#Fail: Belkin Kills The NetCam Line Of Cameras AND The Back End Service That They Run On [UPDATED]
From the “Belkin must really hate its customers” department comes this news from Belkin that as of May 29, 2020, the NetCam line is being discontinued. That’s understandable as Belkin reps in the past have told me that they don’t sell a lot of them. But the real insult to injury comes with the fact that Belkin also decided to kill the back end services that these NetCam cameras need to run on. The net result is that owners of these cameras which are perfectly good now own bricks because the cameras require the back end service to work.
Cue the outrage:
Let’s get to the point. It’s not unusual for a manufacturer to kill off hardware because it doesn’t make sense to support it because of economic or other reasons. But by killing the service that these cameras run on, Belkin has pulled a Sonos by killing perfectly good hardware. On top of that, the only way you’ll get any sort of compensation is if you have an active warranty. I guess that covers them from being sued by the dude who just bought one of these cameras from Amazon. Oh yeah, they also want the camera back. Presumably to get them out of people’s hands so that they don’t end up on the secondary market where an unsuspecting buyer would have just bought a brick.
Now there is a flip side to this. If you buy some sort of IoT gear, there is typically a single point of failure. Which is the back end service. That’s true if you are buying a product that ties into Apple HomeKit or a Google service. If that service gets nuked, your gear is useless. So people who buy this gear need to take that into consideration. And companies who make this gear need to take this into account as well as the blowback from killing these sorts of services will be epic. Just like it is in this case.
The bottom line is this. By shutting down the back end service that run their NetCam products, Belkin has managed to not only anger people who bought their products, but they also managed to create a lot of bad press for themselves. Neither is good. And you can bet that the next time that someone needs some cool high tech gear, Belkin won’t be on the list of contenders.
Consider this is an “own goal” for Belkin.
UPDATE: The death of this service has been pushed back until late June. More details here.
May 25, 2020 at 5:33 pm
Belkin can fuck off. Fucking Rip Off mother fuckers. may everyone at belkin catch covid-19 and croak , just like my cam will may 29th.
you fucking fucks!!!!!!
May 27, 2020 at 10:27 am
[…] am not sure that this will stifle the anger from NetCam that has surrounded this announcement since it appeared a few weeks ago for the following […]
May 27, 2020 at 10:30 am
I have 4 Netcam’s and 7 Wemo devices. I will never ever ever buy another Belkin product. This is not how a company should manage end of life. No one should ever buy BELKIN products again
July 1, 2020 at 10:25 am
[…] have been reporting for a while now about Belkin’s plans to end of life the back end services that run their NetCam products. By killing the back end services, Belkin in effect have taken perfectly working cameras and made […]
August 15, 2020 at 5:11 pm
Well after buying several cameras to set up to watch my invalid mother then they shut them down I will not be buying anything from blinking again especially the way they did that what a mean thing to do
December 31, 2020 at 8:58 am
[…] Kills IoT Cameras And Alienates Users In The Process: Belkin lit up the Internet by killing their line of NetCam cameras this past year leaving users with no plan B. They did extend this once, but they killed it once and for all at the […]
January 2, 2021 at 1:52 am
I have 25 cameras I’ve had them for years
Belkin decided to shut them down ?
Well I’d like to join a class action law suit
Nowhere in their agreements does it say that they would or may discontinue the service part
We know cameras get up graded
But to shut down the service leaving no other
Alternative? Had they filed for bankruptcy
That’s one thing but they decided to just screw
All of us. Well let’s file a law suit I believe we definitely deserve at least a refund for the cameras
Why should they walk away leaving us to hold a bag of their bricks ?
January 5, 2021 at 8:09 am
Belkin has not gone bankrupt. They simply made a decision to shut down the back end service that runs these cameras.