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Forum Discussion
Very frustrating tech support (15682575)
I purchased a ReadyNAS Ultra a few months ago. The first unit failed and was replaced by NetGear. I had to pay for the shipping... Almost immediately the second unit started acting up. This has turned into a tech support nightmare. I opened the case 10 days ago. I've done everything requested promptly and to the letter. And there is still no resolution in sight. Right now the unit has been sitting in TechSupport mode (so it's completely off line for use) for the last 3 days waiting as requested, waiting for it to be escalated to level 3.
From my perspective, this tech support experience has been extremely poor because:
1. Lack of continuity and handoff with technicians. When a tech is off, my case languishes. Sometimes for days.
2. Communication via personal email. Techs leave for training or days off, and my responses sit in their email boxes.
3. I have absolutely no access to case notes or status, since the case was initiated over the phone.
4. I receive emails that say "After reading and agreeing to the terms, reply to this email, quoting the policy...", but they are from "do-not-reply@netgear-support.com". I reply anyways... what else can I do? When I call to find out my case status, I'm berated for not updating my case notes on-line, which I can't access. Catch 22.
I've probably invested 10 hours of my time calling tech support, waiting on hold, setting up my cable modem/router for remote access, etc.
If I had access to the case status, and could easily see exactly what is (or more likely IS NOT) happening with my case, then this would not be quite so frustrating. I could make sure my responses were being promptly recorded into the case, instead of going into a black hole, and having to repeat emails multiple times with different techs.
I have to say, I'm very disappointed with my NetGear ReadyNAS purchase at this point.
James
From my perspective, this tech support experience has been extremely poor because:
1. Lack of continuity and handoff with technicians. When a tech is off, my case languishes. Sometimes for days.
2. Communication via personal email. Techs leave for training or days off, and my responses sit in their email boxes.
3. I have absolutely no access to case notes or status, since the case was initiated over the phone.
4. I receive emails that say "After reading and agreeing to the terms, reply to this email, quoting the policy...", but they are from "do-not-reply@netgear-support.com". I reply anyways... what else can I do? When I call to find out my case status, I'm berated for not updating my case notes on-line, which I can't access. Catch 22.
I've probably invested 10 hours of my time calling tech support, waiting on hold, setting up my cable modem/router for remote access, etc.
If I had access to the case status, and could easily see exactly what is (or more likely IS NOT) happening with my case, then this would not be quite so frustrating. I could make sure my responses were being promptly recorded into the case, instead of going into a black hole, and having to repeat emails multiple times with different techs.
I have to say, I'm very disappointed with my NetGear ReadyNAS purchase at this point.
James
46 Replies
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- Given the history of chronic failures on this unit over the last 35 days, it is very unlikely it is a disk failure... it is probably more of the same stuff that I've been fighting with (fouled up system partition, damaged system data, etc).
I reported the issue yesterday to tech support... not a word yet in response... - I would certainly perform the vendor tests on the drive. But, again, I would make sure my backup was current.
If you hot pull the problem drive and perform the tests and then hot add it back it will be tested and then the system will go through a resync of the volume. You may have to remove the partitions while connected to the PC if it passes the SeaTools tests.
It is certainly possible even probably to lose a drive. Although after all the problems, I can understand why you would consider the unit being at fault, but the fact is that drive failure must be investigated and eliminated as the cause. - Things are still very wobbly. I'm going to start pressing NetGear and Amazon for a refund this week if things cannot be stabilized. The failures and instabilities continue. Here's the latest.
I have no way to test the drives outside of the NAS... all we have in our household are laptops, which I think is probably a very common situation these days. I think it is kind of "above and beyond" for NetGear to expect their customers to pull a drive out of the NAS, install it in a (working) PC (without messing up the existing OS), install and run the drive manufacturer's disk utilities, etc. And the bottom line is I would have to BUY a computer to do this...
As requested by Josh, I removed all the drives from the NAS, moved disk 2 into slot 1, and rebooted the NAS in "disk test" mode. Apparently the drive passed. I then did the same on disk 3 (as it had been a frequent "culprit" in the past), and it seemingly also passed. I then put all the drives back into the enclosure, and rebooted again. The system came up successfully, but said it was rebuilding drive 3. Which was weird, because drive 2 was the one that had "hardware failed". Drive 2 is now magically working fine. Drive 3 rebuilt, and everything seemed to be fine. Then the scheduled volume scan ran and said there was a problem. I rebooted with the volume check, and everything is now OK.
So why did disk 2 SEEMINGLY completely fail, and y'all thought it was a hardware failure on the drive, and now it's working fine???? That is NOT a typical hardware failure behavior...
I DO NOT trust this unit at all at this point. - And now I can't access my files for writing from our Macs... all of the AFP shares appear to be locked down as Read-Only. In FrontView, the default AFP permission is still Read/Write. I can't reset any of the file or folder permissions from the Mac, and disabling and re-enabling AFP on the shares hasn't helped either.
- Still waiting for tech support... no progress that I'm aware of.
- And still no contact from NetGear. I am so disappointed in this unit. I'll be asking Amazon for a refund. I've had the unit since March, and it's been broken longer than it has been operational.
- I'll ping L3 and ask them to respond today.
- Steve Bouche said he would look into my issue today, but nothing apparently has happened... NetGear continues to disappoint.
- Still no progress. System still down...
- I just poked L3.
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