A sad tale of ProSupport woe with ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer!

So device finished resync about 9:30 PM but since web UI is not responsive I will have to wait until I can physically be in the office to complete OS re-install.

Sun 8/21 @ 8:55 PM

Call Pro Support line and immediately answered call and was with a agent #5116

Was told how to reload OS from flash memory but instructions were wrong - told to use power button to select option not reset button

Called Pro Support back @ 9:01 PM after short time on hold agent #1375 answered

Heavy Indian accent - not technical then passed to #40168

Who:

• Failed to understand network protocol enough to understand that if Telnet to port 80/443 fails then there is no way to connect to ReadyNAS FrontView


• Repeated asked unhelpful questions - I asked to be escalated - more useless questions - I asked what happened to domestic support and told she would collect information for level 3 support


• Asked about number of drives - capacity - model number - my external IP address - asked to open TELNET port through firewall - I told her Telnet (Port 23) is not working inside so why would outside work


• Asked me to open SSH (Port 22) - did so and confirmed working inside - confirmed working outside - told level 3 would investigate and "get back to her and she would get back to me"

11 hours later no response

Mon 8/22 @ 10:37 AM

Called Pro Support and near first ring answer connected to agent #78250

Who explained:

• No need to open port due to prior tech misunderstanding how technology works


• Putting device into TECH MODE actually has it open outbound connection (firewall allows outbound instantiated connections) to NetGear NAS Shell Server


• I had been given wrong instruction and needed to use reset switch not power button to select

Who performed:

• Multiple attempts to fix flashing of OS by remove optional PHP add-on's, attempting to reload OS from new Download


• Having me re-enable Tech Mode and bump up to Engineering with a 24 to 48 hour response time unless identified issue sooner

Meanwhile I received call from MJ (no agent number and another heavy Indian accent) about needing to open port 23/22 to allow static NAT traffic to pass

Agent #78250 called back and believes a fix is in place and I need to reboot unit to confirm but has no idea who MJ is or why I needed to open the port.

Unit reboots and seems to be operating normally. Continue to monitor S.M.A.R.T. errors on slot 5.

PHP Add-ons are still listed and seem to not be able to be removed, but that is for another day.

May I ask why you waited 5 weeks to begin posting about your issues on the forum?

Separately, I do agree with you that the Pro Support team should act as professionally and expeditiously as is reasonable. You paid extra for this option and Netgear should take that seriously.

I would be interested in learning if you find another vendor with equal or better support options. I've yet to find one unless you want to consider Windows Storage Server.

claykin wrote:

May I ask why you waited 5 weeks to begin posting about your issues on the forum? Separately, I do agree with you that the Pro Support team should act as professionally and expeditiously as is reasonable. You paid extra for this option and Netgear should take that seriously. I would be interested in learning if you find another vendor with equal or better support options. I've yet to find one unless you want to consider Windows Storage Server.

Claykin - If you read the whole post (long I know) you would see that the only reason I included the 7/14 incident/RMA/etc is up to that point the Pro Support had been fine - or in line with the rest of our support agreements (RIM, IBM, MS, etc) and it was the short window from 7/14 incident to 8/20 incident and the subsequent experience for that problem that led to the post.

P.S. Just updated to 4.2.19 and the ReadyNAS has marked drive five as dead again so it looks like I am back on a support call shortly.

As to alternatives I have not tried another at this stage but I am looking at the QNAP or Synology devices. Several of my VMware friends use them in labs and have good things to say about the devices, will check and see about support.

After 14 hours without a response (not outside response window for web tickets) I called Pro Support and was almost immediately connected to agent #5040

Discussed several options and after review of logs believes issue is that disk is not spinning up quickly and as such is being marked as "dead"

Other options to be held for later (below) and for now wait until consistency rebuilt and then substitute new larger drive and confirm bay 5 is no longer an issue.

Post/follow up on results on web site

This was an excellent experience - agent answered quickly and had a good grasp on the issues and worked the problem to a reasonable testing/validation of root cause.

****HOLD FOR LATER****

Boot Menu - Test Disk option - several hours to run

Need to backup device and do a factory reset before returning data - backup entire volume to maintain file hierarchy and structure

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Customer Support case #16632923 - No response at last update of this post.

We've notified the customer service team to review your cases and get an urgent follow up.

Hi ensign.fodder,

We apologize for the inconvience that this has caused you.

As of now we are reviewing all of your cases.

Received a update to my online case from Sr. Manager, Support Engineering last night and a phone call this morning.

Admitted that there are issues and apologized for them and said that they are working to address them and asked what else can be done at this time to help.

I appreciated the call and the apology it does go a long way in this day and age.

chirpa wrote:
We've notified the customer service team to review your cases and get an urgent follow up.

amac27 wrote:
Hi ensign.fodder, We apologize for the inconvience that this has caused you. As of now we are reviewing all of your cases.

Thanks!