dont buy arlo netgear

[SherylQ]

we bought this from best buy. I wanted to leave a review here as well so you don't waste your money or constant time.. first off regardless of how often it actually works, the batteries die fasts which means you need to replace them appx every 3 -4 WEEKS.. in our case that meant going up on a ladder... that was annoying in itself but didn't push us over the edge.. on 12/27/15 they had a forced app update.. we couldn't access it unless we updated the app... now we were traveling from NY to CA, I didn't have my phone on while on the plane. Our 1st day in CA.. I get a text- I'm at your house to feed your cat. We realize we didn't get an alert.  We look but can't find where it is. This is where we were pushed over the edge... I called their CS # which is a loop recording that gives a #.  I called that #, a person eventually answered, they listened and said they were going to transfer me to someone who can help- they transferred me to that same # with the loop recording. called back, again transferred to the loop.  The company hid all the clear features for alerts. When we returned home, I looked into it more, I did something that didn't make sense and it started to work, then after a few days having not bothered with the app, just seeing alerts, it stopped again.. In this time, even though we had it set for our walkway & steps to our door, somehow, people would just magically appear at our door without having walked up our walkway or steps.  I strongly suggest you buy something, anything else.. not this product.. I just had it all taken down, put it back in the box, my complaint was so bad the store took it back even though I was beyond the return time.  It's not reliable.. I know some people might buy this to watch a babysitter, get something better.

[SherylQ]

return it

[JamesC]

SheryIQ,

I apologize for the frustrating experience. Arlo battery life will vary depending on usage. In order for the batteries to reach a life expectancy of 4-6 months we advise a usage of around 4 minutes per day as described here. 

With the new Arlo UI update, the toggle for push notifications was moved within modes/rules. This allows users the flexibility to define which cameras they want to send push notifications and which ones they do not.

Thank you for your feedback,

JamesC

[ottercove]

I would reluctantly have to concur. In fact, I feel I’ve been had.  

Bought mine in August of 2015. Probably should have returned it right away, but we were going to be away from the house later in the month and wanted to be able to monitor from afar.

It seems after all this time, that the cameras (2) only record about 50-75% of the events that occur in front of them. This is based on the number of times I know it should have recorded but didn’t.   Of the events that it does recognize motion, a good 30% of the recordings don’t’ capture the motion. Again, based on knowing first hand what should have been recorded.   Yep, I’ve made adjustments to the sensitivity, to the point that a windy day caused a multitude of recordings.

Then there are the alerts. On the Android app, the alerts can be as long as 30 minutes delayed, which is clearly getting worse.   Email alerts are somewhat better, but not a lot.   Together or apart, the alerts provide virtually no warning of someone coming on my property.  I.e. I know face to face someone is there before Arlo bothers to tell me.

The “Live” feature is a complete joke. By the time I actually get it to display live video, whatever I was interested in is long gone. To say nothing of the constant buffering delay.

Finally, it seems to me as an owner of the hardware, I am completely dependent on Netgear for the utility of the cameras. If, Netgear decides this isn’t working out, or they will no longer support the “free” account, then the hardware is useless.

[ValleNorte]

Sorry to read you are having problems. Regarding the buffering delay, how far away are your cameras from the base station? I have 14 Arlo cameras (9 wireless and 5 wired) and they work very well. There is ocassionally some buffering from the more distant wireless cams but not always. Sometimes atmospheric conditions can intefere. I use the iOS app and my alerts usually come through within 5 seconds of actual motion detection and the email comes through within 20 seconds. I am very pleased with the setup to monitor my home and office and I recommend Arlo.

[SherylQ]

the battery life was only part of the problem.. your TERRIBLE customer service was the biggest one. Also the clearly you didn't read what I wrote replies to what I've said here and on amazon.com... you should look up other sites too bc where ever I see this product for sale I will leave the same negative review.  Everything I said is true and I see many other unhappy customers too.    I understand how the battery life worked... I also understood that it's supposed to pick up motion... when someone is AT my door they shouldn't have just magically appeared there.. I should have seen them walking up my walk.  We ourselves have come in & out with no alerts.. we've waved our arms in front of the camera too.. nothing.. I returned this garbage and will buy a better system

[SherylQ]

we live in NY, we went to CA, that's when it started to fail us.. their lack of customer service is a joke.. now that I've been writing negative reviews they reply clearly not addressing anything i wrote.   Sell this on ebay.. recoup come of your money 🙂