Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on me!
Y-Cam home monitor camera (currently called EVO) is an indoor security camera that offered something none of its rivals was able to offer at the time of releasing the camera, which was free 7 days of cloud storage to save your alerts on their cloud server for 7 days. It won’t save the entire day of video, just the notifications which means every time any motion is detected the camera will record few seconds and save it to the cloud.
Now that was the only reason anyone would consider the Y-Cam camera as other features were not as appealing! For example, the camera price (was $140) wasn’t any different from some Nest Cams which had way better image quality and resolution (1080p vs 720p). So Y-Cam was only selling because of that 7 days free cloud storage option which they advertised as LIFETIME!
Then on 11/30/2017 Y-Cam decided to cancel the 7 days free cloud storage and they sent that in an email to every customer.
To read the full email:
Further to our previous emails on 30 November 2017, and 11 December 2017 we have changed the way we provide your service, specifically relating to cloud storage, following the Terms of Service update on 30 November 2017. So what does this mean?
As of yet, you have not chosen one of our subscription service offers for the applicable camera in your account called **** which means you now no longer have access to 7 days free video recording cloud storage.
However, you will still be able to use all the other features of your Y-cam camera, such as live view and motion alert push notifications – meaning you can check on the things that matter to you anytime. If you would like to upgrade, please visit the “Account Settings” section in the latest version of the Y-cam app (for instructions please click here) or click on the “Upgrade” button if accessing via a web browser (for instructions please click here).
We have received lots of feedback following the announcement and we would like to take this opportunity to say sorry again to all our customers who feel let down by this decision. We can assure you this was not a decision we took lightly but by making this change we can continue to deliver a premium level of service both today and in the future.
If you have any further questions, please contact us on the dedicated support address 7days@y-cam.com. The Y-cam Team www.y-cam.com
Now if you are one of the unlucky customers who purchased one of their cameras you would end up with a camera that records 720p (or 1080 p if you paid almost double the price) and a very annoying lag when you initiate live monitor, so basically if you want to monitor your home, any action would be gone before the app starts showing any footage on your phone!
Also, the camera is not capable of recording locally (on an SD card) therefore you can only buy their cloud storage options for a monthly fee.
This is what I call false advertising. I am pretty sure there is some sort of fine print somewhere on their policy to change their cloud storage terms anytime and all that good stuff! But let’s be real here if you cancel the only reason people buy your product for, that’s called false advertising.
My conclusion is, if this company doesn’t mind playing games on their customers once, they will just keep doing it and prey on new customers.
If you need an indoor security camera, I would recommend Wyze Cam which offers 14 days of free cloud storage. You can read my review of it on the link below:
WYZE CAM review >>
