EOL policy vs "FREE Cloud Recording" claims on the box and in product descriptions

[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

[Spot4]

After considering all the facts I have worked out what ARLO is not telling me re my equipment....
Base station VMB3000 which currently supports my two Arlo wire free and 2 rechargeable ArloPro cameras by 7 day cloud storage will do the following on 1st April 2023 
-  No longer available - 7 day cloud storage via VMB3000 base
-  No longer available - (and in fact was never available) Recording of videos locally via own base/network via 2 USB ports on back not available. These ports are not fit for purpose now and never were....they were "for show & for an anticipated upgrade never done at time of release" Good one Arlo!!!! Only Models from 4000 onwards can do this and you will find a post about this by a guru. Only way I can save videos is if I upgrade my base and create own network so,
- No email of activity
- Doubtful if any phone app notifications to be received - has not been specified
- Able to view direct view of cameras
- Arlo is encouraging me to subscribe to Arlo Secure but why would I when they can't store a video as cameras deemed too old...."store video clips locally with a compatible Arlo base station"   suddenly my system that was once perfect is now deemed non compatible and I am stuck with a base station that is even more useless as 2 x USB ports do not work.

[MichaelRo]

If they can support the cameras if you start paying, then it’s obviously not a technical issue. Just a greed issue.  

seems they should just provide free subscriptions then to legacy cameras. 

[IshmaelB]

Also got email.

Pro2 EOL is 1/1/24.

I have 14 of them.

ever since Arlo was sold  by Netgear is has been down hill.

They also lie about 7 days cloud storage.  They delete a whole day around 8PM EST to "make room for day 7" according to them. So, only 6 days history.

I argued with them endlessly and support does not get that they are lying.

Class action ?

[IshmaelB]

base and storage are also kaput.

we have 14 Pro2 cams the EOL 1/1/24.

You were only given 90 days.

they lied about free 7 days storage, right on the box.

Class action?

[IshmaelB]

Pro2 EOL is 1/1/24

We have 14 of them.

PO'd is an understatment.

They lied ON THE BOX, about 7 day free cloud storage.

Class action?

[IshmaelB]

Arlo sent email, saying they set an EOL of 4/1/22 for Pro cams, 1/1/24 for Pro2.

This is not just support, but the "FREE" 7 day cloud storage they advertised ON THE BOX.

They LIED/

We paid for that storage in our purchase.  We have 14 Pro2 cams.

We need to make them take them back, or  refund our money.

Spread the word.  Post comments, feedback, and reviews on every site that sells Arlo equipment.

I will never buy another Arlo product.  They pulled a SONY, and just abandon customers on short notice.

I would not have purchased a single thing from them. 

Contact Arlo, the FTC, and your Attorney General.

False advertising is illegal.

[SoCalKyle]

I was just looking at one of Arlo's Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings where they refer to older devices as "prepaid" storage. Some retailers have still been selling older stock of these cameras until recently. Will people just purchasing devices be compensated?

This whole policy change seems to go against the "implied warranty" for devices. I'd suggest anyone impacted contact their state attorney general or consumer advocate office as well as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint form available on the ftc.gov site.

Some other questions I have, was there a Netgear or Arlo "End of Life Policy" in place and available when these models were introduced?

If a California resident submits a CCPA (privacy act law) request for information on where the included 7-day rolling storage and Arlo subscription plan video is stored, has both already been moved to the new Arlo solution, which I'm guessing is AWS or Azure?

[MichaelRo]

Spoiler

They are publicly traded and their stock is on its last legs.  Everyone here should be hitting up any news outlet/blog/etc we can find to get this news in the press.  If there is word of class action/bailing founding customers, the shareholders will force management to fix this.  

… then hopefully replace the leadership who came up with this crap. 

[MichaelRo]

They are publicly traded and their stock is on its last legs.  Everyone here should be hitting up any news outlet/blog/etc we can find to get this news in the press.  If there is word of class action/bailing founding customers, the shareholders will force management to fix this.  

… then hopefully replace the leadership who came up with this crap. 

Techcrunch.com/tips 

 tips@engadget.com

investigations@cnbc.com

iphoneatlas@cnet.com

Fox business news 

[Security35]

Unless you opted out of the "6. DISPUTE RESOLUTION BY BINDING ARBITRATION; CLASS ACTION WAIVER. PLEASE READ THIS PROVISION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS YOUR RIGHTS" clause in Terms of Service, it looks like class action participation is prohibited. Fortunately, the California Consumer Privacy Act seems to override this clause so a class action seems plausible and likely.

In addition, this is clearly a case of false advertising. My box, internet descriptions and invoices all say 7 day recording and, of course, does not specify an end date. It is very clear that if you don't have cloud service these cameras are worthless unless you want to real time spy on your dog / ageing parent / child, etc. Clearly extortion to get us to pay extra for subscription when we originally purchased based on a promise that they are now breaking. Completely unforgivable.

[Mreina]

Arlo is open to a class action where is the fine print that said they will discontinue service and features after 4 years and as posted here on the topic was advertised last year with all the features that they want to take away be interesting to know how many tens of millions of the cameras that were sold that are no longer going to be supported because right there that’s who you are pissing off 1 unhappy customer tells 10 friends/people of there terrible experience, Arlo has not thought about the repercussions,  continue on this path and suffer the consequences or realise you’ve made a judgement error and extend your end of life policy to ten years 

[unhappycust]

I'm in the same boat as many of you. I bought into the ecosystem back in 2015 looking for a packaged service for free cloud recoding without having to pay for a subscription service. I've invested a lot into the Arlo Ecosystem (cameras, base stations, doorbells, etc.) for this functionality as it was advertised for myself and my inlaws.

Can we organize all the options/steps we can take in a single doc?

I started a google doc so we can put together tech press/product review site contacts, business complaint contacts (BBB, consumer complaint AG for your state), etc.

Please add to this doc, so it can be shared amongst us and we can all send emails/complaints/leave product reviews in an organized way. 

Goodbye Arlo, you lost a customer!

unhappycust

Arlo Pro 

[yeebee29]

If there's no firmware updates, does that mean it will just stop working? Or when it will slowly "die"? 

[yeebee29]

Same here.. we got chargers for all the cameras too. Definitely an investment over time that's going down the drain. 😞

[punit]

Agreed. I had bought the Arlo because I didn’t want to pay for expensive subscription plan. You can’t just implement a new EOL policy and force it on the existing customers. 

[friedolays]

Arlo. 

Your organization, the operators, owners. You have made the wilful decision to scam the individuals who made your business exist. I expect there to be a class action lawsuit. Beyond that, past the legalities, the ones responsible for this decision, you are trash, immoral and theives.

[MichaelRo]

I’m curious whom at Arlo thought this would be a good idea and then helped draft that email.  Wonder if they were telling staff “expect to hear a bunch of complaints on the message boards on Jan 1st and to customer care, but don’t worry, it will die out.”

If they do anything, I assure you it will be a one time discount code for money off new camera systems.  I’ll preemptively say - Totally unacceptable.  I paid for the cameras already.  I pre-paid for lifetime 7d cloud backup.

[ale2999]

Honestly, what kind of nonsense is this. Pure greed. It would be different if the original advertising said something about a time limit for those features. Truly angry and losing faith on all these companies. 

[SeanyMack]

I am one of the many people who got an email with Arlo's End of Life warning for many of their products. I've been using Arlo Pro and Pro 2 cameras and they have acted up at times but I stuck with them because there was no subscription cost associated with their use. Now Arlo suddenly says they are stopping support of our cameras due to "age" but somehow they will allow us to use these cameras still if we sign up for one of their subscription plans... WTF?!?!??!

I'm hoping Arlo will change their mind on this ridiculous move. Or else I am ready to move to another brand of cameras such as Eufy! Do the right thing arlo!!!

[SeanyMack]

Eufy Cam 3 seems to be the best system out there now.  And you don't need to pay for any stupid subscriptions.

[Christinec]

Bought it last and it can’t be used this year????

[Spot4]

How ironic they picked April Fools or ARLO FOOLS DAY (April 1st) to instigate this first end of life process. They must take us all for fools happy to migrate to paid for plans with no guarantee service will even work.  

[StephenB]

---

@Epicrainbolt wrote:

If I subscribe can I still receive the 7 day storage I have been receiving with my arlo pro? 

---

You'd get 30 days of storage, and some other features.  Though they are saying that they won't be providing any firmware updates, and that over time the features might be reduced.

• https://kb.arlo.com/000063018/Arlo-Legacy-Cameras-End-of-Life

[Bluemetal73]

I have so many swear words right now

it’s the reason I paid for more these above the rubbish competitors subscription cameras

If they stick with this then I hope they never get another customer & their company goes down the toilet

False advertising 

[Spot4]

https://www.nyse.com/quote/XNYS:ARLO 
Have a look at how Arlo is going on the stock exchange.