Arlo Smart (Activity Zones) w/ Original Arlo

[SwiftyRox]

I'm super confused....I just got off of a Support chat, and was told that activity zones don't work with the Arlo Original wireless cameras to target movement....They claim the activity zones only assist with the "Rich Notifications"...but they will not capture video in the activity zones unless you have particular models, and they are AC Powered...

At any rate....I found my information here:

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/landing/arlosmart/
https://kb.arlo.com/000056589/How-do-I-set-up-the-Arlo-Smart-cloud-activity-zones

If you read there, you will think that...yes...wireless cameras work...and yes...with your original Arlo

But then they throw me this "article" link:

https://kb.arlo.com/1001908/What-are-activity-zones-and-how-do-I-create-them-for-my-Arlo-Q-Arlo-Q-Pl...

I just want to say that this is all very misleading, and nerve-wracking since on other pages they make you think you are good to go....upgrade your account...pay for this!!

Then when it's not working or doing what is expected.....this is what you find out from support....Bit saddened needless to say...and I feel the communication should be more clear on the website....

Or is what I am being told true or untrue?....Clearly it must be true since I created 3 zones each for two cameras (because we don't have polygon zones)...and motion was being avoided in the zones and no video captures, but the cameras were still capturing cars driving by in the street...NOT in any one of the 3 zones per camera....I am not going to pay a boatload of money to get all new cameras just for some feature that was made to sound like we had it!! 🙂 🙂 

[AlexKrycek1970]

Thanks for the information. I've just realised this is the biggest con ever. I thought like you the activity zones would not record outside of them. I wanted to draw where the activity was  They do record outside the zones! It's just you don't get a notification.  Oh my God, why would you pay to have reduced notifications !? 

[SwiftyRox]

Exactly!! I know the customer service chat reps are just doing their job, but I diatribed a small lecture about how that was highly misleading because most customers are not going to dig to find an alternative answer like that article link they gave me. Not to mention, the link was only provided after I grilled them about where I might find the information they were giving me as the two links I found made no mention of that "caveat".

When you research something, you generally read and buy into what's on the tin and the front facing advertisement. I almost had to spit my coffee out when the representative said..."All you have to do is simply add Pro 2 cameras to your system in order to get that functionality you're looking for."....Are you kidding me? 

At this point, All I care is that they honestly look to reconsider updating the verbiage in their advertisement and be more explicitly clear about the actualy meaning of the message that is being conveyed...