Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsBuyer beware, garbage if you dont buy the cloud service
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2023
The camera works great IF you pay for the cloud service. Otherwise it is garbage, and like many other complaints on here, I feel lied to. Although it is advertised that "you don't need to pay for the cloud service and you can just use local storage with a usb flash drive." I can tell you that is false, and I even did an experiment to prove it. Upon providing the results to blink tech support, I was hung up on. So the whole story: upon buying a blink camera with the blink USB flash drive (sold separately) and the sync module, I was immediately forced into a "free trial" of the blink cloud service. The set up was incredibly easy. The housing for the camera is tricky, if you try to adjust the camera to face a certain way make sure your hands are really on it because it pops out really easily and you do not want to drop the camera. I spoke to tech support upon my initial install to ask about what happens after the trial ends and if I want to use the usb flash drive. I was told by 3 different blink tech people over the trial period the same thing: that it will send the motion detects to the local storage instead of the cloud, and that it will take a couple seconds longer to load it, but that it would work the same. They said the other difference was that I had to manually delete motion detect video one by one instead of being able to select all at once to delete. They also said the usb would not have unlimited storage like the cloud service. Each one urged me to get the cloud service. Camera worked great for the 30 days of the trial. The SECOND the trial ended my motion detects stopped. I would get the alert, but no video. Call blink tech support, they tell me it is my internet. I explain to them that is really a coincidence because it worked great until the trial ended. 4 of them told me the same thing and urged me to get the Cloud service. I ask them why does that make a difference if my "internet" is the problem. No answer about that. My neighbor pays for blink cloud service. So I had him bring his sync module over to my home with his camera, and I let him attach it to my WIFI network/my internet, which is supposedly the reason why my camera magically stopped working when I stopped the blink cloud service to use the flash drive instead. and guess what, my neighbor's blink camera (with the paid cloud service) worked just fine on MY NETWORK (with the supposedly bad internet lol). So I call Blink back and explained this, I was treated disrespectfully, and hung up on. I called back and spoke to a supervisor who told me that I was mistaken and why would I "do that" and I said because I know you were wrong and/or lying. Anyways I activated the cloud service and am unfortunately paying for it now and the SECOND I did so, magically the camera starts working again. What a magical coincidence. The cloud service is not expensive, but beware. The cameras are advertised to work with a usb flash drive and it even states as such all over amazon and on the blink website, but they will LIE TO YOUR FACE saying it is your internet and urge you to get the cloud service when the device magically stops working when the trial ends if you do not pay for the service. Amazon should be ashamed of themselves for marketing it this way because it is not true. Yes the camera works great IF YOU PAY FOR THE SERVICE THAT THEY ADVERTISE YOU CAN JUST GET A FLASH DRIVE AND NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR INSTEAD. THEY SHOULD NEVER ADVERTISE IT THAT WAY BECAUSE IT IS JUST NOT TRUE. Extremely unhappy customer. No one likes being lied to and amazon is usually really good about things, but not this. Essentially I paid for a useless flash drive and I would not have bought these cameras if I had know it was a lie about needing the service. Buyer beware.