Arlo Smart Subscription Issues for discounted monthly price and not getting 30-day recording

[ricwhite]

I signed up at the beginning of June for the 50% off Arlo Smart deal.  I have 4 cameras. The first camera was $2.99 and the other 3 were 50% off at $1.49 for a total of $7.49 charged to my card.  My account indicates I'm on the Smart Plan. With the Smart plan, I get some features plus 30 day recording.  However, when I go into my "library," I'm still only able to access 7 days of past recordings.  I'm not getting more than a week.  Anything before the 7 days is greyed out and not clickable.  Why am I not getting the 30 days of recording? 

Also, I noticed that my next billing cycle payment shows $11.96 is due instead of $7.49.  It is going back to full price at $2.99 per camera.  The terms of the deal say "Discounted monthly price will remain on the camera until user cancels the plan."   So, shouldn't it stay at $7.49 per month as I agreed to? 

Needless to say I'm not very happy with the Smart Plan so far.

[jguerdat]

If you only subscribed to Smart and not the Arlo Smart Premier plan, you still only get the free 7 days. There's a price difference and it's not per camera with Premier.

I haven't paid attention to the offers but was the discounted price a one month thing?

[ricwhite]

That is incorrect.  The Smart plan includes a rolling 30 day recording as does the Priemier plan.  That was in the email and that is also at the Arlo Subscription site as follows:  https://kb.arlo.com/000062163/Where-is-the-Basic-Subscription-plan

As far as the pricing, the terms said: "Discounted monthly price will remain on the camera until user cancels the plan."  That indicates that the discounts remains as long as I continue service.  

[JessicaP]

Hey ricwhite,

Let me gather the information from you regarding this. I'll send you a private message.

[ricwhite]

Update: 7/17

I have not had any resolution to this issue. I signed up for Arlo Smart on June 2  to get the 30 days of recording.  On my subscription plan is says "30 days of recording."  I'm still only getting 7.  I communicated with Arlo support by phone and email.  They wanted me to send in a screenshot of my library.  I have done that 3 times now.  The latest screenshot shows I'm only able to access from July 10-16 in my library.   I have paid for two months of 30-day service and I'm approaching the third month's payment and I have yet to get 30 days of recording.  All responses by email by Arlo Support stopped on July 5 and although I have continued to update my situation by email,  they are no longer responding.  Is it really that difficult to get it switched to a 30 day recording?  Please advise. 

[JessicaP]

Sorry to hear that you have not heard back from our support team since Jul 5. I've escalated your case for you and they should reach out to you as soon as they finish reviewing your case. If you don't hear back after 48 hours, feel free to private message me.

[HorseWithNoName]

I’m also having this issue.  I signed up for the discounted Alro Smart subscription but am not getting the 30-days.

[JessicaP]

Hey HorseWithNoName,

I suggest contacting the Arlo Support Team if you haven't already so they can further investigate the issue. You will find several options for contacting support in the provided link.

[mamabear12]

I am having the exact same issue!

I called thinking the footage I had would be saved since I had paid for the upgrade. Then it was deleted. During the call it was clarified that the 30 days of footage available only starts on the day I sign up for the Smart subscription upgrade (July 4th). Now, I have logged in to start downloading the footage starting on the 5th, and I HAVE NOTHING (it's only the 30th now, so I should have about 5 days left!) The library is completely empty. I have lost critical footage, all while paying for this 30 days, after already being on the phone with someone who clarified I had the 30 days of footage available starting from the day I signed up. I can't afford this kind of service. To pay for something and not get it. If I had known, I'd have made the sacrifice to stay up all night the few days after each day downloading the videos (which only download correctly one at a time!)

I am very upset, and can't have this continue. But unfortunately, after already contacting support and thinking I had this under control, I'm not sure what to do. I can't afford to get another company system now, but maybe that's my only option at this point. I'm not just recording things for the fun of it here...

[ricwhite]

I have started my third month of subscription service to Arlo Smart. My credit card was charged again yesterday for the month of August.  Today, I lost 5 days of video access and I'm back down to 6 days of access.  Usually it will build to around 11 days of access and then I lose the 5 day chunk. But I'm never able to get the 30 days I'm paying for.   It appears that this issue is unable to be resolved.  If they cannot resolve the issue within two months after several phone calls, emails, community forum, then I guess it's just not able to be resolved.  I'm getting nowhere.   It's too bad because I really needed the 30 days of video access.  

[ricwhite]

I recieved a call from Arlo Support on Aug 2.  They said, they are working on a resolution but there is no time table when it will be resolved.  She said I should be getting the 30 days of recording, not 10, not 7, but 30 days.  She said there is an issue in their system with those who signed up with the promotion which ended in June.   My credit card was charged $7.49 in June, $7.49 in July, and $8.00 in August.  The August charge has some kind of "taxes" added.   I asked the Arlo Support rep since I am not getting the services I contracted for if I could get a refund on those three charges.  She would not commit to refunds and would only say she would pass along my concern.  The problem is I paid for a service I'm not getting. I'm already in the third month.  So, I expect a refund for each month I'm not getting the service.  I am fully willing to pay for the services I contracted for, but not for services I'm not getting.  I asked the rep if that was "fair" and she would not say it was fair only that "I hear what you're saying."  

[mamabear12]

Thank you for the updates on this situation. It would seem we need to cancel, so we don't keep bleeding money they won't honor the services for. I'm going to try to search for a more reputable company to provide these services and will let you know what I find when I get to it. In the meantime, I appreciate your taking the time to update on the matter. I would hope this is resolved before having to make a switch, but from the sounds of it...

[mamabear12]

This is what happened to me. When I thought it was clear I now had the 30 days, since it was available over 7 days out, I made plans to download the files (a major pain to do one by one by the way and thus a major time commitment) at a later date within the 30 window. Ha, the anger and frustration when that later date came... Nada.

[ricwhite]

The rep on the phone told me it only occurs on the promotions.  So, if you were to cancel and sign up for the full price, you would get the 30 days.  Those people have no issues at all.  But if you signed up on the promotion - such as the one in June for 50% off - then the system will not allow 30 days of recording.  So, one option would be to cancel and resubscibe for the higher price of $2.99 per camera.  If you stay on the promotion, there is no guarantee that there will be a resolution and you might end up with only 7 days while on that plan.  

When I requsted a refund of the months I have paid without the services, I was expecting the rep so say, "certainly we will do that. I will go ahead and process those refunds for you immediately. And unless we work out the issue, we will issue refunds for each month it's not working."  But she did NOT do that.  She did not issue any refunds and would not commit to doing do.  She said she would pass along my concerns.  This is a very SIMPLE "breach of contract" situation and I can EASILY dispute this with my credit card company and have those charges removed because Arlo is charging my credit card and not delivering the services.  You'd think they would be very quick to refund and make things right with their customers.  I was a little surprised by that. 

[ricwhite]

I was contacted on Aug. 5 by Arlo and was told that they will process refunds for the three months that I was subscribed but not getting the services.  That is good news and something that is very logical.  The rep said there is no resolution yet to the problem of not getting the 30 days of recording.  She said I might want to give it a little more time and if it's not resolved consider canceling and re-subscribing under the full-priced non-discounted plan which doesn't seem to have any issues. 

[WENDIGO]

I have read here that my problem is not unique... My new (promotional) subscription to Arlo Smart is not showing 30 days of video in the saved library.  I tried doing Live Chat... and no response.  I've been hanging here for several minutes while it says 'connecting to agent'.  Is there no email to register an issue?  

BTW - If you want to require specific labels to post, then use a drop down.  DUH.

[ricwhite]

I signed up on June 2 and worked with Arlo until late August and they were never able to correct the issue with the inability to get 30 days recording.  So, I canceled.  Apparently, if you sign up with a "promotion" of some type, you will only get 7 days recording - which makes signing up rather worthless.  The fact that they KNOW you will only get 7 days of recording instead of 30 and they still offer those promotions to suck people into to signing up for the subscription appears to me to be deceptive and unethical business practice. 

[WENDIGO]

Thanks for validating my issue! I actually signed up to be able to have zones and that component does work. But they have no idea what they’re doing with respect to support. I literally sat on the phone for an hour and 15 minutes and it was a circus. They had no idea how to look things up. They had no idea about the technology or the product or subscriptions. In fact, when they asked for a screenshot to prove that I didn’t have 30 days worth of video, I asked them what format the picture should be. They had no idea what a GIF or JPG was. This is their tech support. I tried to escalate to a manager and the only thing you get when you do that is someone who knows how to kiss your butt better. It’s bad.