Arlo batteries 44% fresh out of box

[StarzNSunz]

 Long story short. Brand-new out-of-the-box wireless camera and base station. From best buy. Fresh stock. 

 I set everything up according to instructions. We have a very strong Internet connection, small two bedroom apartment, the camera  so close to the base station/wireless router they can touch each other, etc. 

mention my wireless router is a $400 net gear router that was just released and has all kinds of incredible reviews and specs? But I was begging my brother-in-law to put the old router back in because this new router was just not up to snuff? Well , now I did mention it.

 After installing everything and setting it up. I noticed that the batteries are at 44%. So I hit Google and do all of the troubleshooting and everything I'm told to do from the community chat and the Arlo websites and everything else. And it still at 44%. Fresh out of the box. OK. Not 85%. Not 95% .  Not even 75%. But 44%. 

Then the problems start. The thing just keeps disconnecting and disconnecting and disconnecting and disconnecting.

 So I'm resetting it and re-syncing it about 1 million times a day. Thank God nothing happened during one of these many resetting/re-syncing sessions. Then the live view does not work. Never did never never ever worked ever ever did never ever ever work. So fine whatever  I don't need to see who is pounding on the door or ringing the doorbell like a freaking maniac at three in the morning. I'll just grab Lucille and answer the door praying I'm ready to go to have an early if it turns out to be a maniac with a gun. 

 So I finally write the company. Tell them more eloquently and politely everything I have just shared with you fine people 

 Main beef was the batteries. I had a reasonable expectation that after spending $120 on a wireless camera that comes with batteries included that those batteries are going to last more than five days. Because by the end of the fifth day the batteries were down to 20%. Now mind you if this camera was triggered five times a day that was a freaking party day in this cameras world.

 So this company sends me back – I'm not kidding – about 30 questions total. They want to know how long I expect the batteries to last,  why do I expect them to last that long, what are the weather conditions, what is the temperature, what is the humidity, then they have me do this step by step thing to uninstall and reinstall all, then they have me take Q-tips and clean the inside of the camera where the batteries touch the connections, then they have me report all of this back, so of course I   Answer all of their questions. Even though a lot of the questions were the same exact thing just worded differently. So that was fun. 

 Then I get another email with 16 more questions! 

 I politely pointed out the camera is brand-new out-of-the-box. Just installed. The batteries are brand-new out of the box. Just installed. They install at 44% in five days later are at 20% and below. Can't they just replace the batteries? 

So they write me back and tell me that if I answer all of the questions they sent me – the second batch of 16 questions – they will send me "a battery replacement" "A BATTERY REPLACEMENT"  maybe I did not read that right – I think to myself – nope, I read that 100% correctly. They are offering to send me one working battery. One out of four working batteries.

so as we are playing back-and-forth emails and answer my questions the batteries in the camera have now dipped  to below 10%!!

again, everything was on the most energy conservation setting imaginable, I did every single thing they told me to do to troubleshoot and what not, so at this point the problem is actually the batteries are just crappy. So instead of sending a brand-new customer 4 new  batteries they want to make me answer 1000 questions.

 Instead of retaining a customers loyalty and money they want to insult me by telling me to blow on the batteries before inserting them back into the camera. That's your technological advice?! 

 So then finally the batteries die. On day nine. So I say you know what I'm getting a refund and to heck with this company and their lunacy 

 My Blink camera is now happily installed and working beautifully. Four AA batteries. Still at 100% after four days of use. Beautiful night time vision, beautiful day time vision, beautiful clarity, and what's this  ?it STAYS connected

and there's audio! Two way audio? No but there's audio that records crisp  and loud

[Johnny290]

I guess u r talking about arlo and not arlo pro that has rechargeable batteries

[JamesC]

StarzNSunz,

It sounds like the batteries were indeed depleted out of the box. If a battery replacement was offered during your case, it would have been a replacement pack (meaning 4 batteries). If you would like, I can offer assistance with your support case. Please provide me with the case number and I will review your case and escalate if needed.

JamesC

[manfredz]

Just a gut feeling here.  If batteries weren't defective, 44% at start suggests 2 weren't seated properly (or in wrong).

I know when I got my set, on first cam I went through batteries much faster than later as I tried various things out.

[steve_t]

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manfredz wrote:

Just a gut feeling here.  If batteries weren't defective, 44% at start suggests 2 weren't seated properly (or in wrong).

I know when I got my set, on first cam I went through batteries much faster than later as I tried various things out.

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Agree here. Only 1 battery needs to not be making good contact for this to be the case though