Netgear has an adequate warranty for their products but their focus on serial number and providing support to only the original registered person discourages business purchases.
Last year we purchased a number of RN31200 devices and had them drop shipped to branch locations. We had the receiving person set them up initially and during that process it seems that the devices were registered to the employee as a person. Some of these employees are now gone but when we try and get some paid support via a Pay per Incident transaction we are refused because the current employee is considered as not the original purchaser.
The Netgear support personnel look up the serial number and then verify identity. If the current person is different than the ‘registered’ owner then all support is shut down instantly. The policy for refurbished products is in keeping with the industry norms but the exclusion of different individuals in a corporation or valid transfers between individuals is not in keeping with industry practice.
Apple, Microsoft, Western Digital and Synology to mention some vendors do not exclude support for products that have been sold/transferred. This is similar to other vendors such as Ford, General Motors, Whirlpool, etc.
Some method is needed to change the registration process for Netgear products to maintain the support period/opportunity and to some extent the aspects of residual value associated with a Netgear brand product.
I completely agree with you 100% but unfortunately on this forum 99.9% of the netgear employees/fanbois will come in and tell you that netgear is great and above all else and you should just be happy netgear offers a 5 year warranty (if you can use it.)
Now mdgm may come in and say perhaps if you spend a lot of time proving how you purchased the item and the disconnect between how unclear netgear makes its warranty process apparent (IE it's the first thing that pops up when you turn the box on and go through the wizard, immediately asking you to register!) Doesn't say once you register you and only you are eligible for the 5 year warranty (or if it does it's in small print.)
So realistically when you purchase a netgear box don't take into account the 5 year warranty. Just buy a 2nd hand unit that will provide you with the same level of support (none) but won't come with the huge markup.
If you offer a warranty why not offer it on the product itself? Oh I know, because if ownership transfers then netgear's off the hook! I wonder what they do with people who buy them, register them, then aren't happy with them and send them back to the retailer... does the retailer just eat the cost of the unit?
FYI, In the USA, warranty and support costs have to be projected using reasonable assumptions and then entered on the accounting records as a reserve for future costs. European regulations are different as our other countries but they all focus on future costs. The point is if you shed a warranty obligation, you improve your financials.
My personal view of warranty is that it demonstrates the vendor confidence in their product design and longevity. Pretty basic stuff actually.
I am so irritated at this lack of corporate support that we are now starting the process of consolidation of individual records into one corporate record. We took one account and changed it …
First Name is ‘Digital’
Last name is ‘XYZ’
Company name is XYZ Inc.
Email is ‘digital@xyz.com’
Online change worked flawlessly. With this technique apparently we can have the analog of corporate registration for our devices.
We have submitted the first ‘batch’ of changes – involves a call to Customer Support for each device and then they need some internal email exchanges to merge records – old record and associated email address expunged and equipment moved to the master record/name.
If a unit was originally purchased by a company then the company is deemed to be the original purchaser and the I.T. person for the company changing is fine. Recording the company name when you register products is recommended as is where practical having invoices (at least where the unit was shipped to you) mention the company name.
Sounds to me like it has been a while since you called in the front door like a real customer. I have recently and it is really a poor reflection on Netgear.
All of our devices are registered with the company name but that seems to make no difference.
Phone support is obviously off-shore and the agents read from their opening script. No common sense, either the name matches or no support. Appeal to purchase support are turned away – the unit is considered refurbished or used and in either case not eligible for any support.
One agent suggested I discard the unit and purchase another unit from a valid Netgear reseller.
This dumb business practice is not defensible on any scale in my view and damages the vendor reputation.
One thing I didn't mention in my previous post is that you need to purchase it from an authorised reseller.
eBay (which your case indicates you purchased your unit from) is not an authorised reseller. The unit was registered to someone else, possibly the eBay seller you purchased it from.
Anyone who sells a ReadyNAS unit on second hand should make it clear that it doesn't have any warranty on it. It's their responsibility to do that.
When you purchase a unit second hand (especially if from an unauthorised reseller) you don't know what's happened to the unit between the original purchase and when you got it.
Furthermore it's not unheard of in the past for e.g. units meant to be scrapped to end up listed on sites such as eBay.
You can seek help on the community for the problem you are facing, which I understand is that emails are not being sent from the ReadyNAS. Please open a new thread if you wish to seek help with that.
Not to be confrontational, but you apparently do not understand the facts.
We have 56 units, registered by the employees at the branch locations. We have been refused support on several of these units because names do not match.
I have adopted a strategy to rectify that circumstance – an artifice that should not be necessary but is required because of dumb Netgear business policies. That is why I complained about the Netgear warranty policy – it is indefensible based on any rational business analysis.
If eBay is not a valid reseller, why were 45 of these units allowed to register. Something fishy here for sure – apparently some sellers on eBay are OK.
Refusing support on a used unit is, by most standards not in keeping with good customer relations and the expectations and norm of the other vendors in the industry. It is essentially a ‘gotcha’ technicality.
A buyer should be able to buy products and expect support. Refusing any support is damaging to the brand and not in keeping with good business practice.
The unit we purchased on eBay has been returned because warranty registration was refused. That does not address the issues we have had with the other units.
At the end of the day the Netgear policy is out of step with the rest of the industry.
Original purchaser and purchased from authorised reseller are two separate things. If either test is failed then the warranty is not valid.
Note that the 100 series is a home product so it's intended for home users, so the support team for those may not be so used to users from companies.
If the unit is clearly purchased by the company, for the company and is being used by the company we certainly can have the name changed on the registration for that. IT Managers etc. do change over time.
Any unit that has not been registered before can be registered, unless its on a blacklist of known scrapped units.
However if we request proof of purchase e.g. before any RMAs or if there is some question as to support entitlement, if you haven't bought from an authorised reseller then support will know that you have no warranty.
Actually it is in step with the rest of the industry. There are several reasons why the warranty is only for the original purchaser and only when purchased from an authorised reseller (I mentioned some of them in my post above) and this is standard for these kinds of products. Most of our competitors also have this policy.
One thing I didn't mention in my previous post is that you need to purchase it from an authorised reseller.
Does netgear have a list of authorized resellers?
eBay (which your case indicates you purchased your unit from) is not an authorised reseller. The unit was registered to someone else, possibly the eBay seller you purchased it from.
Newegg and a bunch of other reputable sellers have outlets on eBay to sell items. So that's pretty conflicting...
Anyone who sells a ReadyNAS unit on second hand should make it clear that it doesn't have any warranty on it. It's their responsibility to do that.
Only if they registered it. The terrible thing about Netgear is the minute you turn on the machine and get past the 3 or 4 wizard screens the first thing it yells at you in the yellow scary banner is to register. Perhaps the firmware should push that back to a month or two out from the first use so that these things don't get registered inappropriately or prematurely.
When you purchase a unit second hand (especially if from an unauthorised reseller) you don't know what's happened to the unit between the original purchase and when you got it.
Bungie jumping? More than likely they used it as intended and either found it to meet their needs or not meet their needs (and 2nd hand units probably mean they couldn't deal with the instability surrounding the newest firmware and they decided to cut their losses... or they could have just upgraded to a newer unit.) We live in a throwaway society... now that I don't use my ultra anymore should I just throw it away instead of selling it to someone who could use it for their own needs?
Furthermore it's not unheard of in the past for e.g. units meant to be scrapped to end up listed on sites such as eBay.
That's what the parts or not working designation is for. If it doesn't work eBay makes the seller eat it.
You can seek help on the community for the problem you are facing, which I understand is that emails are not being sent from the ReadyNAS. Please open a new thread if you wish to seek help with that.
2. I would advise purchasing it from NewEgg's site newegg.com rather than using an eBay store.
3. Registering a purchased unit is important. If you have a problem after registering the unit you don't need to look over the unit for the serial number and knowing the date you purchased a unit may help you locate the invoice particularly if you purchased it online. Furthermore if you didn't register a unit and onsold it second hand that would still potentially raise questions if the proof of purchase for the unit was requested and that turned out to be made out to someone else.
4. The current firmware is stable. I'm running it and it is working fine for me. With any firmware release some users will encounter issues. With a major update such as 6.4.0 you can expect that more users will encounter problems than with a minor update. We are working on fixing issues and there is some good progress in 6.4.1, but there will still be more to be done in e.g. 6.4.2.
You could use the Ultra to backup your new NAS (no important data should be stored on just the one device). You could sell it but there would be no warranty for it. Any users are welcome to seek help from the community here regardless of where they purchased a unit. Most Ultras are probably out of warranty or nearly out of warranty by now anyway. So if a user wants to take the risk and feels competent in largely dealing with problems themselves then they can go for it.
5. That was just one example out of many reasons why supporting second hand units is not practical, for us or the competition.
I think this thread has run its course, so I am locking it. A new thread can be opened if needed to discuss the problem with sending emails.
Actually it is in step with the rest of the industry.
While the RN100 isn't positioned as a business NAS... A medium sized enterprise evaluates it, finds it cost effective for their situation, and buys a boatload of them... They should have way to get support without jumping through a lot of hoops.
At the end of the day, Bains is pointing out a clear gap that he isn't seeing with any of the other vendors he uses. If Netgear solves that for him (even if your competitors don't) then you get to retain a customer. Once you're on his approved vendor list, additional sales follow over time.
I think it would be more constructive if he were offered a suitable contact (via PM) so he can make his case directly to the appropriate managers.
There are several reasons why the warranty is only for the original purchaser and only when purchased from an authorised reseller.
Perhaps. I'd point out that while those reasons might make sense to vendors trying to minimize warranty costs, they don't work from a customer perspective. All the customer sees is the denial of advertised warranty. Arguing that a purchaser ought to have checked the authorised reseller list before buying something is a non-starter. I never do that - with anything. How often do you?
But offering paid support to any owner isn't warranty-related, and Netgear refuses to do that too (on any basis, at any price). And as far as I can see, that's a lose-lose. Owners get frustrated, and buy something else. Netgear walks away from service revenue, and potential follow-on business. This forum offsets that in a few cases, but its not a substitute for paid support.
If someone has a used NAS and is willing to pay for data recovery - why walk away?
