Brampton, Ont. mother refuses to pay subscription fee after buying $700 baby monitor

A Brampton mother who spent nearly $700 on a baby monitor is shocked to learn she now has to pay a subscription fee to keep using its top-of-the-line safety features.

"It had the safe sleep feature so you could track her breathing without her wearing anything, and the monitor was almost $700," Julia Gonsalves told CTV News Toronto.

Gonsalves bought the Miku Smart Baby Monitor for her daughter Stella, and it was working fine until one night.

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"In the middle of the night, it shut off. It said we had to update it, and so we updated it, and then all of our baby's information was gone," said Gonsalves.

When she looked at the screen, Gonsalves said it instructed her to "activate membership." That's when she found out the company changed hands and required a $10 monthly subscription fee, or most of the safety features would no longer work.

"The breathing monitoring has been removed and it used to alert us and save the video whenever she made a noise. That's been removed and the videos we had from when she was a newborn are gone too," said Gonsalves.

CTV News reached out to Innovative Health Monitoring LLC, which sells the baby monitor, but did not receive a response.

However, online, Innovative Health Monitoring LLC says it has "purchased the assets and operations of Miku Inc." and that "many of the features you have been receiving for free will now require a monthly subscription fee."

Companies are always trying to find ways to increase their revenue and now more of them are developing monthly subscriptions for their services.

"Instead of selling you something once, they would rather charge you month after month for it," said Carmi Levy, a technology analyst based in London, Ont.

Many consumers have been getting used to paying monthly charges for music and television streaming services. Now, there are subscription fees for fitness websites, doorbell companies and social media platforms that are all trying to cash in monthly payments.

"It's not to the consumer's advantage. They pay more and more and get less and less, and they have to keep paying month after month," said Levy.

Gonsalves said it's unfair to be charged monthly fees since she had already purchased the monitor when all of its features were initially included. So, she refuses to pay the monthly fees and feels she deserves a refund.

"It's such a steep amount to pay and then to have to pay more every month on top of it," said Gonsalves.