Canary Reviews 

CANARY IS THE WORST!!!! estimated wait time says 3 minutes. I was on hold for over 30 minutes when I gave up. Terrible customer service and even worse business practices. How a company like this hasn't been brought to litigation is beyond me.

The cameras are fine. You have to have a paid subscription in order to review your recordings which I was OK with however if you run into any issue with your paid service, you might as well just throw your camera away because Customer Service is absolutely impossible to contact and once you get someone they are useless. They obviously don’t care because you’ve now purchased their camera and are stuck with it even after you cancel your paid subscription. The worst customer service I have experienced in 45 years!!

not happy, simply wanted to cancel my yearly premium service before auto renewal online but the website although features a cancel service simply tries to offer me a discounted option and forces me to call their helpdesk to cancel, to which I was unable to get through. this is todays digital world is appalling. Canary why do you not allow or trust people to cancel their own service or remove thier own payment details?.

Canary was good at first3 -4 yrs ago.til I got a credit cad statement charging 60% more without any notice.asked to cancel but customer service (sucks)said all they cand do is give a credit 1 yr later.i signed up for 99$ plan not the 160 they put on my cars.and said sorry we can't cancel till 1 year is up because of policy..responded with guess what I also have a policy that states I do not except companies like canary to take money from me thT is not agreed upon.aka ripping off people.the price was the same long time 99$ And just cause they raise to 159$ I have to except. No sorry that against my policy.called credit card and they removed.outragous for a com that say can't cancel. Not a binding contract when raise price 60 % without notice.willing to pay for 3 week I had but no its against there policy..that when I said it against my policy to be ripped off.i can send u a copy unlike they didnt.everybody fight back write down ur own policy. Just as legal as there's

I bought the camera 2 years ago and now is useless because this company change the features and now they request a monthly payment for the basic options that was included when I bought it

READ MINE & OTHETS reviews BEFORE purchasing.

So my membership got renewed and Canary said they 'did' sent me reminder. Regardless, I contacted on the day of renewal and I was offered half price which I accepted but it was for following year, then I asked what about this year so they said 'Will apply the same'.
I contacted them again and they said, no our 'esclation' team.did not agree.

Then I demanded to CANCEL on 14 days POLICY, to which I was told that it only applies to new memberships.

I have no choice but very unlikely to renew with Canary instead look for alternatives.

With all these reviews, not sure how long can Canary survive.

Have used Canary for a few years. The hardware is very average. Premium service OK. Have been auto renewed again this year despite receiving no renewal notice (email or otherwise). Canary swear blind they've made contact - we're checked all or systems (fully backed up) but no record of any contact. I asked for cancellation and a refund. Canary have declined to do this, will only communicate through PayPal and in response to all communications simply refer to Terms & Conditions. There are other options out there folks - look elsewhere first.

UPDATE FOLLOWING REPLY FROM CANARY BELOW
Here you go folks...more quotes from the small print. This is all you get from Canary Customer Service. As another reviewer put it - Canary is all about the profit, not the Customer. Even Microsoft changed their policy on auto-renewals after regulatory intervention as this approach was deemed unfair on consumers and 'sharp practice'. Dinosaurs like this don't deserve to survive in today's consumer-led market. The TrustPilot score of 1 is well deserved - there are better providers out there.

Avoid Canary. A fine example of a company that prioritises profit over service. It has meant they will not get my continued service. There are plenty of better services so keep looking around.

A once-great product, which I consistently recommended to friends, now rendered totally useless by what they refer to as an ‘update’.

Usually updates fix problems or increase functionality.

This one simply removes features, paywalling them.

There are many, many other brands that now work out as cheaper than Canary. Will be fascinated to see how long the CEO stays in their position

Edit: worth pointing out that the reply mentions ‘due to our competitor’s offerings.’

To be clear: if you buy a canary now, and don’t pay for the premium, you don’t get any visual alert - not even a thumbnail - of what has triggered the camera. So you’re absolutely blind as to whether it’s a burglar or a ray of sunlight.

That’s fine if that was the offering in the first place, but Canary made its name with a punchy unit price that was worth it for lack of subscription.

Now, they’re simply not worth it when compared to eg amazon’s offerings.

I purchased a Canary Pro several years ago as, despite costing significantly more than other similar devices, it provided the services I require without the need for monthly fees (as outlined on the packaging). Unfortunately, despite being assured that ‘With Canary, the app and primary service are free, and accessible via as many phones as you’d like.’ (Indie Go Go campaign) the device which I own has been remotely broken by you and is now effectively useless for the purpose for which it was purchased.

Please could Canary explain how what has been done is legal with regards to The Consumer Rights Act 2015, applicable to England and Wales? This legislation outlines that services should match up to what has been agreed and that unfair terms in a contract are not legally binding.

I have contacted support at canary.is but received no reply. I expect my next point of call will be Trading Standards when I am ignored again.

Have three cameras in different locations

Have pointed out to their reps that a security camera sending a notification is a basic not a premium service element

Have used them since 2015 and now phasing them out

Tried to upgrade to premium plan since they took away all features on basic. Chatted with a rep. was given a discount code. However, the payment page would not allow completion using PayPal. Tried several times. Then after reading the recent reviews I'm glad it did'nt take my money. I'll stick to basic and/or change devices. I will not give my cc # to any offshore company. Only PayPal.

Like many others here, I was offered a promotional credit card to upgrade to the paid service via email for my canary accounts.

Its been some time since I've upgraded and have yet to obtain the credit card or a response communication from canary. This was the entire reason why I opted to upgrade. I've actively tried 7+ times to get in touch with their team via email and chat to resolve this issue, each without a response.

I'll be issuing a chargeback with my credit card and filing complaint(s) with the FTC and relevant state consumer protection agencies if this issue isn't resolved.

I've really tried to be patient, understanding, and offer as much information as possible to their team to resolve. Overall a dissapointing experience coming from an otherwise loyal customer.

And again, two weeks later: no contact with Canary. On my two previous messages, canary constantly replied: 'we will contact you'. But unfortunately it remains with nice promises without substance. Canary doesn't seem to have any feeling for its customers and customer-service seems to be a word they do not know. I'm very curious if Canary will care about all these terribly bad reviews and dissatisfied customers.

I was asked to update to the premier with the offer of 100 pound amazon gift card which never arrived and my canary was never updated I have e mailed every day for weeks but no reply and I am out of pocket for 79 pounds I will not renew. david bruce

I had Canary cameras installed at 4 different locations. As other reviewers stated at first they worked well, than the company started reducing the functionality, limiting the users ability to view videos and restricting the ability to effectively filter for notifications. These significant changes occurred without any notice to customers. What customer service focused company does that without communicating. With these changes also came a significant deterioration in the performance of the equipment.

3 of our locations did not have premium service so this was a significant change and rendered these cameras useless. We’ve already replaced these cameras with another system at these locations. For the location with the premium service we are in the process of having a full security system installed with its own cameras and we intended to cancel the premium service. We noted a pending charge on our credit card evidently on the renewal date. Called immediately to cancel that day. Canary claims that we were notified a week prior of the impending charge. That notification was never received. They refuse to cancel until the next renewal date in 2023 and will not refund the annual $85 charge. If a company has to chain their customers to them like that it speaks volumes about their company ethics and customer service. We were satisfied customers, so much so that we installed them in 4 locations. Shortly the last of our 4 installations will be disconnected. Certainly don’t feel like we were a valued customer.

Additional note after Canary’s Reply: their reply is without substance. It’s not as if we didn’t contact Canary Support prior to this review. We’ve had numerous contacts with them and spent countless time via phone, chat and email trying to resolve our issues. 1) their move from an equipment to a service based business model was very poorly executed. The lack of communication to customers regarding this change was a case study in how not to do business. It never goes over well to take away benefits and reduce functionality without customer outreach. Contacting them further on this debacle serves no purpose. 2) Their refusal to refund the annual premium service fee on the day of renewal, which they have reiterated in several communications with us, is illustrative of their lack of customer focus and poor business practice. Their exceptionally poor rating just on this platform illustrates we are not an isolated case. My time has value - further contact with them is not worth the effort. I hope they enjoy my $85 over the next year while providing no service. At least the future income stream has been cancelled.

I’ve had a system for four years now, I used to love the features, the geo-fencing was on point and I took a paid subscription.

Since the recent changes in subscription I stopped paying premium. Suddenly my unit was sending upwards of 40 notifications a day, but although they claim a clip is included on the free plan, the software refuses to load it. I turned the camera to a blank wall to see if there was something going on with the unit, and still upwards of 30 notifications. I emailed customer support but nothing after 6 weeks. I decided to junk the unit and install a competitor which has SD card playback.

Sadly what was a lovely system, working seamlessly, has been rendered useless by whatever software update they have forced out. What’s so frustrating is this is just about subscription, bottom line, cash…….I may have taken out premium again but not with the lack of customer service and not even a transition period, i.e ‘in 3 months things will change, try it out for free’

Used my canary for many years without issue. Unfortunately their paid for price plan has rendered their device obsolete. I have replaced it with a similar device/ plan which costs 3.99 per 3 months

Canary is Horrible. Way better services out there. We have wasted our $$
, so hopefully you won’t!!!

One star is far too good for this product, since the changes to the “free” functionality have been removed, the system is now redundant and I have wasted my money investing in a company with no morals.

I have reached out to support@canary and am looking forward to hearing back.

26 August - I had a few emails and was indeed offered an option, this was not suitable to me therefore proposed a similar offer back to them however this was not acceptable therefore anybody want to buy some lovely bits of plastic/glass that I bought under false pretences?