Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Life Style

Snoo Smart Sleeper monthly fee sparks backlash against maker

Rock-a-bye.

Sleep-deprived moms and dads are melting down after the makers of a $1,695 status symbol bassinet — which uses remote technology to rock a toddler swiftly to sleep — abruptly announced a new subscription fee of $240 per year in order to access all of the pricey product’s high-tech features.

Snoo Smart Sleeper, a smash-hit from Los Angeles company Happiest Baby, comes with just about every bell and whistle imaginable to help a child nap — and ease fussing — while also tracking your little one’s snooze stats, using an app.

Parents are upset that a paired app for the Snoo is restricting its features to a subscription model. Happiest Baby

Back in mid-July, however, the West Coast makers delivered a shock wake-up call, restricting 10 of the Snoo’s 18 features to premium members. The Post has reached out to Happiest Baby for comment.

Users now face two choices — pony up the extra cash, or be subjected to a screaming kid.

And even though new users get nine months of unfettered access for free, that isn’t stopping p.o.’d pops and miffed mamas from putting the company squarely in timeout.

“Wow what a f–ing grift,” irked Upper East Side mother Caitlin Fuchs-Rosner vented to The Post.

“They’re taking advantage of tired and vulnerable parents. Happiest baby? More like happiest hand-wringing greed beast,” she said.

The Snoo’s paired app offers many features on the bassinette. But parents will have to pay for many of them now. Happiest Baby

Roosevelt Island couple Christopher Cheng, 33, and Laura Daniels, 29, said the Snoo was “a lifesaver” for their 10-and-a-half-week-old son Koda, born in under 37 weeks.

But the new pricing model — and the blindsiding that came with it —left such a bad taste in the new parents’ mouths that they may not use one for their second, planned child.

“They’re effectively just milking us,” Cheng told The Post.

“From a moral perspective, this is a tool that people use to maintain their sanity and to try to get their babies to sleep so that they can sleep themselves,” added Daniels, who also said it feels like, “‘How can we squeeze every penny out of [the] super stressed’?”

On top of everything, the bassinet is something of a lofty investment to begin with — after six months, the child outgrows the pricey product, infant sleep expert Ann Marks, creator of the Full Feedings Method, told The Post.

The Snoo at full feature will cost parents even more now. Happiest Baby

“It’s a big expense when you’re having a baby. I think it’s become a status symbol in a way,” Marks, 41, said.

Because of the short shelf life, the resale market is huge for the Snoo. Many parents, like Cheng and Daniels, buy and sell them secondhand. A certified used one from Happiest Baby currently costs $1,195.00.

“One of the reasons I justified the purchase price was knowing that there was a strong second hand market,” one Redditor posted.

Snoo is reeling back many of its abilities to premium subscribers only. Happiest Baby

“This subscription has already lowered the value of the Snoo. How can tech companies justify killing a products resale value after purchase?” they queried.

In the wake of the pricing boost, the online forum has become grounds for parents to throw their own temper tantrums.

One called on fellow chatters to “join me in the protest” until the premium is done away with.

Parents are pushing back against Snoo after the price change. Happiest Baby

Another said they “already stopped at least 6 sales of the Snoo to people within my community.”

“Way to ruin your product Snoo. This is the start of your demise,” they added.

However, not everyone is tossing and turning over the added fee.

Many parents are now protesting the loved bassinette over pricing. Happiest Baby

Sydney Kohan, a 24-year-old mom from the Upper West Side defended Happiest Baby after a very good recent experience with the product.

“Every company is nickling and diming their customers one way or another,” Kohan told The Post, adding that this is a way for those taking advantage of the secondhand market — and those who were gifted the Snoo — a chance to “contribute.”

“I don’t see any problem with it.”

Source link

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button