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. 

[USinOz]

Yup. I’m asking support this same question.

[kareden]

Agree! The so-called "response" from Google sounds like it was generated by Bard! This increase has nothing to do with taxes in the US -- there have been no relevant tax changes. I believe some accountant decided the  Aware service was underpriced, so Google simply changed the price to what they thought the market would bear. This is why we need more competition for this type of product. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of options for this type of service.

[spotalbert]

Honestly, I would respect them more if they just told the truth—“We want a lot more money, and we think most people will give it to us.”

[Barnet]

Absolutely.  

[jamisonparks]

I’m shocked about the increase, considering they still have yet to bring out the wired doorbell V2 in the UK, and with zero responses as to why.. and now a price increase?! Google is really going to start losing its customers! 

[Rubes]

One posted reason is taxes and inflation. So once inflation is reigned in, will the price drop? Doubtful. Cash grab 100%.

[Skynet2]

Need to find a hack to get rid of their service but still record video. Ridiculous price increase considering bandwidth and storage are getting CHEAPER across the board from providers. Greedflation will just make me annoy my congress and senate members to breakup oligopolies like Google.

[Peterjf]

I agree, this increase is arbitrary and unsupportable.  I have had NEST way before Google bought them.  Features and reliability have only gone down. I have cameras in two locations and they now make me buy a NestAware for each. I bought an additional camera and it only works on Google Home and the other on the Nest app.  They can't integrate new and old. I too am going to look for some non-Google solution.

[Barnet]

Response from one of the Supervisors at Google:

"Thanks for contacting Google support. This is Aj, one of the supervisors from Google and I'll be more than happy to assist.

I can see here that you are reaching out regarding the price increase to your Nest Aware subscription and just to give you an overview we really don't have the specifics why prices are increasing but in general terms we are keeping up to the changes in market which can include inflation and local tax updates.

I know that everyone is trying to keep up specially on this hard times and this is not we want you to experience.

For more questions, you may seek to your local goverment for detailed specifics or reasons why prices in the market is increasing.

Please feel to reply if you still have questions or concerns.

You may also use this link for your reference for your Nest Aware price changes."

And my response:

Thank you for your response but, I have to say that it falls far short of providing an adequate explanation.  I would comment as follows:

1.  Your response just repeats the vague reasons that are outlined on your website, and trotted out by three of your colleagues.  

2.  It’s up to you to justify the 20% increase. Inflation is nowhere near 20% and I am not aware of any tax changes that would result in you having to increase your prices such that your after tax profit is kept stable.  If you can provide details of such tax changes I would be most grateful.  

3.  That just leaves “changes in the market”.  I would have more respect for your decision if you said that Google just feels it can increase its prices to improve profits, without trying to disguise the increase in opaque references to taxes and inflation.  What are the “changes in the market” to justify this increase? 

4.  Your comment “ For more questions, you may seek to your local goverment for detailed specifics or reasons why prices in the market is increasing.” is disingenuous at best.  Why would my local government be able to detail any specifics or reasons why market prices are increasing?  It’s Google that has made this decision not any local government.  Own the decision and justify it to your customers.  

5.   If you don’t have the information detailing the reasons for the price increase, please pass on this request to someone that does.  I have asked for those contact details before and they are not provided.  

I have to say that I find Google’s customer service to be poor.   This shouldn’t be that difficult.  All I am asking for is information that must be ready available within Google. It staggers me that you can’t provide it.  

I have asked how I make a formal complaint and am not being given any contact information for your complaints department. Please provide those details.  

Yours sincerely 

I have not heard back.  Quite poor service.

[Lance_L]

Hello everyone,

We’ve duplicated your thread with the main one here. You’ll receive all updates on this issue on the main thread, and we recommend updating and checking this thread when needed.

Best,

Lance

[Lee_Ed]

How can you charge more than a 50% increase. Some people are on a budget. I have one camera, this is crazy. Time to look somewhere else. You need to fix this or lose a lot of customers.

Upset customer 

[twittel]

I agree.  1 camera for $80 per year.  They lost me.  I installed a Reolink with 256g microcard.    I no longer need a subscription

[Sue3333]

This reolink camera can you see it on the iPhone when you’re away from home ? Where do you use it , in house or outside and I’m presuming it’s Wi-Fi .? I’m looking for options two as I have 3 black nest cameras that are about 5 yr old and they work fine but $110 annual subscription is one thing but they want $180 in oct. That is rediculous .

[twittel]

Yes Reolink works with ios

[dnlp1022]

The real question is: How could they increase pricing BEFORE they actually address years worth of basic CCTV feature requests, and decreasing overall quality of existing hardware. I think this price increase is going to provide me with the last push I was waiting for to discard my Google Nest Cams. It makes no sense to stay with them, when it's clear they'll continue with this nonsense. If I'm going to go with a wireless battery cam, I'll go back to TP-Link Tapo units. where they support Local SD, Cloud, and RTSP/Onvif recording options.

[Lisa12]

I pay for my subscription monthly and it's going up from $18 to $24. I only installed my cameras 12 months ago and in that short time you made 'software upgrades' to the battery doorbell camera and hardwired floodlight camera resulting in a degradation in video quality. While the Doorbell Camera appears to have been fixed, the quality of my hardwired camera is so poor I can't recognise facial features especially of a night time. What's the point of having a security camera if you can't decifer what's on it and now you're asking me to pay even more (on an already very expensive subscription) to see video that is garbage. Fix the issues!

[Dc77]

My 1st gen Nest Aware account renews next week. 
Just got a notice that it’s being cancelled 2 months later. And I’m automatically being moved to the more expensive and less-featured plan. If I want to avoid that, I can "upgrade" (actually downgrade) to the more expensive plan now.

It’s going from $50/yr to $80/yr, and I’m losing my 24/7 video recording.

That’s a 60% price increase (in 4 years) with a loss of features. (Or I can retain those features for a 240%(!) increase.)

This is a notice to Google that I’ll be purchasing a new doorbell cam. (Amazon has some nice ones.) because this is not how you treat loyal customers .

[MplsCustomer]

@Dc77 

Are you being told that 1st gen Nest Aware subscriptions are being eliminated? Their website says "As of July 13, 2023, Nest will no longer sell new subscriptions of 1st gen Nest Aware. Any subscriptions that you currently have will continue to renew." (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9228198)

If you have several cameras and doorbells, the newer "Nest Aware" and "Nest Aware Plus" subscriptions are a good deal. We switched to "Nest Aware Plus" three years ago because it was cheaper when we got additional doorbells and cameras.

But if you only have one camera or doorbell, it's not a good deal at all.

[Dc77]

They said they're not "cancelling" the subscription. They're just changing it to the other one, the new Nest Aware account that's $30 more and has 30 days event recording but not 24/7.

And with only one door I'm not adding more cameras.

And when I called their representative, I told them flatly that I have better things to do with my time than argue with someone over $30. The issue was it's a 60% increase which is obscene and exactly the thing that loses loyal customers. 

[MplsCustomer]

@Dc77 

That's unfortunate for you. So it sounds like they are forcing customers off of their 1st gen subscriptions, and the statement on their website ("Any subscriptions that you currently have will continue to renew.") is false.

[Dc77]

"you can keep your subscription - we're just making it the same as the upgraded subscription we keep trying to sell you and you won't buy otherwise." 

[Scott164]

Are there any data available to support a 33% increase in price for Nest Aware subscription for Home? This is far above the rate of inflation.

[Ember]

There is a pretty heated discussion going on on both the Google Home and Nest subreddits regarding these press increases at the moment.

How about finally getting rid of the nest app?  How about finally migrating my nest protects?

How about adding new features to justify the cost increase?

[DamonRipper]

+1  I dislike the lack of transparency.  I dropped Youtube TV years ago for the same reason ... prices just kept getting escalated with no apparent reason communicated to the subscribers who helped make it successful.

Like Ember said, give us something.  If you justify the increase with data people have a lot less trouble with it.  As it is, it feels like the long-term subscriber is being under-valued...

[Mike2k7300]

Agreed. I’m going from  $80 to $130. Almost 50%. Not a single new feature. No enhancements of any sort. This will drive me to cancel aware. F that. F google. Completely ruined Nest. 

[BCcam]

34% increase in one year?? What gives google? 

[Lh17]

As soon as I got the email, I canceled my subscription! Forget that! Ridiculous!

[ckayakr1049]

Just received the following in an e-mail, "Thank you for being a 1st gen Nest Aware customer. We wanted to let you know that the price of your Nest Aware subscription for Dummy structure name will soon increase from $100.00 a year to $160.00 a year (plus applicable taxes)1. This new price will go into effect on your next bill that occurs on or after November 6, 2023. " 

How can you justify this increase? 

Based upon this increase, I assume that you don't want me as a customer, I can resolve that for you!

[MrGlitch]

Ditto.  Just canceled. 

[zoeuvre]

Hi folks, 

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, and I'm sorry to hear about the situation. 

Subscription prices can change to keep up with market shifts, which can include inflation and local tax updates. To learn more, we've answered some common questions about this pricing update over on our Help Center: Learn more about price changes for Nest Aware. 

We appreciate you sharing your thoughts and experiences related to this update. We'll also take your feedback as an opportunity to learn and to be able to provide a better experience in the future. 

Let us know if you have any other questions.

Best,

Zoe 

[hchan]

How can a 50% increase be justified by market shifts? You control the market, you own the products both hardware and software. There is zero accountable justification for this, unless you are about to release a huge number of new features. Time for you to revisit this Zoe and retract the price increase. Otherwise you will continue to haemorrhage customers. Looking forward to your reply. 

[hchan]

Also your hyperlink to answers to common questions does not address the single most common question - why have you increased prices by 50%? 

[MrGlitch]

Yes, so the email said.  None of this actually explains anything.  

On what planet does the cost of providing the exact same technology go up instead of down?

[Gazoo]

Google increasing prices for  Nest Aware.  Apparently so that they can “continue to bring new features and innovations to Nest Aware over time”.   Ok, so what new and exciting features am I getting for this 30% price increase?   I should have listened to friends who told me Google would do this.   There are FREE options (or almost free) and the cameras are just as good or better.   

[GBrow]

Agreed, a 33% increase is tantamount to gouging! When can we stop the b.s. of wages being the cause of our inflation problems. It is really corporate gouging monopolies!

[BoyHowdy]

Why is everyone upset? Google did make enhancements.  The VP and C-level employees are enhancing their wife's br****s, upgrading their houses in Bora Bora, installing new furnature in their girlfriends apartments, putting new rims on their kids Hummers and don't forget, they also updated their credit limits! 

Why so sad?

[BeefJerky]

Easy answer: greed!

[DenverDan]

How about this with no subscription fees?  

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

[Bowyorang]

So...price gouging,  huh!

That is way too much! I have no problem canceling streaming services for the same thing.  I will have no problem canceling you. They are way too many other options out there. You need to fix this immediately or I think you're going to see a lot of people leave.

[MplsCustomer]

@Bowyorang 

We are going to stick with our Nest Aware Plus subscription. It's been at $120/year since it was first introduced in May 2020, and our price won't increase to $150 until it renews in June 2024, so that's 4 years without an increase.