Arlo Ultra subscription after trial ends

[MenDina]

Be aware! Most people are unaware that once they purchase this overpriced Wireless Camera solution they will be mandated to purchase a subscription after 1 year trial. I was unaware of this and I'm extremely frustrated.

The 7 day free plan comes with the previous units and not the Ultra. I was disappointed because not only did you purchase this system for more money than the previous system(which I have also), you're left with dead paper weights.

The solution I did was enable the direct access to my recordings through making an entry in my firewall and enabling Port Forwarding in the app. This of course is not a permanent solution. It doesn't work the same that I've been accustomed to. You don't get a preview of the recording but rather a download arrow. If you're searching for something you need to tap download on every video to get what you want. 

I've learned this company doesn't care about their customers once they purchased the product. They care more about money than their customers.

I will soon be looking into a new system. I will not be buying anything Arlo anymore. I sent in a support ticket 2 times over 5 days ago and still haven't heard from them. So their service has gone from an awesome product to a miserable failure. I will be researching a more permanent solution with a service support team that helps you. I care about security for my family. They just care about the dollars.

I was out of town and subscription ended and was left without eyes on my home and family. This is poor corporate greed judgement. I was a faithful customer of Arlo and they have lost me for good.

Do not buy their products if it comes with a mandatory subscription. You pay a ransom for their subscription service and when you do have a problem they aren't there to reply to your support requests. They have gone from a 10 rated product to a 1 in my eyes. Will never buy anything from them again.

Mark

[ming8888]

Your absolutely 100% correct, just got my forced subscription notice today! and I totally regret getting the ULTRA. actually ARLO product period. Originally they claim from 1st edition all will be free of subscriptions so I just in thinking this company is great and then Ultra came out saying it'll be 7 days recording without subscription now! you must pay to play 

I notice this company has the same business model as WinkHub told in the beginning there will be no subscription fee then once we jump on the band wagon (expensive hardware cameras). Pretty much force you at ransom to get more $$ it's okay I am selling all ARLO products and move away from these kind of company

ARLO will be history pretty soon doing business like this greed

[jguerdat]

Any Arlo camera older than the Ultra (Pro 2 and older) still has the free 7 day plan. Your failure to read and investigate does not constitute an Arlo issue.

[michaeljf69]

I bought an Ultra system and it was quite clear the free subscription only lasted one year.

My issue is that I planned to only go with their cheaper non 4k subscription knowing I had a 4k copy on micro SD. They then changed it so to record locally in 4k you needed a more expensive 4k subscription, claiming this was a technical limitation. Even though my free plan records in the cloud at 1080 and locally in 4k.

[dcfox1]

@michaeljf69 

The Ultra has the premier trial that is 2k on cloud.  If you have zoom and tracking on it will default to 1080p. I have the premier and get 2k on cloud. 

[ming8888]

Yes we all failed to read the little I(microscopic) printing ** that they put out on the label of their products.

I am sure everyone that purchase ARLO now will read their TOS. Since they are so honest (sarcasm) 

[Wicstar]

I actually did a complaint to the BBB and it is now at the resolution stage. I had to forward them all my proof of purchase and I am waiting for reimbursement.

I was under the impression that after the 1 year free subscription I would have the 7 days cloud storage with the free plan, but this is not the case anymore with their new plans.

This is misleading and outright deceitful as per Canadian Laws.

I highly suggest everyone to do a complaint to the Better Business Bureau (BBB). They actually called me.

[ming8888]

I will be filing with bbb and consumer affairs regarding their practice. and of course now I have 20 others that are posting on social media, forums and feedback reviews to let people know.  We will be posting videos to reference to the way ARLO business practice so others won't have to deal with this.

[dcfox1]

@ming8888 

It states on Product Website in normal print and on the box (though small) it comes with a trial subscription. Even basic research will tell you that. If you had a trial to a steaming service like Netflix do you think it would be free when it expired? Not sure where you saw otherwise. 

[ming8888]

It's not so much of the forced price on subscription but the overall experience with arlo (Poor customer service, pretty much major issue with the firmware *no connect error on app*, overprice tier for 2 camera 4k  but cloud only gets 2k for 9.99 per month) 

I pay subscription for ring doorbell (i can't stress the customer service is way better than ARLO and fee structure makes more sense) The hardware when i bought ARLO ULTRA was $600.00 + Tax only for 2 camera which Lorex 4k without subscription is around the same but with 5-6 camera setup.

[LandJS]

dcfox1 Don't know when you bought yours but for those who bought them first even though they said free 1 year trial it was suppose to be renewable as long as you didn't change plans.  Instead they just turned people off leaving them without and a post telling us we must choose premier or elite.  What is now on their page about plans did not exist and wasn't added until this year.  Add to that you should not have to search their website to find out those details. How many would do that before buying a car or many other products.  They are in fact deceptive, even their moderators weren't aware an were able to get some back on their original as long as they didn't fall for the must subscribe to premier or elite. Even the moderators didn't know you lost 4K to the SD if you went premier.  Even their moderators didn't know they would take away 4K live if you didn't go elite. So my opinion would be you shouldn't be talking down to anyone on here if you haven't researched enough to know this all happened.

[dcfox1]

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@LandJS wrote:  Add to that you should not have to search their website to find out those details. How many would do that before buying a car or many other products.  

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Of course I would research a big purchase for products, especially a car. 

[LandJS]

Normal research yes but unlikely you go to their websites to look over all policies and details and even if you do, it doesn't change the sly practices pulled by arlo.

[ozzyjah]

They are con artists, they tell you that you will always be able to record in 4K without a subscription then when the free bit is up they drop you back to 2K. I didn't buy a 2K camera I bought a 4K one and paid the price of a 4K. What you are doing is a fraud. I own the 3x cameras, I own 2x 4K hubs, I own the Pro U3 V30 SDXC cards that I bought especially for 4K recording so why do I have to pay you Arlo to use them? My deal with you was done a year ago, stop limiting my use of my own property.

[ming8888]

If I was the only one that feel like we got scammed than so be it. But this is not the case everyone who is coming to this forum and posting shows otherwise.  Arlo basically made everyone think they'll at least get 7 days free cloud until recently just shut down and flip the switch pay to play.

[ozzyjah]

We have been scammed. It's no different than, buying 4K camera's and an NVR from Swann (or any company) and then after 12 months they then say you must pay us X amount to continue recording in 4K (on your own NVR), if you don't we will cut you down to 2K via a firmware update. I am sure if they did that here in the UK Trading Standards would be onto them. I have already emailed one guy who gave the Utra a rave review telling him what they have done. I also told him to come on here and see what us the real customers are treated like and asked him to review them again a year on and see if he still thinks they a great. I will do this to everyone who gave the Ultras a glowing review.

[ming8888]

Yes, the scam continues but hopefully, we all gather enough information to file a class action. This isn't some just product that is seen on tv. This is $600+ camera which is just junk after they can't force you to do the cough up cloud storage recording 2k with ULTRA 4k none existance camera recording.

[ozzyjah]

Hi again, I have some news. After emailing Arlo for a second time about this, the first time was asking why I couldn't record in 4K to my hub. The second complaint was about the reply I received. This time they apologised saying they didn't realise I was talking about recording in 4K to my hub and suggested I try removing the 2 hubs I have and reinstall everything from scratch. Which although sceptical I did this yesterday. After getting everything up and running I can now report I am getting 4K recording to my 3 cameras as well as no blank screens when trying to access the cameras live 4K. It has worked overnight and again seems to be working today. The only niggle I have now is when trying to access the recordings on my tablet it won't let me choose the hub at the rear of the property only the one at the front. But it works fine on my phone S20+, which used to have a lot of blank screens when trying to view 4K live, even though the audio worked fine. 
See photo attached.
I hope this helps anyone having problems recording to SD card.

[ozzyjah]

Hi again, my last post has disapeared. Something fishy going on I suspect. I will check again tomorrow.

[dcfox1]

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@ozzyjah wrote:

Hi again, my last post has disapeared. Something fishy going on I suspect. I will check again tomorrow.

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I did see your last post just a while ago that you fixed the problem with 4k. Not sure where it went. You can try again since it may help others. 

[ozzyjah]

Hi, yes it's disappeared. I edited to post a photo and now the whole post has vanished. I will try and post the photo again quickly before I go offline for the evening.

[ozzyjah]

See photo!

[LandJS]

and what was the 4K fix.  Mine is still 2K live and to the SD.   Where did you find the pic ?

[DBO]

I'm in the same boat. First year subscription has lapsed and now the system is essentially useless. It doesn't push email notification with attachments and remote access to local storage isn't working either.  

In Australia they charge  $264/year for the multi camera subscription! I can understand that there's a cost for longer term storage, but not even to offer a single day of cloud storage is just plain  ridiculous. I have friend and colleague who has Arlo 2 and he still gets 7 day cloud storage, even years after buying his units. The customers like me who stumped up for the premium product however seem to get left out of the equation.

Not surprisingly the product is rating 1 star on our major product review website over here. Good luck keeping customers in this region, if that's the new way of doing business. 

[ozzyjah]

Hi, my post explaining how I got 4K recording to SD card disappeared so here is the short version.

Quite simple really, start from scratch.
I deleted all cameras and hubs (I had two).
I then added the first hub which in my case was the hub for the front of the house (bought because I was only getting 2K and not 4K recording. I thought it may have been a bandwidth problem). I then added the camera to the hub.

I did the same with the 2nd hub at the rear of the house. I removed it then Added it again then the two cameras and that's it really.
Now it's all working as it should, 3 cameras all recording 4K to SD card. All cameras also streaming 4K live without any problems such as a blank screen.

I hope this helps.