Wink thought they could appease their users’ anger over the sudden change in their business model, but it looks like it may not be enough. The smart home company announced last week that they will now require users of their devices to subscribe to a monthly service if they wanted to continue using their products and even the platform. Worse, they were giving them only until May 13 to start. Now they’re extending the deadline to subscribe to May 20, giving users another week to prepare.
Last week, users of their smart devices and their platform that connected smart devices from other brands were surprised when Wink suddenly announced that they will now be charging a $4.99 monthly subscription fee. It was not “required” for all their customers to do so but if you don’t, your devices will basically be bricked. They cited “economic events” and long-term costs as the reasons for the change in the business model.
It was bad enough that you will start charging people in the midst of a pandemic where some have lost jobs or their source of income but to then tell them they only had until May 13 to decide whether they will subscribe. Not surprisingly, people took to social media to express their displeasure. Wink made the announcement today that they “appreciate” that some customers need additional time and so they’re extending their deadline to May 20.
Is a one-week deadline extension enough to appease their customers? Obviously not. Users would, of course, prefer to not be doing monthly subscriptions at all or at least a longer warning period that they were changing their business model. Previously, they only had to pay a one-time fee to buy the hardware kit. Speculation is of course rampant that the company is experiencing financial troubles.
In any case, some users believe that whatever problem the company is experiencing right now, it wasn’t a good time to suddenly start getting a monthly fee from their users. Let’s see how many will stick to the brand and how many will not pay out of principle and just shift to other smart home products and brands.
