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

[DaveWoj]

@ArloBlowsinCA 

That's great for you.

But you do realize that the majority of this thread is based on owners losing the Free 7 day cloud. So local storage really doesn't help them.

[Nancy_L]

Class action lawsuits only give massive amounts of money to the lawyers. Case in point: Equifax data breach the lawyers received $77.5 million for attorney's fees and $1,404,855.35 expenses.  Service awards of $2,500 each to the class representatives. My husband and I got $1.76 each for having our data stolen. 

The best way to recoup your loses is for every person harmed by a company's actions is to file a small claims case in your local jurisdiction. That way the company has to answer every case instead of focusing on one large one.  

[carrinrj]

When you activated your Arlo cameras you agreed to their arbitration clause which states that you can't sue them you have to go to arbitration. 

Here is the link to the law firm that is pursuing arbitration for the Arlo eol issue. I called them and had a lengthy conversation...they are legit.  Fill out the form and send them any information you have to support your/our case.

[StephenB]

---

@jllihotz wrote:

 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?

---

No, that requires a smarthub (VMB4540 or VMB5000).

[Arlouser011023]

Just another user saying goodbye to Arlo. Even if you replaced the products for free, your intention would be to create more e-waste for the globe by making perfectly usable products dumpster fire material.

I hope Arlo's stock tanks over the next few weeks and shareholders pull out to take all they can from this now garbage company.

[StephenB]

---

@carrinrj wrote:

I believe the 7 day storage is until 1/1/2024 for all cameras on the eol list. That's what the pdf says when you click on the more info link on their eol email.

---

Although the EOL announcement can be read that way, I've heard that the 7-day cloud storage for the VMC3030 and VMC4030 will end when they go EOL on 1 April 2023.

[danwriter]

Down 60% in a year.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Arlo+stock&oq=arlo+stock&aqs=chrome.0.69i59.4771j0j7&sourceid=chrome...

[carrinrj]

This is from the eol pdf...sorry it dies copy as a table....but it states legacy storage eol is 1/1/24.....we shall see....

SW/Service Description Introduction Date Deprecation Date EOL Date
Email Notifications Nov 2014 Jan 2023 April 1, 2023
E911 Emergency Calling June 2018 Jan 2023 April 1, 2023
Legacy Video Storage (AWS S3) Nov 2014 Jan 2023 Jan 1, 2024

[redsoxfan44]

Thanks for the table.  Interesting column missing:   Last Offered Date!!!    

[Babsaroo]

This just stinks and NOT what we were sold!! No more cloud recordings soon!

https://kb.arlo.com/en_US/000063018

[Steve_H1]

I know the folks at Arlo won't care however a few folks here might be interested. I paid a rather large price to begin with for my system thinking the price included Netgear/Arlo taking the money "in trust" to provide their 7 day storage for the useful life of my cameras. The cameras/electronics didn't cost what the items were sold for. I assumed the money would be used smartly to fund the 7 day storage service which I rarely used and almost always deleted if anything ended up being recorded. Again the infrastructure wouldn't cost the amount charged (in the camera/base price) over a large population of users. I don't think the money has been "kept in trust". And that's also an issue with the Arlo spinoff from Netgear not keeping a sufficient amount "in trust" on Arlo's books to fund what was sold.  So Arlo wants to charge the user (me) a subscription to make up for poorly managing what Netgear/Arlo promised and the required funding on the books of the companies involved. The explanation provided by the Arlo CEO about security is Arlo's choice to make devices obsolete but it will be ok if you pay a subscription. ... So fool me once, shame on you (Arlo). Fool me twice shame on me won't happen. ... My trust has be lost. ... And I've uninstalled my Arlo cameras, base and the Arlo app on my cell. The devices have been deleted in Arlo's systems. The devices are all packaged up waiting for the municipality I live in to pickup the devices as electronic waste on January 16th. ... I've replaced all the Arlo (formerly Netgear) devices with a Eufy S300 base and cameras. The base stores the recordings. So no subscription for storing at some companies data ctr or outsourced ctr. (Yes there is a potential issue re offsite storage but I find it acceptable.) I can access the Eufy base recordings via a cell phone. Higher resolution cameras and audio on all. Ordered them via Amazon if anyone is interested. All up and functioning. Some differences with Arlo but acceptable. I'll see whether I'm let down by my decision at some point in the future. I do have some potential reservations but so far Eufy has not lead me astray but it's less than a week. ... So Arlo has unfortunately lost me as a future customer. Takes a lot more to get a customer back after losing them. I'm rather disappointed with both Arlo (and Netgear) in this situation and it would take a LOT to get me back as a customer for either entity now. I think my business is gone forever with respect to Arlo and Netgear. Not absolutely sure but I sure have a trust issue given the end of life policy. That's at least 1 customer gone for a company that would seem to need to keep it's customers. (Anyone at Arlo listening? Bet I won't be the first or last.) Really really unfortunate it came to this. If this situation hadn't arisen my replacement of my system at some future date would have gone to Arlo. Bye.  

[DaveWoj]

@StephenB 

Ok so say someone has the 4540 or 5000 (which I don't)

How "easy" is it to access a video outside my home network and wouldn't there be a cost for a VPN since there are security risks?

With all the people asking about this to get away from the cloud, I highly doubt most are going to understand or even want to go through the hassle.

[JPav80]

I have a 4540 that came with my Pro 3 units.  Remote access is not the most intuitive.   Recordings only are accessible from the phone app and not the website.   I have an Android phone and as I have found out, the VPN option doesn't appear to work.  That is an Arlo issue that they are not fixing it seems.  There are a few threads where people tried to get it working without success.   I did get it working with the port forwarding option, but you will need to know how to add it to your router.  That is the less secure option.   At the end of the day I have something working.  Arlo appears to have purposely handicapped it.  

[Kremmen]

As per my previous posts I was going to continue with just streaming and push notifications, but, as I've just been reminded, there have been alerts in the past where a moth, or similar, has got in and triggered an overnight alert. I've also had alerts with passing car headlights on the front door when I haven't shut the blind properly.

Without access to any footage on my 3 ArloQ I will have no idea what triggered it.

After some thought I think, in my case, 'Google Nest indoor wired' is looking very attractive towards the end of the year.

I've lost trust with Arlo.

[Srack]

5 years ago my fishing buddy was young and just married with a kid. He was making $15 hr barely surviving as an electricians apprentice. He worked hard and got his license and is now doing huge contracts on his own. Many of his residential customers from Yelp deployed Arlo on his recommendation, which were my recommendation to him as the best solution for his customers. Far forward to today and now he’s getting hate calls and hate mail, and updates Yelp reviews destroying his reputation because of this issue. He has deployed over 100 Arlo setups in a small community for the past 5 years. Now he’s receiving angry backlash because of Arlos decision to destroy all of our deployments. The more I think about this the more I am pissed off. I definitely understand that Arlo is losing revenue from those of us with ancient working systems and needs to pay engineers and other people to keep this complex ship sailing, but to force all of us with many cameras to completely replace our systems is criminal. I paid for a subscription last week for the first time hoping this keeps my 5 Pros going with notifications and thumbnails and downloads but I know it’s wishful thinking. I love my Arlo system. It’s been nearly flawless for 7 years. But I cannot afford to spend hundreds of dollars to replace a perfectly working system. If the day comes that I cannot get clips on the app, then I’ll hand Amazon $400 for Blink. 
if Blink sucks, I’ll bite the bullet and expand my Ring doorbell subscription with a few cameras. 
if I was rich, I’d buy an Ultra system and not give a damn about the money or the disloyalty. But I’m not rich. I don’t have $$$ laying around for 5 camera replacement. 

I’m seriously sad over all of this. I’ve deployed friends Arlo systems myself the past 7 years in addition to my buddy. All of them are asking me what to do. I don’t have easy answers for the ones that can’t blow $$$ on a new system when the one they have works perfectly. 

[Jhallman]

It's somewhat astonishing how many of us 'early adopters' have similar stories promoting Arlo by word of mouth.  5 years ago or so I was researching security systems for our cottage property and came across Arlo.  Bought it for Christmas and had it installed and up and running Christmas day in an hour or so vs the expensive quotes I had for installing a wired system.  I actually advised a friend of mine who was in the business that he should likely get into something else as there was no reason why anyone couldn't do what I did vs hiring professionals to install a security system.  I recommended it to everyone I knew who owned a cottage and purchased Netgear stock.  I watched Google, Nest and others, perhaps outcompete Arlo by promoting their 'ecosystem' and certainly their fee for service models were a lesson learned by Arlo, but I still preferred the simplicity and operation of the Arlo system.  About the only complaint I had was the low temperature performance as I live in Canada but even that became a joke amongst my friends as that was how we gauged the weather at the cottage 😉 .   How on earth did the executives at  Arlo overlook the value of their installed base in promoting their product?

[Mark85]

@Jhallman 

Completely agree. I convinced at least 3 friends and family members to go with the relatively pricier Arlo system because of the “free” 7 day cloud recordings. Ugh. I’m no influencer so they wouldn’t care, but no more recommendations or positive word of mouth from me.

[Srack]

If a million people are using S3 or Azure storage, that’s a lot of revenue Arlo is taking a hit on. Arlo is a very complex ship for people to keep the lights on. I respect how work it just be to support such a widely complex system. Imagine supporting 500 million cameras - it’s not simple. 

With that said, I do think they could have at the very least give us some kind of compromise. I only need 30 minutes of cloud storage. I don’t need 7 days. Many of us can simply download the video and delete it off arlos cloud - that what I do anyway. 

A compromise to have us pay $4.99 a month for storage and app notifications - storage for 48 hours. Download what you need and delete it. 

A single mom I installed Arlo for is hounding me why she has to replace her system. She doesn’t have cash laying around. 

Please Arlo, give us a compromise. You’re hurting many people. It may seem trivial to ask us to spend $800+ for no reason  but it’s really not for many of us. 

Arlo is the best premium system by far. Why not reconsider so we continue promoting your products. 

I’m frigging begging you. Have mercy on your poor customers. 😌

[DaveWoj]

@Srack 

It takes me more than 30 minutes to get time to look at my recordings.

Most people who work don't have the luxury of checking their phone within 30 minutes of a trigger.

24 hours is more reasonable.

[carrinrj]

Please....yourself, your friends, and your numerous customers....file complaints with California Attorney General, California BBB and join the lawyer arbitration. If enough people complain perhaps Arlo will see the light and allow our 7 day free storage to continue or refund us all in full for breach of contract. I have previously posted all the links.

[carrinrj]

Their compromise is ridiculous....50% off up to 5 cameras and 75% off 1st year cloud subscription...then full price. So by new cameras which their will probably eol in a few years, throw away perfectly good cameras and now pay for storage that was promised for free....not acceptable!! The only compromise we should accept is Arlo reinstating our 7 day free storage that was promised to us...at least for a reasonable period of time...say an additional 5 yrs...then we'd be willing to replace our cameras after that.

[Srack]

I agree, at least a day is very reasonable. I instantly download any that i need and delete off the Arlo cloud. I have videos dating back 7 years in my iPhone video album. 

[DaveWoj]

@Srack 

That's the best post I've seen on this thread! (LOL)

[Greggg]

I'm done with Arlo.  Switched over to Blink - much cheaper and does the same job.

[Srack]

@DaveWoj 

I removed that juicy part 😂

But yeah, I have a really bizarre archive of Arlo videos. 

Humming birds close up feeding. 

Old people walking in my yard by mistake. 

Ex girlfriends. Postal worker knocking over planter shattering with no note left. 😂