Anyone else want a refund for the Orbi that Netgear is slowly bricking via Forced Firmware?
So in the past day since updating to the latest firmware, my devices are losing connectivity 2-5 times per hour. What in the world did you guys do? Send out firmware to basically brick our $400 router? I have spent too much time wasted trying to get my Orbi router fixed in the past few days, than all my other routers in the last 15 years combined.
I would just like a refund. I feel like you guys are purposefully making this router worse with each and every firmware update. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that wants a refund for this router, that was once the best to being a pure joke. Even your app seems to be glitchy as ever lately.
Can we all get a refund please?
Model: RBK50| Orbi AC3000 High-Performance Tri-Band WiFi System
Re: Anyone else want a refund for the Orbi that Netgear is slowly bricking via Forced Firmware?
Send me a Pm with your name, email, and phone number and I will get you in contact with our support team to help resolve the issues that you are having.
Re: Anyone else want a refund for the Orbi that Netgear is slowly bricking via Forced Firmware?
I'm just about ready to demand a refund myself.
I just tried rolling the Orbis back, manually, to the v2.0.0.56 firmware - since it now appears the Netgear support site is showing THAT as the "latest version".
Already though, I'm reminded why I didn't like this firmware release; can't see which clients are connected to which Orbi satellite on wi-fi -- and seeing the issue with my iPhone 7 where it chooses the 2.4Ghz wi-fi instead of 5Ghz for no good reason. (My wife's iPhone 7 in the same room selected 5Ghz!)
I'll give this a try for a few days just to see if it's more stable.... but all my I.T. buddies (I work in I.T. myself) are chiding me for buying the Orbi instead of a Ubiquiti setup. I'm starting to agree.
Anybody have luck in getting their money back for their flawed ORBI system?
Yes, I have. And, I have a way to reproduce the issue - see this post.
If you point Netgear to this post, and make him go through the test case described (or similiar), there will be no way for them to resolve the issue. Demand a refund. I did, and I got one.
Model: RBK53| Orbi Router + 2 Satellites Orbi WiFi System
Re: Anyone else want a refund for the Orbi that Netgear is slowly bricking via Forced Firmware?
@DarrenM, Can I get a PM for a refund info too?, Not being able to stop the auto update is what made my orbi so unstable. This piece of crap update itself so many times, it can't even stay on an older stable version of the firmware.
Model: RBK50| Orbi AC3000 High-Performance Tri-Band WiFi System
Re: Anyone else want a refund for the Orbi that Netgear is slowly bricking via Forced Firmware?
Ok, perhaps "demand" comes across as too strong a word. But when you just took a loss reselling 3 good, working Apple Airport Extreme wi-fi routers that used to be providing coverage in the house, and then invested hundreds into the Orbi -- I think it's quite understandable to be angry when the product doesn't really work right!
It's actually not too strong of a word. If you ask, you'll be told to try the next firmware revision. Again, and again, and again. I guess you could say "insist", but @tsig would probably be scoffy about that as well. There are a lot of trolls here.
Oh, and @tsig, since I have had that experience, I'll answer your sarcastic question.
1. I contacted support about the disconnects that have been plaguing users since at least early 2017 (in the early 1.x firmware series) and they told me I was outside of my support window.
2. I wrote an Amazon review. As a result of that review, Netgear got me in touch with a dedicated support rep.
3. After I realized this new support rep was just going to keep shoving new firmware at me, and not even attempt to understand the symptoms, I built my own way of verifying the issue. By this time, everyone in my house was bugging me about the disconnects almost daily.
4. I "demanded" (see, there's that strong language again) the product operate as advertised (using the test case as a validation point) or refund my money. They refunded my money and I shipped them back the unit.
Other people have just thrown their hands up and puchased other products. I understand that, but paying Netgear for this terrible experience was a hard pill to swallow.
Model: RBK53| Orbi Router + 2 Satellites Orbi WiFi System
Re: Anyone else want a refund for the Orbi that Netgear is slowly bricking via Forced Firmware?
@t_k Yeah.... and to be honest, Netgear is on thin ice with me anyway. Until this Orbi fiasco, I didn't have much reason to sign in here and post anything. But if you go back far enough, you can still find my comments trying to resolve problems with a Netgear USB wireless adapter that was constantly dropping the connection when used on a Windows 10 machine. (Worked ok in Windows 7.)
There were over 7 pages of complaints and people trying alternative device drivers to force it to work better, but ultimately, it boiled down to Netgear just ignoring the whole thing, discontinuing the product, and moving on to sell you something else. Because it was only a $40-50 adapter, I just bought a different one to get my system going and saved that on a shelf, to use with an old Windows 7 box if I ever needed it. But the amount of time and hassle it caused me made me avoid Netgear products for the next couple years.
Where I work, we also chose Netgear for our 48 port PoE smart switches in 6 different regional offices. They got the job done at a fair price vs. competing products -- but we've had several fail on us, taking down whole offices until they can be replaced. And we've always had issues where the firmware seems to consist of 2 parts; a "base" layer and a portion of code that loads on top. The top layer is pretty straightforward to upgrade via web browser, as needed -- but that base portion has always caused grief. We got SOME switches to update it via TFTP but others just repeatedly failed and we had to leave them alone. Who knows what impact that has on our network?
I'm just seeing a "big picture" forming here that tells me I may need to pay more for other products in the future and avoid being tempted by "number of features for the price" that Netgear offers with things.
Re: Anyone else want a refund for the Orbi that Netgear is slowly bricking via Forced Firmware?
Round and round we go with support. Over 6 hours on the phone and nothing is working. All they want to do is try something else. They say they are researching and will call back....no call. They say let me check with my senior team and I get disconnected. The latest support rep said, and I quote “These are electronic devices and we can’t rely on them.” Outrageous. I’ve had it. Just want compensation for a system that doesn’t work anymore. I’ve demanded my money back, but not getting anywhere so far. I won’t give up!
Re: Anyone else want a refund for the Orbi that Netgear is slowly bricking via Forced Firmware?
Though much complaining, blogs, tweets, facebook messenger and on these support forums, Netgrear said they would escalate my case and have someone contact me. So far, a random call yesterday when I was in the car and couldn’t work with them. We agreed they would call back in 2 hours. No call until 5 hours later when I couldn’t take a break to work with them. I got an email from them saying to call in or schedule an appointment. At 9 am this morning, nobody could help until 4 PM, so a call was scheduled. So far, no call and we are going on over 30 minutes late for the appointment. It seems to me, Netgear doesn’t value my time or customer loyalty. To top it all off, Arlo security cameras go offline globally today! What’s going on Netgear!?
Model: RBK50| Orbi AC3000 High-Performance Tri-Band WiFi System
Re: Anyone else want a refund for the Orbi that Netgear is slowly bricking via Forced Firmware?
This has consistenly been my experience dealing with Netgear "tech support" for many years. They don't do a lot besides read off of a card with standard responses to your problems or questions. If you get them to escalate an issue, good luck getting a prompt resolution.
I used to have several of their 8-port ProSafe series smart gigabit switches, and they started fizzling out due to their AC power adapters going bad. I tried to get tech support to replace the bad adapter on one and the best they'd do is sell me another at an inflated price, plus shipping costs. By contrast, my co-worker had a similar issue with a competing routing product and in his case, the company happily shipped a free replacement power adapter -- no questions asked.
Netgear really doesn't value customer loyalty ... at least not as much as they seem to value saving some money on the cost of phone support.
