[yaakov34]

Having read the post, I honestly do not see anything that remotely approaches a "scam". You need to be more careful with words, or maybe just to learn to take disagreements or disappointments more in stride, and to maybe try to see things from others' perspectives.

What you have here is some kind of disappointment in an upgrade offer; Space Monkey, as far as I see, is a) still honoring the offer it gave you on Kickstarter, and b) is willing to refund you the whole sum in any case. That's not a "scam". I kept reading this article and waiting to see how Space Monkey stole your data and sold it to advertisers and identity thieves (that would be a scam), but, instead, you're basically displeased with them and their phrasing was possibly unclear.

When you raise that to the level of "scam" and spend who-knows-how-much effort on writing 13 long back-and-forth emails and a blog post (at what rate do you value your time that you find this worthwhile for a $10/month service?), you just make yourself sound like a spoiled child.

FWIW, I have nothing to do with Space Monkey and have never even heard of them before 10 minutes ago.

[emil10001]

The "scam" is that in their upgrade offer, they're claiming to own my device, and then trying to sell it to me a second time. I think that "scam" is a fair word to describe this particular situation.

I have read their comments as to how it's a lease, but they did not make that clear in the Kickstarter campaign. They are relying on some things that may have been implied by what was written as opposed to any sort of explicit statement that the hardware was being leased. I also believe that it was an honest mistake on their part, but that it was a mistake. I think that they're relying on gullibility, and the actual discounts that come with the upgrade to sneak this by people.

I felt like it was important to point this out, since I don't think that there is any sense in which Space Monkey could be considered to be in the right here.

[jrs99]

i don't think it's about the money. it's almost never about the money.

if you had a ten dollar bill on a table, and you saw an acquaintance take that money and put it in their pocket, you confronted them about it, and they told you it was theirs and that they didn't take anything, would you be a spoiled child by ending the relationship or asking for the money back?

[zeeboo]

But they offered to give the money back and he didn't take it.

[jrs99]

They could always just go ahead and give him the money back.

[zeeboo]

Space Monkey said they would give refunds with shipment at their cost to anyone who requests them.

[jrs99]

If they are completely straightforward, it would have saved someone a trip to the post office.

companies cause stress when you can't trust them. You don't have 100% confidence that you'll even get a refund. You don't know what they're capable of if they are even misleading you by accident.

When the company gets annoyed or mad, then how do you trust them when you send back your data? You can't.

the worst feeling is that you feel that you are taken advantage of, even subtly.