Smart Home Company Wink Gives Users an Extra Week Before Surprise Subscription Fees Are Required

[MacRumors]

Wink, a company that makes a smart home hub that links smart home devices together, last week upset customers with the announcement of a new surprise subscription service that will be required to use the Wink product going forward.

Wink, which was not a subscription service when customers purchased the product, at the time said that it would give customers a one-week grace period before charging a subscription fee. As of today, Wink announced that it has extended that grace period for another week, and customers won't be charged until May 20. The subscription fees were originally set to kick in on May 13.

Wink customers who do not start paying $4.99 per month on May 20 will not be able to continue using their Wink products. Those who choose not to pay the fee will not be able to access Wink devices from the app, with voice control, or the API, and automations will be disabled.

Current Wink customers have reacted negatively to the new subscription fees, with many complaints on Reddit from customers unhappy with the requirement to pay up or lose access to their smart home interface. From Wink:

Should you choose not to sign up for a subscription you will no longer be able to access your Wink devices from the app, with voice control or through the API, and your automations will be disabled on May 20th. Your device connections, settings and automations can be reactivated if you decide to subscribe at a later date.

Wink says that hardware sales are no longer able to cover the cost of ongoing cloud services, development, and customer support, and to support continued growth, a subscription fee needs to be implemented.

Article Link: Smart Home Company Wink Gives Users an Extra Week Before Surprise Subscription Fees Are Required

 

[mrcrlee]

We care about our customers.

 

[ouimetnick]

Better buy back/offer refunds to those who purchased the products. I can see charging a subscription going forward and grandfathering in existing customers for free, but are you legally allowed to modify a product after purchase?

If I bought new vehicle with CarPlay advertised and then a year later had to pay $4.99 every 30 days to keep a feature that my car was advertised with, then they lied when I bought it.

 

[SDJim]

A week? Really? Not even a month? What difference is that supposed to make??

 

[frumpywumpy]

/s wow, so generous /s

 

[WannaGoMac]

Future MacRumors post -- Wink (company you likely never heard of) declares bankruptcy.

 

[iDento]

This should be illegal, and it’s not the end user‘s problem that the business isn’t profitable.

 

[jarman92]

Damnnnnn these companies just keep getting bolder and more shameless. You would think the potential cost of the lawsuit that I'm sure has already been filed would have dissuaded them from even trying this.

 

[macnchiefs]

Looks like its the only way for the company to be profitable in the long term. Stinks for people who bought the hardware already.

 

[cclarke99]

How is this company even still operating? I threw my Wink Hub in the trash last year when they couldn't keep their cloud service online went full "Office Space" on my Wink Relay after we replaced it with Caseta switches.

 

[Wags]

Better buy back/offer refunds to those who purchased the products. I can see charging a subscription going forward and grandfathering in existing customers for free, but are you legally allowed to modify a product after purchase?

If I bought new vehicle with CarPlay advertised and then a year later had to pay $4.99 every 30 days to keep a feature that my car was advertised with, then they lied when I bought it.

More like selling gift certificates knowing you are going out of business and they will be worthless. Seems like a money grab before it happens.

 

[B4U]

Didn't some email app did the same thing sometime last year and everyone gave them the finger?

 

[CarlJ]

This sounds... close to theft. "You know that thing you bought? Well, we're gonna just take it back. Oh, you can start paying us money to keep us from taking it away."

They made stupid decisions and now they're shafting their customers.

This is why I am very wary of any product that has ongoing costs (server, etc.) that doesn't have a clear funding model.

If they had charged upfront for the service (that is, if they had had a subscription cost from day one rather than just a one-time price), then they would have looked less attractive to potential customers (they probably figured that), but they would have had a sustainable service.

 

[SnarkyBear]

I can understand if the company might be on the verge of insolvency. And if it does go down the servers it uses to run these cloud-based products also goes down, leaving customers with pretty bricked objects. They may be pulling out their last option here to survive and keep serving their customers. Sadly, if this IS the case, I think the bad-will the action generates will essentially doom Wink anyway. They should have come out with a better way to address this than issuing an ultimatum.

 

[Rychiar]

Didn't some email app did the same thing sometime last year and everyone gave them the finger?

I remember when Apples .Mac started charging for email... its's the reason my Apple ID isn't a valid email address...

 

[Glavin]

Inside company wager: do companies sink faster during economic catastrophes? I dunno, let's hand ours a cement block and see.

 

[now i see it]

They'll be bankrupt within a year.

 

[Rigby]

"Pay our ransom or we'll lock you out of your home with your own smart lock."

My guess is that they are in financial trouble (like many startups right now since VC funding has pretty much frozen up) and are desperate.

 

[ouimetnick]

the reason your Apple ID isn’t a valid email address is you haven’t changed it to a valid email address.
[automerge]1589330694[/automerge]


None of that has anything to do with the subject of the article. Nothing.

Those kind of accounts don't allow you to change the email address (unless they finally changed the website) I've always had a @mac.com when I created an AIM account through iChat years ago.

 

[sbrunner]

Time to switch to good-old Homeseer. https://homeseer.com/

 

[JoshBoy]

They should have allowed current customers to continue as is, even stopped them from future feature updates that are new but allowed them continued use. To lock them out of hardware because of this change is not right.

 

[HiVolt]

This is why i avoid any cloud enabled products. I specifically tell that to people who love to talk about these cloud security cameras...

I've steered many away to cameras you can manage yourself.

 

[konqerror]

This is a bait and switch - and I look forward to the lawsuits. I'd expect a full refund on the hardware.

Can't get blood from a turnip.

 

[russell_314]

This is why i avoid any cloud enabled products. I specifically tell that to people who love to talk about these cloud security cameras...

I've steered many away to cameras you can manage yourself.

Wouldn't any camera require some form of cloud service if you want notifications on your phone and the ability to view it remotely? To me that's a big feature of cameras where you get a notification on your phone about detected movement.

 

[HiVolt]

Wouldn't any camera require some form of cloud service if you want notifications on your phone and the ability to view it remotely? To me that's a big feature of cameras where you get a notification on your phone about detected movement.

Not necessarily, cameras that have their own web interface can be configured to send emails with attachments with video clips or images. More sophisticated DVR/NVR systems/software can do even better stuff.