Customer Firewall

After making an attempt to get help from customer support over the last four days, I am completely convinced that the best firewall ever built is between the customer and Netgear's customer support group.

today's attempt at getting help has been laughable. I will hold for 30 minutes, get a hold of someone who tells me they can't help me, and will transfer me to someone else. After two hours I am on my fourth transfer and holding for someone else. This does not count the 4 hours I have spent in the last 4 days.  

If you would take the six hours I have spent on hold, about 15 minutes has actually been spent troubleshooting and diagnosing the product. The rest of it has been navigating the complex hierarchies of net gear customer support. You call in hold 20 to 30 minutes, then reach the gate keeper who is supposed to send you to the appropriate group. It almost never happens accurately the first time, so you spend another 30 to 45 minutes on hold. Many times, each representative decides they want to create a new case number, and that adds another 10 to 15 minutes to the call while they put you on hold.

keep in mind I am a paid gearhead technical support subscriber. If this is "premium customer service", I can't imagine how someone else's experience could possibly be.

at this point I would like to speak to an individual at an administrative level who can help me understand why this is acceptable. Maybe they can research my dozen case numbers and address these individual issues that I can't imagine they would condone within any organization.