ttj - Tom Jones

In January, I bought a Netgear Orbi from Amazon for 1773 GBP(2025).  This is a fair old whack for a wifi system. The product is entirely defective. Its instructions, like many "products" currently, consist of installing their app and following the app's prompts.  I scanned the QR, installed the app, ran the app.  You can't proceed in the app without creating an account.  Again, this is currently considered acceptable and even normal.  So I entered my email address and make a password that conformed to their character class rules. I tried logging in.  I got the message "Email or password invalid".  I tried some more times. Then I thought perhaps I have to validate my email address.  So I went to my email, clicked on the link, and got the encouraging message " Congratulations! Your email has been successfully verified. You may close this page and log in to your account". But when I tried to log into the account from the app, it still didn't work....

Due to repeated dog shit crimes against my property, I am having to set up CCTV in a place without wifi or mains power.  The place does have mobile reception. I've bought several things in parallel.  The product quality in this sector is dire.  Things just don't work. Arlo is a big brand, and some people I know use it.  The camera I bought do wifi, not mobile data, so the solar powered base station is set up separately. I didn't realise when I forked out 400 GBP(2024) for these, that they don't work without a subscription to Arlo's cloud services.  All you can get without is basic alerts and live monitoring if you're on the same network.  You don't get access to any recordings, so it's useless. You can't configure Arlo cams to communicate with your own server(s), so the cloud service is mandatory if you want them to work. Supposedly cameras come with a trial subscription to the cloud service.  This is in your "receipt or email".  I bought f...