Nighthawk MK83 No Internet, Intranet works fine - Support is terrible

Have had the MK83 since 04/2021 and up until the last month or so, it had be relatively trouble free.  To preface this, I would consider myself a prosumer and have set up/maintained several above average networks.  I have been setting up aps and playing with firmware since back in the WRT54G days. 

Over the last month, I noticed I was getting notifications throughout the day that some of our cameras were offline for various amounts of time.  I'd get home and everything would be working so I didn't think much of it.  Then it started happening more often and I would be home and realize that ALL devices were offline.  Power cycle the router and everything would come back.  Then it started happening every 1-3 days and began requiring a power cycle of the router AND my modem to get internet back.

10/29 - Everything goes down at 8pm and stays down.  Hard power cycle multiple times and no dice.  Orange light of death on the router.  Swap in my old router (Asus!) and everything works as it should.  After about 30 mins swap back in the Netgear and everything comes up.  Take the win and go to bed.

10/30 - Out and about and get "device offline" notifications.  Home and power cycle and things come back up.

10/31 - 12:30pm and the router takes its last dump and will not be revived.  Orange light.  Cave in and call tech support.  Troubleshoot for 2 hrs (Ed was great) and we realized the router was picking up a vaild IP from the modem but not allowing internet access.  He says we should escalate to T2 and would get a call back in 24 hrs.  

11/1 - 24 hrs and no call back.  I call myself and T1 looks at my ticket and gets me on a warm hold to get to T2.  T2 eventually answers, looks at my ticket and goes "I'm going to send you to customer care to get this warrantied out with my endorsement".  I get an email confirming as much. 

Customer Care sends back:

"Your concern was raised to our department and was made aware that you are looking for a replacement.

We appreciate your interest in our devices, however, we regret to inform you that as per our Warranty Policy, a replacement is provided in case of a product defect or failure.

According to our warranty replacement procedure:

1. Obtain a Return Materials Authorization (RMA) number by contacting customer support.
2. A customer support agent will do troubleshooting to see if the product is defective. If it is, then this information is required: ..."

I reply that I was passed to you by T2 support along with their endorsement for replacement and get the following in response:

"We regret to inform you that as per our Warranty Policy, a replacement is provided in case of a product defect or failure.

However, we recognize that you are not happy with your experience with NETGEAR. What we can do is perform further review of your request, and we will update you within 1-3 business days."

Tech support is an absolute joke.  Get told conflicting information from each source as to who allows what (firmware betas, additional troubleshooting, warranty, rma) and there isn't even a direct line to contact "Customer Care" directly.  

To top it off, they are deceptive in their wording of 90 days of tech support but 1 year of warranty and make it seem like you need to pay just to get your warranty honored and then ghost the customer in the end.

Case with Netgear "Support" (Case 45278396) 

Hopefully this serves as a warning to people on the MK83/MR80, beware.