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  • end-of-life policies for working products

    From Retrograde@21:1/5 to All on Fri Feb 24 00:58:43 2023
    From the «boo» department:
    Feed: SoylentNews
    Title: The Cameras Worked Fine. Their Maker Said They Had Reached Their End of Life.
    Author: janrinok
    Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2023 03:10:00 -0500
    Link: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=23/02/19/1722222&from=rss

    owl[1] writes:

    Somewhat related to a recent journal article[2], this comes across the WSJ:

    WSJ direct link[3]

    Archive line to above WSJ article[4]

    You can own a gadget, but its fate might well be controlled by the company
    that makes it.

    In January, Arlo Technologies Inc. sent an email to customers of its internet-connected security cameras about a new "end-of-life policy." Starting April 1, the company would no longer support models that included no-fee seven-day rolling storage of video clips—a well-advertised selling point.

    End-of-life policies for tech products are becoming more common. Apple Inc.
    and Samsung Electronics Co. have similar ones. But Arlo's abrupt announcement aggravated some customers. Forty days later, the company recanted, keeping the free video storage and extending software support.

    [...] In late 2018, Ms. Clum spotted a five-pack of Arlo security cameras at Best Buy, with enticing offers printed on the packaging: "Including FREE cloud recording" and "With rolling seven days of FREE cloud recordings."

    She purchased 30 cameras, totaling over $6,000, and spent hours wiring and mounting them throughout the kennel herself. Today, 26 are still running.

    [...] This year, on New Year's Day, Ms. Clum received Arlo's email explaining that her five-year-old cameras would move to their "end-of-life stage" in April. Firmware updates, as well as the seven-day no-fee cloud storage
    benefit, would end. Instead, Arlo device owners could upgrade to one of the company's paid plans, starting at $13 a month or buy an add-on device to store videos.

    PS - they recanted -- for now -- but how long do you expect it will be before they try all over again to EOL these cameras?

    Previously: Arlo is Taking Away Security Camera Features You Paid for[5]

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Original Submission[6]

    Read more of this story[7] at SoylentNews.

    Links:
    [1]: https://soylentnews.org/~owl/ (link)
    [2]: https://soylentnews.org/~nostyle/journal/13555?page=1noupdate=1#comment_1292573 (link)
    [3]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cameras-worked-fine-their-maker-said-they-had-reached-their-end-of-life-b6fd3036 (link)
    [4]: https://archive.is/QeoIO (link)
    [5]: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=23/01/06/064220 (link)
    [6]: https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsubsubid=58643 (link)
    [7]: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=23/02/19/1722222&from=rss (link)



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    Port 80 is overrated.

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Sylvia Else@21:1/5 to Retrograde on Fri Feb 24 13:37:02 2023
    On 24-Feb-23 11:58 am, Retrograde wrote:
    From the «boo» department:
    Feed: SoylentNews
    Title: The Cameras Worked Fine. Their Maker Said They Had Reached Their End of
    Life.
    Author: janrinok
    Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2023 03:10:00 -0500
    Link: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=23/02/19/1722222&from=rss

    owl[1] writes:

    Somewhat related to a recent journal article[2], this comes across the WSJ:

    WSJ direct link[3]

    Archive line to above WSJ article[4]

    You can own a gadget, but its fate might well be controlled by the company that makes it.

    In January, Arlo Technologies Inc. sent an email to customers of its internet-connected security cameras about a new "end-of-life policy." Starting
    April 1, the company would no longer support models that included no-fee seven-day rolling storage of video clips—a well-advertised selling point.

    End-of-life policies for tech products are becoming more common. Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. have similar ones. But Arlo's abrupt announcement aggravated some customers. Forty days later, the company recanted, keeping the
    free video storage and extending software support.

    [...] In late 2018, Ms. Clum spotted a five-pack of Arlo security cameras at Best Buy, with enticing offers printed on the packaging: "Including FREE cloud
    recording" and "With rolling seven days of FREE cloud recordings."

    She purchased 30 cameras, totaling over $6,000, and spent hours wiring and mounting them throughout the kennel herself. Today, 26 are still running.

    [...] This year, on New Year's Day, Ms. Clum received Arlo's email explaining that her five-year-old cameras would move to their "end-of-life stage" in April. Firmware updates, as well as the seven-day no-fee cloud storage benefit, would end. Instead, Arlo device owners could upgrade to one of the company's paid plans, starting at $13 a month or buy an add-on device to store
    videos.

    PS - they recanted -- for now -- but how long do you expect it will be before they try all over again to EOL these cameras?



    If they didn't avert to this clearly at the time of purchase, I would
    think they could expect a class action if they try to stop the service
    for any reason other than going bankrupt.

    I'm wondering what will happen when Tesla Powerwalls come out of
    warranty. At the moment, the owner has no way of controlling them, nor
    even monitoring them, them other than via a Tesla provided web site.

    Sylvia.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)