Arlo End of Life Policy - Australian Consumer law

[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

[MikeBP]

I echo the rest of the comments here; I think this is a bad business decision, and will move away for the brand(s) fairly quickly. I’ve got a drawer full of older Smart Phones and other devices that are still “supported”.

What is odd is the decision to turn off features like 7-day cloud storage and email notifications. Why?! What changed? What “cybersecurity standards” have been compromised to disable these services? Sceptically, it feels more like a decision driven by a lack of monetisation… Disappointed…

[TalJarvia]

You seem to be making a lot of legal-esque statements that don’t make sense.

That’s not how advertising works—particularly somewhere like Canada, which has stronger protections than the US against companies that falsely advertise in order to sell their products.

I’d have to go find an old box to double check (probably still have mine in the basement somewhere), but consumers were buying a camera which included free cloud storage. 

As others have mentioned, I totally get the issue of EOL hardware. No one is guaranteed a piece of technology will work forever.

But this isn’t it. Customers can still use their cameras if they’re OK with lower resolution and older features; the cameras and the services still work fine. But now they’ll have to pay for the cloud features that were explicitly advertised as being free when the product was purchaser. 

It’s false and misleading advertising, plain and simple. It’s almost certainly a violation of competition act and consumer protection laws in Canada. I think Arlo would be liable for the value of a monthly subscription x product EOL. 

Of course, most of these cameras probably don’t have a huge EOL left, probably a few years. It’s not peanuts, but it‘s probably not worth court filing fees either. And probably not enough sold to merit a class action, but who knows…!

[StephenB]

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@tji58 wrote:

Since Netgear has taken over

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FYI, Netgear divested Arlo back in 2018.  Surprising how many people here seem unaware of that.

[opus]

I am also disgusted with this decision. One of the main reasons I bought my cameras was because I didn't have to subscribe to a plan. I no longer trust Arlo as a company and will not be buying anything from them in the future. A huge disappointment.

[StephenB]

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@DannyBearAgain wrote:

The pro2 EOL is January 1, 2014.

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2024 of course.

@jasongabler: See

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

[muaddubby]

Not sure how leaving a complaint with a governing body about a company that has engaged in false advertising doesn't make sense. Arlo marketed their camera as being bundled with a free online service that they are now pulling the plug on, and they should not be allowed to get away with it. All of us that have invested hundreds of dollars on this equipment and service are now left with a product that does not live up to what they promise. 

[StephenB]

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@Scott375 wrote:

I can't find the EOL list.

See

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

[StephenB]

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@ohh wrote:

Not even a fraction of a cent will ever be spent by me on Arlo, Orbi or other Netgear products.

FYI, Netgear divested Arlo back in 2018, and did not retain any ownership interest.  No point in aiming at the wrong target.

[StephenB]

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@carvermon wrote:

 Looking into purchasing one of their newer models I found wording that indicated there is NO video storage available without a paid subscription. 

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5 year old news - that started in 2018 when they launched the Ultra.  There was a big backlash at the time, and that resulted in Arlo rolling out the direct access to local storage feature.

Plenty of posts here about it through the years.

[ohh]

Also in Australia and yes highly illegal from what I can tell. They need to either maintain service or give a full refund. I was going to get around to upgrading to the 4K version, but never dealing with this company again. 

[muaddubby]

It's ok if they did not make that available with the newer models. The issue here is that with the older models, such as the original Arlo, free online storage was included in the package and there was absolutely no indication that this would be eventually removed. 

If they plan on doing so - and unilaterally decided to take back something their customer purchased - they need to replace it (at their own cost) with an acceptable alternative.  

[DaveWoj]

You're right. I wouldn't be that hard for them to do that.

But they knew what they were doing. They've had it planned for awhile now, that's why they slowly discontinued all of those legacy cameras but kept selling them and not notifying anyone that they were in fact "discontinued" and would no longer be supported.

People like me "thought" we were being smart by purchasing more of those cameras since they had the free 7 day cloud.

Arlo didn't say anything because they wanted to deplete their inventory and wait until they cashed in to tell everyone the bad news.

Even if they reverse the 7 day free cloud, "some features" may not even be available. (what does that mean?)

Geofencing, Push Notifications, Live view, Triggering?

So even if anyone decides to pay for the subscription, that doesn't guarantee the other features will even be available.

[breaknout]

I agree this is outrageous and a gross abuse of consumer trust.

Arlo have been relentlessly promoting their subscription service for a while now, in what has been a clear attempt to get users to move off rolling cloud storage. Surely the company would have known that introducing this EOL policy would have infuriated its customers. The fact that they introduced the policy regardless suggests the company is in financial distress and is desperate to generate more revenue!

I too want to complain with the ACCC. For the time poor out there, can someone please provide a guide as to how to do this quickly and effectively? Thanks!  

[DaveWoj]

They knew what they were doing. They've had it planned for awhile now, that's why they slowly discontinued all of those legacy cameras but kept selling them and not notifying anyone that they were in fact "discontinued" and would no longer be supported.

People like me "thought" we were being smart by purchasing more of those cameras since they had the free 7 day cloud.

Arlo didn't say anything because they wanted to deplete their inventory and wait until they cashed in to tell everyone the bad news.

Even if they reverse the 7 day free cloud, "some features" may not even be available. (what does that mean?)

Geofencing, Push Notifications, Live view, Triggering?

So even if anyone decides to pay for the subscription, that doesn't guarantee the other features will even be available.

[StephenB]

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@DaveWoj wrote:

So even if anyone decides to pay for the subscription, that doesn't guarantee the other features will even be available.

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FWIW, that is also the way I read the EOL statement

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

Even if you subscribe, they aren't making any promises that the legacy cameras will continue to work as they do now after the EOL date.  If future changes to their cloud infrastructure create issues with the legacy cameras, they are not committing to fixing them.

Still, it is an option if you are in a country where Arlo offers subscriptions (though obviously distasteful to many here) -  especially if you make monthly payments.  You can always cancel if/when the service becomes unacceptable.  It potentially gives you more time to research your long-term options.

[Rmacleod]

In the new EOL notification Arlo states you can still use paid cloud subscription with the old hardware model but not free cloud 7 day. Coming from a software background, it is clear to me that ARLO is looking to capitalize on hardware upgrades and switch people from free subscribers to paid subscribers.

Logistically, a cloud solution, whether paid or free would be programmed the same way with the only difference being the financial gain by forcing people to switch to a paid model.

Therefore the statement of hardware end of life affecting free 7 day storage is a blatant misleading statement in their EOL, which is unfair to consumers, not transparent and makes me lose confidence and trust in Arlo as a product and a company.

I will no longer support Arlo, I will be changing to another brand.

[KnightRyder]

Very disappointed.  I was a huge supporter and like many here also purchased these cameras + additional ones for their 7 day free cloud storage.  I have 3 cameras that work perfectly since purchasing them 6 years ago.  To stop offering 7 day free cloud storage is wrong and very misleading as I spend hundreds of dollars on these products with an expectation that I would never have to pay a fee for the features they provide.

[TeeJay2022]

Sadly this seems to be the way of many devices and companies that provide cloud services and storage. iHome was even worse and made all of their Homekit smart devices and app inoperable. So thank you iHome for your big pile of e-waste. If local storage still works for Arlo cameras, this may not be a complete loss but once again. It does send a clear signal that we can NOT rely on any company to continue to provide cloud services 'for free' or at all for 'legacy' products. I am not sure that 4 years qualifies as legacy imo. I have converted our smart home smart switches to Home Assistant and no longer rely on the manufacturers for connectivity.  Perhaps I will look into integration of the 2 Arlo Pro cameras we have. Or perhaps just 'retire' them and add cameras so I will never reliant on someone else for cameras.

[jackson3197-arl]

OH...THERE PHONES ARE DISCONNECTED..... THERE'S A SURPRISE . a**HOLES

[LP79]

@AshTray900 

The info from the Wikipedia article on Arlo which was linked by another user. The article has citations so I would assume it is accurate.

"I hope you are not talking about me" -- no, I wasn't. There is some guy who has chimed in twice letting everyone know that we need to keep the hate speech off the forums, and then trying to blame the government or something. Not sure what he is talking about, but I think he's got more than a few screws loose.

[AshTray900]

Agreed , everyone with legacy base stations should be able to get a modern one with the local storage access from the app free of charge.

I was planning on using these until they were dead, as in dead dead like battery replacements not available or hardware fault.

I want this feature too, they should also add at least a pc app that connects locally to the base with no arlo online access required.

like said by someone else they are home devices not phones, they are installed in a home to be used until dead like a dishwasher. They start talking EOL, give me a way to cut arlo.com completely out of the loop and manage it with software on my end should I ever need it. I know how to forward a port, I know how to manage dynamic dns, dear arlo with your EOL email, stick it in your arse. If you want to just say I’m sorry we can’t offer the free plan anymore due to rising costs just say that, at least it’s honest, don’t act like my cameras are no good to hide what you are really doing.

im always mad at Netflix each year or so when they ad a dollar or two price hike, but I get over it, they are honest about why it is happening.

logitech harmony still supports a universal remote control I purchased maybe 15+ years ago with their programming software…

[LP79]

@muaddubby 

Not only that, but the free storage was literally the whole point of buying an Arlo system. There were scores of other camera systems available for 20-30$ a camera. These were more like 100-150$ each, but came bundled with the service. It was the entire reason they were able to sell any systems and Arlo's entire existence as a company was built off this broken promise. They can stop forward updates. This is to be expected. Cutting off the cloud service that was included with the hardware is an illegal breach of contract outside of ceasing all operations. I will push for the latter.

[KnightRyder]

Very disappointed.  I was a huge supporter and like many here also purchased these cameras + additional ones for their 7 day free cloud storage.  I have 3 cameras that work perfectly since purchasing them 6 years ago.  To stop offering 7 day free cloud storage is wrong and very misleading as I spend hundreds of dollars on these products with an expectation that I would never have to pay a fee for the features they provide.

[blindkarma]

The Arlo EOL announcement issued on New Year's 2023 and scheduled for April Fool's Day 2023 is a major breach of trust to consumers. The goal is to intentionally kill products that were originally sold as including free 7-day cloud storage. All of these products were developed under Netgear before Arlo became independent under CEO Matthew McCrae in 2018. At that time, the company decided to require paid cloud subscriptions for all new products.

The claim of data privacy and cybersecurity is gaslighting. Owners of these cameras should file complaints with the FTC and their State Attorney General.

[rscherker]

+1 to all that has been said.
The fact that Arlo has decided to take away the 7 day cloud storage due to EOL, but that cloud storage will continue just fine for those who pay for the subscription means that EOL has nothing to do with it. It's a naked cash grab, and it will not work with me. I didn't spend as much as some others on this thread, but I can tell you that I always try to vote with my feet. Arlo will lose me as a customer over this, for life.

If Arlo came out and said "We didn't realize how successful our 7 day free storage plan would be. Now we're in financial trouble if we don't start charging something." I would respect that much more. (Assuming it was true). They could then craft a plan for the 7 day people. $40 a year, something like that. I would probably pay that, I might grumble, but I'd understand that free for life can get a company in trouble. And I wouldn't feel lied to. Honestly, I've seen dozens of companies do stuff like this. It always ends up being bad for the company.