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JamesC · ‎2020-01-13

Recently, Arlo released new subscription plans for Arlo Smart. Please join Greg Falgiano, director of product management for software services at 11AM PT this Thursday 01/16/20 as he shares the highlights of this update and takes your questions about the new Arlo Smart subscription plans.

Greg will be answering questions in this Arlo Community discussion thread from 11AM PT to 12PM on Thursday 01/16/20.

Greg Falgiano is the Director of Product Management for Software Services at Arlo Technologies where he is responsible for the company’s Arlo Smart services business, program management and key partnerships. Prior to Arlo he worked in the consumer electronics and IP phone industries. Throughout his career, he has held roles in Product Management, Channel Marketing, Marketing Communications and Business Development.

We look forward to having you join the conversation!

Thank you!

oaklandm · ‎2020-01-16

@Arlo-Greg thanks for your reply however I was on an annual plan and got moved to a monthly plan because support told me too, after that I was then told there is no way to move back to a yearly plan because they were no longer available and existing customers were being moved away from them anyway

fishferbrains · ‎2020-01-16

Greg - these "Q&A" should be done via Youtube, Twitch, Skype or other interactive platform.

Arlo-Greg · ‎2020-01-16

@Chanel55 wrote:

These plan changes create a disincentive for long-time users to upgrade their Arlo systems as I started to do prior to this unannounced dramatic price increase in the subscription plans. Was that your intent?

I have 16 cameras, 3 of which are Pro 3s (one still in the box) and a mix of Pro 2s (9) and Arlo Qs (3) as well as 2 Security Lights (a 3rd died for no obvious reason), the audio doorbell and the door chime. I have the Smart Elite Annual Plan for up to 20 cams. I did not realize - because it was not made clear - that my 3 Arlo Pro 3 Cams could not be used with my existing plan. WHY can't they be used with my existing Smart Elite Annual Plan when I am not using my full 20 cameras?

The 3 month trial for the Pro 3s - at least 2 of them is almost up. I saw the DRAMATIC price increase for plans with fewer benefits AFTER I purchased the Arlo Pro 3s. Two were purchased directly from Arlo after Arlo promoted the new Arlo 3s. The new plan is cost prohibitive for me. Why can't I keep my existing Legacy Camera Plan and add a new plan for the Arlo 3s? Why penalize me for buying new equipment?

Why would you do away with annual plans? I assume but cannot find much information on your website that my annual Smart Elite Plan will automatically renew since my credit card info is on file (that is what your Q&A states). Is this correct, i.e. will it automatically renew for a 1 year period with a 1x annual payment? As an aside, why not allow annual plans? Monthly plans are a PIA since they require monthly payments – very inconvenient (I never allow automatic withdrawals from my bank so that is never an option for me.) How long is my Smart Elite plan grandfathered - one year, two years or?

Absent some changes in these new plans I will not pay an exorbitant plan amount just to add the Arlo Pro 3 cams. Does Arlo understand this major disincentive to further expand existing systems? I am currently looking for alternatives and most likely will need to move on at some point to another system. My home security company is currently on a path to improve their cams so I will be watching its progress. I believe others feel this way too.

Is there any chance you will re-think these plan changes to accommodate all of us who have invested a LOT OF MONEY into the Arlo system - at a minimum let us keep our Arlo plan and either add the new cams to our existing plan or at least to have 2 plans - the legacy plan and a plan for the new cams?

Some of us will be working tomorrow and unable to participate in your Q & A. Please confirm that there will be written responses to all of our questions.

Thank you.

@Chanel55 ,

I appreciate your feedback on the new smart plan pricing. Our intent with the new plans is to offer increased resolution and features to support our new camera models. We are collecting feedback from existing customers with previous cameras models, so that we can optimize the service for all of our customers.

For those with an existing smart plan that supported more cameras at a lower resolution, you can keep that plan as long as you like. There is no need to change plans if you like your current plan.

dan_LI · ‎2020-01-16

Why cant you fix the problems with cameras and app before asking people for more money when basic services dont work!!

Chanel55 · ‎2020-01-16

So does that mean I can include my 3 Arlo Pro 3 cameras on my current 20 camera/$149 year plan? My only loss would be lower resolution?

Arlo-Greg · ‎2020-01-16

@fishferbrains wrote:

I once thought that the premium that Arlo cameras commanded was an "investment" to a service that would improve over time. I swallowed hard when I found myself paying hundreds of dollars for mounts, batteries, chargers etc.

Then came the "upgrades" to base stations, cameras that all promised dramatic improvements and I realized that I was chasing the market replacing hardware for the next best thing. Meanwhile services and support degraded. Offline cameras, footage missing at critical times, an insecure Flash web client still with "a few other releases ahead of this initiative" (a quote from Facebook).

The "Smart Plan Surprise" is a slap-in-the-face to customers who've weathered the growing pains of Arlo. Customers with large numbers of legacy/mixed cameras are forced into plans that provide little or no incremental value with a dramatically higher cost. The cost of this poorly communicated and rolled-out change is ultimately customer goodwill.

Greg - You can fix this. Roll-back the camera limits to 10 for the Smart Plans. Allow annual subscriptions. Roll-in CVR to plans to justify the increases. Finally create an upgrade program for legacy cameras to keep them from hitting the resale market. It makes sense all around.

@fishferbrains thanks for your feedback on the new smart plans. We are collecting feedback from existing users and will incorporate it into plan updates. We also have more features planned for this year, so stay tuned for updates.

If you have a mix of free cloud cameras and newer camera models, you can subscribe to a plan just for your new cameras if you like. You will still have 7 day free cloud for up to 5 cameras on your account (for the camera models that included that offer).

Chanel55 · ‎2020-01-16

I also had the "smart features" prior to the "new plans" - like enhanced notification and 911. Do I get to keep those since they pre-existed your new plans?

Arlo-Greg · ‎2020-01-16

@oaklandm wrote:
I would just like to add something to my original post. How do you justify the changes to these “improved” smart plans without informing customers first? I have to say I love the Arlo camera’s etc but the way Arlo handles its existing customers is some of the worst I’ve seen.

@oaklandm current subscribers will have no change to their plan. You can choose to switch plans if you have new camera models that support higher resolution or you can keep your current plan.

Thanks for sharing your feedback on pricing and camera count per plan. We are taking this feedback into consideration for future plan improvements.

ArloWatcher · ‎2020-01-16

@fishferbrains thanks for your feedback on the new smart plans. We are collecting feedback from existing users and will incorporate it into plan updates. We also have more features planned for this year, so stay tuned for updates.

If you have a mix of free cloud cameras and newer camera models, you can subscribe to a plan just for your new cameras if you like. You will still have 7 day free cloud for up to 5 cameras on your account (for the camera models that included that offer).

Hi Greg,

Just a heads up that it seems that many people are currently having problems doing this. Just check the forums (me included). How are we suppose to do this? Please give us the correct steps to get this to work. I think some of the problems happen if you have a trail smart plan already.

Arlo-Greg · ‎2020-01-16

@Unfortunately wrote:

How do I get Arlo products to stop pushing me into subscriptions? I'm uninterested and it's impeding my use of the app. If Arlo won't stop the hard sell on the subscription, I'll consider hardware from another company.

@Unfortunately you can choose to opt out of our email promotions. For in app, we currently only promote arlo smart when your free trial is near its end. You may also see a message in the library section if you do not have cloud recording. If you are seeing additional messages, please let us known.

dmatt56 · ‎2020-01-16

Hi Greg,

I currently have 7 Arlo Pro 2 cameras and tried to get the old 10 camera smart plan. Sales would not allow me to get the grandfathered plan. As an early adopter, I don't see why you DECREASED the number of cameras on a smart plan from 10 to 5. It's not fair that you didn't keep the number of camera to 10 for ALL customers. Do what's right and charge all customers the SAME PRICE for 10 cameras. Loyalty and trust goes a long way.

ALSO, make the doorbell eligible on the base station with the 10 day storage. I want to get an Arlo Video Doorbell, but I don't want to pay for Smart for just this one camera. I either want the 7 arlo pro 2 with the doorbell on a 10-phone grandfathered smart plan or I want the video doorbell edible for base station storage.

7-day storage was your key differentiator against RING since you offered FREE storage. Keep the video doorbell eligible for base station storage.

Thanks,

Matt

dan_LI · ‎2020-01-16

This format is kinda silly and hard to follow...why not do a facebook live. Stiil my question has not been answered. Why should people pay more when basic services dont work?? Also the more you raise fees the more likely people will jump ship for other companies that offer same for nothing!

Arlo-Greg · ‎2020-01-16

@Ring wrote:

I added 2 Arlo Pro 3 camera's to my existing 5 Pro 2 camera's before this new smart plan was announced with the expectation of subscribing to the 10 camera plan. The new plan is nothing more than a huge price increase and not worth it. You'll need to bring back the 10 camera plan and annual subscription before I will subscribe.

@Ring thanks for your feedback. We are looking at options to optimize our plans for customers with higher camera counts. If you have a plan that supports 10 or more cameras today, you are able to keep the plan. No need to change.

Also, you can consider our business plans that offer a higher camera count.

Octavia · ‎2020-01-16

I have been using Arlo for 1 year and 1/2 and really like the battery performance, the uptime and the system where it instantly uploads videos to the Arlo-Netgear cloud servers.

When I needed to use some footage for evidence I discovered that it seems impossible for a lay person or a jury member in a trial to understand with certainty when the video was recorded.
Why is a time stamp that is visible in the image itself, not already part of the settings?

Arlo-Greg · ‎2020-01-16

@Cfera1166 wrote:

Can't count the number of times my indoor or back porch camera has detected a "person" in the middle of the night.. turns out to be a cat or a bunny.

@Cfera1166 if you see an incorrect detection, please use the function in the library portion of the app to correct the system. This will help us improve the software for more accurate detection.

Nancy_L · ‎2020-01-16

I am adding to my previous post. I have 4 Arlo base stations because of the way I purchased my cameras over the years. So, this means I can have 4 My Arlo accounts with 5 free cameras per account. I really only want to use one base station because logging out of the Arlo app into all the different base stations is a pain. I wanted one $9.99 up to 10 cameras account so I could just open the app to one account. It might work to use the app for one base station if you could actually log into your My Arlo account using a web browser on your phone. That does not seem to be allowed. Bring back the old rate plan for us "old-timers"! Please.

Thawk59 · ‎2020-01-16

I was planning on expanding my system to as many as 10 cameras. Now I'm not.

I was planning on buying an Arlo Smart Annual plan for the whole system. Now, I'm not.

Both, plans were foiled, in less than 60 days of ownership, by Arlo's changing policies.

Not happy.

fishferbrains · ‎2020-01-16

@Arlo-Greg

As a fellow PM let me just say that if this threaded Q&A is a "user consultation process" prior to significant changes in service plans and pricing, the whole roll-out has been a disaster.

Arlo has stirred-up the installed base and the website and support provide inconsistent guidelines and information. We'd love to have known that users "could keep legacy plans and pricing" and you'd be in a far better place to promote new value-driven programs that encourage legacy customers to upgrade services and hardware.

Please create an FAQ here for both Arlo staff and customers ASAP. It'll save you headaches and reduce disconnects.

If you want to get feedback from customers, consider a user-group or customer advisory board and use them. I'd love to be on a round-table to give my feedback directly.

Thawk59 · ‎2020-01-16

I was shocked to learn that that I had to use Flash to connect to a camera on my Mac. I haven't used Flash in years.

ChrisInUK · ‎2020-01-16

I have already posted a question but now have another after checking the Arlo.com site and checking the plans section... According to the two plans you can only have Arlo Ultra on a 4k plan yet I have the free trial for the Ultra Hub currently and that's at HD or 2K at most so why yet again for high prices when I'm happy with it as is.

Arlo-Greg · ‎2020-01-16

@Chanel55 wrote:

Not sure what you are saying. How long will the legacy plans be grandfathered in? And what do you mean by a promotional basis. You really need to be clear in your responses.

If you are currently subscribed to a plan that supports 10 or more cameras, you can stay on that plan. There is no requirement to switch to a new plan. Occasionally, we send out emails about discounts on our smart plans. Some of our promos are for the annual plan, while others are for our monthly plans.

If you are currently subscribed to a 10 cam plan, your new model cameras will participate in the plan as well. In this case, they will have a max resolution of 1080p.

Arlo-Greg · ‎2020-01-16

@Chanel55 wrote:

I also had the "smart features" prior to the "new plans" - like enhanced notification and 911. Do I get to keep those since they pre-existed your new plans?

@Chanel55 yes, you can keep all features on your current plan.

dan_LI · ‎2020-01-16

I used to have an alarm company paying $18 a month with monitoring. Why would i pay more for arlo? Again the reliability of cameras and app fall short!

Thawk59 · ‎2020-01-16

Does that mean that I can buy up to five additional cameras and get Arlo Smart as an annual plan for 10 cameras at $99.99, if I bought my base station 60 days ago (VMB5000)

Arlo-Greg · ‎2020-01-16

@dmatt56 wrote:

Hi Greg,

I currently have 7 Arlo Pro 2 cameras and tried to get the old 10 camera smart plan. Sales would not allow me to get the grandfathered plan. As an early adopter, I don't see why you DECREASED the number of cameras on a smart plan from 10 to 5. It's not fair that you didn't keep the number of camera to 10 for ALL customers. Do what's right and charge all customers the SAME PRICE for 10 cameras. Loyalty and trust goes a long way.

ALSO, make the doorbell eligible on the base station with the 10 day storage. I want to get an Arlo Video Doorbell, but I don't want to pay for Smart for just this one camera. I either want the 7 arlo pro 2 with the doorbell on a 10-phone grandfathered smart plan or I want the video doorbell edible for base station storage.

7-day storage was your key differentiator against RING since you offered FREE storage. Keep the video doorbell eligible for base station storage.

Thanks,

Matt

@dmatt56 if you have a 10 camera plan today, you can add a video doorbell to your account and it will work with your current plan. No need for it to be connected to a base station.

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