Lack of upgrade for Ultra 6 devices

I've owned a 4-drive Ultra for nearly 2 years. It's lost 3 drives so far (likely a bad choice on my part, Seagate drives that were on the approved list), and since its last drive loss, can't find its Volume, so the data may be gone, anyway. I've never found the product to be particularly useful. My ability to backup and restore to external or even internal drives on my PCs and Mac is greater. The convoluted multiple-access OS and inability to manage add-ons, let alone have them all work well are big impediments. I believe that Netgear claimed features and functions that do not work/continue to work, tried to manage their loyal customer base to provide cogent technical support, promised bug fixes that were not delivered, while new bugs were introduced through churn of unstable software, and has consistently "moved on" to sell newer, shinier goodies betting on the growth of "un-Netgeared" markets and customers. This is my view, but I've spent several hours reading what I could here and in more critical venues, and I may sound charitable, but I'm just doing my best to be polite.

Dealing with support is impossible. Completely so. I need direction and support and maybe four or five days later I get an email that lists 10 to 12 pieces of information they must have before offering assistance. That is not for the benefit of the support folks, as most people understand. It's to impede customers who need support from getting it. My view of Netgear is that they made some noise early on, but the few products I have purchased from them over the years were often extremely difficult to configure and would act in erratic ways. I did have some good luck with WG311T and it's laptop equivalent. I still have one of each. I bought a refurb USB LAN dongle a few years ago and it was the first refurb (or new) product I owned without a serial number-- very unsettling and I was amazed to find that it was intentional. Advice - if you have good products, they still will fail and refurbs are nothing to be ashamed of; but if you take off the serial number, protect your brand and reputation by taking off the company name. Yes, of the product, even reworked, was useless. Fortunately I was able to replace it with a functionally superior competitors new product, for less than I paid for the "********" serial number Netgear thing.

One last product reference: I was an early fan of print servers but since I needed one at home, I had to shop carefully. I owned an Axis for a while, which was a wonderful product, but I think it must have been for parallel connection, because it's gone and I don't think it ever failed. I still have an Epson printer than works, more or less, from over ten years ago. But the Netgear product that should have stopped me, and I finally gave up trying to make work anytime anything change on my network, or a bought a new printer, was the WGPS606. I propose a trade-in program for that print server - I get to never buy another Netgear product and Netgear would stop pretending to care about consumers and admit that all of their revenue and the customers they really care about are businesses. Having somehow avoided Windows ME, I stuck with Microsoft until Vista was forced down my throat.

My list, after half a century, of companies I will never buy from again is fairly short. I think they probably know who they are, but they are companies that claimed to value their customer and kept promising more than delivering. HP comes to mind. When I finally bought a Mac Pro (refurb) a few years ago, the experience opening the cover (after I bought it) was an experience that not only explained the price differential, but reinforced that I had made a wise decision. It's true that Apple's support is good; it's not perfect. When neither Microsoft nor the PC Manufacturers would take any responsibility for Vista or attempt to support it, you can imagine why I wasn't particularly interested in Windows 7, 8, or .... Don't get me wrong, I am very pleased with Apple support, it's just that an overall rating of B+ or so doesn't seem very great until you realize that the grading, in reality, is done on a curve. You can only get support from companies that offer it and Apple is, in my view, at least twice as good as the next best. And Apple, even though it's all made in China, as is everyone elses, and there are lots of issues with labor management, I have never been told to do stupid things, been treated as a moron, or condescended to by anyone in support, on the phone, or in person, or on site. Clue: you know you're going to waste a lot of time when on the phone or in chat the customer service employee repeats everything you tell them as if they are providing you new insight into the product or your particular question. Call Comcast support any time, you'll understand in 5 minutes or less. They may even try to get a credit card number from you to allow you to call a different 800 number for 2nd tier support. Seriously. At least, with Comcast, for example, I can drive to their large facility in San Jose and wait in a line that moves, generally quickly, and talk to someone who is smart, articulate, and can actually help you resolve the problem at hand.

Thanks for reading this long, self-absorbed, but calm and hopefully polite rant. My advice is it be sure to purchase wisely, don't rely on business buyers of products to inform your consumer purchase, cut your losses as soon as possible; and donate the product, rather than sell it to some other unfortunate consumer. I'm happy to donate all of the my Netgear items mentioned to Netgear, who might want to check them for excessive hype, over promising and under delivering, and how so few products could place them on my short list of never to buy again. Be sure to tell the company you put on your short list (should you keep one) why you no longer consider their products as matching your needs as a consumer. Since I couldn't find anyone on Netgear's executive staff or board that I knew or had worked with, that is the purpose of my first/last post here. It will likely be removed in a few days or even hours.

When I discovered my apparent poor selection of drives to populate my ReadyNAS (2TB Seagate drives) recently, after one too many failures and some intense research, I emailed their tech support. They said they would work with me to resolve my issue. And I have 3 more besides the 4 in my soon to be retired ReadyNAS. Ask for help and if you get it, be grateful, I am. So, also take a moment to thank those companies who do provide support and tell them how important that is. It's really hard to not be disappointed, but we all set our own expectations and really, there is nothing more frustrating than realizing even though the "seller" supported your expectations, you set them yourself. It's hard for me to remember, too, that the people working for these companies trying to support you as best they can aren't the cause or root of the problem. I wish that the folks buying the stock and sitting in the executive offices invested enough to put the resources in making solid, supportable offerings to create and maintain these "relationships" they claim to want. Let's just say I've left, but not to buy cigarettes and no, don't misunderstand, I'm not coming back.