Camera Stops Charging due to the connector cable from the Micro USB to the main board of the camera.

[MobiMend]

I am a small IT business owner based in South Australia, I have been a Netgear reseller for many years now (Mainly computing & networking products) & have not had a problem with any of them. I believe Netgear to be a good & reliable product manufacturer.

I installed an Arlo Surveillance kit in my own home about 6 to 7 months ago. It has been running great till about 4 weeks ago, initially 1 of the 3 camera's stopped charging, so I swapped it out with another and used a different one to charge 2 batteries, about a week later that camera also stopped charging, so I took the 3rd camera down and used it purely for charging the other 2 batteries, that lasted for about 10 day's and that one also stopped charging, I initially thought it might be the actual USB charger and tried it on my phone, but it worked & charged the phone fine.

I then had a look inside the Arlo-Q camera and noticed that the 1mm ribbon cable had cracked, I looked inside the other two and the same thing had occurred.

I took it back to the retailer from who I purchased it from, I got a call today asking me to come into the store. When I got there a male employee from service desk told me that the charging issue isn't covered by warranty & that it would cost me $85.00 per camera to be fixed. I thought this was a bit pricy and said I will just take them back home.

I went online and found another shop that sold ARLO products and purchased the "Dual Battery charging station" for $99.00 as this was a cheaper alternative to resolve my problem. So now I can charge 2 batteries at once which is ideal to have a spare charged battery always. I later put the batteries back in the cameras & they are all working now.

There are a few things I am concerned about, I have sold & installed about 10 of these systems to some of my regular customers & I am worried that this will start happening to them also, furthermore I jumped online & did some google research and found some information which informed me that this is a design flaw in the camera & that Netgear should cover the cost of the repair. I think that’s it’s unfair to have to payout more money when I have already spent nearly $1,000.00 on the initial purchase of the product.

I have submitted a complaint, it will be interesting to see what reply I get from Netgear about this problem. 

I will keep you posted. I have added some photos to show you the problem.

Camera 1Camera 2Camera 3

[jguerdat]

You mis-identified the cameras as Qs since the Q has no battery.  These would seem to be Pro cameras as noted by posting in this forum.

It's odd that 3 cameras have this issue.  None of mine have had this issue although there's the possibility of a significant difference in the number of times the battery cover has been opened and closed. Any chance you've been vigorous when handling the door, pulling it open more than intended?  Are the cables actually damaged or just pushed out?  If the latter, can you reseat them successfully?

Good luck!