Netvue Camera Accessed and Netvue refusing to help!

Krdzine · February 7, 2021, 4:31pm

Disappointed. I have been having some issues with 2 of the Netvue cameras I purchased through Amazon/Woot. It was how I first heard of the cameras and thought they were great and decided to purchase 2 others recently.

SECURITY
A few months ago we noticed our cameras would turn on randomly, which seemed to indicate someone was viewing the camera feed. We had recently changed the settings so that the blue indicator would come on and we were surprised that a few times a day/week the light would come on when we were home… so no reason the camera would be accessed remotely.

RESPONSE
After weeks of back and forth and Netvue verifying the camera information, they offered to replace them. They never really explained what or how this was happening but at least they were trying to fix an obvious security breach. Great.
Except, when they found out theses were purchased through Woot (an Amazon company) they refused to follow through.

Make sure you turn on your indicator lights, you never know who is watching your Netvue cameras!

netvue · February 9, 2021, 1:30am

Hi Krdzine,

About the light:

Correct: Home Cam does have indicator light.
The Orb Mini and Orb Cam don’t have an indicator light, But they do have Infrared light, which will turn on automatically when it gets dark.
The Orb Pro and Home Cam do have an indicator light, the blue/red light means the camera is online or offline.

Both the indicator light and the infrared light do not mean “someone was viewing the camera feed”.

About the security:

Netvue have always attached great importance to data privacy and security, and have never been questioned about “insecurity”.

Share device: If you suspect that someone is viewing your camera, you can check the device sharing list first.

Notice the new device log-in email: We will send you a email if someone login with your account on a new device.

Change account password: If you are worried about your account being logged in by others, you can change your password.

About the woot:

Our official sales channels are only Amazon and netvue.com for now. We do not recommend purchasing second-hand products in any other channels.

In principle, we do not guarantee or exchange products purchased from other channels because we cannot verify a valid proof of purchase.

If you encounter any problems we will still provide you with lifelong software maintenance support.

Thank you,
Netvue Team

Krdzine · February 8, 2021, 4:10am

Indicator light: Home cam does have an indicator light (see manual screen shot attached even though it says Lndicator”) and everything I have stated was confirmed with tech/support over the month of back and forth emails… hence why they WERE going to handle a refund/replacement. Secondly, the light came on at various times of day… not simply low light. I specifically asked and confirmed that the indicator light coming on was the camera being “on”. I won’t go into the specifics AGAIN because I have already spent so much time sending info, screen captures and photos of the cameras with the indicator light on (when it was set to remain in sleep mode) to start the process again. Feel free to review everything that has been sent and shared prior. I would love to hear a logical response that actually explains my experience. I posted/shared my story because I believe there was/is a security concern. I have not been informed otherwise and a camera activating without consent is an issue.

Woot is an AMAZON company. As stated, if it wasn’t for Woot I would never had discovered your product. Which is why I decided to purchase additional cameras.

As I requested from tech support, are you claiming that these “3rd party cameras” are NOT actually NetVue products? Wouldn’t that have been discovered when the product serials were registered (and warranty activated)? Or at least over a month ago when the tech support ticket was opened and the product ID confirmed? When I posed that question in an email in January… I never received a response. In that email I also asked if you would, at minimum, offer a loyal user a discount to replace these 2 needing to be replaced… no answer… no solution offer… nothing further. That is BAD customer support.

netvue · February 9, 2021, 2:44am

Hi Krdzine,

sorry I made a mistake, the Home Cam does have an indicator light.
But the same: The indicator light does not mean “someone was viewing the camera feed”.

To find out why the light turn on while it should be “sleep”, please confirm the following items one by one:

Check if you have shared your devices with others, if so, remove them from the list, otherwise:
Check the schedule of the sleep mode, make sure the start time is different from the end time (if it is, the sleep mode will not be activated), otherwise:
Change your account password, and login again. See if this problem still exists. if so,
Pay attention to the color of the indicator light, if it is red, it may be due to: the camera has been restarted and is now offline, so it will not enter the “sleep mode”; if it is blue, please send the specific time and device ID to hi@netvue.com