Canary Anmeldelser 335

Same experience as everyone else. I own 4 cameras - all of which are now useless since they put the functionality (which I payed for) behind a paywall. The alert function which triggers without recording is more of a annoyance than anything else. It would have made sense to honour the original agreement for those that have bough cameras in the past, instead looks like they’re happy to go bust.

Canary has pulled a bait-and switch on thier camera products. The products were sold with features such as “monitor your home without a fee” and for several years the cameras functioned as advertised, then they removed the features so now you can get alerts for free, but the clips are not visible unless you pay an annual fee. Please do not buy anything from a company like this, as they will sell you goods and then remove the functionality upon which you relied, unless you pay a premium price. There are multiple better brands on the market from wyze, Zmodo, blink, and many others. Horrible business model.

Canary was sold with free features that made these cameras worth it but now all the features except live view have been taken away for a ransom price of $260 year to use 4 cameras. Look elsewhere! Don’t purchase Canary.

I wish I could give Canary ZERO star review. We had purchased many cameras over 5 years ago for security in our home. Now we cannot use the cameras AT ALL. Without purchasing the Premium service, the app will no longer allow us to view videos from the timeline AT ALL. The only feature Available for Free is to view live. We have also paid for the Premium service for one year, but we still could only see the videos for 24 hours and there were constant issues with the cameras NOT triggering properly to record. This company has unethical business practices and should be held accountable. Reach out to me to get on the list for a Class Action Lawsuit.

Like all the other reviews, I too am replacing my canary cameras. I bought two many years ago because of the inclusive services. These services have been gradually withdrawn. Sharp practice! The cameras are now useless.
I see that Canary have replies to some other reviews asking for a contact email so they can get in touch yet I have contacted them already twice and have not received a response.
Unbelievable company that should not be allowed to get away with withdrawing services that were part of the terms when the cameras were sold.
To all potential customers, look for an alternative. There are many competitors to chose from who won’t rip you off.

I am an original owner. I have gone through multiple de-grades of the canary product. Now without the record feature....

This camera is useless to me.

Disconnecting this AM.

Switching to WYZE cameras as their subscription plan isn't over the top.

The most disappointing product I have ever bought. Twice since I have owned this product Canary have rolled back on the services offered without paying the ridiculously high price for their premium subscription. Now you can only watch live without paying high monthly fees - absolutely useless for security as you’d need to be watching live to catch something happening. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if they further rolled back their service so you can’t even do that. Don’t waste your money on this product or on its monthly subscription can buy other way better versions of this product for much cheaper.

Bought multiple cameras in good faith based on the features available - but they have now become effectively useless due to the changes to the plans by Canary.

Would avoid this company and don’t trust anything they promise.

My canary is used very little and is there for emergencies, just in case something happens. It had everything I needed, until they took it away and made it paid for features. Given that it already freezes regularly and struggles over wi-fi why would I pay them money?! I understand companies need to make money but they don't even have a basic option that's affordable before the premium (other similar companies offer this). I am currently deciding what to do about my home security, however, paying the subscription price where it's taken automatically (and probably without warning) is definitely not a plan I will sign up to.

If I could of given Canary zero stars I would have done. I have been a premium subscription payer for 3 years now but they contacted my via email regarding my renewal this year but they forgot to mention the price on the email. I assume that it was the same as previous years @ £79. Upon checking my credit card they have charged me £175.
I contacted Canary via live chat to cancel my subscription and have a refund but they have declined the refund. These tactics are very misleading and not a great company to deal with. I have cancelled my following year premium subscription with them and I do not recommend this company to anyone.

Update 11-07-2022: On 03-07-2022 I send the below text to support(a)canary.is but I have have not received any reply. The issue is still unsolved.
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I bought my camera many years ago. Have been happy with it until now. When I bought it I could watch the recording for 24 hours without having to pay subscription. Now the app is updated and I have to pay for something that used to be free. The only real solution was to change the terms for new users and reflect it in the price, and let old customers keep the terms that were at the time of purchase.

Due to recent changes canary has made to its cameras. You can no longer record short bursts of movement. Canary want you to pay a monthly subscription for this feature. The cameras themselves are not cheap. I brought my camera 2 years ago and was very pleased with it. Now I'm going to buy another brand as I dont want a monthly subscription. Only buy this product if you want to spend loads of money every year.

Bought 5 Canary cameras at great expense which are now worthless due to the numerous functionalities being removed from the free service. Imagine buying a mobile phone and then being told that you will now be charged extra to use the camera function, access your diary or address book. Its like buying a car, buy this one, you get all these basic features with it for free, lights, radio, indicators. Oh, now you’ve bought it we are taking them away but as an amazing offer you can now rent them for an annual fee, trust us, it’s a great deal lol lol lol
Absolute deplorable way to treat customers.
Then in addition to that, the Canary response on Trustpilot reviews is “we are sorry to learn of your frustration, please reach out to us” like they didn’t know it would create such a negative reaction.
Shameless and disgusting service

Hardware is solid but now completely worthless with sub structure and no grandfathering in of existing products sold.

This company is terrible, tried to cancel but they never answered the phone. Tried to cancel online and you can’t. Managed to call them up the day after they charged me and they refused to refund or cut short my year subscription. My advice, buy a different product.

Bought the camera as the free service covered the things we needed. Now the free service has been stripped back to a pretty useless offering.

Was happy when I bought the camera. It’s a decent piece of kit.
Canary have taken their basic (free) package and absolutely destroyed it!
Now all you get is an alert saying movement has been detected. You can’t even watch the footage of what triggered it anymore!

Outrageous from a company who originally sold their system as “Subscription free”!!

They need to go BUST and quickly before they scam more people!!
Shame on you Canary!!

I had a set of 3 Canary cameras given to me by a friend who had these handed down to him by his friend, so I am the third owner of these cameras.

I created an account and downloaded the Canary app and tried to set them up. Each time after the cameras were discovered, it says "Fail to Pair" upon my attempts to pair the devices. I contacted their customer support, and after two weeks of extremely slow email replies (I'm sure they are outsourced), they said these need to be de-registered from the previous owner before they can be used.

I know they do this so they can sell more cameras, which clearly works against the consumers and the utility of the cameras in the second-hand market.

Avoid this company and go with Google Nest instead, so much easier to set up at a similar cost.

Unbelievable that Canary can allow you to purchase their kit and then remove any and all usable features unless you pay their exorbitant subs in perpetuity. The cost of two years subs would easily cover an alternative camera that would offer all of the features you need for free. I presume it's their intention to close the company down - this will certainly get them there!

When I bought the product as a security camera a few years ago, I was very satisfied.
I had read reviews that convinced me overall.
However, some reviews suggested that features in the free subscription model were dropped. So I looked at the available functions and decided to buy the camera, as it still provided the essential functions. I thought Canary couldn't do any further removal of functions, otherwise their product advertised as a security camera would in principle be completely useless without an expensive subscription. I must have been wrong about that...
After using the camera for a few years, I received an email from Canary with the title: We're giving $100 to our most loyal customers. Sounded good until I read the email, which turned out to be one of the most outrageous emails I've ever seen from a company. In summary, the email states that the following functions are removed from customers with the free standard subscription: Motion alarm with preview image, motion alarm with video clip, person detection, video clips, video history, masking function for activities. In short, all video recording features have been dropped. As a result, the security camera without a subscription is suddenly no longer useful for me. I would say that you can't easily anger me, and I would even have accepted the feature removal, as the camera had been in operation for some time in my home, but the Canary mail they sent to announce the changes was unacceptable. Instead of apologizing for the changes, perhaps writing that the free subscription model is unfortunately no longer viable due to costs, or otherwise making up an excuse, Canary is presenting this subscription downgrade as an offer!!! Quote (translated from my native language): “And because we value you as a loyal customer and want to show that, and to help you transition smoothly to our new plans, we're offering you a free $100 Amazon gift card to upgrade to our 1-year premium service for €99 per year (cancel anytime). (US dollars are converted to local currency at time of sale). This offer is only for a short time, so don't miss out! “. In other words: Canary makes the free subscription, and therefore my camera, useless for me, but if I decide to pay 99€ a year, they will give me a one-off $100 voucher and earn a ton of money from me in the long run? Awesome (note the sarcasm). After the announced subscription plan changes, does Canary offer to save videos from the camera itself like its competitors do, such as Netatmo via FTP/Dropbox or similar, so that you could do without the premium subscription? Answer: No. For the price, I can buy a brand new Netatmo Smart Indoor Security Camera every 1.5 years, which works great for me as a security camera without a subscription. This is unacceptable.
With this company policy, I can only advise to stay away from all Canary products. And if you don't care about this company policy, I would still prefer to buy a new camera every two years without a subscription (with FTP) from the competition for the same money, because they can keep up with the camera quality without any problems. The problem is that this extreme downgrade was not clear when the product was bought and that Canary dared to present the downgrade as an offer.