Complete Lack of Follow up from ARLO "Support"

[Retired_Member]

Does anyone have the secret to having ARLO support actually HELP you resolve an issue?  I have two open cases since early July and as many as 30 emails from ARLO support.  The latest commitment received was for a call back from the "correct" technical support team to resolve an issue with a BRAND NEW Pro 4 and the inability to add my wife as a "friend" for camera viewing and access.  Unbelievable.  Tonight a call was scheduled and confirmed via email on July 28th.  No call as I expected.  The chat session was again simply got me no where except to try to once again for the sixth or seventh time explain what my issues were; even after providing the five separate "case numbers"!!!!!!  Next step is to provide copies of all of my documentation; emails both sent and received; copies of the multiple chat sessions (especially tonight's); screen shots of each "case update" I have provided constantly; copies of the attachments, screenshots, and captured videos of the camera issue on three separate occasions to both my attorney and with a formal complaint filed with the Florida State Attorney's Office.  Not to mention, the denial of a camera replacement via warranty submission on a two month old camera due to "we need to wait on our technology team to resolve a known issue" with your problem!!!!!!!  Beyond being over this mess.

[2024bj]

I think its best to buy from another manufacter ,THEIR IS NO SUPPORT

[ShayneS]

Hi @Retired_Member 

I see you have a few cases with various concerns. Can you provide me with more detail regarding the issue you are currently experiencing? 

[Retired_Member]

The first issue began within two weeks of purchasing two new Pro 4 cameras. The cameras are located about 15 feet apart. Each have activity zones established which are almost identical. Just cover a specific area from different angles. One works perfectly. The second catches ANY motion well outside of the activity zone constantly. Settings on both cameras are exactly the same. I’ve been told:  weak WiFi signal; wrong type of WiFi; sensitivity set incorrectly; placement is wrong; and the excuses go on. Finally received multiple “messages” when I would get the “Case Requires Updates” saying it is a known issue with the camera and programmers are working to correct it. I have sent screenshots of both cameras settings; WiFi network connected to; placement of cameras; screenshots of each camera’s activity zone; and actual videos taken by the defective camera of vehicles and people being videoed and alerts sent while no where NEAR being in the activity zone!!!  Time stamped live video of the working camera at the same time sent to them showing no video; alerts; or notifications sent. Absolutely NO feedback or follow up since. I asked for a new replacement camera under the warranty due to this issue and was denied “due to camera does capture video and send alerts” with no acknowledgement that it does so when motion is detected well outside of established activity zone.  So, it continues to be a constant merry-go-round of no activity on ARLO’s part and no replacement of this camera with a new one. 

The second issue is about the inability to add my wife as a “friend” on my ARLO account. Steps provided from several support individuals have not resolved the issue at all. An email received from “Rochelle” on July 28th established a phone call with Technical Support to be held last night between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. EST due to my wife and I being in Colorado and not available until last night. Needless to say, my phone didn’t ring as I expected. Follow up chat sessions; which I have copies of, yielded nothing but apologies for my inconvenience and absolutely nothing more. The second chat agent said he was “escalating to the higher technical team and I would be called shortly”.  Well, “shortly” never arrived last night or today. 

I have an appointment on next Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. with my attorney ( who has copies of every email exchange; chat sessions; and the screenshots and videos I have provided to ARLO along with date of purchase of the two Pro 4 cameras) with the local office of the Florida State Attorney.  I’m no longer wasting my time or energy on this company and will let the appropriate legal channels see if they can obtain any sort of corrective action from ARLO. 

So, there you have the latest in this saga of “non-support”.

[StephenB]

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@Retired_Member wrote:

The second issue is about the inability to add my wife as a “friend” on my ARLO account. 

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Where are you getting stuck on this?

• Is the invitation showing up as accepted in your account?
• If it is accepted, does her account show "Feed" with yours showing "Library"?

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@Retired_Member wrote:

The first issue began within two weeks of purchasing two new Pro 4 cameras. The cameras are located about 15 feet apart. Each have activity zones established which are almost identical. Just cover a specific area from different angles. One works perfectly. The second catches ANY motion well outside of the activity zone constantly. Settings on both cameras are exactly the same.

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Have you tried swapping the cameras (and resetting the zones) to confirm that the problem remains with the camera?

Are both cameras on battery?  Or is one (or both) connected to AC power?

When on battery, the activity zones are processed in the Arlo Cloud, and not the camera.  But when on AC power, they are processed in the camera itself.

[Retired_Member]

Answers provided below:

Yes, invitation shows as accepted in my account.  Setting is also set for administrative functions for her.  She shows "library" as well; however, she has no ability to turn a camera on or off on her phone unless I am completely signed out of the account.  This completely defeats the purpose of us both being able to utilize our cameras simultaneously given that we both travel extensively and often times are in different parts of the country at the same time.  Additionally, when I am signed in to the account and she attempts to either do a live view of a camera or view a video within the library or turn a camera on or off, she receives a message that "Your Arlo device appears offline.  Please make sure it's powered on and connected to the internet".  Then all four cameras views go blank while everything appears just fine on my application.  Received a notification earlier this morning from "Support" to now continue to check for a version update of 4.7.2 which is due out "soon" and should resolve the issue.  Our current version is 4.7.1 on both of our applications.  Not holding my breath on this resolution in any shape form or fashion.

Yes.  Cameras have been swapped three separate times and the issue with the one problem camera follows it wherever it is place.  Even moving it to a completely different location (in the rear of our home covering lanai; pool; and back lawn) with an entirely different activity zone for that location yields the same results of alerts and videos captured on motion WELL outside of the activity zone.  Activity zones have been deleted and remade numerous times on all cameras and yet the one problem camera continues it's behavior.  All four of my cameras (the two new Pro 4's and two Pro 3's) are on battery.  Availability to connect directly to power is not conducive to their locations.

[StephenB]

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@Retired_Member wrote:

invitation shows as accepted in my account.  Setting is also set for administrative functions for her.  She shows "library" as well; however, she has no ability to turn a camera on or off on her phone unless I am completely signed out of the account.  This completely defeats the purpose of us both being able to utilize our cameras simultaneously given that we both travel extensively and often times are in different parts of the country at the same time.  Additionally, when I am signed in to the account and she attempts to either do a live view of a camera or view a video within the library or turn a camera on or off, she receives a message that "Your Arlo device appears offline.  Please make sure it's powered on and connected to the internet".  Then all four cameras views go blank while everything appears just fine on my application.  Received a notification earlier this morning from "Support" to now continue to check for a version update of 4.7.2 which is due out "soon" and should resolve the issue.  Our current version is 4.7.1 on both of our applications.  Not holding my breath on this resolution in any shape form or fashion.

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So she can see live footage and library footage, but cannot enable/disable cameras.

Is she able to switch to disarm mode and arm mode for the system?

FWIW, there is a bug with switching modes from friend accounts when using the "Feed" interface, I'm not sure if that also affects "Library".

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@Retired_Member wrote:

Cameras have been swapped three separate times and the issue with the one problem camera follows it wherever it is place. 

Have you tried removing the camera from the account, and then doing the hardware reset (holding down sync until you see the camera start flashing amber)?

Then re-add it to the account?

[Retired_Member]

She can see it UNTIL she attempts to either turn the live view on or replay a video that has been captured and resides in the library.  Then everything goes haywire; she receives the message I provided earlier; and everything goes blank/black and she has to log out and log back in to the application.  Which by the way, has been deleted from her phone three times and downloaded again (per "Supports" troubleshooting requirements).  She does not have the ability to switch or use anything under the "mode" options.  Again, when attempted; logout and log back in.

Early troubleshooting on of the activity zone issue; and at least twice total, I did just that on all four of my cameras.  A complete "start over" on each camera individually and one at a time.  Results; three work great and the one continues to drive us crazy.  It's so bad that it's been moved and is "on" very sporadically because of the constant alert notifications to our phones.  Extremely frustrating.

[StephenB]

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@Retired_Member wrote:

She can see it UNTIL she attempts to either turn the live view on or replay a video that has been captured and resides in the library.  Then everything goes haywire

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Does the same thing happen when she logs into my.arlo.com on a PC using her credentials?

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@Retired_Member wrote:

Early troubleshooting on of the activity zone issue; and at least twice total, I did just that on all four of my cameras.  A complete "start over" on each camera individually and one at a time.  

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Just to confirm - you pressed the sync button on the camera until it flashed amber before adding it back to the account?

[Retired_Member]

I have not tried on a PC. I will attempt later this afternoon when we return home. Leaving shortly for grand children sports events. 

Yes. I performed a complete factory reset and the LED flashed amber before adding it back to my account and setting it up again. Same settings as the working Pro 4 with sensitivity settings; which motions to capture, record, and send alerts and a new activity zone made and set. 

[JayCPA]

Feel your pain BattleWarrior.  In the same position myself with a ticket opened on July 6th not resolved.  Finally resolved it myself by digging through the community responses.  The ONLY support from Arlo is the Community feedback.  Took over a month for both my defective cameras to be acknowledged as having issues and replacements sent AFTER I PAID to send the non-working items back.  Hopefully you will get a "tech" that acknowledges all the steps you tried and that there is an issue and will actually issue an RMA.

[StephenB]

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@Retired_Member wrote:

Yes. I performed a complete factory reset and the LED flashed amber before adding it back to my account and setting it up again. Same settings as the working Pro 4 with sensitivity settings; which motions to capture, record, and send alerts and a new activity zone made and set. 

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Ok.

One setting that is easy to miss (and which sometimes has odd effects) is the one for CO/Smoke detection.  That's listed under smart notifications, and not in the normal camera settings.  I'd look in there, just to make sure it isn't set.

If you haven't done this already, then also go into the rules of the mode you are using, and make sure that audio detection is not enabled.

If neither help, then I'd press for a warranty exchange of the camera.  Support might resist that, but you've exhausted the other options.

[Retired_Member]

Just used PC and logged her in.  Everything works great with one exception.  The "trouble" camera I'm having all of the issue with she can not activate to a live video feed.  Appears to hang for a second and then reverts back to the latest image that was shown.  She is able to turn all cameras on and off and to also see and review captured videos in our library.  Appears the issue is with the mobile application.  For more information; our two Iphones are both 13 Pro Maxs; we are running the exact same iOS version; the ARLO application's version on both phones are the same; and we are connected to the same home Wifi router.

[Retired_Member]

Stephen, I do not use and have never activated the CO/Smoke Detection on any camera.  Can't see the need since all cameras are place outdoors.  I confirmed that this setting is "off" based on your suggestion just to be safe.  Same with audio detection.  At times, the local settings around our home would constantly be picked up by the cameras and alerts sent; especially, on the weekends.  Again, thank you for the suggestion.

Now, for another update.  As it happens, I did receive a call back this afternoon from a support individual from ARLO out of San Jose, CA.  Sure wasn't from a technology unit though.  After once again reviewing the issue(s) with this individual and making sure he was reading the most current replies/responses to the correct case, results were the same with one wrinkle.  Nothing but apologies and confirming it's a known issue that programmers are working on.  When he read my updates from yesterday concerning having already met with my attorney; providing him copies of everything pertaining to this issue including letting him see/observe a live alert as it occurred with motion being captured approximately 20 feet outside of the activity zone; and that we already have an appointment scheduled with our local State Attorney's Office on Tuesday; there seemed to be a different urgency in his manner.  So much so, he put me on hold for almost 10 minutes while "speaking to my technology team".  End result was the same.  More apologies; another denial of sending a replacement camera - with a statement that "it was denied because the new camera might not work either" - and that programmers are working on the known issue - once again.  He did reference that within 24 to 48 hours I would be contacted by either telephone or email with an update on resolution of the issue.  I made sure the individual knew and confirmed that the expiration of the 48 hours would be PRIOR to my scheduled meeting on Tuesday (he confirmed the "clock" started today during our phone call; especially since it was supposed to be a recorded call for training purposes) and that if I had not received what was being communicated, then I fully intended to allow legal action to resolve the issue on my behalf going forward.  So, we'll see what occurs.  The proverbial clock is ticking away.  Next steps today for me is to also file a formal complaint with Amazon (cameras purchased through them on July 13th) and update them on the issues being faced from one of their more prominent equipment providers.  May not be any help, but at least I'll know it's been done.