Arlo camera Firmware — Upgrade failed - camera rejected upgrade request

[HiveIntellect]

I do not expect to get any help for this issue — since it seems to be a problem with everyone who owns one of these cameras.

I purchased a set of 2 VMC3030 cameras and the associated base station. I was having a problem with my Ring Doorbell system which ended up being resolved. I did not have the ability to return the cameras to the store so they sat in a box for a long time.

Yesterday I decided to set up the Arlo system. The base station updated its firmware without problems. The first camera I connected synced and installed it's firmware update with no problems.

The second camera REFUSES to update its firmware. I have been on Arlo tech support over the phone FOUR TIMES now and all they keep doing is brushing me off and hanging up on me without a resolution. The last jerk on the tech support told me he would call me back with a resolution as his method of ditching me without solving the problem.

Does ANYONE OUT THERE KNOW HOW TO FIX THIS???????

The only thing Arlo's tech support keeps telling me is to "Unplug it and plug it back in."

I have spent the last day and a half trying every suggestion I can find in these forums, calling Arlo tech support 4 times, and nobody at this company seems to care about their terrible products that don't work.

I even sent 4 tweets to the Arlo CEO, but I am sure he's knee deep in a pile of hookers and blow and doesn't have time to help customers either.

This post is just a desparate attempt to obtain some use out of these cameras, or should I just resign to the fact I purchased a $500 BRICK and that since it's been so long there's no warranty or recourse I can take about this?

[TomMac]

All I can say, is if the camera doesn't update;

1) Pull batteries/ replace to reset camera and attempt FW update ( make sure batteries are good )

2) If NG, reset cam again then remove the camera ( remove device ) and then bring back as new.

See if it works again.

[HiveIntellect]

The tech support people have asked me to do this over and over again.

Never works.

I am going to buy some brand new batteries later on today and see if that fixes the issue. However I do not expect it will. The battery level it is currently showing is 98% with the batteries in the device.

I have removed the device from my account and re-synced it over and over and over again. The camera so far is a useless brick because you can't do view anything or use it in any way until it performs this firmware update. And the firmware update continuously brings up and error message.

Google searches show me this is basically a lost cause and there are dozens of other people in these forums saying the exact same thing. The one thing in common is none of these threads has a solution. I wish I had read these comments before making this dumb purchase.

[jguerdat]

Open a case with support for a possible warranty claim:

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/contact.aspx

[HiveIntellect]

Dude,

I have called them 7 times now. I have an open case number. Each time I call support they blow me off and basically tell me there's nothing they can do. Same runaround each time. The excuses are one of the 3.

1. Unplug it and plug it back in. If that doesn't work there is nothing we can do and they say I'd have to call back.

2. "We are experiencing difficulties. Your camera will update within 48 hours." which is just so they can hang up on you.

3. I cannot resolve your issue so let me reach out to another support team and I will call you back *(and they do not).

So I've decided to just keep tweeting the CEO over and over each time I make another support call until I have 50+ screenshots of being ignored and then add it to viral feeds of horrible customer service experiences. This one is right up with the Comcast and AT&T nightmare experiences.

It was MY MISTAKE to buy this thing and never bother taking it out of the box for 2 years. I get it. They can make me go eat crow for not having taken the time to find out these things are borked before trying to reach out.

The biggest problem I have with this situation is that the "tech support" are literally being told to blow people off and ignore them blatently in an attempt to curb them from wanting to keep calling back.

It's utter nonsense.

ALL THEY NEED TO DO IS TELL ME OUTRIGHT THEY WILL NOT PROCESS A WARRANTY CLAIM BECAUSE I WAITED TOO LONG.

But all they keep doing is hanging up on me and refusing to even TRY to resolve the issue in any fashion. All they do is try to get to the point of conversation where they say there's nothing we can do and hang up. And that is how they are trained to behave from above. Don't tell me it's not.

Absolutely ABYSMAL company with one of the absolute worst technical support experiences I've ever seen.

I will never purchase another Netgear product after this.

[HiveIntellect]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went to the support link mentioned above and it said I could place an email to technical support.

I filled out the f-ing form and POOF the form disappeared from the web page completely and it never even sent. Refreshing the page shows NOTHING anymore in terms of any way to contact them via email.

Also, for the last 2 days straight — if you try and launch a technical support Online Chat, the chat never connects and just hangs there. I've tried it on 2 internet connections across Firefox / Edge / Chrome on both mac and windows and even android's Chrome browser.

Nothing.

This company ranks among the worst technical support I've ever seen.

Absolutely the last time I will ever purchase anything Netgear related, or anything from the company related to that brand.

DONE.

[HiveIntellect]

Add to that a terrible community support site that double-posts your replies without giving you a method to delete the extra copy.

HORRIBLE COMPANY