End of Life Policy SCAM

[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

[ArloWTF]

Page 35 has the link to the class action lawsuit (unless Arlo starts deleting a bunch of posts). I filed a complaint with my DCCA and will next do the FTC. I will likely put my name down for the Class Action as well.

I didn't save my boxes, but I remember it clear as day, there was no asterisk or anything about the rolling 7-day cloud storage. It's why all of us paid the premium price for our systems, we didn't want to pay for a subscription! I don't understand how this could possibly be legal.

[Kopacm]

@JamesDavisPhD  The link to the class action settlement is below.  Be sure to scroll all the way down on the page to see the information you are asked to submit.  It’s pretty easy

[redsoxfan44]

@ArloWTF if you look at those archived pages, it shows that they advertised that the "Basic Subscription Plan" comes with the camera.  On the Subscription Plan page, Basic is shown as $0/mo.   

[Kopacm]

It seems the censorship of posting by Arlo is underway on this issue.  On Arlo’s Facebook page where the class action link is listed in the comments, the post now shows a message saying “Arlo limited who can comment on this post”.  

Thanks @up_yours_arlo for the Reddit link https://www.reddit.com/r/arlo/ for when this or the other postings end up getting wiped.

[ExArloUser69]

Web site to request the "special offer" if you were left out ( I was and was always 'opt-in'): 

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/eol-offer-form.html

I entered my email and got "Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again." 

Oh well. Par for the course. And yes, I know what email my account is using. I guess it's still in beta.

[Ben58]

The "discount offer” is a ridiculous attempt to pacify those that they are screwing.  Even at 50% off their systems are not the best value in the market.  Hell, they are offering everyone 25% off.  And 75% off the subscription - perhaps a decent price for the first year, but then $120/year there after.  I want my 7-day FREE cloud storage on the cameras I purchased that stated I got that feature until they stop working.  

And I read some moderator state, “the sky is not falling”.  Screw you!  give me the service that you advertised when I bought into the Arlo system!

[Angry22]

Not happy. We purchased these cameras in late 2017 and they are  working perfectly and we use these cameras daily.  We also need to look at the Video replays also which 7 free days is sufficient. I have recommended them to many people over the years also. Are Arlo going to offer a refund as they will no longer work for us? Swann did back in 2017 when they did the same thing so we all could afford to purchase new cameras? I am beyond disappointed and angry that we paid good money for our cameras for this to happen again ! But at least Swann offered full refunds. Arlo you need to do the same and word of mouth is very powerful and social media these days! 

[Arloliesudie]

You guys are absolute dishonest liars. Your company will go to hell because you depend on perpetual growth that doesn't want exist. Now you gotta break promises to squeeze it. 

[ArloBlowsinCA]

One word: EUFY.

Thanks for the ride NETGEAR. Totally get the revenue thing…. But to be lured into investing in your products - then to be PUSHED to a monthly charge….

Not cool.  

[msase]

when I bought the product, company didn’t specify that the storage will be taken away after 4 years. This contradicts the agreement as user. Also, this is not EOL for service so there is no reason you can fail to adhere to service even the product support is ended. This is clearly fraudulent where everything goes back to normal as soon as we start paying. Cheating goes only so far. 

[Llcolbrese]

I would be willing to take this on if anyone has any ideas on who to reach out to. 

[Llcolbrese]

I agree with all your statements but this is not what they stated 3 years ago (or even 2 years when I bought more cameras). A company should never guarantee what they did and then go back on it. Hook and bait, false advertising, call it what you want but it is wrong. 

[DJCummins99]

Arlo is ethically in the wrong to remove free cloud storage from a product that was sold with that plan. Withdrawing technical support from an older product is acceptable, but as long as those older devices are working for customers, they should have the 7 days of free cloud storage if that is the currently chosen plan. Arlo faces the risk of litigation from many angry customers. Please convey this feedback up the management chain.
   Above is a message I sent today in an “open case” support message.

[Steve32]

Class action lawsuit underway if you would like to join. You will need to scroll down towards the bottom of the page and answer some quick questions. Spread the word. 

[Steve32]

Link for class action lawsuit below if you would like to join. Scroll towards the bottom of the page once you get there and answer some quick questions. 

[carrinrj]

I agree that Arlo's eol policy should be challenged with a class action suit. Ending firmware updates and future enhancements is one thing, but eliminating the 7 day FREE cloud storage that was offered to us all as one of the primary benefits of purchasing Arlo cameras in the first place is a fraudulent business practice in my book. Especially since my 6 Arlo pro cameras are less that 5 years old.

Now Arlo is offering us a discount us a 50 percent on new Arlo cameras (when will their eol be?? Have to wonder) and 75 percent of a one year cloud subscription...then full price after that...$14 per month for multiple cameras $168 per year for my 6 cameras. Unacceptable!! Since our original purchase included FREE 7 day storage, then Arlo should upgrade us to their current cloud storage model for free for life....that would be the right thing to do. We all need to ban together to push Arlo to offer us this so our cameras will continue to function as they do now. We just wouldn't receive firmware updates or enhancements. 

[userpnw]

The communication around EOL has been a bit confusing.

1. EOL announcement says legally storage will be EOL on January 1, 2024.

2. Arlo Pro system and it’s base will be EOL on April 1, 2023.

3. Arlo CEO responds to backlash and says they aren’t bricking devices but just won’t be providing any new software updates and then eventually devices features may stop working.

4. EOL Email offer says certain cloud services will be EOL on April 1, 2023 (this goes against what the original EOL announcement said)

So which is it? When will 7-day free cloud storage be EOL? It seems unclear to me. 

[besinger5]

I bought my Arlo Pro camera system about 3.5 years ago based on the 7 days free storage. There was no indication of a time limit on this service I paid for with my purchase. I have been mostly happy with this system but will be buying a different  brand and probably be paying for a subscription. At least with other brands such as Blink I know up front what I'm paying for. As far as I'm concerned this is borderline fraud. I'm sure there is something buried in their term of use legal ease that protects them legally but this is just bad business that will no doubt cost them lots of customers. 

[hklumpn]

They are only in it for the money.  So reducing the amount of money they make would be the only thing they will pay attention to. If everyone states what they are doing on every review site it will slow their sales. Make efforts to find every website that sells arlo cameras and leave an honest review

[MMart]

My free trial is about to end on my Doorbell Camera. I will not be subscribing now because of the EOL Statement. I was actually planning on subscribing to the pay service but I'm not happy with Arlo and I'm done unless they change their tune. 

[jllihotz]

Can you tell me which base sta0tion you have?  I have a vmb4000 with 2 usb ports.  I was under the impression that I would be able to access video clips on local storage via the arlo app.  Is this incorrect?

[jllihotz]

Can you tell me which base sta0tion you have? I have a vmb4000 with 2 usb ports. I was under the impression that I would be able to access video clips on local storage via the arlo app. Is this incorrect?

[carrinrj]

No...you can't access the videos via the app. You need to take the usb drive out of your base and plug into your computer to view. That doesn't do you a lot of good if you're away from home and someone is robbing your house....that option unacceptable!

[redsoxfan44]

Yup, its all about money.  Their stock has been dropping dramatically for the past year.  This might be  a last ditch effort to bring on more subscribers (revenue) to boost the stock.   If they go out of business (not likely), what happens to our "free" storage then.   

The cost of continuing free 7 day cloud to grandfathered devices is probably not a huge burden in the grand scheme of things.  That's why I think it's the push for new subscribers.   

I wouldn't mind if they dropped email notifications to help a little.  I am fine with the phone app notification.  I disabled email notification on Day 1. Not necessary IMO.

Tricky to do an honest negative review without slamming the company.   A lot of review sites will not post that sort of review.   New customers won't experience the loss of "free storage" so the goal of such reviews would be to bad mouth the manufacturer.  not usually a successful tactic.

[carrinrj]

It is beneficial for Arlo to keep existing customers happy by continuing the 7 day free storage. If potential new Arlo customers see how short Arlo's eol was for us and render cameras useless, what's to say they wont do the same to new customers....would you want to buy from Arlo or upgrade your cameras just to be in the same boat a few years from now...not me! Arlo is setting a precedent here....