s basic functionality, a functionality that was a selling point for the product at the time of purchase, and then charging to get it back. They should have grandfathered in everyone who owned the affected products prior to the policy change and, going forward, applied the updated policy/charges to those who purchased the products AFTER then change.
In a chat, a Wyze rep has openly admitted to me that, at some point in the future, my scale might be updated to no longer work as a scale until I pay Wyze more money. Wow.
I know that there are more important things going on in the world, and subscribing to Cam Lite Plus isn’t a lot of money. It’s not the money involved here, it’s the principle. I wouldn’t expect any company to do this, and it’s particularly shocking to see Wyze do it because of how they present themselves as a customer-friendly company.
And while I’m only one customer and my money means nothing to Wyze in the big picture, I don’t see how I can justify buying another Wyze product (I had been looking at the doorbell) because I don’t wish to expose myself to another shakedown which, let’s be honest, is what this is.
