Arlo
Support

Jankovichs · ‎2019-12-04

Arlo ultra cameras suddenly started recording on every movement like 100 meters Away from cameras, any movement even if its not heat related... couple days it was working fine now it records every single movement no matter how far object from camera is ! In day time it works as normal in night time it records everything no matter the distance

Jankovichs · ‎2019-12-11

they keep trying to fix thing with silent updates without changing firmware code, but nothing seems to be going to the right side !
Same here, no 4k and i would wait for Eufy cameras to come out with 4k and get one of those kits, hope they do better customer service and all the management better In general than Arlo does

Rickp703 · ‎2019-12-11

Everytime I read this chain, I get more frustrated (as the light stays on from my camera in my office as I try to charge a camera that goes from 100% to 0% in less than 12 hours due to this BS Firmware situation).

I think we (meaning everyone who is TRYING to share concerns with Arlo), should be entitled to compensation for a non-working product, risk of security issues and the fact Arlo charges for these "smart plans annually" (not very smart, are they lol) and the fact that my rechargable batteries are taking huge swings in life as they are not set up to charge fully then be depleted in less than 12 hours !!

Arlo team, we deserve free batteries, free smart plans & other compensation for a non-functioning product!!

Chrisk2 · ‎2019-12-11

Will we know if this gets fixed or do we just wait for a firmware update?

Jankovichs · ‎2019-12-11

You don't just wait! You post feedbacks all around social to make them employ an actual programmers and engineers !

yo123 · ‎2019-12-12

These are notes about issues I have. I don't see improvements yet.

* CVR stops recording, once every 1-2 days, I have to restart base station, and go to "subscription -> manage camera status", remove and add camera again. Then lose all recordings.

* Too many motion triggers, by reflection of light, tree move, rain drops... If I set record length to 5min max, one clip has mixed people, vehicle, animal. Then notification become random. Setting record length to 20-30s helps, but it's not what we want to do.

* Random movements are recognized as people many times. Then getting too many notifications.

( I think it's improving. May be they are changing something.)

* Motion recognition stops suddenly, once every 1-2days. Need to restart base station many times.

* Internet data usage increased a lot. Upload data increase by about 20GB/day.

Whops · ‎2019-12-12

Checked Eufy's website, their cameras look similar to Arlo But the price certainly is much less. I will have to do some research and check them out, Have you heard how long before they have 4K. Their Battery life claims to be 365 days.
Hard to believe that with all the posts on this Forum, Complaints on BBB, Bad Reviews on several different sites. Their sales is going down, and soon the shareholders will be demanding the board make some changes to management. I would think that Matthew McRae CEO would be fearful of his job, due to the poor performance Arlo.

@Jankovichs wrote:
they keep trying to fix thing with silent updates without changing firmware code, but nothing seems to be going to the right side !
Same here, no 4k and i would wait for Eufy cameras to come out with 4k and get one of those kits, hope they do better customer service and all the management better In general than Arlo does

Whops · ‎2019-12-12

Everytime I am on here I can just feel how everyone is getting more and more frustrated with Arlo. When I installed my cameras in Sept. 2019, Before I set the activity zone, I did have nuisance videos of motion on the fringes of the camera view. But after setting the activity zone, I was getting motion only in areas within my activity zone. I was quite happy in video quality, and in operation of the cameras. Both my cameras are on charging cords so no worry about the batteries running down. Then on Dec 2nd (App update) and Dec 4 (Firmware update) The cameras quit working as they were set up. in the last 24 hours I have recorded 528 videos, many of them over 5 minutes long, and I can not see any motion in the video that would have set it off.

I have become so frustrated, with no results from Arlo, I have posted on other web sites reviews, and warning future customers not to purchase Arlo Cameras without first coming on this forum and reading what existing customers are going through, Also I am warning them about lack of support once you make a purchase, Plus, I do not know how others feel, But with Arlo Headquarters being in San Jose, CA (408-907-8000)and another facility in Carlsbad, Ca. (phone number 408-590-3900) Why for support do I have to talk to someone in the Philippines when I am in the United States. When I asked to be transferred to the USA, they said there were no support agents located in USA. But yet when I asked where the engineers (developers) of the software were located mostly in Carlsbad, Ca they told me. I support ticket was elevated to Level 2 Tech. So the next day Arlo calls me back, but offered nothing new except my case was expedited and they had no idea as to when it would be resolved. So I asked if she was Level 2 Tech, as my case was elevated to Level 2 She said no. So I asked to speak to Level 2 Tech. (this was last Tuesday) She put me on hold for 5 minutes. When she came back on she said Level 2 tech was out until Friday. They are just making stuff up hoping to shut us up until they get this resolved which who knows how long this will take. Maybe months!

@Rickp703 wrote:

Everytime I read this chain, I get more frustrated (as the light stays on from my camera in my office as I try to charge a camera that goes from 100% to 0% in less than 12 hours due to this BS Firmware situation).

I think we (meaning everyone who is TRYING to share concerns with Arlo), should be entitled to compensation for a non-working product, risk of security issues and the fact Arlo charges for these "smart plans annually" (not very smart, are they lol) and the fact that my rechargable batteries are taking huge swings in life as they are not set up to charge fully then be depleted in less than 12 hours !!

Arlo team, we deserve free batteries, free smart plans & other compensation for a non-functioning product!!

Whops · ‎2019-12-12

Yes that is the right answer, Posting on all social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, BBB, and do a search for Arlo Ultra on Amazon, Best Buy, ebay, Newegg, etc all on line sellers and leave comments. Let people know before they consider Arlo, they need to come to this forum (post link to this forum in your reviews" so they can read what actual users are saying about Arlo and their lack of support, and incompetent software engineers.

@Jankovichs wrote:
You don't just wait! You post feedbacks all around social to make them employ an actual programmers and engineers !

Whops · ‎2019-12-12

I think that sums it up for most of us. Need to make those posts on Matthew McRae Twitter feed. And on BBB Compliant page. Will get more results.

Go to online sellers and review Arlo Ultra on their web pages warning people to research carefully before purchase due to lack of support after purchase, and the incompetent software engineers.

@yo123 wrote:

These are notes about issues I have. I don't see improvements yet.

* CVR stops recording, once every 1-2 days, I have to restart base station, and go to "subscription -> manage camera status", remove and add camera again. Then lose all recordings.

* Too many motion triggers, by reflection of light, tree move, rain drops... If I set record length to 5min max, one clip has mixed people, vehicle, animal. Then notification become random. Setting record length to 20-30s helps, but it's not what we want to do.

* Random movements are recognized as people many times. Then getting too many notifications.

( I think it's improving. May be they are changing something.)

* Motion recognition stops suddenly, once every 1-2days. Need to restart base station many times.

* Internet data usage increased a lot. Upload data increase by about 20GB/day.

Tech-D · ‎2019-12-12

Purchased the Arlo Ultra 2 Camera setup after doing research on Wireless Cameras for the house. I have to say I'm a little disappointed that there is such a huge bug like this in a product. 1st day after installation my phone was going crazy with false alerts after setting up my activity zones. Took 4 times to call support before someone told me it was a known issue they were looking into. I really want to give this product a fair chance but it is brand new and doesn't even work as advertised so I'm caught with sending it back and starting the research process all over again or wait for a bug like this to get resolved. If everyone started having this issue as early as 12/4/19 I'm hoping it gets resolved in the next week. If not this unit is going back.

Troubleshooting steps I have tried:

1. Removed cameras and re-added them.

2. Factory reset the base unit and went through the setup again.

3. Configured the camera and tested both on Battery and Wall plug power, same results.

Now I can't even try to setup the Activity Zones because after resetting the base station and re-adding the cameras when I try to create a zone, the image is zoomed in to one of the corners as shown in the attached screenshots.

I couldn't find anything online, is there a way to factory reset the cameras? I wanted to try that as a next step.

n1976jmk · ‎2019-12-12

It seems everything started operating normal for me again as of yesterday morning about 7am EST including the iOS badge app number notifications returning and as of this morning I view CVR from my Arlo iOS app where as since the Base firmware update I was only able to see my CVR on a PC at my.arlo.com.

Even though JamesC hasn’t said anything yet and it’s working over 24 hours for me at least. Not that I’m surprised since support is ran out of an India warehouse basement.

Whops · ‎2019-12-12

JamesC has not said anything because it is not fixed yet. They may have made a few tweaks here and there, But not fixed! The activity Zone window is still only about 1/4 view not full camera view. So it is impossible to set activity zone, and hence the reason of so many motion alerts and recordings. Yesterday I received 528 recordings in 24 hour period. True, the alerts are working better now, but they should have fixed the activity window so that you could control the motion alerts and recordings. All that is happening now is filling up SD card. And by the way, they claim they will have a way to view your recordings on SD card by the end of the year without having to remove it and use your card reader on computer to view it. Perhaps they are working too much on getting new things done and not fixing the broken ones. To me if I was doing an analysis of Arlo I would say it looks like they employ 5th graders as software engineers, and only have 1 or 2. Arlo executives are just trying to get rich at our expense but it will back fire as their stock drops because they can't keep their hardware working due to the fact they have incompetent software engineers.

enigmaphoenix · ‎2019-12-12

CEO just posted this gem. But still silent on this sev 1 issue. https://twitter.com/mbmcrae/status/1205186841000833024?s=20

Please, please. Respond to his tweet with your honest thoughts on all of this.

FrankRN · ‎2019-12-13

Same problem as everyone else. I am sunning my almost $2,000 system of Ultra cameras without zone detection & notification because of the BARRAGE of false notifications. Rain and light snow giving notifucation after notification. Thankfully all cameras are powered. Called support... Ridiculous wait. Then they follow their script. How do I make them understand that it this is all 9f the sudden happening on six cameras that the problem is not the individual cameras. They want me to climb ladders and dismount each camera, bring to base, remove, reset, and re-add. How about this Arlo... If it doesn't help one camera it won't help any camera. So I open a ticket... Hang up... Call back and lie that I followed their procedure. I can't scream at them..
Not their fault. They're taught to follow a script and have no independent knowledge. Terrible support system. Good lesson... Read community forums before purchase. I wish I could send back these cameras. Useless without notifications! Waiting for call from "second level support". I also spammed their Instagram account so others are warned. No response. No wonder Netgear dropped them. FIX THE FIRMWARE ALREADY. Is there anywhere else I can scream that someone who can help will hear me?

Whops · ‎2019-12-13

It is clear that Matthew RcRae CEO, is not a leader, He has not a clue that his security company is failing badly in maintaining their Hardware, and providing existing customers with quality Software updates that do not break their systems. He does not care about existing customers. Only concerned in keeping up with other security companies, racing to release new products. While his existing customers are left with non working systems How long do you think this can go on before Arlo has no more customers.

@FrankRN wrote:
Same problem as everyone else. I am sunning my almost $2,000 system of Ultra cameras without zone detection & notification because of the BARRAGE of false notifications. Rain and light snow giving notifucation after notification. Thankfully all cameras are powered. Called support... Ridiculous wait. Then they follow their script. How do I make them understand that it this is all 9f the sudden happening on six cameras that the problem is not the individual cameras. They want me to climb ladders and dismount each camera, bring to base, remove, reset, and re-add. How about this Arlo... If it doesn't help one camera it won't help any camera. So I open a ticket... Hang up... Call back and lie that I followed their procedure. I can't scream at them..
Not their fault. They're taught to follow a script and have no independent knowledge. Terrible support system. Good lesson... Read community forums before purchase. I wish I could send back these cameras. Useless without notifications! Waiting for call from "second level support". I also spammed their Instagram account so others are warned. No response. No wonder Netgear dropped them. FIX THE FIRMWARE ALREADY. Is there anywhere else I can scream that someone who can help will hear me?

enigmaphoenix · ‎2019-12-13

CEO Matthew McRae is all about plugging new feature functionality. But has yet to address this issue.

https://twitter.com/mbmcrae/status/1205503405289947139?s=20

Please, keep letting him know via twitter your honest opinions on this situation! Don't let up.

Thanks,

K

Whops · ‎2019-12-13

Yes, more people need to flood his twitter, There a few from here that have posted on twitter, But need more! Keep posting until he gets the message.

https://twitter.com/mbmcrae/status/1205186841000833024?s=20

robot-monster · ‎2019-12-13

Other than one hiccup for a few hours two nights ago, my CVR is back to normal, and actually better, without the pixelation issue from November.

One lingering issue with motion detection is at night my one CVR camera records long 3-5 min clips if I have the camera set up to record until motion stops. At night I set it at a flat 30 seconds. When the sun comes out, I reset the camera back to record until motion stops, and it seems to record clips of a reasonable length.

1/4 screen zoom is still an issue. So long as I keep 4k streaming unchecked, it works fine.

SAM21 · ‎2019-12-13

Hey everyone, if Arlo is unable to fix the current issues. We as customers should consider the one and only option to really get Arlo attention - is for us to cancel our subscription until the problems are fixed. I know that is a lot to asked folks to do but money talk.

JJAdV · ‎2019-12-13

Yes, the longer I have these things, ram into the massive amount of bugs and limitations, the more I wish i had gone the Ring direction. My Ring stuff (Doorbell) just works, has all required features, and they actually communicate if you contact them.. Arlo stuff is absolute rubbish.. I have recommended any one who ask to buy Ring and stay away, don't make the mistake I did.. I'm amazed they haven't had a class action, or the consumer authorities haven't taken this on.. I should have known when I bought the doorbell, that plain just doesn't work, at all. Not even a little bit.

enigmaphoenix · ‎2019-12-13

Hey team. Arlo got back to me on Matthew McRae's twitter thread. The response should put us all at ease. I certainly am far more informed!

"Hello and thank you for contacting Arlo. Can you please DM us with your contact info and the email associated with your Arlo account so that we may have our Customer Care Team follow up with you directly? Thank you! ^KN"

I'm actually going to DM and let the cycle begin again. Why?! Because I believe in 8th chances. Odds on me being requested to completely reset my system again? Maybe remove my subscription and resubscribe again?!

Please continue to let Arlo know via all channels how you feel about this issue going into day, what is it? 10, 12?

Reminder that you can voice your honest opinion here https://twitter.com/mbmcrae

Thanks,

K

Whops · ‎2019-12-14

Great glad that it is working, however I have left several tweets for McRae on his Twitter feed, But have heard nothing. I only joined Twitter so I could leave tweets there to try and get some resolution on this problem. So I am not very proficient using it. My next step will be to leave a detailed compliant on Better Business Bureau

below is link with a list of the Board of Directors, anyone know how to contact any of them please post it here so we can make contact with them as well.

https://investor.arlo.com/governance/board-of-directors/default.aspx

@enigmaphoenix wrote:
Hey team. Arlo got back to me on Matthew McRae's twitter thread. The response should put us all at ease. I certainly am far more informed!

"Hello and thank you for contacting Arlo. Can you please DM us with your contact info and the email associated with your Arlo account so that we may have our Customer Care Team follow up with you directly? Thank you! ^KN"

I'm actually going to DM and let the cycle begin again. Why?! Because I believe in 8th chances. Odds on me being requested to completely reset my system again? Maybe remove my subscription and resubscribe again?!

Please continue to let Arlo know via all channels how you feel about this issue going into day, what is it? 10, 12?

Reminder that you can voice your honest opinion here https://twitter.com/mbmcrae

Thanks,
K

Whops · ‎2019-12-14

Yes, I agree 100%. I have a Ring Doorbell installed a couple weeks before the Arlo, Works very well, and the few times I have had to contact support, it has been very easy and great response quickly. You can email them and get a response with in a couple of hours, giving you a solution plus additional contact information to your support agent (Phone number, hours available etc) and their support is in the USA not in the Philippines as is Arlo Support.

I purchased Arlo, only after reading numerous reviews touting their reliability, their 4K video streaming and recording, and the local recording available with SD Card. I have learned they are not reliable, the 4K is not working since last firmware update Dec. 4. and Support is really non existent, and Arlo just does not care.

So my next move is compliant on BBB

yo123 · ‎2019-12-14

Still no improvement at all...... This morning, I noticed motion detection didn't work whole night. I restarted base station. Suddenly started detecting motion every minute. Same issues as before. We need to restart system several times a day. This is not right.

JamesC · ‎2019-12-14

The engineering team is working hard to resolve the issues being reported here with Activity Zones, SmartHubs falling offline etc. I don't have a solution to provide at this time but will post again here as soon as I receive more information from the team.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience while we work to resolve these issues.

JamesC

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