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posted by martyb on Friday June 26 2020, @06:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the you-should-see-what-you're-missing! dept.

Guardzilla Shuts Down, Leaving Security Camera Customers Stranded:

Guardzilla, a small home security camera company, has quietly gone out of business, leaving behind unpatched security flaws, barely or nonworking cameras in lots of consumers' homes, and piles of essentially useless cameras that are still being sold at Bed Bath & Beyond, QVC, and other retailers.

Consumer Reports learned earlier this month that Guardzilla had closed its doors when our test engineers tried to follow up about security problems they found with the Guardzilla 360. We disclosed the issues to Guardzilla last fall. The company fixed one problem, but never addressed a second one.

The company has stopped responding to emails and its phone number is no longer working. A message posted on its website at the beginning of June reads: “We deeply regret that these troubling times have caused us to close our doors. We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused, as we will be unable to continue support for the Guardzilla product line.”

Like other internet-connected security cameras, Guardzilla cameras stored users' video clips on corporate servers. The servers continued working intermittently until mid-June but now appear to be completely shut down.

[...] In addition to Bed Bath & Beyond and QVC, these cameras can still be purchased at Amazon Marketplace, Buy Buy Baby, eBay, and Newegg Marketplace. Consumer Reports reached out to these companies to find out why they continue to sell Guardzilla cameras. Only eBay had replied by the time of publication, and says it will continue to sell the cameras for now.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Saturday June 27 2020, @03:34AM

    by RS3 (6367) on Saturday June 27 2020, @03:34AM (#1013117)

    That's a really good question. IANAL, but my brother is and I'll ask him. For now I'll speculate: you probably know that if someone declares bankruptcy, the creditors get some percentage of the money owed... maybe. You may know this too: you can win a civil case and judgement (money) but getting the money out of the other person can be very difficult and could take years. So it all depends on how much $ we're talking about. In most states the fee to file a small claim costs from $35 to $100, so you're not likely to do that on something less than $200.

    Ebay should have a buyer's insurance system in place- something to protect against ripoffs, bankruptcies, etc. Maybe they do and I'm not aware. I know they try to sell you some kind of extended warranty on things; I barely take notice.

    I got ripped off, only maybe $20, for something that was supposedly in USA, but suddenly the tracking put it in Hong Kong or somewhere over there. Needless to say, I never got the item. I'm now suspicious of items that will take weeks to arrive.

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