One Time Payment or Annual Option for all Cam Plus options

I know I can’t be the only one that prefers one time payments to monthly subscriptions. In fact that’s one of the reasons I went with Wyze to begin with last year. Rather than pay $2 a month I know myself and many others would prefer to pay a one time fee of say $100 to not have to deal with any monthly fees. This also provides more upfront capital to Wyze and doesn’t prevent others from doing the monthly subscription model. Is this something other people would like to see and or is this something Wyze would consider? Financially, it’s always better to have your money up front so I don’t know why they wouldn’t offer this.

Mod Note: Title changed to reflect that it would apply to all Cam Plus plans.

Yes, I vouch for this as well. Have a yearly option, no point of being charged 1-2$ per month.

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Person Detection (Beta) – please allow annual rather than monthly contributions.

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I agree, should have a yearly option. I would prefer that.

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agree; annual payment preferred too.

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Considering I have purchased 6 inside cameras and then also got in on the presales of 2 outside cameras totaling 8 cameras. Even at your best rate of $1.25/month (for cam plus) that amounts to $10/month and $120/year. This is very disheartening because I really like the product and have bragged about the cameras. I would propose a yearly subscription fee for $5 per month on unlimited cameras usage. (So whether I had 1 camera or 10 cameras my price would be $5 similar to the 12 second person option

Thank you Dave Nie

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I am an early user and qualify for name your price. I guess I could happily just subscribe with zero. Wyze is cool enough that I would not mind donating something. Problem is… I Hate subscriptions! 1 year from now when the camera quits working
For whatever reason. I will have long forgotten that you are still dinging my card. For crazy people like me who hate subscriptions, and for the name ur price offering, give us the option to contribute to q cool company as a one time fee.

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I like your idea…what would you think a one time fee would look like…(early user also)…or even a one time fee for cam plus with unlimited cameras. I have 6 inside and also bought 2 outside cameras. That is ALOT of money in a subscription per camera…

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Agree with a one time charge. I also think you should offer some special deal for the original 1.3m customers who HAD free lifetime person detection but still ponied up a fee to help when asked. Maybe if you can cover the costs going forward with new customers and subscriptions, you can grandfather us back into the “free” option. Or maybe providing access to self hosted solutions. At least for existing cameras.
I don’t mind helping out because I want you to succeed, but I also hate subscriptions (which is one big reason I bought Wyze In the first place). And to be fair, it was marketed as “lifetime”.

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I partially do support the above request but with qualifications.

Thus I use this reply to hopefully provide constructive feedback to the Wyze team and do hope it is passed on to whoever is in charge of Wyze strategy.

First of all the current ‘pay what you like’ experiment for legacy users of person detection is highly appreciated, however, as I will lay out below, I do not believe that it offers an appropriate way forward.

Observations:

  • Without any AI Filter option the Wyze cam becomes an expensive paper weight in many settings. Minimum requirements in my use case is not even person detection but the ability to filter out
    – Bugs (moths, etc) moving through the field of view
    – Light reflections in windows / mirrors
    – Light changes / moving shadows
    in order to avoid unnecessary notifications / not to waste Wyze storage space.

  • The Xnor.ai solution proved that ON CAMERA AI is possible and definitely sufficient for my use case. Thus, the preferred solution should definitely be an ON CAMERA AI solution (e.g. from an external provider) for which I am willing to pay a one time fee. My willingness to subscribe to a technologically inferior solution that wastes network and (cloud) computing resources tends towards zero…

  • In case no ON CAMERA AI solution can be obtained any more after the acquisition of Xnor.ai by Apple, requiring a cloud based fall-back, it should be considered that not all Wyze cams run 24/7. My Wyze cam(s) are disconnected from power 90% of the time and would thus only absorb limited (Cloud) resources.

  • In the current experiment you are targeting 1.48USD/month for a 20USD camera, thus asking for an annually recurring subscription value of 88% of the initial hardware cost… this does not make any economic sense for the majority of people who specifically purchased a Wyze cam due to its low one-time-cost.

Recommendations:

  • Preferably provide the option to enable some ON CAMERA AI features for a one time fee, either by an external provider or Wyze made.
  • If there is no ON CAMERA AI solution, requiring the utilization of Wyze cloud resources, do offer a credit based option where the user purchases cloud resource credits up front, providing Wyze with immediate cash, minimizing transaction costs (minimum credit transaction e.g. 10USD) and provides a feasible option for users who only temporary (e.g. home surveillance during vacation) require Wyze cloud resources (thus potentially making do with a 10USD credit for several years).
  • Communicate WHY an ON CAMERA AI option for a one time fee is not being offered. The current status-quo concerning Person Detection lacks transparency. Is my camera actually continuously live streaming to Wyze servers in order to provide the Person Detection service?!
  • If you really want to go ahead with a subscription model that dwarfs the initial hardware cost, you can just as well go the whole way and offer the basic Wyze Cam for free bundled with a 24months subscription… this would make the subscription model at least explicit.
  • In reference to this thread’s title, do at least offer some annual / up front payment model that at least passes on the transaction cost savings to the client.

Summary:

  • In my use case a Wyze cam without Person Detection / other AI filter does not make any sense due to notification SPAM
  • Paying any useful monthly amount that exceeds transaction costs does not make sense for me in light of only temporary Wyze cam usage and the dwarfing of the initial hardware cost by the recurring subscription fee
  • There are two ways forward to retain clients like me that should still positively contribute to Wyze bottom line:
    – Provision of an ON CAMERA AI solution for a one time fee
    – Up front payment for cloud resource credits that are usage based

Thank you for your attention.

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What awsfdm4 said. :smiley:

VERY WELL PUT…thank you

I have 3 cameras, 2 indoor and 1 new outdoor.
I got 3 licenses for Person detection but I didn’t know that the outdoor one doesn’t need it. How i can cancel just one of the licenses? Please advise.

Exactly what awsfem4 said. I’d be happy to pay a one time fee. I’m currently in the process of canceling and culling as many recurring payments from my credit card as possible. (It seems like it’s the new way to go. everybody and their dog wants to add a monthly charge for something.)

A one time fee is much easier to stomach.

On the other side of the coin…
I had someone recommend the cameras to me, touting the person detection. I have 12ish cammeras now. As well, I’ve recommended them to friends (also touting person detection) who have also purchased them. Now I get the stink eye from friends who bought it thinking it was a feature of the camera that is potentially being put behind a paywall after purchase. I appreciated that the intent of the legacy program is avoid that, However it still puts customers in a state of unease. It makes me weary about buying more cameras/products or recommending them for fear of another situation like this arising.

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I have what is perhaps a clueless question:
Wyze is asking for a montly contribution to keep person detection. Let’s say I think it’s worth $2 per month, or $24 per year.
However, Wyze also offers CamPlus, for $15 per year. That plan includes person detection, and also adds longer video recording.
My question is therefore: why would I want to “contribute” more for person detection than CamPlus costs, which includes person detection?

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Welcome Carl. Yours is actually a good question and in your case, you wouldn’t.

There are many good examples why some would choose person detection over Cam Plus. From a cost perspective, if you have 16 cams, Cam Plus over all would cost you $240/year. If that amount sounds like a lot, you could split the 2 services… 8 cams with Cam Plus would be $120 and 8 cams with person detection even @ $5/month would be another $40/year bringing your total per year down to $160. For the cams with person detection, you could set continuous recording to an SD card and just set notification to person only. Or save even more by using person detection across all 16 cams for even less. Cost effectiveness depends on how many cams you’re running combined with how important each service is based on cam coverage.

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Thank you! I think the information I was missing is that the “contribution” for person detection covers ALL your cameras, while the charge for CamPlus is for each camera individually.
Right now I have only 1 Wyze camera, and it is pointed out my front window. I have an SD card in it. When I get my Wyze doorbell, I will probably move that camera to another location. So in my situation if I wanted person detection, I’d be better off from a cost perspective, with CamPlus.

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Hi and I’m sorry if this is the wrong place for this question, maybe someone can point me to the right area?
Question…person detection
If we do not subscribe, does it in any way shape or form affect Motion detection?
A Person is Motion so how does this affect those without a,…Person Detection Subscription?
It the software detects a Person does it/will it not detect motion therefore not do anything?
Sounds like a feasible question I feel???

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Clayton…

TL;DR: If you don’t subscribe, your cam will still detect any motion, save the video in the cloud as an Event and notify you of a motion Event.
.
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Your cam detects motion via pixel contrast change. The video is sent to the cloud as an Event.

If you don’t have person detection, the server sends motion notification back to your viewing device regardless of type of motion.

If you do have person detection, the cloud server scans for a person.

If person is found, notification is sent to your viewing device as motion + person.

If person is not found, notification is sent to your viewing device as motion.

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@Seapup thank you

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