Arlo Wired Doorbell with Terrible Pixelation at Night. Awful Customer Service Experience.

[jprose30]

I contacted support multiple times because of this issue when I had a subscription. Nighttime video has always been horribly pixelated to the point of not being able to identify anyone in front of the camera. I performed troubleshooting with two agents over the phone and both told me to try the same thing. It didn't work either time. Then, via email, they asked me to retype everything that I had discussed in the phone conversation. By the time I had an opportunity to address it, my subscription had ended and they had closed the support case. Because I no longer have a subscription, I cannot contact support via phone, or by updating the existing case. Apparently the case automatically closed when my subscription ran out. However, I did not want to purchase a new subscription if they couldn't fix the pixelation issue I had been having the entire year since purchase. I now have a video doorbell that has never worked properly and no way to fix it. Feeling very burned by Arlo. Their service was consistently poor and troubleshooting was a joke. For such an expensive device, I expected better quality and better service. At this point, I cannot recommend the product or the brand. And, I have no way of contacting the company to rectify the situation unless I pay money to subscribe. See the attached picture for an example of the pixelation. This is a cat walking by my front door.

[JamesC]

This is a known issue that some users experience during night time motion detection. Currently, a firmware release is being tested that should alleviate the issue, but is not yet available to production users.

You can follow the discussion and updates on this issue here: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Video-Doorbell/Night-time-pixelation/m-p/1841270#M7127

JamesC

[Dannybear]

What cat?

Can I ask what your internet upload speed is at the time, e.g. are you streaming stuff at the same time. Could also be wifi interference.
What is it like during the day, same pixelation issues. Can you share the library recording link in your post?

[jprose30]

Exactly. You can see a trail of pixels in front of the pillar with the cat's head and front leg on the right side of the pillar. This is what all nighttime videos look like. Anytime there is motion, there is severe pixelation. There is little to no pixelation in the daytime videos. This particular video was taken in the middle of the night when no other devices were using the WiFi. Typical upload speeds range from 5-10 Mbps, but are usually around 8. Because my subscription ran out, I no longer have access to my library recordings. Luckily, I had saved this one to my phone ahead of time to upload for customer service. The silly part is that the customer service case update form does not allow for the upload of video files.

[JamesC]

This is a known issue that some users experience during night time motion detection. Currently, a firmware release is being tested that should alleviate the issue, but is not yet available to production users.

You can follow the discussion and updates on this issue here: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Video-Doorbell/Night-time-pixelation/m-p/1841270#M7127

JamesC

[jprose30]

So, the customer service team ran me through hours of debugging for a known issue and then when that didn't work, they had me type out everything again? And, they were happy to have me pay for a subscription for video recording that only worked half the time? Now I am even more frustrated with Arlo. What a waste of time and money. At the very least, they could have extended my subscription because of the known issue until it was fixed. I appreciate you giving me a straight answer, but I absolutely cannot recommend this product or company now.

[JamesC · Accepted solution]

The firmware resolving this issue is now available. Check Settings > My Devices > select your doorbell > Device info to make sure your doorbell has the latest version posted here: Arlo Video Doorbell AVD1001 - 1.14.0.0_1189_4e1d685_817336 - 15th March 2022

If your doorbell is still not on the latest version, allow the firmware update to take place automatically overnight and test again to see if you still experience the same behavior.

JamesC

[jprose30]

Thank you. There does seem to be some improvement, but I am unable to view any recordings to verify because my subscription ended. Is Arlo going to provide a subscription credit to customers for the time that the doorbell wasn't working?