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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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- Case # 15682575...
- I have sent a PM to a Padawan, whom I believe is part of the support group.
In the meantime, although you have I am sure given this into to TS, what are the makes and models of the drives?
And is this an Ultra 2, 4 or 6? - It's an Ultra 4 Plus, model RNDP400U.
The drives are 4 Seagate ST2000DL003.
When I bought the system in late March, I purchased 5 identical drives. When I first set up the system, I brought it up with the first 4, let it build the volumes, etc. (default XRAID), and then swapped one of the drives out with the spare to make sure ALL of the drives were functional. Everything was fine for over a month, then I got a drive failure (status DEAD) on FrontView. I can't remember what else occurred (since I can't see any of my case notes... GRRRR), but tech support decided it was a hardware issue and sent me a new chassis. In retrospect, the failure happened not too long after I set the "drive spin down" option in the power settings... I'm really wondering if that is what started this whole debacle. So I got the new chassis, swapped out the drives, and very shortly after that I got a message in FrontView that TWO drives (1 and 4) were DEAD. But all of the data was still accessible, and everything was green in RAIDar, and there were no drive lights flashing on the chassis. That's when I opened this ticket. A few days later, RAIDar and the chassis indicated that drive 4 had truly failed. So I put in my spare, fully tested drive. The system is now spamming me with emails every few minutes saying "Data volume will be rebuilt with disk 4." The front panel says Drive 4 checked, but FrontView says it's still DEAD. I think something got corrupted in my config / metadata for the volume during the original failure, and the problem simply got moved to the second chassis. The system would not execute RAID scrubbing either, because it thinks it's degraded.
The system has been in "tech support" mode waiting for L3 to telnet into it for the last several days, so I'm not sure exactly what the status of the system is now, and whether or not the data still seems to be present. Haven't been able to do any backups... - UPDATE
I received a call from a L3 tech last night, saying he had repaired one of the system partitions, and that as soon as it rebuilt / resynched, everything would be perfectly fine. So this morning as per instructions I rebooted the system at 9AM. Now it's showing drives 1 and 3 DEAD, and the volume still degraded. That was 3 hours ago... haven't heard a word yet from L3 tech support on what to expect next. - usually your case will be handled by the same L3 until it is resolved. so you should hear back from him around the same time as last time.
also if you post your casenumber its easier to track the case. - Beisser:
The case number is above in my second post. It's 15682575.
Talked to the L2 tech this morning at 9AM when the system was rebooted and is still messed up, as per my post above. Other than that, I haven't heard a peep from anyone all day... no emails or phone calls. If it is being handled by the same tech, he's incommunicado, or out of the office. As per my original post, it is VERY FRUSTRATING not having on-line access to my case notes. Perhaps someone did work on my system today... but from my perspective, nothing has happened. They system is still completely unavailable in tech support mode. - It's easier to notice you've posted a case number if you edit the title of the thread (title of first post in thread) to include it.
- Still no word on any progress on my case...
- currently your case seems to still be with l2. i would call again and have it escalated to l3 again.
there will probably be no action before monday though. - The L3 tech (Angelo Macadaan) finally emailed me yesterday saying he was working on my system again, and that it should be back up and running perfectly this morning. Just rebooted as per his instructions, and Drive 1 is still showing DEAD. It's now been TWO WEEKS since I opened this case.
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