Nighthawk A7000 frequently disconnecting less than 5 months after purchase, no way to contact you

Question

I purchased my Nighthawk wifi adapter on January 10. It was working fine until May. Now, it's disconnecting extremely frequently. Troubleshooting doesn't help. Your website's "support" section doesn't help. You claim to offer support for the hardware, but there's no way to contact you for free. I will attempt to call you in the morning and you will attempt to charge me for it, even though there's absolutely no other way to contact you, going through your own channels and following the prompts on your website. This is absurd. At least with the cheapo adapter I started out with, I could buy a secondary one and have two for less than the cost of this one. I'm now out over $50 and have a dysfunctional adapter to show for it, and no support channels available. I can't even understand how you can maintain a customer base like this. I bought the top of the line product for this and you expect me to pay twice what it cost just to get 6 months of so-called "premium" support.

I just need someone to tell me how to fix this. I've troubleshooted through Windows and the Netgear app doesn't tell me anything's wrong. I'm not missing any updates and yes, I've tried restarting it. I don't see how I can fix this on my own when the problem is clearly a faulty piece of equipment and I'm just so frustrated by Netgear as a whole at this point.

vraj · Answer

I didn't search for Netgear support, I used their own website. They want to charge me for so much as a phone call. Just to tell me what, that I have to shell out even more money for a replacement, despite this being a faulty unit?

I'm going to add a second reply with a second attachment, because I don't see another way to add two photos to one post.

My request had a "disclaimer" that the phone call is only "free" within 90 days. I purchased it on January 10 and activated it on the 12th. It's been more than 90 days.

The attachment shows my "options" for support. There are none. I have the choice of purchasing a service contract. I already attempted to put in a ticket for a defective item and it told me I'd have to call, which would cost money.

I already changed the settings to power management to make sure my PC can't turn off the adapter to save power. I don't know if I have to do it in other settings, too, but I know I did it in the wireless adapter options under Network Connections.

This is happening while I'm actively using the PC, too. For example, I'll hit "add to cart" and I'll get the browser message that I'm not connected to the internet, even though I was just a few seconds ago. I play online video games and am getting disconnected sometimes 7 times an hour. This is completely unacceptable. I wouldn't tolerate this on a $15 adapter. There's no reason at all I should for a $50+ one.

Sometimes, if I disable and reenable the adapter, it will work temporarily. Usually I have to restart after that and sometimes that works for awhile. It happens multiple times every single day, though. I think it might be more prevalent on days when I've put my computer to sleep and restarted it later, but I really can't rationalize a good reason why this would be happening once my computer is fully powered with those settings set to not turn off this device.

Thanks for your response.

vraj · Answer

I called Netgear support yesterday. It was around 2:45pm and I was on hold for over 45 minutes, despite having a case number (that's supposed to make it "priority and faster"). When I got through to someone, it was a very frustrating conversation.&nbsp;First, she asked me whether I was using 2.4 or 5 GHz multiple times. She insinuated that my adapter wasn't working because I wasn't using a Nighthawk router, to which I replied, I had one that gave us nothing but trouble and for which we still need to contact support, because it consistently screwed up our internet. Then she said I had to contact my ISP to make them open up channel 161. I said that's probably not going to help because the blue light was flashing and the unit was turning off and on when the connection issues occurred, and that's not the fault of my ISP, and I didn't want to have to wait another 45+ minutes to be rerouted to someone else who would just do the same thing again. I then told her what I had already included elsewhere, that the other morning I turned my computer on and the adapter wouldn't turn on, I unplugged it and plugged it back in and eventually it turned on something like 3 minutes later. Then, she insisted I go get "my laptop" so she could have me manually reinstall the driver. I informed her that I don't have a laptop. She said I needed one for this step of support. I reiterated that I do not have one (I think I had to tell her this in total five times and she didn't move onto the next step until I confirmed with her that the software was up to date, and verified the version number twice).Something like 45 minutes after getting through to a support person, I finally got an RMA number.I mailed the adapter (just the A7000, not the unit with a cord that it plugs into) today. It fit in a Priority Flat Rate small box and that cost $7.90. I was tempted to pay the $16+ to get the replacement sent to me before sending in my RMA, because that includes the return shipping, but my husband talked me out of it and I found an internet cable long enough to plug into the router and reach my PC.So victory, I guess? I don't think anyone should have to fight as hard as I did to get a very well-known company to support their product that's less than six months old. I didn't drop it or abuse it, it's just faulty, and I found this whole process unnecessarily difficult and frustrating.

IrvSp · Answer

How have you tried to contact Netgear?&nbsp;If you searched the web for NG support, you probably found a 3rd party. They do charge, and 'help' is hit or miss. They are not authorized NG support. They may not even have the h/w or access to any support articles or s/w code.&nbsp;You reach NG via the SUPPORT link on the top menu. You then login or register for the site (not the same uid and pw as this forum), and then click on MY SUPPORT. Assuming you registered the A7000 it should show on that page. Click on it (should have a check mark for H/W) and then CONTACT NETGEAR. That will open a CASE and NG will contact you after you describe the problem on that page. Either by e-mail or calling you. Of course, once you are out of warranty only PAID support on that web page is available.&nbsp;Are you running Windows? Sounds like some problems I had with my A6200? It would disconnect when the PC went to sleep and randomly would not reconnect when coming out of sleep. I went through all the USB and A6200 settings in Device Manager making sure it couldn't turn-off to save power (have a desktop) and the same in the POWER PLAN. Reduced it but never completely stopped it from happening. I really think this is a Windows driver problem more than a device problem though. Frequency seems to change with each Windows Update. By the way, it seems it is not only related to NG, 2 PC's here, both experience this non-connect after coming out of sleep. Other PC has a completely different USB adapter, drivers, and even Chipset I think? On occasions this happens to both PC's and sometimes only one. When it does happen every time I've found rebooting the router helps for awhile, other times disabling and then enabling the device helps?

vraj · Answer

Second screenshot, this time of the support case information. See "disclaimer".&nbsp;There's no option for live chat. There's no option for email. There's no way to contact them for free.

IrvSp · Answer

In the Screenshot the A7000 shows in the table with a check for h/w. I recall, but could be wrong that if you click on that you can then open a case#. Is that what you did for the 2nd capture? If so, call that number and give the case#. If they want to charge don't give any info and say you have defective hw. See what happens.

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Nighthawk A7000 frequently disconnecting less than 5 months after purchase, no way to contact you

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