Wink Smart homes are down again: Why are people still paying?

For what seems like the thousandth time, Wink smart home hubs are down. The company's servers and website went down on July 1, and evidence suggests Wink failed to pay his bills. So why on earth does Wink still charge monthly fees to its customers?

According to posts on the r/winkhub subreddit, the Wink servers went down on July 1 around 1:00 GMT. A few minutes later, Wink posted a note on its status page stating that "the issue has been identified" and that employees are working on a fix.

The message on the Wink status page can be automated. But the company released manually multiple twitter posts explaining that a "problem" impacts its servers. Wink hasn't shared any further information with customers, though it says local Wink Hub functionality should continue during the outage.

Why is the wink disabled?

This is a complete repeat of Wink's previous outages, including the 10-day outage that occurred on February 1, 2021. And it looks like Wink is suffering from the same stupid problem: he hasn't paid his bills.

Wink's former parent company, called Quirky, went bankrupt in 2015 after dumping a stupid amount of money into R&D and accidentally breaking a ton of Wink Hubs. The Wink smart home brand was later acquired by Will.i.am's company, the flattering name i.am.plus. And Wink was wading. It couldn't maintain a supply of new hubs, couldn't attract new investors, and started charging customers monthly fees for cloud-based services.

Wink's poor financial situation is a constant talking point for Wink users. It's also an "open secret" among the smart home community as a whole. Many people believe that the 2021 outage was the result of Wink not paying hosting fees, and this week's outage seems to reinforce that narrative.

Reddit user jam905 ran a basic DIG command to check the status of Wink's servers. All server DNS records are gone. It's not something that happens during an outage; this is what happens when a hosting service has not received their money.

Note that, like the 2021 incident, this week's outage occurred on the first of the month. It is also marked by the same lack of transparency from Will.i.am and i.am.plus, indicating that the company does not really know when he can bring Wink back online.

I should also mention Wink's reviews on GlassDoor, in which former employees claim they haven't been paid for months. However, we cannot verify whether these reviews are true.

Customers are still paying for Wink

It looks like Wink isn't paying the bills. But customers are still charged for their monthly Wink subscription, which costs $5 per month. And until Wink comes back online, there is nothing you can do to cancel this service.

Again, I'm referring to the r/winkhub subreddit. Several users in this community claim to have been charged by Wink despite this ongoing outage. Canceling Wink requires visiting the company's website, which is currently not possible.

Those who want to cancel Wink today must do so through their bank. Remember that most banks will replace your debit or credit card when you call for a fraudulent charge. But hey, replacing your card might be easier than nagging Wink for a refund.

In the future, I suggest using the privacy service for subscriptions. It generates unique card numbers for subscription services, allowing you to quickly see what you're paying for and cancel anytime.

It's time to drop the wink

We have been saying this since 2019; you should ditch Wink. The company offers a valuable and efficient service, but its products are outdated. And unless Wink is acquired by a more efficient owner, he may never recover from his many years of stagnation.

Now is the time to migrate your smart home. That might mean buying a Hubitat or SmartThings hub or succumbing to the much simpler (but less flexible) world of Google Assistant, Alexa, and HomeKit.

Since you are used to using Wink, I strongly suggest you use Hubitat. It's a popular option among old Wink users, it works with your Z-Wave and ZigBee products, its subscriptions are completely optional, and it lets you set up a private, secure, local smart home.