We have our Ring door bell for over a year now. I purchased it from Costco. I dont remember reading anything about charges for video storage fee. To my understanding (maybe Im wrong), the video being recorded is stored in my smart phone. I dont really keep them and delete them after 2-4 days. About 2 weeks ago, I started getting a message from my smart phone when I view the recordings. It stated that “My 30 day free trial video recording is about to expire”. They are asking for $30 per camera. Cant remember if that is per month or per year. Anyway, the warning ended yesterday. Sure enough, I cannot view the recording in my phone. The only thing I can use is the door bell and Live View functions. However, I am unable to view the recording for the Live View either.

So my question is, did I just got lucky and was not asked to pay after the first 30 days after I installed it over a year ago? Or is this something RING door bell company came up with recently?

I called their CS line today and ask for a call back. No one called me back.

News to me? I've had mine now for almost 1-1/2 years and never paid a cent other than the cost of the doorbell itself. Is this something recently new?

This is what I’m trying to figure out. Like you, I never paid anything to their company so I can view my own recordings. I will call them again tomorrow.

quote:

Originally posted by just1tym:
News to me? I've had mine now for almost 1-1/2 years and never paid a cent other than the cost of the doorbell itself. Is this something recently new?

I just went to their website and see that if you're enrolled in their "Protection Plan" there is a small fee and a 30 day free trial. So maybe this is it? It looks to be optional also, so I'd give them a call and if this is what the charge is for, I'd guess you can cancel it.

LINK>>>> Ring Protection Plan

Sounds to me like you somehow got an extended trial period (or just overlooked for a year) on the protection plan. When I got my Ring equipment, it was noted pretty clearly in all the materials and online that I would get a free 30-day trial of cloud video storage, but after that, it would be $3/month per camera to continue with the video storage component of the system. Basic functionality (free) would be the live view, motion sensing alerts, and the doorbell; protection plan is needed if you want to store video for review later.

quote:

Originally posted by Aquilon:
Sounds to me like you somehow got an extended trial period (or just overlooked for a year) on the protection plan. When I got my Ring equipment, it was noted pretty clearly in all the materials and online that I would get a free 30-day trial of cloud video storage, but after that, it would be $3/month per camera to continue with the video storage component of the system. Basic functionality (free) would be the live view, motion sensing alerts, and the doorbell; protection plan is needed if you want to store video for review later.

This. Nothing hidden or unclear about it when I bought mine 6 months ago. Also discussed here pretty extensively.

-Rob

Ring offers two "Protection Plans" for video storage:

1. Per camera, three dollars / month or thirty dollars / year, or
   
   
2. Unlimited cameras at your location, ten dollars / month or one hundred dollars / year.

With either of these plans the recording is stored in Ring's servers for sixty days, deleted after that. While the recording is on Ring's server, during this sixty day storage period, you can view it online through a Ring app on your iOS or Android phone or tablet, or the Ring app on a Mac or Windows computer. You can also download it so that you can retain it past Ring's sixty day retention period.

Ring gives you a thirty day free plan when you install a new device.

If you do not have an active plan, Ring does not store the recordings, nor do they offer any way for you to retain them. You can still use the video doorbell to answer the door, see who is there, etc., but you will not be able to retain this information, nor will you be able to retain recordings that are initiated by the motion detector.

Was clear to me when I bought it about a year ago.

quote:

Originally posted by ador:
I called their CS line today and ask for a call back. No one called me back.

I have had good luck with their "chat" facility. Might have to wait a couple of minutes, but the wait has never been too long, the couple times I used it.

Thanks for the feedback folks. I guess I may have gotten an "extended free trial", which actually ended after about 1.5 years.

I will give them a call and pay that $30/year for 1 camera. I just want to be able to have a recording of my front door. I do have cameras around the house. But the recording is only viewable from my hard drive.

I couldn't get the powered Ring to work on my house so I switched it for a Blink camera, which though it lacks some of the Ring functionality (& isn't a doorbell) has free cloud storage.

$3/mo. seems pretty reasonable, but if you want a full Ring system, I think it's $3/per camera which could add up.

I recently swapped out my original Ring Doorbell for the "Pro" version and am quite happy with the improvements.

My one and only gripe with the original was that for deliveries, by the time it sensed motioned, woke up, connected and adjusted exposure all I was seeing was the back of the delivery guy heading down my driveway. For a delivery, no real big deal however for a package thief it meant only a picture of their back which would be worthless.

I thought "how hard would it be to be constantly recording a 10 second buffer or so?" this would allow the seconds before the motion detection to be in memory and available for saving. Lo and behold, that is what the Pro version does. Not sure on the exact buffer time, but when the alert goes off as someone approaches my door, I have the seconds before hand showing the approach. Also much cleared exposure and not quite as much fish eye on the lens.

So much happier with the performance that I went ahead and picked up one of their "Spot Light Cam" units to mount above the garage door and give me coverage of the driveway approach since it is not picked up by the door bell view. It will add the option of a siren to be triggered if needed.

I think $30/year is fair for their cloud storage. I would like to see a reduction for any additional device. As it is you can get their $100 year plan to cover all devices, but that means no price break until you have four or more. I believe it does include extended warranty and discounts for additional equipment, but I don't think there is enough benefit for me to go that route with only two units and I really have no need for more.

Even at $60/year for 2, that is only $5 month and the piece of mind knowing I have 24/7 recorded video surveillance with two way audio, remote alert/monitoring, and alarm if needed is certainly worth it to me.

quote:

Originally posted by Ridgeway:
$3/mo. seems pretty reasonable, but if you want a full Ring system, I think it's $3/per camera which could add up.

Couple points here:

• If you pay annually, it's $30 / year, which breaks down to $2.50 / month.
  
  
• The fee is $3.00 / month or $30.00 per year for each device, but if you have a bunch of them, it's $10 / month or $100.00 / year for an unlimited number at your house.