Has anyone else experienced problems with Customer Support? My Netgear modem stopped working two days ago; after much time trying to trouble-shoot the problem with my cable company, I was told the modem was not maintaining a connection and I needed to contact Netgear. I called Netgear, started working with one representative when the call was disconnected. Despite having been asked to provide a phone number so that I would be called back within one minute if the call dropped, no one called back. I called again, and was connected with another representative. I spent another hour following instructions and being asked to move my computer and the modem from one room in my house to another one (in case the electrical outlet was the problem, despite the fact that some of the lights were flashing on the modem). I was finally told that I would be sent a replacement modem. An email was being sent to me (which of course I could not read right then because I did not have internet access due to the faulty modem); I would be asked to complete some information and reply to the email. Today I drove to my office on the other side of town to use my computer there. I completed the form and learned that I would need to ship the defective unit back to Netgear within 10 days of receiving the new unit. It was not until after I completed the form that I read that I would not receive the replacement unit until AFTER I had shipped the defective one. Since I had already completed the form and checked "standard shipping" (because the representative had told me I would get the unit with 6 days if I chose standard shipping), I will now have to wait almost two weeks before I will once again have internet access at home. My complaints (1) the representative should have told me I would get the replacement unit only after I had mailed in the defective one, (2) all the instructions on this process are included in an email that I could not access immediately, and (3) the information about replacements shipping only after the old unit has been received is not provided until after you have completed the form and selected your shipping method. I called today to see if anything could be done, given the confusing and misleading instructions. A very polite representative apologized then proceeded to repeat again and again that I "should get the replacement unit within 7 days after they received the old one." This is the only thing I guess she was allowed to say.
I am going to go buy another modem. It will NOT be from Netgear. I teach college classes and students expect immediate replies to their messages and grades for their work. I don't do this type of work on my phone (you try reading dozens of essays on a phone screen). I need internet access on my computer. I am paying Time Warner for a service I cannot use because of a faulty Netgear product. This is really frustrating.
