Anyone use Ring from Amazon? Crazy massive 43% price increase for a basic plan.

[One 48]

Honestly, it is a very mediocre product at best, but us customers rode out a similar price hike  just two years ago that amounted to the same, so in effect of a two-year span, Ring have now increased the price for basic services by almost 100% with nothing to justify even a fraction of that increase, that is all most customers like I need.

That's just bonkers greed IMHO, and I am cancelling my subscription to them forthwith.

There must be better or similar products than this.

The BBC and other News channels have picked up on this greed, check our Rings own forums too, it's just flooded with hundreds of complaints  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68250127      and       https://community.ring.com/t/ring-increases-basic-subscription-fee-to-49-99-per-device/257553

[dromia]

It is expensive, just pure tech greed.

 

Edited February 10 by Mike
Removing swearing

[Mike]

I’ve removed the swearing from @dromia, who has been around long enough to know better. 
 

Amazon have reached a point where they feel they can charge what they like, and they’re going to squeeze us all for every single penny.

 

I’ve been using them since their early days, and have seen them go from being an innovator with brilliant customer service to a virtual monopoly that couldn’t care less about their customers. The price of Prime has spiralled up while the quality and services you get for your money have spiralled in the opposite direction. I believe they’re starting to bring in advertising to their paltry TV offering where seasons of shows suddenly become pay to view after you’ve watched the first episode or season. They bought a mediocre product in the form of Ring, and used their pervasive influence to leverage it into a huge money maker, getting everyone on board with loss-leading prices, after which they could hike the prices up the wazoo. 
 

If you have a little Google of their data practices with the footage recorded from your devices, they’ve been caught sharing them with law enforcement in the US without prior permission and generally handling the data with scant regard for the customer’s privacy. That said, the US has poor data protection laws compared to Europe. 
 

In fairness, Google have done something similar, although the price hikes have been much less, however they have a history of doing what they want and the hell with the customer over many years. They’ve never been the same since they removed the mantra “don’t be evil” from their code. If you look at their projects that they have started, got customers onboard and then dumped unceremoniously, it’s a warning not to get too heavily involved with their infrastructure. The speed with which they kill off their tablets is scary, withdrawing Play support after only a few years, effectively bricking your device. 
 

A couple of years ago I bought a new Nest camera for indoors to keep an eye on the animals while we were out, and even though it was branded as Nest, and there was no info telling me it was incompatible, I couldn’t hook it up to my existing Nest app, so couldn’t view or manage my cameras in one app. Instead it insisted I use the Google Home app, which had very few features at the time, couldn’t record video, and was about as much use as a chocolate fire guard to me. I sent that back for a refund with a snotty review. As soon as a new device comes out, your old one suddenly doesn’t work as well and becomes slow and unreliable. Something that has happened with Google too many times to be a coincidence. I’ll be moving away from them when my Nest doorbell dies, but I’ve yet to pick a replacement.

[3DStewart]

I can't comment about Ring, as I don't have it.  However, at work I have made a policy decision (I'm responsible for building services) that no future building equipment will be bought that isn't open protocol, even if this means not having the latest tech.  The costs of closed protocol are too high, both maintenance costs and product obsolescence.

[Mike]

1 hour ago, 3DStewart said:

I have made a policy decision (I'm responsible for building services) that no future building equipment will be bought that isn't open protocol,

That's the idea of Matter, although uptake seems to be a little slow so far, but so was USB back in the day.  Theoretically, you'll b able to pick your own Smart Home app/device, and use anything Matter compliant with it, all using open protocols.  I'm on the fence as to whether that will happen in practice at the moment, because there are some very large axes to grind out there from Amazon, Google, Samsung and others.  We're still a long way from being able to converse with our houses without faff, which is the end goal, and as good as Home Assistant is, it's not the most user-friendly environment if you don't know how to personalise it.

 

The lastest bibbins that's come out is some new generation Presence Sensors (Occupancy Sensors), from SONOFF, which use LIDAR and IR to give you both options to tell whether there's a person in the room.  They're cheap as chips, and I have one in my workshop that keeps the lights on while I'm in the room, saving me from hours of lighting costs if I forget to switch 'em off, which I certainly used to.  Much better than IR only, as you don't have to move to be sensed.  Gone are the days when I'm sat still processing a picture, typing some florid prose, or god forbid working on a model, and the lights go off.  Cue much cursing and flailing of arms to get them to come back on.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Dunno what Amazon Ring is.  However, it seems to be following a similar path to other Amazon products.

 

I am a member of Amazon Prime.  It supposedly means that I get next day delivery on anything I order from Amazon.  Not quite true.  About 25% of stuff I order takes three days.     Amazon Prime also allows me to watch telly programmes on Amazon.  It now seems that Prime will be adding adverts.  I can go advert free if I pay another three quid a month.  This is less than six months after Prime hiked its monthly cost by a quid a month. 

 

So that's effectively a 58% increase to a service in one year.   That's just taking the mick.    I'm not willing to pay the extra three quid, so I'll just put up with the adverts.

 

I'm reminded of a line in Tom Petty's song "The Last DJ".     All the boys upstairs want to see is how much you'll pay for what you used to get for free.

 

 

 

[Graham Boak]

To be fair, the next day delivery was only for anything from Amazon's own warehouses.  Amazon also offer a lot of items on behalf of other sellers, and Amazon, Prime or otherwise, has no control over their delivery options.

[IanHx]

15 hours ago, Mike said:

 

 

The lastest bibbins that's come out is some new generation Presence Sensors (Occupancy Sensors), from SONOFF, which use LIDAR and IR to give you both options to tell whether there's a person in the room.  

 

So we've gone full circle  :   LIDAR detects presence of Spitfire in Museum >> Airfix make Spitfire kit >> Mike builds Airfix Spitfire >> LIDAR detects presence of Spitfire in Mike's room

[Mike]

4 hours ago, IanHx said:

Mike builds Airfix Spitfire

That was a heckuva long time ago though, unless you count a vacform Seafang I made.