Unable to reach support

[BrickInFL]

Toy can always tell the integrity of an organization by the way they provide access to support, support escalation, and their corporate bodies for executive escalation. Arlo has none. It's no wonder NetGear dumped them.

The FORCED Mar 2025 upgrade (no option to decline) broke geofencing. I opened a support ticket (44689289) and requested a call, worked with a rep over the phone (she actually called me!!), BUT, I doubted what she did would work and I was correct.

Tried to request a call today and I could not log in? Finally got in and the option to request a call or chat does nothing from the app and desktop. Because my unit is out of warranty I can't request a call, chat, or otherwise, can't get through on any phone number, and I'm basically screwed once again by Arlo (remember the camera end of life fiasco?).

No backwards compatibility on a software upgrade?
No ability to rectify what they broke? 
No respectable and professional organization performs as such.

Shame on you Arlo. You've no decency or integrity.

[BrookeN]

Can you provide more information pertaining to what you are seeing with Geofencing? I would be more than happy to assist, we also have a lot of very knowledgeable users within the community that can help as well.  

[BrickInFL]

lol - if you're with Arlo and in an alleged position to render assistance, hos is it that you can't access the ticket system to get the answer to the question you posed? Makes me doubt a lot about you and your role, AND, as a manager of help desks and support technicians striving for world class levels of support, well, you'd be benched and quickly at that.

But, let's also look at what I wrote: geofencing has been broken. Hmmm. What does geofencing bring to the table? What does one expect from it? And from that, might an intelligent person be able to discern what I meant? Yes, I'm direct and brutal because you just asked if water was wet.

So I'll spell it out for you:
 - Before the FORCED update, if my single designated device left my designated geofence area, the Arlo system/cameras would arm (set to away) and notify me of motion. And when I would return, the system would disarm. Please tell me you knew this about geofencing.

 - After the FORCED update, geofencing does NOTHING. I now have to arm and disarm the system via the app. 

And tech support was supposed to get back to me by Friday - it's now two days later. Very telling.

I'll understand if you don't respond after being reprimanded as above and if you don't acknowledge your error, well that's just another demerit against you and Arlo's culture. Own your mistakes.

[StephenB]

FYI, @BrookeN does work for Arlo.

This is a user-to-user forum, and I do not work for them (or represent them in any way).

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@BrickInFL wrote:

 - Before the FORCED update, if my single designated device left my designated geofence area, the Arlo system/cameras would arm (set to away) and notify me of motion. And when I would return, the system would disarm. Please tell me you knew this about geofencing.

 - After the FORCED update, geofencing does NOTHING. I now have to arm and disarm the system via the app. 

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This is usually because the enable lists in the automations are set incorrectly.  Can you post screenshots of the automations?

Also, do you also use scheduling?  Or do you only use geofencing?

[BrickInFL]

Then Brooke should not have an Arlo logo near her name as it's misleading (whether or not it's a badge).

Still, that explains why she can't access the ticket, but it does not excuse the ridiculous question.

[StephenB]

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@BrickInFL wrote:

Then Brooke should not have an Arlo logo near her name as it's misleading (whether or not it's a badge).

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Huh?  I said she DID WORK for Arlo.

If you want help, then it would be good if you post the screenshots I requested and answer the question on scheduling.

[BrickInFL]

Oh dag. Sorry! That will teach me to multi task!! And I do have an ire that probably clouds everything related to Arlo.

Thank you!

I shall review and provide tomorrow!!!

[BrickInFL]

I notice Brooke from Arlo has been scared-off. Smart girl as she's obviously out of her league. 

And I apologize for all the typos. I'm astonished at that - I'm letting them get to me.

I see how I missed your request for the screen shots as I did not notice the bookending of my post's text.

Screen shots attached. Although there are only icons/placeholders although prior to sending, I can't see if they're correctly showing. All have custom filenames.

I notice that the Arlo system is turning OFF my Away mode, and, it's now added my cellphone twice? It used to be a iphone and an ipad? Shame on them for yet another mistake as it was correct last week and I can't fid where I can change it.

[StephenB]

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@BrickInFL wrote:

I notice Brooke from Arlo has been scared-off.

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I frequently help folks with geofencing and scheduling, so I think she's just letting me do that.  If she'd responded to your screenshot posts first, I'd have similarly let her lead.

It is ok for  your "Away" automation to be always enabled.

But your "Home" automation needs to be enabled in the "Arm Away" mode, and at the moment it isn't enabled.  It also should be disabled in the "Arm Home" mode (and at the moment it is enabled there).

You can make these changes in the mode configuration screens.

The concept here is that your "Home" automation triggers when the first person arrives home - so it needs to be active (enabled) when the system is in "Arm Away" mode - since that is the mode the system is in when no one is home.  If you are already home, then it shouldn't trigger again, so you should disarm it in the other two modes.

Similarly, the "Away" automation triggers when the last person leaves home.  Normally the system would be in "Arm Home" or "Standby" when that happens, so it should be enabled in both those modes.  If it is always enabled, then it also will trigger in "Arm Away" when the last person leaves.  The system won't normally be in "Arm Away" at that point, but it is harmless to have it switch to "Arm Away" even though it is already in that mode.

You might find that "Home" doesn't always trigger when you leave.  Let us know if you see that problem.  

On the geofencing devices, press the profile icon in the upper left, then select the privacy center.  You'll see "Available Geofencing Devices" there on the account tab.  The phone you are using should be listed first, and tagged with "Your Device".  Edit it to give it a unique name.  Then delete any "ghost" devices (e.g., another phone you don't have).  The "ghosts" sometimes show up when the app is updated - no idea why.  But once your real phone(s) has a unique name, it is easy to figure out which devices you should delete.

I suggest deleting the iPad from that list also - unless it has mobile data service, and you sometimes take it with you instead of your phone when you go out.

[BrickInFL]

I appreciate your effort, here, and I think I followed your instructions, but now in manually set away mode (as the automation is NOT working), only one inside camera notifies and records? Yet all internal cameras are set/configured the same? 

Wow, Arlo blows, plain and simple. Yeah, not the most professional label to utter but true beyond dispute. 

I disabled both automations and each camera THAN recorded, but only once? I sat still for three minutes (cameras are set to record for 30 seconds), and got up and moved around and nothing. 

A Four minute break produced a result - that's new - something else they broke but that one is almost illogical.

I'm going to try to re-add the automations, but to keep trying the same thing over-and-over again... (and no, Einstein didn't say it).

[StephenB]

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@BrickInFL wrote:

 only one inside camera notifies and records? Yet all internal cameras are set/configured the same? 

Have you checked the modes for the camera?

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@BrickInFL wrote:

I'm going to try to re-add the automations, but to keep trying the same thing over-and-over again... (and no, Einstein didn't say it).

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Here are my screenshots for geofencing

[BrickInFL]

Yes - everything APPEARS to be properly configured and uniform across my two camera groupings (internal and external).

[BrookeN]

@BrickInFL are you still seeing this same behavior?

[BrickInFL]

Yes - Arlo's deliberate breaking of geofencing and disabling of camera motion zones persists.

I installed a Blink system and it was a fraction of the cost of an Arlo system and a simple and immediate success for geofencing and camera motion zone functionality.