Climbing Moss

A pre-warning here this will probably turn into more of a rant than a review. 

In November 2017 in the search for Christmas presents I (Bob) found out about this product, from the company Smarter – You may know them from the iKettle, the smart kitchen appliance that you can use to turn the kettle on from your smartphone. Well Smarter had come up with a useful product this time! The Fridgecam! Ultimately a camera you put in your fridge that helps you cut down on your waste and in turn helps you save some money in the long run. What’s not to love? 

All of this sounded wonderful for someone who loves shopping (My mother) it’s shame it didn’t deliver any of the promises.

My mother is impossible to buy gifts for! It’s a well known fact, when it comes to Christmas no one knows what to buy her. However last year I knew exactly what I was buying her, I had just been waiting for the release date.

I had seen adverts to for this Fridgecam by Smarter selling you fantastic ideas! It was a small Camera that you fitted inside of your Fridge that would take photos of what was inside, You could scan barcodes of all products that you would put in the fridge and in doing so you would receive notifications when the products expiration date was getting near. It would also tell you how much of a product you had left or needed to buy more of. Plus helpful recipes for the expiring products.

You will never know how perfect this is for my mum and if someone would like to actually make this product I will gladly buy it from you. 

So Back at the beginning of November 2017 I enquired about purchasing this product for a Christmas present, I was told that If I ordered straight away it would be with me before Christmas without doubt. Well to cut a long story short, After many many emails – Normally with a copy and paste response not relevant to my email at all. Angry phone calls to people that had no idea what the product was let alone what I was talking about.  Posted Letters – which were ignored!

But 9 months later I finally received this present! 

I wish I hadn’t have bothered! Not only did they keep my money for this long but when the product eventually turned up it was complete crap!

So ultimately you are buying a Camera, A ball to stick it on and a charging cable however not a mains plug adapter.

So worth the 150.00 Price tag (Sarcasm) 

You Charge the Camera for 6 Hours before use, then you download the app on your Smartphone/iPhone.  

After 6 hours you then you start the tedious process of getting the camera to sync to the phone. This took 2 hours for some reason.  

Then you have to choose where to stick it for the best picture in your fridge, and then proceed to keep the door open, then shut, open, shut, then at a 40 Degree angle and wait till the app decides to work. Especially because there is low internet signal within the fridge. 

Here’s where the first problems occurs, on the adverts you are promised pin sharp photos. Whereas no matter what you do to the camera it comes out a fuzzy blurry mess.

So now the camera is fitted, I can see a blurry image so I go on the app to see if I can see a real time photo. But no you have to open the fridge to get a picture! So if hypothetically you were out shopping, someone would have to be at home opening and shutting the fridge so you can see a blur. Really great product.

So we proceed to work out that you scan the items on the phone app not the camera in the fridge. Again what is the point of this camera, you could just install the app and use that instead?

So we decide to scan one of our items, get the app scanner up and ready and scan an avocado. Sorry we cannot get the information we only recognize products bought from tesco. 

WHATTTTT!!?!?!?

So basically

1. I cannot scan the products because I don’t shop at Tesco.
2.                          I can only see a blurry picture when someone opens the door 

Therefore I cannot get any info about expiring products or really anything that was advertised. 

We sleep on it thinking maybe we are missing something sporadically you open the fridge you get a quick flash (this doesn’t happen much maybe once or twice in a day) So I keep checking the camera, still blurry. I scan another barcode- nope no dice. 

So we let the camera settle for a day, on the third day of having it we go to the fridge and there is no flash. 

It’s been less than 48 hours and the camera is dead! No battery, nothing. So we charge it again as it says in the instruction manual. Then put it back. It’s still an ultimate waste of space, but I wait to see what my Mum wants to do with it. Plus what with the poor customer service that I had received from Smarter I was trepidation talking to them again.

Two days later (well not quite 48 hours) The Fridgecam is dead again! The battery lasts less than 48 hours, won’t scan anything, is blurry as fuck and is useless.

Mum ultimately decides its a piece of crap and to send it back for a full refund.

We spend the next hour trying to pry the camera off the fridge door with a butter knife so we don’t damage the fridge, which leaves behind a black glob no matter what you do.

I talk to Smarter on the phone, where I tell them that the product is nothing like it was advertised and its not fit for purpose. I get told that they determine its working fine so I have to keep it. I phone back I get a different person, I ask for a full refund if I send the product back . They ask me why, I state I may as well have just taken my camera to my fridge everytime I open it, take a picture then shut the door and write down what I have in my fridge on my phone. They ramble on about how up to date this product is and how much it will make my life better. But I stand firm and they eventually relent.

We package it back up, take a few photos and get told when they receive the camera back they will process a refund 3 days later. 5 days later I am still waiting so I will phone and talk to people who will ultimately make my question how dumb you can be.

So ultimately the Fridgecam proves one thing, that you should never believe the hype, what you read or adverts. They lie!

This is one of the worst products I have ever bought and quite possibly the second worst company I have ever spoken to. So smarter I only have one more question for you, is your company named ironically?

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Have you tried Fridge Cam? Did you like it? Let us know in the comments and

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