Arlo Floodlight - After 90 days, the activity zone and library recordings ceased to operate

[Johntomtom]

I own a years old Arlo 2 camera. It allows activity zones and 7 day recording to a library.

I purchased the Arlo Pro 3 floodlight camera in September. After 90 days, the activity zone and library recordings ceased to operate. I'm told that I have to subscribe to cloud services to get those features (or purchase a power AC cord for my "wireless" camera to get the activity zones operable).

This feel like a bait and switch. Why isn't this clearly marked on the packaging? It's like buying a car with an engine that stops working in 3 months unless you continue shelling out money to the manufacturer. 

This is just not right - and I recommended the floodlight to a neighbor who made the purchase. His 3 months are not up yet and he didn't know about the loss of features. He's not happy either and is also going to speak with the retailer (Best Buy) about returning the camera.

[dcfox1]

"The 3 month trial to smart is included" is on the box and product page. Any cam newer then the Pro2 need a smart subscription. If you connect the cams to a hub/base you can have local recordings. 

[Johntomtom]

So, I bought a $200 shell. Nice value!

If I wanted a motion activated light, I could have paid a heck of a lot less.

[jguerdat]

Or you could have researched what it meant to have a trial subscription as well as what was required in the first place.

You have to option to connect the camera to a base or hub so you can use local recordings instead of the cloud.

[kvnmlm]

They've even pulled they  wool over the eyes of us long time users who liked and invested in the first gen of products which were crazy overpriced but the rotating 7 days made them worth it.  This was what made the Arlo/Netgear product worth investing and over paying for.     Netgear is far behind in the price race as we can buy other cams for much less and pay for a subscription there so they have now eliminated their key feature by forcing us to buy subscriptions.  FWIW, I feel taken too.  Arlo fan boys will tell you to read the box which is why they are Arlo fan boys. My 90 days just expired on the new cam I bought figuring I'd stick with Arlo and at this point the cam is a now a boat anchor.   I believe I'm abandoning this platform at this point, just haven't picked the correct replacement.  

[dcfox1]

Not a Arlo Fan boy but I knew what a 3 month trial meant. FWIW Arlo split from Netgear years ago. 

[Johntomtom]

You're right - I started this thread and I was incorrect. I looked at the retail box carefully and found the subscription statement on the box. You'll have to make an effort to find it ... it's that tiny font type at the bottom of one side panel on the box. You know, the statement that marketers have to put on for consumer fairness, but don't really want you to see. It certainly doesn't make for a sexy benefits and value message. But, $3/month is certainly affordable and, yes, I will buy another Arlo product because they are well designed.

[kvnmlm]

Heh. I thought I'd look cause I don't follow Arlo/Netgear closely.  Arlo was created with Netgear maintaining 80% ownership and selling 20% in an IPO.   Has something changed since ? from what I see with a quick look, Arlo is an attempt by Netgear to spin this thing off but they are stuck holding 80% of a company which is worth 40% less than it IPOed at in 2018.  This is still basically Netgear pretending to be Arlo and struggling to make a business of it.   Too bad cause I kind of liked the product.

[kvnmlm]

On my box I wouldn't call it small as the whole side describes the service.  If I look at the description of it on Amazon there they are down playing it completely.   The standard pics don't even show the box or the side which lays this out.   Even says in bullet 2 "No monthly fees or service contract required."  This is all kinds of shady.  You don't need these unless you want reasonable features which you assume especially if you are a past user.  You have to get down to bullet number......whoops, no they left the bullet out saying you need the subscription.  Surely just an oversight if you put your rose colored netgear glasses on.  I go further down and fancy pics and verbiage actually says you get cloud storage up to 30 days.   You have to scroll way down to the last line of the description "Arlo Smart includes cloud recordings of video clips at 2K or lower resolution for 30 days. Renewal of an Arlo Smart subscription is required to maintain Arlo Smart features, including cloud storage"   It actually is far more then "smart" features which go away.   This whole thing has stink all over it.  They know it and they are burying it.   Thankfully the reviews at Amazon are flagging the mess nicely which will either kill the product or convince them to disclose and compete on price.