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With all of the scammers out there today and as cautious as people need to be I would think a company such as NETGEAR would have a clue when it comes to customer safety and how to identify themselves, but I was wrong in my assumption! ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE SUPPORT AND CUSTOMER SAFETY IS WHEN IT COMES TO THEIR PERSONAL INFORMATION IS PUT IN JEOPARDY.
I contacted Netgear about Netgear Genie problems, I made absolutely sure the web address and company I was contacting was Netgear. I was then routed to a virtual assistant with no information to identify I was still with Netgear or if I was routed somewhere else. I asked my questions and was told a technician would contact me after I gave the model number of the router/modem and my phone number. About 5 minutes later I received a phone call. The person stated their name was Mike. I asked Mike how do I know you're with Netgear? Do you have any type of ID # or can I connect with anything showing me you're calling from Netgear? The answer was no I'm from Netgear and I'm in Boston just trust me. I went ahead with the call for a short time when "Mike" asked me for the S/L # of my router/modem I provided this to him and he stated, "well, your router is working just fine, tell me again what is your problem?" Again, I told him and he began asking me a lot of questions and wanted to take control of my computer. I then attempted to end the process but he kept saying "No, no I'll fix this" telling me there were over 40000 currupt IP addresses on my computer and he would get rid of them for me. I then once again asked about who he was and how he could prove it to me he was actually a representative of Netgear? Do you have any type of ID #, is there a phone number I can call and talk to someone who would confirm this is the Netgear process? Finally, he gave me a phone number and after doing a reverse directory lookup of the number I terminated the call.
Later I found out this was someone from Netgear, so my question remains why would Netgear not have anytype of the identification process for customers to ensure they're not being scammed? Why is there no company logo on any of the support pages customers are directed to? Why would Netgear think it's ok to give access of your computer to someone who simply says, "no trust me I'm with Netgear, didn't I just look up your router?" Then when you attempt to contact Netgear to ask questions, talk to someone about your experience or make a complaint there is no way to do any of these things options are sales, tech support or questions before I buy. Using the community is the only way to talk or voice an opinion about Netgear problems or concerns. My question is WHY? and please justify your current form of tech support being "this is Mike from Netgear, trust me."
Re: NETGEAR IS PUTTING CUSTOMER SAFETY IN JEOPARDY!
Hi @Junktome, welcome to the community. As what michaelkenward suggested, best have your device registered and login to your my,netgear.com account and you'll find your support options from there.
Re: NETGEAR IS PUTTING CUSTOMER SAFETY IN JEOPARDY!
Thank you for your response and I'm looking into GearHead Support. I am not trying to simply "blame Netgear for a third party action" but I truly think my call was somehow rerouted after I contacted the NetGear Customer Service number. I went to my NetGear account and followed prompts it was after someone answered my call I was told a tech would contact me within 5 min. I did receive the call and the person "Mike from Netgear" had information about my Netgear account, told me about items showing on my Netgear Genie dashboard etc. The only information I gave to the original person who answered the phone and told me someone would call me was my phone number and model number of router, so how did they know what information was showing on my Netgear Genie dashboard? It was things like this that lead me to believe it actually was Netgear. I apologize to Netgear, but how do I contact them when I have already attempted to use my Netgear account following the outlined process listed. I'm so confused by all of this and feel very violated, I have purchased so many protection packages, warranties, tech programs and so on yet I can't find a way to get help from any of them so essentially I've tossed hundreds of dollars out the window, spending more and more money when my only income is Social Security Disability due to a recent accident makes finding the money to keep purchasing a better way with the hope I can actually receive help very difficult. What I've learned from this is not to trust anything, being "protected" means nothing and using a companies website and your account are not a safe contact method. What I need is a safe contact method when I have problems.
