Following a widespread Nest camera outage, Google is reportedly offering customers a $5 refund.
Nest Aware customers began to receive emails from Google noting they would receive a $5 refund for the more than four-hour outage that happened earlier this week. At first, only U.S. customers received the email (as noted by Droid-Life), but now a writer at iPhone in Canada says they also received an email about the refund. Surprisingly, the emails are identical, and it isn’t clear if Canadian Nest Aware subscribers will receive a $5 CAD refund or a $5 USD refund.
Further, it seems that the number of cameras and the Nest Aware subscription price you pay don’t impact refund amount — everyone is getting $5. This could be a source of frustration for some, as Google currently charges Nest Aware subscriptions on a per camera basis in $5, $10 and $30 per month increments, depending on how many days of video history you want to save.
However, this is set to change soon as Google revamps its Nest Aware pricing. Nest Aware will eventually be billed on a per-home basis instead of a per-camera basis, with an $8 and $16 tier in Canada. The main difference between the two tiers is how many days of ‘event history video’ and ’24/7 video history’ customers have access to. While the Nest Aware website lists this as “coming in early 2020,” the Nest Aware FAQ says the new subscription will be U.S. only, indicating it’ll launch in the U.S. first and come to Canada after.
You can read the email in full below:
On Monday, February 24, an update to our servers caused a connectivity issue that prevented Nest cameras from recording and streaming live video from 11:55 AM to 4:20 PM Pacific Time. All camera services are now running smoothly. Video history was not captured during the outage.
We know that our cameras are an important part of keeping your home and property safe, and we’re carefully looking across our systems to prevent this from happening again. Providing a trusted and secure infrastructure for your home is a responsibility we take very seriously.
As a Nest Aware subscriber, we understand you rely on our cameras and services. We’ll be issuing a $5 refund to the card associated with your account to thank you for your patience and for being a loyal Nest customer. No need to contact customer support – you’ll automatically receive an email once the refund has been processed.
We’re committed to building products that deliver helpful solutions for your home. We apologize for not meeting that expectation this week.
-rishi VP. Google Nest
Additionally, you can learn more about the outage here.
Source: Droid-Life, iPhone in Canada
