Logitech has been sued in America for allegedly selling defective security cameras and then refusing to service or replace the gear.

A class-action complaint [PDF] filed Tuesday in an Illinois district court by named plaintiff James Anderson claims that Logitech's "Alert Systems" home security cameras were prone to connectivity problems, hardware failures, and software bugs that left them unreliable and in some cases inoperable.

"Logitech emphasized on its website and in marketing materials that the Alert Systems would provide customers with reliable, continuous home security through its digital cameras that had features such as night vision and weatherproofing that could prevent and discourage home invasions and robberies 'rain or shine – summer or winter'," the complaint reads.

"Logitech bolstered its marketing materials with videos submitted by customers that thwarted burglaries in progress, caught thieves, and stopped a possible intrusion from a wild black bear."

The suit goes on to allege that not only did the devices fail to live up to promises on performance and reliability, but Logitech was also slow to address problems with the cameras and controller software while customers were still under their one-year warranty period.

The complaint alleges that Logitech forced customers to go through "repetitive, time-consuming, cumbersome, and unsuccessful troubleshooting processes," and told owners of defective units that they would have to wait because the replacement hardware was on back-order and patches for software were delayed.

"As a result, Logitech strategically left customers without operable security systems during the warranty period while it ran out the clock," the complaint reads.

Finally, the class-action complaint alleges, Logitech decided to discontinue the Alert line in 2012, but failed to notify customers for nearly two years so it could sell out its remaining stock.

Geez, Louise

"Logitech's decision to discontinue the product negatively impacted the availability of replacement Alert Systems to consumers, who were often told cameras were already 'backordered' and that Logitech would continue to try and upgrade and fix the product. But it wasn't until July 22, 2014 that Logitech publicly disclosed to its customers on its website forum that it was discontinuing the Alert Systems and that they would no longer be for sale on Logitech.com," the filing reads.

"Logitech knew internally for nearly two full years that it had given up on the defective Alert Systems, but continued to sell its remaining stock to unsuspecting customers who would eventually be stuck with significant investments in defective products that Logitech would be unable to repair or replace."

The class-action seeks damages for anyone who bought a Logitech Alert camera outside of California (where a separate suit has been filed), and asks for additional damages for those in Illinois for violation of state law.

Logitech, headquartered in Switzerland with offices in Silicon Valley and China, did not respond to a request for comment on the suit. ®