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I purchased a "used" RN104 on eBay and have tried to add it to my devices in my Netgear account. The 104 arrived in brand new condition, never out of the box. I don't mind a lack of warranty (unless it breaks of course 🙂 ), however it shows up as having been already registered. No option to transfer ownership. Any way to add it to devices in my account?
This was already registered back in 2014 by a person who is not a reseller and just an end user from the US too. He must have returned the unit back to the reseller and the reseller resold it or he himself resold it. It must be a refurbished unit. Support do not transfer registrations as they do not give any warranty nor support to refurbished or pre-owned units.
If it is already registered to another person, it cannot be transferred. Unless you have valid sales invoice issued by the authorized reseller where it was purchased from. If it is registered to a PowerShift reseller, the registration will always be under thier account, technical support and warranty should be provided by them too because they are the one who will contact NETGEAR for support and warranty.
For non-PowerShift resellers including unauthorized resellers, it is very important to not register unused NETGEAR items and let the owner register them. It is best to register once you begin installing/deploying the unit to the network. The hardware warranty as well as support will always depend on the registration.
Support center also has this rule that warranty will only be given to units purchased from authorized resellers that is why keeping sales invoice is a must. It is best to scan it to have a soft copy in case the actual invoice prints fade out.
This was already registered back in 2014 by a person who is not a reseller and just an end user from the US too. He must have returned the unit back to the reseller and the reseller resold it or he himself resold it. It must be a refurbished unit. Support do not transfer registrations as they do not give any warranty nor support to refurbished or pre-owned units.
I too faced a similar problem when I tried to register my second RN Duo V2 with Netgear, you see I bought this machine from a non-authorised dealer, via Amazon.co uk, who got it from someone who bought the RN but did not used it.
The seller himself checked the RN periodically to ensure it still worked, so apart from that it was practically a new but unwanted and unused machine.
However, when I tried to register the RN with Netgear they told me it was already registered, probably by the original owner, and that they could (would) not transfer ownership to me because the machine was now classified as second hand.
However, when I tried to register the RN with Netgear they told me it was already registered, probably by the original owner, and that they could (would) not transfer ownership to me because the machine was now classified as second hand.
I could not argue with that.
If it were up to me, all warranties on all products would be transferrable.
However, I think the biggest problem with the current policy is that second hand purchasers are also denied paid support. That makes no sense to me at all. Netgear both loses revenue and frustrates their users.
One aspect of course is the problem of stolen units, though I suspect that is relatively rare with NAS (compared with iPhones for instance).
You know, it seems that Netgear is particularly short sighted when it comes to dealing with the domestic end of their market area. I can only guess that they probably think that the effort and investment needed is not really worth the returns they may get and so the domestic market is really treated as nothing more than an after-thought.
Saying that, have you noticed how Netgear's NAS competitors have leaped ahead in developing and marketing new products while Netgear seems stuck in the past.
Netgear probably has a strategic reason for this but at the moment they just seem to be losing out.
I don't think they need a lot of new platforms (though an RN514 might be a good thing, and perhaps even an RN216).
Pulling together a compelling ReadyCloud offering is (IMO) one of the keys. The competition for home NAS is cloud, and being able to join them together should provide best of both.
Staying with one OS for all current platforms is another key. I think they were spread too thin trying to cover 4.1.x, 4.2.x, and 5.x.x
I'm not sure that the shorter software support for "home" products was a good decision. It might have been better to uplift the RN100 and RN200 prices a bit and use the business support policies for all NAS. They'd give up some market on the low end, but would probably gain that back with increased loyalty in their customer base. But its hard to really assess that w/o seeing more details on Netgear's support costs.
A reminder (for any viewers): I don't work for Netgear and I have no inside information on their strategy, roadmap, etc.
We've been working on adding some improvements to ReadyCLOUD and you can see this in 6.4.0.
One OS for all current ReadyNAS devices is great as development work will benefit all products and features can be provided for products that would not otherwise be possible.
We take data protection seriously and our use of BTRFS puts us ahead of the competition in this area. Important data still needs to be backed up, but BTRFS has data protection features that complement this nicely. Unlimited snapshots and bit-rot protection against media degradation are great features.
When I bought this unit used, one of the things attracting me was the like-new condition. The other was price. I have no expectation of any warranty or paid support. The public support in this forum has been great and a big influence on my decision to stick with ReadyNAS. I was simply hoping to register this device to show I'm now the legitimate owner. If Netgear policy doesn't allow transfer of ownership in any way, I'm ok with that.
Otoh, how would Netgear handle a recall, if say, a small run of devices have a defective power supply that spontaneously burst into flames? (Far-fetched, I know.)
We take data protection seriously and our use of BTRFS puts us ahead of the competition in this area. Important data still needs to be backed up, but BTRFS has data protection features that complement this nicely. Unlimited snapshots and bit-rot protection against media degradation are great features.
Totally agree. Any my guess is that a lot of effort went into the bit-rot protection (it is not standard btrfs stuff).
When I bought this unit used, one of the things attracting me was the like-new condition. The other was price. I have no expectation of any warranty or paid support. The public support in this forum has been great and a big influence on my decision to stick with ReadyNAS. I was simply hoping to register this device to show I'm now the legitimate owner. If Netgear policy doesn't allow transfer of ownership in any way, I'm ok with that.
It would be good if people could register a used device (with no warranty), and get paid support (like data recovery) if that were needed. Just my opinion...
That said, I'm glad your experence here has been postive, and I hope that continues.
An example of that is the ReadyNAS NV+ power supply issue that NETGEAR had back in 2007 or 2008, I believe. It went through investigation and NETGEAR found out that there was a range of serial numbers affected. Power supply replacement were sent to customers who reported the that they are experiencing the problem. But then again, the unit should be registered to the person who reported it or at least a representative of the registered name. If the unit is refurbished or pre-owned, support will still not give any warranty. Note that mostly refurbished units have serial numbers erased.
The purpose of registering the NETGEAR product is to activate the warranty and the support. If the unit is second hand or pre-owned, then there is no reason to register it.
They don't allow transferring the registration because the item should be returned back to the reseller if the person who bought it found defective. The reseller should return it to the distributor and not resell it.
It would be good if people could register a used device (with no warranty), and get paid support (like data recovery) if that were needed.
I would just like to extend your idea with a simple idea of my own:
If Netgear could register used RNs, and as a parallel alternative, they could also charge a one-off cost for either a one or two year warranty depending on when the item was manufactured and which area of the world it was shipped to, this they would know from the serial number. Plus, the serial number would also let them know if the machine was stolen or, in some way, misappropriated.
Mind you, this is just idle speculation on my part.
Also they could provide a process for end-users to relinquish ownership when they sell, allowing a new purchaser to pick up the ownership.
Though from Jenn's reply, the issues seem to arise because Netgear is using support and warranty as part of their strategy to manage their distribution chain (e.g. prevent unauthorised resellers).
I doubt that is very effective, since it punishes the wrong people. But it does enlarge the scope of the question for Netgear - it's not just about customer support.
