Free subscription with Ultra disappears as do CVR plans

[BenMaine]

My latest problem with my Ultra Camera system... I have purchased 3 Arlo Ultra 4 packs with basestations within about the last 9 months. So I have 3 base stations and 12 cameras. They have been nothing but trouble. The don't record most motion no matter what we do and when they do they start too late or cut out to early. The lag on the audio and video makes the system nearly unusable. It can be 30 seconds sometimes, most of the time it is about 6 seconds. Originally we wanted to use them outside but the motion detection range is so short we shifted them inside and they don't work much better. Anyway, setting all of the other issues aside, our smart subscription and CVR subscriptions just up and disappeared. Which means all of our records have also disappeared. Obviously this is unacceptable for a surveillance system.

Hopefully we can get this particular issue resolved promptly. No matter how this goes however after months of struggling with this system it would be impossible to recommend for anything but essentially amusement. It is not reliable enough to be counted on for actual security/surveillance. Even when everything is working the lag time is so long as to make it useless. Very disappointed with this system and the fact that I have wasted $3k and countless hours on it. 

case 41427031

[JamesC]

BenMaine,

Given the number of issues you seem to be experiencing regarding motion and subscriptions, I encourage you to continue working with the support team directly via your open support ticket to arrive at a resolution. Please let me know if I can assist further.

JamesC

[BenMaine]

James,

That is our intention. However, it has been 5 days since we opened the support ticket and have not heard a word back yet. Our system is still unusable, no recordings in our library. 

Ben

[BenMaine]

I finally heard back from Arlo support last night. Feb 6. Nothing fixed. No news. 

I received three small refunds to the credit card I have on the account last week. For strange amounts that I have no idea what they are for. 

I finally just repurchased another subscription so my cameras would work but of course I have lost all of my records. I do not understand how this is an appropriate response to this situation. 

[BenMaine]

Still nothing. I am beginning to wonder if anyone is going to do anything about this. 

Another issue I forgot to mention is the camera's freezing when plugged in and running CVR. The cams we run CVR on seem to get hot and freeze. Constantly. Not sure what to do about this either. 

[trickytcamgeek]

I was thinking of buying the Ultra for about a year.   

I was partially put off by a lack of trust that I have in the company.   (By all accounts, the support is falling to bits

I was also even more put off when I realised that you can't get 4K unless you pay $15.99 a month after the free trial is over. 

I own 23 cameras (Pro and Pro 2) and would like to replace them with the 4k Ultra models.  That would mean taking on a  commitment  to pay $4'413.24 per annum after the free trial ends.  I don't much like subscription based services.  Your post proves it.

Your post gives me the reason to not upgrade.   Thanks for saving me some money!

[StephenB]

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@trickytcamgeek wrote:

I was also even more put off when I realised that you can't get 4K unless you pay $15.99 a month after the free trial is over. 

I own 23 cameras (Pro and Pro 2) and would like to replace them with the 4k Ultra models.  That would mean taking on a  commitment  to pay $4'413.24 per annum after the free trial ends.  

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Something is very wrong with your math.

US pricing is $14.99 for 5 cameras, and $2.50 for the remaining 18.  That would be ~$719.88 per year, not $4413.24.  If you were willing to settle for 2K, then the price would be lower (~$443.88)

Note that if you have the 5-camera plan, additional cameras are 1/2 the cost listed here:  https://kb.arlo.com/88/What-are-the-available-Arlo-subscription-plans-and-how-much-cloud-recording-i...

If you are in Switzerland (the only location where the prices are 15.99 per month) then you'd pay ~720.88 CHF (or ~444.88 CHF for 2K).

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@trickytcamgeek wrote:

I don't much like subscription based services. 

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FWIW, I don't much like them either.  But cloud storage does cost the providers, and ultimately that cost has to be paid by consumers.  Subscriptions are IMO fairer than trying to build those costs into the camera prices, and it is a more scalable business model.  

There is however a free alternative.  You can use direct access to local storage to access your recordings.  There is some drop-off in features - at the moment, grant access isn't available, or thumbnails.  You also either need to use port forwarding or a VPN to access your videos when you aren't connected to your home network.

[BenMaine]

I am very disappointed by the whole experience. There is still no resolution to the original issue I started this post with. It doesn't seem to matter what we do with the CVR active the cameras lock up. We tried different cameras, different cords, different positions, etc. And we have these in a 50 degree F interior space. Its not like they are in the sun.

We had used the Pro and Pro2 previous to the Ultra and they worked quite well. I am very sorry I moved to the Ultra's. The increased resolution was to much of a temptation but it was a serious mistake. 

We have started to look in to some more professional systems at this point. Theses just don't work well enough. Like I said in the post they are fun toys. The resolution of the image is impressive. But the horrible quality at night, short trigger distance on the motion detection, ridiculous delay in the feed and myriad of other problems has convinced me these are worthless for actual surveillance and security. 

[Jimi007]

This happened to me 10 mins ago I had my subscription and then bam all recordings gone and says I have no subscription! Bought less than 12 months ago. Arlo please contact me and fix this!!!!

[Jimi007]

I realised V2.14 (72) just installed

Very poor that an updated focused on a door bell causes this

[BenMaine]

I hope you find a way to fix it. We never did. Arlo support never did resolve this issue. Eventually I just purchased another subscription on my own. We never recovered the old recordings. Never figured out why the first time I purchased the subscriptions they were refunded in a series of seemingly arbitrary amounts. No receipts. No explanation. 

[Jimi007]

I was on the phone to them an hour and a half yesterday most of the time waiting for the lady to talk to the billing centre, she was actually great.

They told me that when you add the CVR on a free trial it automatically cancels the subscription, I told them this was rubbish as the CVR is a seperate thing to the subscriptions and that they need to make that clear if you are on a free trial.

The billing department eventually offered that for that login I should add a premium plan, they would refund it and give 7 additional months free so that was a win. Made a mess for myself as I had added a CVR plan on my personal card for a home camera and then added the premium on my work card which then took out credit for the cancelled CVR so they are hopefully now sorting out that mess, waiting to hear back. However the plan they offered is the premier which is only 14 days back recording and 2K but the free trial was running out in April so I'm considering that a win.

My other login for home the free trial never activated that login and system was only activated yesterday when I split the camera accounts so they are working on fixing that, I asked them for an option of a subscription that let me add a CVR plan so waiting to hear about that, see what they come up with. I am expecting they will only offer me the premier again which is no use as that account has 7 cameras and is 14 days back recording in 2k, I know the free trial is only 1080p but it let you have 10+ cameras.

I'll see what they come back to me with. I am lucky I have SD cards in the base stations so at least I have that if all my cloud recordings have been wiped. I'll update with how I went when its all done.

[BenMaine]

That is very helpful information! I agree that is rubbish but it explains a few things. I don't know why the few people I talked to in tech support didn't seem to know that. Could have saved myself hours and hours of trying to figure out what was going on. I had CVR with my free subscription for a few months over last summer. They must have changed something in the fall. Anyway, thank you for the information. This entire system is rubbish.

[JimiW]

Hey,

no worries. Yes I think I was lucky to get someone who was helpful and actually spoke to the billing team.

Stupid system though CVR has nothing to do with your subscription, I guess it is just a free trial thing, but pretty dodgy they don't warn you of this.

Yeah im reasonably happy with my system but there has been a lot of problems lately like when the whole thing went down on the app. The crazy thing is I could still access the cameras via apple homekit so it was obviously an app issue.

I don't like the range of the base station I moved it to one end of the house to catch the majority of them and it is fine except I have to be careful of the placement of the one Arlo Pro 2 I have but I think I have it sorted now. Still its not consistent with all the cameras one won't connect at random times e.t.c. finding I have to restart the base station a bit too much. The one camera at the other end of the house has one wifi connection bar yet the base stating is in a living room and the camera is down the front hall and out the front its like maybe 20m away? and no walls in the way really. That is pretty poor they need more powerful antennas especially for a security system. one camera out in the open on the other side of the wall maybe 10m away is two bars its fine connecting but still pretty poor.

Paid a lot of money for these and not incredibly impressed, especially $25 a month for 4k cloud recording for 5 cameras and I have more than 5.

[surfer1000]

My subscription plan has just been removed on my cameras! Only had the 1yr plan for 10 months! Had to add my cameras back but getting a message that I now need to pay to get my 7 cameras back online with it!

Whats going on Arlo?

[JamesC]

surfer1000,

I looked up your subscription and it shows it's active until June.

Check your Arlo Smart settings and make sure the cameras are listed as listed as participating. You can do this by navigating to Settings > Subscription > Arlo Smart > Manage Cameras.

JamesC

[surfer1000]

Hi James, they had all gone from participating but a move back sorted it, smart hub firmware from last night must of been the cause?

[BenMaine]

Hey James, Its great to see someone from Arlo on here. Thank you for trying to help us. 

[JimiW]

Hi James,

can you please follow up case number 41555859 in particular to the jwh*****@ account?

[trinatron]

I noticed after the firmware update the Arlo application on my phone was showing my cameras were still part of the subscription but the Arlo web portal was showing they weren't.

After adding them back within the web portal fixed by subscription issues.

[JimiW]

when was the firmware update? I haven't seen any for a long time

[ElliSS]

I can just agree. Purchasing such an expensive system and we have really experienced lots of trouble this first year. Like the ultra was not ready to launch but they did it anyway and we the first customers had to be the beta testers without having accepted that in advanced ... I think the price plans that comes with ultra is really inappropriate to the customer value it gives. As Arlo pro has the recording/cloud for free it is really an inappropriate price mode for ultra. Making the ultra system not very attractive. I’m very disappointed with the cost plan. Such expensive hardware to buy upfront and then a price plan from outer space. Please review the pricing. This is very unattractive. Either hardware must be cheaper to motivate the current monthly subscription or lower the monthly fee for the current setup.

The smallest thing you can do to at least compensate a bit for all the ultra troubles the first year is to extend our free trial period of your unattractive subscription setup. First I have to be beta tester and then I have to pay a monthly fee far above the delivered customer value. Re-think and re-do!

[trinatron]

Arlo SmartHub VMB5000 - 1.16.1.1_475_71659aa - 30th March 2020

[JimiW]

ahh for the hub, hadn't noticed that. It must have updated itself as its already there.

Thanks