Nest Aware Price Jump

[DJHussey]

Just got my email notification. 25% increase from $120 to $150/year?  I don't think so.  Looks like I'll cancel before my renewal, have no cloud storage for now until I find a more reasonable alternative.

If you're going to raise prices that much, give us some reason to stay with the service. 

[TimboSlice083]

If you check Reddit now it seems there will be a mass exodus.  There's nothing new added to warrant the steep price increase.

[BeefJerky]

Agree! I cancelled Hulu awhile back after one too many price increases. If Netflix tries to pull anything with the subscription I share with my mother, I will also cancel without a second thought. Inflation is hitting me as well, and food, shelter, transport and electricity are all much more important that some google service.

[mattswest]

I was not aware when I purchased the device that it only offered, nonsensically, 3 hours of history.

I was just about ready to return the device as soon as I found that out. But, I took some time to consider it, and looking at my options $60/year didn't sound too bad.

It was $20 more a year than Ring, and only 30 days of history instead of half a year, but everything is integrated into the Google Home app.

Then when I go to sign up for a 30-day trial, it's showing me the price after 30 days is $80/year. I started to wonder, how tired was I when I was looking over those plans the night before. I had relayed all the details of the various options to my wife, and now I have to go back and tell her they just made it more expensive....today?

I don't know if I'll buy a Ring but I'm definitely returning this. I'm not paying for a device that's really just another way for Google to squeeze money out of me.

Honestly, this experience just makes me want to get rid of all my Google devices. I was already planning on not buying another Pixel phone because they have gotten continually worse over the years. Camera: worse. Voice input: worse. Photo backup: worse. All while trying to collect more money for services

I just don't trust Google's devices anymore. I bought a bunch of OnHubs before Google decided to brick all the perfectly good devices. I'm just going to buy open hardware from now on.

[MplsCustomer]

I didn't know this, but if you have multiple cameras and doorbells, the Ring Plus subscription is less expensive, at $100/year, than the new Nest Aware Plus subscription price of $150/year. And Ring provides up to 180 days of video history, AND provides extended warranty coverage.

[burnsies5]

So I just got an email today saying there is a price increase of almost double starting in October.  What a rip off.  How can it jump that much?  Guess I will look for other options

[Emilymferg]

Could not agree more. BEYOND livid and offended by this shady move. Definitely moving on to another brand. It was time anyway. 

[DenverDan]

How about this with no subscription fees?  

https://www.amazon.com/eufy-1080p-Grade-Resolution-Detection-Chime-Requires-dp-B0868LH58W/dp/B0868LH...

[Barnet]

I have been trying for days to get a response out Google that makes sense regarding the price increase.  In the UK it's a 20% increase.  They just repeat the same thing: "we are keeping up to the changes in market which can include inflation and local tax updates."  Ask for more details and they just repeat the same thing.  Do Google monitor this chat?  If not I don't see the point in commenting further on the subject, as its just whistling in the wind.  I will just cancel my subscription.

[gregchea]

Well, I'm in the UK and my increase (for 1st gen Nest Aware) is 57% !!!   That's way, way in excess of any market inflation or taxes so it's either 1) blatant slap-in-the-face profiteering, or 2) they really don't want the Nest business any more. 

If it's the latter, they've got their wish - I'm also cancelling the subscription and will switch to an alternative - weighing the options now but probably Homekit, which as a bonus is more secure and doesn't collect and monetise my data,  unlike Google.

[Barnet]

Thanks.  I will investigate HomeKit as well.  

Lovely weather at the moment. All the best.  

[Sue3333]

Barnet

i would love to hear more about this camera HomeKit you mentioned .

im looking to do something different as my three 1st gen nest cameras I have had since 2018 are now not going to be my beloved security camera any more . I was paying $110 a year and I had the video history , 24/7 taping , and I had 5 day rotation on video storage before I’d loose what activity/ events / motion happened . 
thenbi come to realize that I no longer had the video 24/7 motion activation any more and now they want to raise my yearly fee to $180 . 
im so pissed . 

I just paid in July 2923 my $110 for a yr subscription ( auto renewal) and had no idea they had done away with the video storage ect . I need another camera system  as I really don’t want to merge my nest and google hone together so they can lock me in . 
I spent 3 hrs trying to make heads or tails of what they are doing . And I need to turn my automatic renewal of my credit card off too . 
At this point if I cancel the subscription they have me on wouldn’t I still have the camera stream on any how ?? But at a no charge . ? If I don’t have history archive anyways why have the subscription ?

[siglerjorge]

I'm in your boat and between the outrageous price hike and lack of customer support I decided to cancel. Hopefully thst will show them that customers will not take such actions.

[siglerjorge]

I swear, just by reading the replies to the post, if I owned Ring I would create an offer to replace cameras and doorbells at a reasonable cost with a 2 years subscription at the cost of the new Nest's annual. as an upset client that cancelled the nest renewal and disputed my charge for a partial refund, I take the deal out of spite

[DJHussey]

This article captures my comments well.  I'm paid through until Feb, at which time I'll cancel the service. 

https://www.techradar.com/home/smart-home/call-the-security-googles-nest-cameras-just-got-a-massive-...

[gregchea]

Good article, but factually incorrect in that it says Google are raising prices "by as much as 33%" - in fact mine is increasing by 57%!

[MplsCustomer]

@gregchea 

Yeah, customers on 1st gen Nest Aware subscriptions really got socked.

[DeanATL]

I had an old plan ($110/year for 3 outdoor cameras).  Google Nest advertised $120/year for all devices with longer history of events and videos.  I finally took advantage of that deal only to find out they planned to increase the fees to $150/year.  Extremely disappointed in Google Nest for enticing me to join just to get me off the old plan.  Additionally, the app has continually decreased in response time.  I've received notifications of a person at my house, attempt to find out who it is, by the time Google Nest gets around to displaying the video they were gone.  Had it been someone breaking into my house, they would have been down the road with all my stuff before Google Nest actually displayed who it was.  If you increase price, the least you can do is provide better service or allow me to go back to my old plan.

[dbskyguy]

I would probably have, reluctantly, paid the increase if they would have just added into Google Home a simple 90 degree rotation option that I asked for more than a year ago, but they didn't.  I get to view my front porch sideways only, and always only in landscape view.  Time to move on. 

[MplsCustomer]

@dbskyguy 

Neither Ring nor Arlo nor Eufy cameras can be rotated 90 degrees either. I'm not sure it's technically possible--at least at the cost level for these cameras. They would have to rotate the aspect ratio and the activity zones that go with the aspect ratio.

[hirsch22]

Can we start a betting pool for on which date this will be posted?

Hi folks,

We hear you. Our team is working hard to deliver the best experience for our users — we'll take this as feedback. Keep an eye on the Google Nest Community pagehttps://goo.gle/2JvnMRy for any updates. Please let me know if you have other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours if I won't hear back from you again. Feel free to start a new thread and we'll be happy to help.

[Jdmaharg]

Of course you are!!! 

[hirsch22]

eufy Security eufyCam E330 (Professional) 4-Cam Kit, 4K Outdoor Security Camera System, 24/7 Recording, Plug-in, Wi-Fi NVR, 1TB Hard Drive Included, 10CH, Local Storage, No Monthly Fee

arrives tomorrow, fingers crossed that it is a suitable replacement 

[justinelhill]

Mine went from $100 a year to $160. Insane.

[gregchea]

Yep, insane. But for me it's not just the "F you, customers!" price rise, it's also the fact that the Nest app barely works anymore (spend ages looking at the blue circle and/or dismissing various messages about migrating/upgrading before I can see my camera feed) and the Google Home app doesn't have the most basic functionality.

And - after a couple of years of broken promises - Google seems to have absolutely zero intention of dealing with it.  The HomeKit cameras (Eve, Logitech, etc) aren't perfect, but I think that's where I'm headed.

[hirsch22]

My eufy test run is going well. Motion detecting and notifications is actually better in my opinion (than both Google and Apple Home apps). 

I miss the live view of all the cameras at once, but considering they were rarely all live feeds anyway, I'm adjusting. 

Selection of a particular camera has been 100% successful, typically within 1-3 seconds. 

[DenverDan]

The Eufy doesn't allow the viewing of multiple cameras simultaneously?

[hirsch22]

Not as live streams, as far as I have discovered. You start with a multi panel view of still images and pick which stream you'd like to open.