Where to find a solar panel cable?

[Antron]

I've been trying to find a new outdoor power cable for my VMA4600 solar panel with no luck. Anybody have a good resource for these things? Somebody stole one of my Pro 2 cameras and ripped the cable out of the solar panel. I have since replaced the camera, but I can't find a replacement cable and Arlo doesn't seem to sell them. I've attempted to contact live support but their live support hasn't functioned in months. There doesn't seem to be a way to communicate with anybody at Arlo.

Thanks in advanced!

[jguerdat]

There's chat AND phone:

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/contact.aspx

[Antron]

Thanks!

[Antron]

I take it back, this solution did not help me.

There was a phone number on this page when you first responded, now it's not there. When I try to send an email to them, nothing happens, I can't submit it. And after a few seconds, the email submission section of the page just disappears off of the page. And the live support still doesn't work. I attempted using different browsers but experienced the same issues. Am I crazy or something? I just need a power cable!

[ShayneS]

I have added the link for you again, as well as the U.S. number below.

Arlo Tech Support

United States contact information: 1 (408) 638 3750

[Antron]

The support page doesn't offer me anything useful. Like I said previously, the email contact portion literally disappears when I start typing in it. I called their phone number, the guy told me that he would have to trasnfer me to somebody else to help with the solar panels. I sat on hold for half an hour before I gave up and hung up. This has got to be the worst support I've ever experienced. All I need is a cable! I have major regrets about choosing Arlo, but unfortunately I already have a 24 camera commercial network of Arlo cameras. Are you listening, Arlo? Probably not...

[Antron · Accepted solution]

For anybody reading this with the same issue, I got through to Arlo support at this number; 866-369-9752

The phone call was only 7 minutes long and I have a new cable on its way.

[jguerdat]

That number is NOT an official Arlo support number. Did you Google for support? The real number is found at:

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/contact.aspx

[Antron]

I'd be happy to elaborate;

I contacted the Arlo Facebook page, got a pretty quick response. They just asked what my account email and phone number was, and subsequently had me dial that number to follow up on the case.

Maybe that's not the appropriate number to call, but they ACTUALLY HELPED ME! You keep sending the same link to the support page over and over, and I keep telling you that that page is useless.

[jguerdat]

Thanks for the additional info. That makes sense although I've never heard of a toll-free number to call, hence my confusion. BTW, why do you say the link I provide doesn't work/help?

@JamesC or @Louis_ArloPM  can you comment on this?

[Antron]

Alright, this is going to be long-winded, so I apologize in advanced, but I definitely think you should be aware of this.

I don't know what the page looks like for you, but there's no phone number on there for me. There's no email contact, just a paragraph stating that email is one way to contact although with no apparent link or contact. Now this is where it gets confusing; the first time I went to the support page, there was no email or phone number. After you first sent me a link to that page, there was an email to contact but when I went back it wasn't there. I went back to your link and followed it again, and the email was back on the page. I started typing out an email to support and the email box just disappeared... literally mid-typing, it wa gone. The only way I could get it to come back was to go back to your link. I did this a few times on Mozilla and Chrome and the same problem occured - after about 30 seconds the email text box just disappears from the page. After realizing this, I typed an email as fast as I could and hit submit and you'll never believe what happened next. NOTHING! Ha! The submit button does absolutely nothing!

The phone number you and a couple others sent me did connected me to support but they told me it was the wrong department and transferred me. I was on hold for over 30 minutes, but I had to hang up because I was at work and had stuff to do. Disappearing email box aside, the impression that I get from the support page is that they want to pass the responsibility of troubleshooting problems off to the "community".

This issue has been solved for me, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth. That was a LOT of hassle just to get a USB cable and hopefully this can help other people to not go through the same process.

[jguerdat]

I just tried the link I provided which worked as I expected. It gave me a choice of chat or phone. It's my understanding that email is only offered when chat isn't available but basically there's no useful email option, even when offered.

Phone calls vary. Folks have reported short wait times while others have had very long ones. I can't comment on the correctness of the listed numbers. It may have been a phone system problem - or not.

[Antron]

This is what my screen looks like. There's the phone number at the bottom (which doesn't always show up). There's nowhere to email anybody. Oddly enough, the live chat actually worked just now. In the past when I've attempted to use live chat it just opens a blank white page. I've left the page open for hours and nothing loaded, but today it worked!

[Ekonokat]

can you give me the specs for the cord?  I need a new one and can't get the specs from Arlo.

[Antron]

They don't give the specs, and you likely won't have any luck finding an after market one.

It's a micro b to micro b usb cable, male to male. You can find some like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Micro-B-Cable-Ferrite-Manhattan-307499/dp/B005233FVQ

The problem with that one is that I'm not sure the square end would fit into the solar panel and it's not weather proof. Your other option would be to buy a standard micro b usb cable and get a micro b to usb female adapter like this: https://www.amazon.com/CNE28224-Female-Micro-Adapter-Cable/dp/B0081CRXGI

Like the other cable, this is not weather proof. You'd want to silicone around the contacts or something.

My best advice is to do what I did and hound Arlo until they send you one. If you have Facebook, message their page on there. It took a couple of days for them to give me what I needed, but I did get a new weather proof cable from them.

[Ekonokat]

Thanks!  Great info.  I have been on the phone with Arlo, Verizon and finally Netgear all morning.  I purchased both the camera and solar panel from Verizon, Arlo shows me as a "shared" device and I don't have the serial no.  Finally, after going up the chain at Netgear, I finally got them to agree to send me new cable. It took 4 hours.  I have a receipt for the purchase and everything else.  I can't believe it took me so long to get through to them!

[Antron]

Yeah, they wanted the serial number from my solar panel and approximate date of purchase. I tried to get a hold of Netgear but ultimately wasn't able to get a response. 4 hours ain't that bad! It look be almost 2 weeks of going back and forth with different departments and different companies. Yeah, it's shocking how difficult it is for something so simple. They should just sell individual cables. I'm sure most people would pay for them as opposed to going through all the hoops to get through to their support.

[Ekonokat]

I was willing to pay, but the panel is under warranty, so I tried from that end.  End result, after supervisor climbing, it's coming!