Why I hate Arlo

tldr; I’d characterize their support policy as “empathize, apologize, hope you will go away, rinse and repeat”.
I bought my first Arlo system a few years ago, until one by one, the cameras started failing and the batteries were losing their ability to keep a charge, and replacing them one by one was expensive. I got some wildlife and delivery videos, but all in all just gave up and let them die except for a couple that were plugged in all the time.

Then last spring we had a neighbor doing weird stuff and trespassing, so I upgraded to another Arlo system that is their latest and greatest for about $800 plus a couple spare batteries and a spare charger. I got them all set up and noticed I was not able to view the videos online at their web page, it would give “request timed out” almost instantly from that part of the site, even though the same login/password worked for the sales side of the site. And I dealt with their “support” team literally for months, all summer. Likely numerous hours and hundreds of online support cases that showed very little technical / diagnostic depth beyond speculative suggestions about browsers, cookies, reboots and OS upgrade suggestions that I’d already tried. Promised phone calls never happened. Then they called incessantly, but never had a fix. I got so pissed, I told them I was done doing business or even talking with them, and to either send me a check or I would do my best to make my story viral online.

I finally got escalated to an exec level and more of the same. The did say they would send me a refund…but I had to send in my old equipment. Then I started getting emails saying they received no response to the shipping label they sent and it was going to expire. As usual, each time I replied saying I didn’t get one, asked them to confirm where it was sent, if they could check their email system to see if it was returned etc. Then they would say they would send me another, and same thing. I was finally contacted by phone with a person who sent one from her own email account and waited until I confirmed I got it. But……once they received my equipment, it would be 6-8 weeks to send a check. By this time, based on their inability to complete other much simpler tasks, I had zero confidence they could handle my return, let alone send me a check. Eating the ~$1000 and destroying their stuff seems far more preferable than continuing any more dealing with them.

Assuming their web service worked and their support was effective, I still doubt I could reccommend them. Changing the batteries gets old. Any sort of wind action and trees/plants triggers them and causes them to run out earlier. They are not very weather resistant. Their ever changing product camera lineup makes them obsolete in a few years. Camera and battery replacement is expensive for pretty basic tech. They constantly spam you with sales. The cameras have to be within a few feet to get facial or license details.

submitted by /u/fatcat623
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November 22, 2023
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