Customer Support

[ArmM]

I've not come across a more disingenuous, despicable company as Arlo.

You can't even get an agent to help you in terms of asking questions for an upgrade or subscription or why their latest app is a pile of dog sht.

 My units are going on the trash and I'll go out of my way to make sure the entire Internet and social community knows to avoid this garbage company.

Louis Rossman would ream you a new one.

[BrookeN]

Hello,

I apologize for your frustration. I would be more than happy to help you, if you could explain more of what you are needing assistance with?

[ArmM]

Your new updated app is complete garbage and you've taken away the ability to record up to 120 seconds even without a subscription.  I don't want or need to subscribe but clearly you're forcing everyone in that direction.

Disingenuous, deplorable behavior and that's why I'm finally dumping your garbage products.

Not to mention all your customer service is hiding behind an Internet or community wall where none of you have to actually be customer forward facing.  Cowards 

[BrookeN]

We do have cameras with the 7 day free storage, if you have an Arlo Wire-Free (VMC3030), Pro (VMC4030), Pro 2 (VMC4030P), Go (VML4030), Q (VMC3040), Q Plus (VMC3040S), or Baby (ABC1000) camera, you will continue to have all the benefits that were included with the purchase of your camera. This includes live streaming, 2-way audio, local storage, and activity zones on up to 5 cameras. 

[RichWood]

I love Louis Rossman. What he's doing against Flock Cameras is amazing! We all need to be helping him out. Flock is like the most disgusting thing going on in our cities. 

I'm totally with you on Arlo. But I don't think they are Rossman territory yet. But I'm cautionary...they are getting close.

The rule of thumb I've come up with on their app developers is they typically screw things up. Then people raise hell in the app stores and then they bring those features back 

Do you have any BaseStations or SmartHubs?  Sometimes when Arlo pisses me off, which is about 3-4 times a week, I cancel my subscription and it still records w/o a subscription. 

But tell us your story and vent. Maybe we can come up with a method.

[ArmM]

Yeah Rossman is awesome.  Arlo needs to be in his bullseye.

I have the VMB3010r2.  It was able to record video for up to 120 seconds without any subscription.  Since Arlo's update to their new sht app, everything has gone away and there is no way to record anything.  

These people are a joke.  I can't stand that they hide behind this online firewall where no one can talk to them directly over the phone.  Truly cowardly and pathetic IMO.  This isn't customer support, it's customer abuse.  And I will NEVER subscribe to Arlo.

This was my last straw anyway.  There are just better products out there that work for free and have better support.  Arlo is garbage and everyone should call them out on every online platform whenever possible.  People need to know what a joke their support and service are.

[ArmM]

Taking away the ability for owners of previous gen cameras to continue to record is despicable.  You folks don't deserve further business from anyone.  Incredibly disingenuous.  This trend of subscription based garbage is going to be your demise.

[RichWood]

Yeah, I just got their Pan & Tilt camera that keeps disconnecting on its own and since it just came out there literally is nobody to help people figure out what's going on. I invested like a ton of money through the years with Arlo and it pisses me off that they let good people like you hung out to dry. 

I just like solving problems and if it helps, you can grab a refurbished base station for 80 bucks.  You can do local recording w/o a subscription with these. I chucked a ssd in mine and it works well. If you call in, they will tell you yours is end of life and try to give you a discount on the SmartHubs, they suck. The BaseStation works better in my opinion. 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Restored-Arlo-VMB4500-100NAR-Base-Station-for-Arlo-Pro-Pro2-Wireless-Secu...

But best of luck. I hope things go better for you. This AI clown world will only get worse. Hang in there!

[ArmM]

Hey Rich,

Thanks so much for your guidance and input.  You know a hell of lot more than I do. So you'll have to excuse my ignorance with my questions.

So my base won't work I guess?  I would have to get the base you're specifying?  

Frankly at this point, I might just trash the Arlos I have and get a totally different setup.  

[RichWood]

Yeah no worries. Arlo might not give a crap about you, but I do. Arlo doesn't sell that BaseStation anymore. But it's built like a tank. I had one take a lightning strike. The lightning took out the power adapter, but I did a factory reset to the BaseStation and readded my cameras and it's still going to this day. So just find a decent used/refurbished seller of a VMB4500. It will have a USB port on the back. You can plug a flash drive or external hard drive, ssd to save your local recording go no larger than 512gb. Now Arlo will phase this out and go all cloud recording one day. But this BaseStation should buy you a few years. So an 80 buck loss will be cheaper than you going to Ring or Eufy and buying all their crap that they require. Like I said Arlo screwed me too. But I figured I'd jump in here to do better than the Indians they have doing support and help some good folks that might just not know what to do. 

[RichWood]

I don't have your base, but you could try all these steps before you buy anything. https://youtu.be/ERlAR2r4aUc?si=9IvcymUU0Yqzld07

I cannot save your over 120 seconds because that's all app restrictive. But you could get a continuous video recording plan for 14/month that would. We just need to figure out which base will let you do local recording and I'm unsure if your base is at end of life and Arlo took it away or something. 

But don't worry. I know there will be a solution. I have to do crap like this monthly with Smart Home stuff. They 20 year old developers with ADHD change stuff and I got a run around my house fixing what they broke. 

But try that YouTube video before anything else. 

[jguerdat]

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@RichWood wrote:

Do you have any BaseStations or SmartHubs?  Sometimes when Arlo pisses me off, which is about 3-4 times a week, I cancel my subscription and it still records w/o a subscription.

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Canceling the sub doesn't cancel cloud recordings until the period you paid for expires. No refunds but the period of the purchase continues.