More $$$ for phone notifications?

[thomasm]

I was just reading about the new offerings from Ooma like geofencing and a siren. Apparently, if you are interested in these new options it will cost you an additional $3.99 for the"secure" plan up and above the cost of premier. What caught my attention was the description of this new "secure" plan included TELEPHONE NOTIFICATIONS. Telephone notifications are now included with premier at no additional charge. Is this changing?

[homeforus]

I would certainly welcome some clarity from Ooma on how and whether the pricing scheme is changing. It appears that something is afoot.

[exjohndoe]

Yes, looks like some currently free (for premier accounts) features will be additional $3.99.

Scheduled Mode Switching
SMS Notifications
Phone Call Notifications
Email Notifications
Remote 911
Multiple Users of App

Without these features, Home Security is pretty much useless.

[homeforus]

Yeah I'm particularly concerned about the features Ooma is planning to take away from current premier subscribers as mentioned above. That's outright criminal.

The other thing that is really annoying here is Ooma's attempt to monetize new features. Honestly, I bought into the Ooma system less because of the features offered early last year, but for the potential as they built it out and added features. So I bought in with hopes that the system would GROW in value as Ooma worked out the kinks and added features that really should have been there all along. To now add some features and try to nickel and dime people for them is really annoying.

Tom, can you comment?

[thomasm]

Well, everything previously offered with Premier including telephone,sms, and email notifications are still working here. The monthly fee for premier is now $17.02 in my area after taxes. Add $3.99 and we're over twenty bucks. That's too much when Intellisafe is $15 and I have a cellphone with unlimited voice calls already.
Has anyone lost the (previously includeed with Premier) services yet?

[homeforus]

I was just going to ask this: if no explanation for the increases, at least a little clarity on WHEN they would be instituted and WHO would be affected, should be in order. Tom?

[thomasm]

Yes, just when is this additional $3.99 charge going into effect? A notification of additional charges (or lost funtionality) would be nice especially for a security service. I'm sure the majority of Ooma customers don't follow this forum.

I hope Ooma has hired additional customer service reps that start when the new charges begin (ha ha).

[Tom]

existing premier customers are grandfathered in if they already have home security and don't pay the $3.99

[thad]

Hi, it's Thad from the Product team at Ooma. Thanks for the questions about the new Home Security subscription model. And thank you for being an early user of Ooma Home Security. The new pricing that was announced in January applies only to new customers. Existing customers will be grandfathered on their old plans. So your pricing won’t change. If you are a Premier customer with Home Security today, you will continue to get phone, email and sms notifications, scheduled mode switching, multiple users, and Remote 911 features at no monthly charge. You will also get new features like Geofencing at no monthly charge. If you are a Basic customer paying $5.99 per month, your monthly price will be reduced to $4.99 to continue on the new Secure tier, with all the above-mentioned features. I hope that answers the questions. If you have further questions or issues, please feel free to email report-an-ooma-home-problem@ooma.com.

Best,
Thad

[ooma4us]

I've been waiting for Ooma to announce and ship the smoke detector and the siren modules which were recently announced but as far as I can tell are not shipping as of yet. As a result of these two critical items missing from the available options I have not purchased any of the security items but am and have been a premier subscriber for several years.

My question is do I still fall under the 'grandfathered' clause because I am an existing premier customer or do/did I have to already have one or more of the security devices active to qualify? If so, what is/was the cut-off date to qualify?

My hope is that all existing premier customers are grandfathered otherwise as mentioned above the security features will push my monthly bill to over $21.00 a month which is more than I am willing to pay.

Thanks, Bill