End Of Life Policy

[simonjf]

I have just received an email about the End Of Life policy. If this is actually what is going to happen then I need to follow up with all my friends and family, social media connections to advocate against Arlo, and search for an alternative company and service, likely starting my own online storage service for them with appropriate security cameras.

Additionally, contacts at Arlo seem to be designed to prevent actual communication - which has the stink of a company that hates its customers.

[JamesC]

New, updated information is now available regarding the EoL policy that is very relevant to much of the discussion taking place here in this community thread. These changes will allow Arlo legacy users who currently have 7-day storage service to continue receiving that service, uninterrupted.

I encourage you all to visit https://downloads.arlo.com/images/PDFs/EOL_Policy/arlo-end-of-life-policy-021023.pdf and read up on these changes.

Thank you,

JamesC

[JamesC]

Hello Arlo Community,

With the recently announced Arlo end-of-life policy, we understand many of you are seeking more clarity and a path forward after your device becomes end-of-life. In the coming days we will be reaching out to impacted users via email with special offers. Keep an eye out for those emails as they will contain more details about these offers and instructions on how to take advantage of them.

For those who may not have read this new policy or have questions about how this may impact you, I encourage you to take a look here: https://downloads.arlo.com/images/PDFs/EOL_Policy/arlo-end-of-life-policy-021023.pdf?cid=a&cid=a

If you've not received a discount offer via email, visit https://www.arlo.com/en-us/eol-offer-form.html and enter your email address, if your account is eligible you will then receive the discount offer via email.

Thank you,

JamesC

[LP79]

From what I read, if you pay you can keep using it. This however was not what I was told when I bought the cameras and writing up a new policy on Arlo side won't fix it.

Not sure what they are thinking, but class action lawsuits is incoming. They can not arbitrarily end service as that is not what was promised at the time of purchase. Not only will everyone get free service, but I will be expecting monetary compensation for every day the cameras are offline until the courts order them to turn them back on.

[LP79]

I fully expect a class action lawsuit so I wouldn't be too worried. There was no mention of end of life when I got my cameras as their business plan was to offer all cameras free 7 day storage.

Then they got greedy and moved everyone to subscriptions and are trying to get rid of us. They know damn well what they have coming.

[LP79]

Totally agree. They have no legal basis to turn off the cameras. They are going to owe everyone free 7 day cloud for life as was implied at the time of purchase, or the full purchase price of all hardware refunded.

I will not compromise with them and will also seek damages for any time my cameras are offline.

[disappointed123]

Yeah, this is extremely disappointing. I have 9 cameras, 8 of which will be paperweights soon. Arlo has lost me as a customer forever. Now to spend a fortune in research time and replacement costs, I guess.

[ArloNotUpgrade]

01/01/2023 End of Life (EOL) email to loyal  Arlo base customers. I agree, when I purchased these units there were not the most cost efficient. Had I known a few years later they would be completely obsolete, I will never purchase another Arlo item. In my instance, I exclusively used these units when I was away on business or vacation. Hence they were not worth the cost.
I will make efforts on all social and consumer platforms to offer my recommendation and review for any Arlo item is DO NOT BUY, there is no customer loyalty and you’ll be best served researching and using a product from another manufacturer even if initial cost is a bit more. For the cost Arlo is not a long term consistent option.  

[fishingredcat]

If that's what you think, then you're ignorant.  

[DANCB]

I am in the same situation with 5 Arlo cameras. I am already planning to sell all of them and move on to a different(less expensive) system which doesn't require a subscription. I will never endorse Arlo cameras to anyone due to this greedy move the company is making.

[Dill_]

Definitely class action lawsuit time.

[homey2]

I have 5 of the EOL Arlo products. I also have a Ring subscription, of which I have 2 at the same location as the Arlo’s.
However, I have 9 other Ring camera’s under that same, single subscription. A total of 11 Ring camera’s. 
When the Arlo’s start to fail, I will switch everything at that location to Ring.

[Ben58]

I am thinking of going to Blink.  They have a paid subscription but also local storage if you select not to subscribe.  I need to look into it more.  My opinion is that I may have to go forward with a paid subscription but it will NOT be with Arlo.  I will go in knowing what the requirements are versus having a company deciding to do away with a prominent feature (one that had me buy the product in the first place) and trying to conceal their greed by stating it is the End of Life for these cameras.  Perhaps their crack legal team felt this approach would keep them out of trouble.

[Ben58]

[Kopacm]

Hello -

I am disappointed by Arlo’s dishonesty in its recently issued end of life policy.  I have an original box from my VMC 4030 camera that clearly advertises “FREE cloud recording:  Rolling 7 days of FREE Cloud recordings.”.  This is one of the primary reasons I bought these cameras (five of them) in the first place.  

Please advise what my options are for getting my money refunded.  If I do not hear back from you, I will be submitting a BBB complaint and joining the appropriate class action lawsuit(s).  

Cheers!

[DaveWoj]

Hopefully someone knows the answer to this question since it may not be cost effective for me to dump all my legacy cameras.

Since Arlo has changed policies so many times I need to know if I end up wanting to subscribe to a plan on a single account (right now I have 2 accounts 5 cameras and 2 cameras) does the $9.99 actually cover "unlimited" cameras or do I still need to pay extra per camera over 5 cameras?

[MBasney]

I received the End-of-Life email today, also. Apparently whoever came up with this policy at Arlo should be fired, because it is bad business, and is bad FOR business! Print on the outside of your packaging that you’re going to intentionally make a product obsolete, whether it has useful life in it, or not, and see how many people put the packaging back on the shelf and purchase the competitor brand. Because I guarantee that’s what would happen. It’s false advertising. I smell a lawsuit coming. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever gotten such a product notification. I guess Arlo thinks it’s a good idea to sell products for hundreds of dollars, and then intentionally render them useless. I smell a lawsuit coming. Did I already say that??? Well, I do.

[CTSNicholas]

Just read this email as well from Arlo.  I feel like we were absolutely robbed by them ending the free 7 day cloud storage.  That was the entire reason I chose Arlo in the first place years ago. This was the entire reason I touted that Arlo was superior and got many friends and family to purchase the more expensive Arlo cameras over the cheaper competitors. And here we are, being thrown out to the wolves with the disguise of "As part of Arlo’s commitment to delivering the highest performance in smart home security."

I hope the community is loud and they reverse this decision. I don't care how you guys spin it, removing the free cloud storage for older cameras is nothing but a money grab. Why do you say you will continue to offer cloud storage if people start shelling out money for a paid subscription?

"EOL devices can utilize Arlo’s new cloud video storage platform, which is available with the Arlo Secure subscription service."

If you can do the storage for old cameras on paid subscription, you can keep it the way it is now as well.  Absolutely disgusted when I read this EOL Email.

[Jeeplover]

I am in the exact same situation. I just logged on here to mention the same thing and to pose a question:

Is it possible to upgrade the (currently working fine) base station to a newer one with local storage so I can keep the rest of my system in tact?

[antkho]

I am switching because if this nonsense. Any recommendations for other brands?

[CTSNicholas]

Absolutely disgusted with their EOL moneygrab. If they can support cloud storage through a paid subscription, they can also keep their free 7 day rotating storage. What a bunch of lies.

[MattF25]

I agree…

This is just wrong.

I have 5 cameras and 2 solar panels. This equipment was not cheap.

When I purchased the system it said explicitly that it came with 7 day recording. The system is useless without it.

This reduction of service looks like a law suite to me.

[80sTiger]

They mention connecting a usb drive for local storage but I have the VMB3010r2 base which doesn’t support. Has two USB ports but useless. So looks like I get to do live video and that’s it. I’m just going to keep going with Ring instead. 

[CTSNicholas]

I realize there are other posts already but I feel that Arlo needs to realize just how many people they are screwing over and upsetting.  I will gladly tell anyone I know how shady this bait and switch has been.  I was literally just looking at buying three new cameras to add to my fleet last night before this EOL Email came out.  I feel like would be better off taking a lighter to my hard earned money than to purchase a single new Arlo product unless they take back their deceit of customers and continue to allow free 7 day cloud storage on ALL of their cameras.

I feel like we were absolutely robbed by them ending the free 7 day cloud storage.  That was the entire reason I chose Arlo in the first place years ago. This was the entire reason I touted that Arlo was superior and got many friends and family to purchase the more expensive Arlo cameras over the cheaper competitors. And here we are, being thrown out to the wolves with the disguise of "As part of Arlo’s commitment to delivering the highest performance in smart home security."

I hope the community is loud and they reverse this decision. I don't care how you guys spin it, removing the free cloud storage for older cameras is nothing but a money grab. Why do you say you will continue to offer cloud storage if people start shelling out money for a paid subscription?

"EOL devices can utilize Arlo’s new cloud video storage platform, which is available with the Arlo Secure subscription service."

If you can do the storage for old cameras on paid subscription, you can keep it the way it is now as well.  Absolutely disgusted when I read this EOL Email.

[Mdaddii]

100% agree.  Arlo differentiated themselves because of these older models and I've recommended them to my family and friends in the same way.  I've got many cameras and for them to continue supporting these devices costs pennies.  The could have just let them grow obsolete.  But let's face it - they are in it for the subscription fees.   But as you said, this puts them in the same category as everyone else.  Another company that takes what makes then unique and screws it up, then treats their customers like @#$% with this New Year's e-mail.  I'm with you.....no reason to stick with or recommend Arlo anymore - I'll go somewhere else.   Business class case example of how to lose customers.   

[Strathmont]

I also received the email.  My Arlo Pro 2 still works perfectly, but it appears Arlo will be reaching its so-called "end of life", there will be no more updates, and some functions will eventually be disabled.   When a company like Microsoft reaches "end of life" for one of their operating systems (like Windows 7) do they disable computers?  Absolutely NOT!  I will not purchases a "subscription" and I will never purchase anything from Arlo in the future.  One of the caveats in the Terms of Service to participate in this forum states lawsuits cannot be "threatened".  The following is not a threat, and is simply my opinion.  Because of the above, I fully expect there will be numerous (and successful) class action law suits for disabling the "functionality" of perfectly good equipment unless you submit to greed - especially in this economy.   Bad move, Arlo...... a very bad move!

[Minburn57]

First thing to me is Arlo needs to be real f'ing clear on just whether there may be a continued use for a particular camera model or not and what restriction on the use.

As in a chart with models, and various features yes or no (and not this 'maybe' BS that to me seems like trolling get get maybe another few months of subs from some folks before they realize that no . . . its not going to work.

[Strathmont]

Please review the response authored by MBasney.  It was exceptional and I could not agree more.

Thank you, and good luck to us all!