Dumb idea? $1,700 “smart” bassinet loses features if you buy it used

Owners of the $1,695 Snoo "smart" bassinet like to gather in forums like Reddit's r/snoolife to swap tracking graphs of their children's sleep patterns. But they also like to complain about Happiest Baby, the company behind the Snoo. That's because Happiest Baby this summer added a $20 monthly subscription fee to several of the Snoo's "premium features," which are controlled by a smartphone app. Those who bought their Snoo from an "authorized" retailer before July 15, 2024, get the premium features free for nine months. No problem! But those who bought their Snoo from an unauthorized retailer—that is, got it used—can "enjoy all the fun and benefits of our premium App features—for FREE—until July 15, 2024," the company announced in its fine print. After that date, premium features went away; the only option for premium feature access on used Snoos now is to cough up $20 each month, atop the $600–$1,000 already spent on the device. Because the Snoo is so [fabulously|ludicrously|incandescently] expensive, and because a bassinet is used only for those first few months while a newborn [learns to sleep|bawls its head off at least six times a night], and because having a new baby can be [expensive|extremely expensive], many [new parents|sleep-deprived zombies] seek out a non-new Snoo. And the parents are not happy about this new subscription fee. Says one Reddit user:

Just saying. This is bullshit. The current owners and users of Snoo should have been grandfathered in and continue to have access to basic feature like motion lock (the one I use most) and future new accounts should get a clear notification that without paying $20/mo they’re just buying a $2,000 basket. Time to review bomb their app.

Dazed and confused

The Snoo works by rocking the bassinet at different levels while tracking the baby's sleep level, and it can do things like simulate a car ride or offer gentle motion when a baby wakes at night. The idea is that the baby and parents both sleep more. Basic features of the Snoo work for everyone, even those who purchased used devices, but the premium package includes things like the aforementioned "car ride mode," responsiveness settings, weaning mode (to get ready for a crib), sleep tracking and logging, a "level lock," and "sleepytime sounds." In other words, the premium sub includes some pretty basic functionality that most Snoo owners want. (A common online complaint, in fact, is that the "premium" features are quite basic for a smart device like this.) Many of the angriest online comments appear to get the actual details of the new subscription wrong, especially the fact that new Snoo purchasers do still get the premium features for free (well, for nine months). But that's part of the problem with these sorts of sudden business model changes—the details are confusing! Customers buy an expensive piece of hardware, hoping to placate a squalling child, and then find that in addition to a squalling child and a lot of cash out of pocket, they have to think about email addresses and online accounts and subscription fees and whether they bought a device new or used and if today is before or after July 15. Just rock the crying baby, smart bassinet! In addition, whatever its legality, charging for features that used to be free can often feel like an injustice, leading even mild-mannered Snoo owners to take the above Redditor's advice and start "review bombing" Happiest Baby's apps. On the Google Play Store, for instance, Happiest Baby's smartphone app is currently down to 1.4 stars. Most of the recent reviews are one-star complaints that say things like:

When we first got our Snoo, the app was free and it worked properly. 5 months later you now charge to access the log (and other features) that were free. And now the app is glitching all the time too! Every time we go to turn it on, we have to reset the app first and then it'll comment. Glad we only have 1 month left. I LOVE the snoo. It has been a savior. But the decision to charge for most of the app features out of no where was shameful. Even wean mode? That's bull.

Or:

This app used to be great. But then they took many of the more important features and locked them behind a "Premium" subscription of $20/month, which is ridiculous. And just in case Happiest Baby tries to "clarify", yes, the free version has several features. But that doesn't change the fact that all of those "Premium" features USED TO BE FREE. It is purely a way to try and get more money out of parents who are just trying to do what is best for their kids.

Angry parents have also gone to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to leave complaints about Happiest Baby, which currently has one out of five stars and is rated an "F."

"Happiest baby blocked core functionality features behind a $20 per month paywall as a revenue grab and explicitly to surpress the second hand market for their product," one parent complained. "We bought our Snoo for $800 used (msrp is now ~$1,700) 4 years ago and are using it with our 2nd kid because it is a way to save money and reduce waste. Now I can no longer wean my child off of the product's core motion feature. When you buy hardware you expect it to work as described—with all the orginal features accessible." It's not just angry, thin-skinned Americans, either. The complaints are echoed by "stiff upper lip" UK users, such as this parent on Reddit who wrote:

Got a 4 month old that has taken me 2 hours to get to sleep tonight. Transferred her to the Snoo. Went to lock it on Level 2, as that keeps her asleep, and got the stupid fucking message asking me to pay £7.99 per month as a "special offer" to access this feature. Fuck you [Happiest Baby founder] Dr Karp, fuck you Happiest Baby, fuck you Snoo. I am not paying a monthly subscription to use product features that were free when I bought a £1.2K cot. Fuming.

A question of revenue

The complaints have grown loud enough over the past month that both The New York Times and Fortune have run articles about the debacle. Speaking to the Times, Karp defended his company's practice as necessary to stay afloat:

“We don’t have any dollar from the government, we don’t have a dollar from a university,” said Dr. Karp, a former pediatrician who created the Snoo after becoming frustrated with the lack of progress in reducing rates of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. “We have to sell products and bring in revenue to be able to get to this goal.”

But for techies, in particular, subscription fatigue is real. Streaming services, password managers, websites, word processors, online games, Adobe editing software, mobile apps—everything seems to be a subscription these days. Now we have $20/month subs for "smart" bassinets. Proponents say subscriptions are needed to better cover the continual cost of software development and security updates, while detractors see them as too often a cash grab promising minimal and undefined "updates" in return for locking users aboard the subscription gravy train and chug-chug-chugging out of the station. Whatever your view on the merits of the Snoo and its new "premium" offerings, the whole sorry marketing debacle is a good reminder that when crucial functionality is built into an app, you as the end user are at the mercy of whatever updates the app maker pushes out. Eventually, when the app itself either disappears or simply fails to run due to being years out of date, the "smart" features will probably fail, too. And if that seems kind of "dumb" to you, then be cautious when buying "smart" devices.