Ai is inaccurate, poor battery life, intermittent motion detection, etc.

[DDDD23]

Wanted to share that Arlo systems really suck in general. The AI REALLY REALLY REALLY sucks and is wrong 80% of the time. If you are considering getting ARLO - RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN. The battery life SUCKS. The base stations broadcast ARLO so your neighbors know how crappy your system is and that is doesn't detect motion half of the time. The base stations go offline frequently. The cameras lose connection constantly. Images are crappy to pur garbage. The system SUCKS and is unsafe. It can't detect people unless they are three feet from a camera IF you're camera battery isn't low AGAIN. It detects vehicles about 50% of the time. It take so long to connect remotely that we can't catch any before they have come and gone. If you want this system to feel safe and secure SHOP ELSEWHERE. It is extremely unreliable garbage.

[Edinburgh_lad1]

The system does have its shortcomings (very frustrating ones), but my experience is different from yours. In fact, one of the things it does is it identifies people, cars and animals from 20 yards away, so clearly there's something wrong with your setup. If you elaborate, the regulars on here will try to help.

[Station-36]

The issues raised in the original customer issue sound far too common and too consistent among a great many Arlo customers to be down to an individuals personal setup. I too have had the same issues consistently with 6x Arlo Ultra 2 cameras and 2x base stations. All devices suffer the same issues. However I recently purchased 2x Eufy S340’s and a HomeBase 3 and I was blown away by how well they perform. Clear signal. Great battery. Fast connection, Great AI. Just a whole other level. Arlo is clearly a sub-standard system (while also being very pricy).

[ak1977]

I 100% agree with you this system sucks.  And we can't get any support back from Arlo I wanted My money back but not possible.

I have the exact same issue as you the camera does not detect motion in the areas we select it detects as it pleases.  I've all different camera positions center, too high, too low, and always the same issue, it starts a detection but it stops after few seconds as if nothing was there but I tries jumping, moving around etc nothing happens.

It detects motion at the very top and very bottom of the camera the middle sucks so it is pointless.

Not to mention. That one of the cameras on My 3 camera pack stopped working just a couple of weeks after I bought it, it does not charge anymore it is a paper weight now.

[Nick12345678]

Yes I agree, Arlo cameras are crap!! Terrible battery life, very very hard to connect to wifi and generally crap instructions. Don't buy them

[MGaytan]

I totally agree! What a waste of money!! Been trying to figure out the double notifications and the only threads I see are from 2021 and 3 years later they can’t get that fixed. It’s so freaking frustrating. 

[JCTN]

i hope I can save someone money by leaving this input. I wish I had read in depth reviews before I purchased. First, the batteries are bad. You spend so much time charging batteries. I finally bought the hard wire power cables, which helped. The main problem is these cameras just do not work well at all with the app. The app is complete junk. It doesn't work most of the time. When you are trying to look at something real time, either it won't connect at all or the time delay is so bad an even is long gone before you can even look at it. Delays, pixel blocks, green streaks, complete white outs, etc. On top of that, you have to pay for a service just to video capture the doorbell, which is the MOST IMPORTANT CAMERA!

Motion detection only works maybe 5% of the time at best. 

Either go with another brand or get hard wired cameras and NVR. Stay clear away from ARLO!

[ddahl35]

I agree. I have had mine for 3 years and gave up on them for a while. The door bell one only connected for about a week and would never connect again. Phone calls and trouble shooting… nothing worked. Now I try and hook some back up and they will not pair. I paid a lot of money for this. What are you going to do to fix this Arlo!?!? 

[alex_loo]

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@Station-36 wrote:

However I recently purchased 2x Eufy S340’s and a HomeBase 3 and I was blown away by how well they perform. Clear signal. Great battery. Fast connection, Great AI. Just a whole other level. Arlo is clearly a sub-standard system (while also being very pricy).

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agree ARLO is ridiculously buggy and messy.

But a single fact that EUFY is a Chinese brand is a show stopper to me.  Despite the fact that many Chinese brand security systems are functionally very appealing.

But for a SECURITY system?  Nah.

Alex

[Soulguard]

100% agree with you!!! 

[Ezzyha]

After a year, when the warranty expires, the battery stops charging and now I’ve a lot of paperweights.   Don’t buy!  Even when it was working the camera has a lag time to capture motion so it’s not useful at all.

[Wildstreak]

It’s a painfully inadequate product in every aspect except looks. I’m became tied into its subscription service and still review process is no better.  Continual rebooting of unstable connections (strong signal) is another reason to run. 

[ak1977]

I bought a 3 camera package, one of them stopped working within less than a month, then the ones that still works is useless because the motion sensor sucks, no matter the adjustments i make the camera does not detect motion where it needs, it mainly picks up motion at the very top or very bottom but very spotty,  and even when it picks up motion, it only records for a few seconds and it stops, even though there is motion and the person is within the camera view.

Customer Service sucks, they are useless and dont care, they always read their script, always the same story every time we contact them and never solve the problem like give my money back.   i wasted my money cause now it is like a piece of decoration hanging on the top of my garage.

[ak1977]

they dont do squat about it.  i bought a 3 camera pack, one stopped working within a month and the other two still work but they suck.   Arlo wont do anything about it, everytime we contact them they read the same script and never solve the issue, or give my money back.

[ralfyguy1]

Since the new app came out it never identifies cars or animals anymore. Only people. The new app and web page is ATROCIOUS to be honest. 

[RichardNH]

Totally agree. 

I have been using Arlo cameras for many years (model H7) with the VMB3010 base station. Two of the cameras were in continuous night vision, which gave them a red tint. We were going on a vacation, and I had received the promotion for two of these newer Essential Indoor Outdoor cameras.

One FREE NO CHARGE feature I really liked about Arlo is that you receive a notification, along with the recording. In addition, the previous seven days of recordings would be saved. So I purchased the cameras. I have a several problems with them.

First, you need a subscription, or they are basically useless. Reading the product’s Frequently Asked Questions it stated that, “No subscription is required for your camera to work. Without a subscription, you will continue to receive notifications when motion is detected, and be able to view live feed.”

Literally, that is all they let you do! You don’t see the recording that triggered the notification, so it is basically useless. If you want to be sent the recording, or review saved recordings…you guessed it, buy a subscription at minimum $19.99 a month!

Second, they don’t integrate well with the base station, even though they state they are compatible. I don’t know if it is because I still have two of the older cameras, but there are disconnects in several areas.

Third, Arlo claims you can get up to two months of battery life before recharging. Both of these were discharged after four weeks with little activity.

Fourth, if you aren’t in the US you won’t be able to chat with USA online support if there is an issue with your cameras at home in the USA. They redirected us to the support of the country we were in, and were told by them they couldn’t help and redirected us back to the US chat.

They have an 800 number for USA only support, but we were unsuccessful when we tried to use it. The simplest solution would be to have EMAIL SUPPORT, BUT…you guessed it, they don’t offer email support.

I’m done with Arlo, and I am replacing them with another brand.

[RichardNH]

Why doesn't Arlo have an email address to contact support? Very frustrating.

[StephenB]

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@RichardNH wrote:

They have an 800 number for USA only support, 

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They used to have that, but today phone support is gotten using the support center in the app.  It requires a subscription.

Googling for a phone number generally leads to a scam support site.

[RichardNH]

I had the subscription, but was in Europe. They don't offer support if you contact them form Europe. I believe that a support email would have helped, but for all the reasons I outlined I'm done with Arlo.