Arlo Software and Cloud is broken

[brokencloud]

It's hard to know where to start when it comes to the terrible experience I now have with Arlo. I'm quite familiar with Arlo from it's early days as a NETGEAR product. Being familiar with the product I decided to purchase the essentials cameras x4 and a doorbell. At first the system worked just fine and I have to say I regret trying to get it to do more.

I called up support to see if I could get the geo-fencing to work with the scheduling for alerts only to take place at certain times of day or if I was out. The individual at the call center who started by giving me a fake name (which isn't a great start) forced me to update my in-app experience by tricking my app into thinking I have the latest cameras. This is where things went wrong ...

The new software / cloud experience is quite literally broken. It is clear the testing of this software just hasn't happened to the level that is acceptable for a modern software company. For example, when you click on the same button twice it will show different dropdown content.

Not only did the support person's upgrade not solve my issue, it completely broke my Arlo setup. As it happens the configuration I wanted to have isn't even supported in the new experience and now my cameras can't even change modes. I literally can't put them into standby and stop getting notification to my phone on motion events. So when I'm at home I get notifications continuously that I don't want. I just wanted to have the cameras in standby when at home and active when I'm out. I would assume this is a pretty basic ask from a company that wants to position itself as a home automation player.

To make matters worse the offshore support team seem to have created a deliberate barrier between me "the customer" and Arlo product people beyond what Arlo probably intends. They closed my ticket and put in notes that were completely false. "Problem solved by sharing a kb article with customer". I find it amazing that Arlo don't allow customers to raise the flag to HQ somehow. No complaints path or feedback options and now here I am having to join a community in a last ditched attempt to get my ~$1500 of cameras to function at a basic level. I am almost embarrassed for the team at Arlo.

Finally, even if the app experience did work. It is so complex in design with rules and trigger that I can't imagine a non-tech consumer understanding the concepts that are being presented.

I made the mistake of attempting to start from zero by deleting my paid subscription, my accounts, my wife's account and starting from scratch with the new experience.

Here is a list of the things that just don't work:

1. Cameras don't change modes and the triggers won't not sent notifications, no matter how you try

2. The name for my families iphones in the geofencing don't map to the names you give and are ambigious. How am I meant to know who in my households phone is "iphone" or "iphone" or "iphone" or "ipad"? Seriously,

3. The doorbell doesn't work most of the time and when it does the people at the door can't hear. I tested this on my coffee table to ensure it wasn't a wifi issue. The latency is terrible too.

4. Inviting a family member so they can answer the door seems to somehow be even worse. Often they get a grey screen and can't see what's on camera

5. App buttons change there behaviour erratically without in almost a comical way. The same button seems to alternate from being add camera to add schedule and it's clear that it isn't meant to.

I've never been in a position when products I have purchased are rendered useless because of a cloud application change that is so dramatic. I am going to look into local consumer law and see what can be done. I a should also say I found some of the folks that work for Arlo on linkedin and messaged them too. I will posting what I learn from them.

... So disappointing.

[brokencloud]

BTW ... about 6 hours this has taken from me so far.

[DannyBearAgain]

It would have been better if arlo gave it’s customers the option to install the library UI rather than the feed UI when creating new accounts. At least until they finish building the new app.

[brokencloud]

I hate that as a customer I even need to hear about UI libraries. They have basically broken the app, cloud and doorbell experience. I have bought Arlo over the last 2 years and it’s bnow useless. Now I have to start again with ring or google. I am going to engage the Australians consumer ombudsman to see if I can get my money back on the hardware. I hate when software companies take consumers free time