Thanks to everyone who's helped me, especially mdgm, chirpa, yoh-dha, beisser and StephenB. I'd probably be sitting here with no data without you guys.
Having relocated to Tatooine I have a shiny QNAP TS-419P II, and in the process of cloning. I have known (and bought) Netgear for a looong time; no more. My sanity and data is too precious! I know the products (mine an NV+ v2) are made to a price, but there is no excuse for so many deficiencies, bugs, limitations.
Harrison Ford would say that I did not choose wisely. Well I've opened the Ark and I can see the horror; I'm closing it back down and UPSing it back. As far as I am concerned, the product is the antithesis of what it promises; to keep your data safe - instead is risks losing it all.
Good for you if your product is working. But if not the support is more band-aid than CAT scan....
Finally transferred the last of my data from my NV+ v2 to a QNAP 491p II. I think the web UI is comparable to the latest OS6, apart from the fact it works.
I feel sorry for Netgear, they seem to be continually shooting themselves in the foot: - the new products are obviously not tested (well) and definitely not "data safe" - the NV+ v2 was a poor choice for me, but in reality it was woefully underpowered for most of what it was marketed for - Netgear support is a joke, apart from a few individuals
10 - even 5 - years ago poor products would survive in the market of ignorance. The on-line world does not allow that. Over-promise and under-deliver no longer works in the current reality. And especially where people are trusting their data/lives to you.
NETGEAR: you can't pull the new product line - disastrous. But you could pull marketing and limit supply whilst you fix the quality issues. Even pretend you are a victim of your own success. But really: your new line-up sucks too, and is probably damaging your core business. Forget profits, damage limitation is your best shot now.
I'm sure NetGear appreciates the feedback. They have been working very hard on a new firmware for the new devices, namely ReadyNAS OS 6.0.5 which will be coming out very soon with fixes for a number of issues early adopters have faced using ReadyNAS OS 6. They will continue to work hard to address the issues that still remain. Genie Apps for one thing still needs a lot of attention.
As for the NV+ v2 there is a new firmware 5.3.8 that should come out soon. Should you wish to keep your NV+ v2 you could use it to store backups of the data on your new NAS (or for some other purpose). No data should be entrusted to a single device unless you are prepared to accept that there is a significant risk you could lose the data on it.
The new products are currently in limited supply. They aren't even in stock yet in many places such as Australia.
- I am tempted to suggest instead "No data should be entrusted to a single vendor" :wink: . The Sparc line was relatively solid. Custom CPU, good hardware design and relatively few long term gripes. The x86 was OK (except for what happened to the poor NVX users, me included) but satisfaction has begun to slide. ARM - don't know, was put off by the performance issues raised here and elsewhere. OS6 devices? Genie Apps, as you mentioned do need a lot more attention. I would clarify that however - the Genie App I bought works great, the same as the x86 version I use - but getting it to stay on my device is the problem. Without Netgear jumping in to grab their part of the pie I'd have nothing bad to say about the OS6 device I have been using. I wouldn't even have a problem with Netgear jumping in except the result of their cash grab is much reduced functionality and value to the end user. It isn't the apps that need attention, it's the Netgear part of the process that has failed.
Let's review. Under x86 I could download an app and donate if I felt it was worth it (and I did). Use the app, uninstall or reinstall if I needed to and be content.
With Genie I can buy an app, Netgear gets paid, I get my app - until the next day when it has spontaneously uninstalled itself. The app developer is left taking the heat and working extra to support their app while Netgear takes a a trip to the bank - but it is not the app developers fault, it's Netgear's. How unfair is that? Netgear has publicly admitted they have a problem (good) but we all still wait for it to be fixed (bad). Attempting to log back into Genie and reinstall is on many occasions an exercise in frustration.
I can respect the consumer (ihartley) deciding enough is enough and communicating to the vendor through a purchase decision they are dissatisfied with the quality of the product and level of support the vendor is supplying. I do want to like the OS6 devices, even after I received no response to my 'open letter to Netgear' I still went out and bought an OS6 device because I was excited about the feature set. Realistically Netgear must give us what we paid for - and quick. I'm not talking about 'buying a device based on what it might provide in the future' but giving us a product that does what the marketing material says it will do. You cannot get more basic than delivering an app through a company app store or maintaining system stability after a factory default and using only the code that shipped with the device.
If I sold you a car that had a propensity to crash regularly through no fault of your own would that be OK?
At the center of the shortfall is Netgear's ReadyNAS line of data storage products. In a statement, Patrick Lo, Netgear's chief executive, said the company had "experienced difficulty in the transitioning of our ReadyNAS line, which caused shipments to be lower than demand from our channel partners."
With Genie I can buy an app, Netgear gets paid, I get my app - until the next day when it has spontaneously uninstalled itself. The app developer is left taking the heat and working extra to support their app while Netgear takes a a trip to the bank - but it is not the app developers fault, it's Netgear's. How unfair is that? Netgear has publicly admitted they have a problem (good) but we all still wait for it to be fixed (bad). Attempting to log back into Genie and reinstall is on many occasions an exercise in frustration.
They said it should be resolved now, but never did follow up to confirm it.
Darth Vader wrote:
This is not an app issue and we are working hard to resolve it. Genie team is deploying a new build to resolve this problem today. Please try again later.
ahpsi wrote:
even after I received no response to my 'open letter to Netgear' I still went out and bought an OS6 device because I was excited about the feature set.
That is horribly bad in my eyes. That thread is six months old, over four pages long. They've had a lot of opportunity to try and redeem themselves, but just shooting themselves in the foot instead.
Of course I have backups (been there, felt that pain). But for a RAID/NAS solution the basics at least should be rock solid. Never wavering with "bend over backwards" data recovery help. Not my experience 😞 The QA just hasn't been done. Similarly the HCL for the new products is shorter than a very short thing that's been washed on too high a temperature.
Again, they are over-hyping the new products with "and many, many more apps...." and "600 developers..." etc. Works if you have 100,000 apps, not so well if you have 10.... Fix the basics and the rest will follow. I'll even forgive then for EOLing products (v2) that they were still selling/marketing..... IMHO EOL should NEVER be less than the warranty of the product you're still selling...
Still time to turn it around, but I'm not hopeful they will do so. Fingers crossed.
