[Technology] Hiked price for RING Doorbell plan

[Zeberdi]

I had an email yesterday to say the cost of my basic plan for Ring Doorbell is increasing by 40% in March from £34.99 to £49.99 - that’s the second big increase in 2 years representing 100% increase since I bought my Ring Doorbell a few years ago.

There is no upgrade of service with this either. Just another example of Amazon fleecing more and more money from those who subscribe to its services. (Amazon Prime recently introduced ads to all it’s streaming unless you paid a premium and fewer and fewer films are included in its free Prime video collection).

Does anyone know of any alternative technology to Ring, if so, how much it is?

 

[Boroseagull]

Eufy security door bell camera...from Amazon. On offer at £99 at the moment. Bought and installed one at my daughters house quite a few months ago. Connects to Alexa app and no monthly fees. She's very pleased with it.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

Eufy security door bell camera...from Amazon. On offer at £99 at the moment. Bought and installed one at my daughters house quite a few months ago. Connects to Alexa app and no monthly fees. She's very pleased with it.

Not a chance in hell I'd buy a Eufy camera after their track record.

Anker finally comes clean about its Eufy security cameras

Anker lied, ignored, deflected — but now, we have answers.

www.theverge.com

 

[nicko31]

Its what they all do, sell cheap hardware, get you locked in, then hike the sub rate

 

[chickens]

I had an email yesterday to say the cost of my basic plan for Ring Doorbell is increasing by 40% in March from £34.99 to £49.99 - that’s the second big increase in 2 years representing 100% increase since I bought my Ring Doorbell a few years ago.

There is no upgrade of service with this either. Just another example of Amazon fleecing more and more money from those who subscribe to its services. (Amazon Prime recently introduced ads to all it’s streaming unless you paid a premium and fewer and fewer films are included in its free Prime video collection).

Does anyone know of any alternative technology to Ring, if so, how much it is?

No answer to your question, but (to overuse my favourite analogy) this subscription model for things is another example of the boiling frog method of impoverishment. Things start out costing £5.99 a month, and then five years later the same service is costing £15.99 a month, and you haven’t blinked because they’ve all been annual rises of £2/£3, and aren’t really questioning getting charged almost 3x the original cost.

There does come a point where binning these things off is the only self-respecting action to take.

 

[AmexRuislip]

People have been so obsessed with home security lately.
I'm not surprised really given the amount of crime lately, and watching all those cop programs where they're focused on the scrotes who'll nick their grannies handbags, doesn't help.

I've got ring doorbell, which now I wouldn't give up, it's akin to sticking to a set lottery numbers, then giving up the lottery, knowing full well what might happen!

 

[Bozza]

You don't *need* the subscription do you?

I don't have a smart doorbell. We did need a new doorbell around six months ago, and I thought that would be the excuse I needed to get one, but when I looked at them and thought about it, I decided we just didn't need one, so I didn't buy one. I spent £11 on this instead.

But when I was looking at them, I did come to the conclusion that I wouldn't have needed the subscription as the features it has would have been sufficient for me. So why not try going without the subscription for a while and see if it works for you.

 

[dandanthebrightonfan]

Buy a dog

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

My home security strategy is to have a house full of worthless tat that I could replace at a car boot sale it it came to it.

But even if you have some expensive stuff i'd bin off the subscription. Just having the ring bell there not working might be enough to deter a burglar

 

[Bozza]

My home security strategy is to have a house full of worthless tat that I could replace at a car boot sale it it came to it.

But even if you have some expensive stuff i'd bin off the subscription. Just having the ring bell there not working might be enough to deter a burglar

They still work without a subscription - you just get more features with the sub.

 

[Binney on acid]

I have the same dilemma. I don't mind an increase, but 40% ?!!

 

[Springal]

You’ve also been paying for Amazon to use ‘anonymised’ data through their machine learning and AI models as well I suspect

 

[Official Old Man]

I've a Blink system which is Amazon. Initially started with 5 indoor cameras and added outdoor later, all in the black Friday events. Added the Blink doorbell and as it adds to the original system there is no charge for storage of files.

 

[The Grockle]

We have 8 ring cameras as our area is a hot spot of crime, pretty annoyed about the increase but I am happy with the service and reliability.

I like the fact I can give my neighbours access to the outdoor camera too which doesn't seem possible with the alternatives

 

[The Grockle]

I've played around with friend's systems that cost a lot more than ours and the quality isn't much better and ours is much more user friendly and quicker to react to notifications.

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

Buy a dog

Right idea - rescue one even better

 

[Zeus]

When are we going to all wake up and really that the subscription as a service model that almost all tech is heading toward is a total con to constantly extract more and more money for things we really probably dont need?

I just cancelled my hydrow rowing £30pm sub as I get just as much benefit from just using the machine without looking at someone rowing on a river in front of me telling me to go faster/slower, and my sons whoosh watch that he claims he didnt even realise he'd signed up to and never uses. £720 a year saving just like that.

 

[Zeberdi]

Right idea - rescue one even better

Would love to get another dog but health disallows it.

The Ring Doorbell for me is more about being able to answer the door using my phone on days when my mobility is poor (I would often miss deliveries even when home because of this) - not so much about security. It also means if I have a delivery when I’m out, I can tell them not to sling my parcel over the gate or leave it in the rain in the road, which happened all too often if I missed a call.

I live in a very safe area but my Sister’s Ring Doorbell videos in London have been used several times by the police in incidents of neighbourhood crime so having a playback video feature or snapshot feature is certainly a security benefit for many people.

 

[AmexRuislip]

I've played around with friend's systems that cost a lot more than ours and the quality isn't much better and ours is much more user friendly and quicker to react to notifications.

View attachment 175260

Is that the set for Big Brother

 

[Daddies_Sauce]

The price increase is just taking the mickey and cannot be justified. There should be the option to save recordings to your own storage, local or cloud based. I guess the question is:- stick with it and suck up the increase or research alternatives,