I am having the darndest time with Level 2 support via email. Extremely slow and not at all productive. This has been going on for several weeks. They have said my case is getting transferred to level 3 if I enable "secure diagnostic mode" which I did for a 6 hour window only to find out that not only has the case not been escalated but that I need to enable secure diagnostic mode again.
I just want the appropriate help and would like to know the best way to get it.
I contacted support. They suggested updating to 6.2.3 Beta 4 which appears to have resolved at least one of your issues (the network discovery problem).
I am having the darndest time with Level 2 support via email. Extremely slow and not at all productive. This has been going on for several weeks. They have said my case is getting transferred to level 3 if I enable "secure diagnostic mode" which I did for a 6 hour window only to find out that not only has the case not been escalated but that I need to enable secure diagnostic mode again.
I just want the appropriate help and would like to know the best way to get it.
Anyone have ideas?
Thanks
E-mail chat is NOT for a quick resolution. If you have an 'emergency' -- you should be calling in. When you escalate a case, you must leave Secure Diagnostics mode enabled as a Level 3 from anywhere in the world could be connecting and may not be reaching out to you personally. Please when escalating cases, leave Secure Diagnostics mode enabled. You will delay yourself getting the help you need by specifying time limits when you keep the diagnostics mode enabled.
Believe me when I say that I understand email is not going to result in a quick resolution. I did try calling in but apparently because the 314 is a business unit I called the wrong number. The tech kindly provide the business NAS support number which I confirmed several times was still going to get answered during non business hours in PST. I was very clear on the question and my location. Of course when I called it was a no go. I could have been a quick resolution had the communication at netgear been better, see below. That being said, are you saying that by calling there is better support? When chatting the tech was only searching the interwebs as I had already done, apparently neither one of us are very good at it because he never did come back with a response.
As far as the Secure Diagnostic Mode it would be good to to hear a proper explanation of why remote access needs to be granted for such a long period of time. I was only told to enable it so they could escalate the case even after I asked why that was necessary. I never received a proper explanation until I spoke with level 3. The T&Cs clearly state that ALL data will be accessible by support. For me this required removing any data that I feel is too sensitive/personal to allow support to see if for any reason curious minds wanted to pry. Paranoid, perhaps, but I don't think so.
I will say that as soon as Level 3 contacted me, even without much asking the gentleman addressed many of my previous questions and pointed me in the right direction very quickly. Just getting to that point was slow, non productive, and frustrating since I am not an expert and trying to gather as many clues and symptoms as I could to figure it out on my own. I should state that by trade I do some troubleshooting in FW, HW, and SW.
Speaking of already known. I understand the difficulty, but there is clearly a disconnect between engineering and the support group. Twice now I have had two issues that have been known by engineering but not by support. I don't want to minimize that challenge, because I know how difficult it can be communicating a dynamic situation. But, it is an observation.
That being said, are you saying that by calling there is better support?
When you use email it may be up to about a day or so before you get the first response from support. When you call the wait is hopefully short so it takes less time before a case reaches the point where it is escalated (if that is necessary).
krazydav wrote:
As far as the Secure Diagnostic Mode it would be good to to hear a proper explanation of why remote access needs to be granted for such a long period of time. I was only told to enable it so they could escalate the case even after I asked why that was necessary. I never received a proper explanation until I spoke with level 3. The T&Cs clearly state that ALL data will be accessible by support. For me this required removing any data that I feel is too sensitive/personal to allow support to see if for any reason curious minds wanted to pry. Paranoid, perhaps, but I don't think so.
Support techs that remotely access systems support a range of NETGEAR products and with a huge installed base they always have some cases on the go. Depending on how busy they are they may be able to look at it quickly or it could be a business day or two before they can look at a system and even then depending on the problem it may be a quick fix or involve quite some time in troubleshooting and diagnosis. We have techs working in different time zones around the world so depending on when the case is escalated, who it is picked up by and at what time, there can be some difference in the time things take. If you take the system off secure diagnostic mode, a L3 tech will likely deescalate it and ask for it to be re-enabled which creates further delay as it could be a while before the case is picked up, you are contacted, the case re-escalated and then a L3 gets to looking at it. When a problem is resolved they move on and look at the next case in their queue.
krazydav wrote:
I will say that as soon as Level 3 contacted me, even without much asking the gentleman addressed many of my previous questions and pointed me in the right direction very quickly. Just getting to that point was slow, non productive, and frustrating since I am not an expert and trying to gather as many clues and symptoms as I could to figure it out on my own. I should state that by trade I do some troubleshooting in FW, HW, and SW.
Thanks for the feedback
krazydav wrote:
Speaking of already known. I understand the difficulty, but there is clearly a disconnect between engineering and the support group. Twice now I have had two issues that have been known by engineering but not by support. I don't want to minimize that challenge, because I know how difficult it can be communicating a dynamic situation. But, it is an observation.
For common issues there is communication to the support team about how to handle it. Our Level 3s communicate with the engineering team in situations where they need assistance from them and share knowledge amongst themselves and with other levels of support. There is a delicate balance between time spent communicating and time solving cases, fixing bugs, developing new features etc. We regularly evaluate our processes and see what we can do to improve.
I should also add that with email, say the agent responds and you don't see the email till the next day or it reaches your spam folder that can create further delays. When you respond to support via email they might not be able to respond for a while. In some cases there may be 24 hours or more between your reply and the agent getting back to you. So it could take some days before a cases reaches L3 on email cases
Live Chat and Phone support are faster than email support.
Actually the email worked as expected. Daily acknowledgements of the data and in many cases multiple responses per day. That really did work as expected so I don't have complaints there. My issue was lack of movement or direction. As I'm am now sure you are aware I provided a lot of information and sometimes maybe too fast. At least my info was pretty detailed and should have answered most questions before asked.
