Lots of frustration here with my 4 month old ORBI RBR850 router. I have comcast blast 350mbps download speed and Motorola MB8600 modem. I typically get 300+mbps via wifi/ethernet. About a week ago, I started seeing all speeds (ethernet/wifi) reduced down to 94mbps. We hadn’t made any config changes or hooked anything new up. Comcast rebooted my modem today and plugging directly into modem via ethernet, I get green light on back of modem (indicating 1000 connection) and 360mbps via speedtest.net.
When using same verified good cable (and several others) between modem and ORBI Wan port, I get a yellow light on modem (indicating 100 full) and all download speeds are now 94mbps via ethernet or wifi.
I did a factory reset and without any customization, still got same slow speeds. There is no obvious way to make the WAN port operate at 1000 manually. If i plug modem into any of the other router ports, I get the green light and 1000 connection.
I attempted to get support via phone but I can't justfiy paying while the unit is still in warranty and could have a hardware/connection issue.
I tried that again (for atleast the 10th time) to no avail. I am pretty convinced there is a hardware issue going on but there is no way I can get past the initial pay wall to access my warranty coverage. I absolutely refuse to pay to access the 1 year warranty coverage I deserve when I purchase a “top of the line” product.
I called in for a second time today and the rep sent me an email with instructions that will “definitely fix” my issue because they are setting related. The instructions were to power cycle and if that failed then factory reset. Glad they listened to what I had to say. What a joke.
So I called Netgear tech support for the 3rd time to try to get an RMA. They assured me the issue was software on every phone call to them. Today, they said they would refund the 50 dollars if I paid for the 3 month phone support and the issue ended up being hardware. Fine, I give up at this point because I am so confident the issue is hardware related.
Big surprise. After 90 minutes on the phone, the issue is a hardware issue. They granted the RMA so we'll see how that process goes. When I asked about the refund for the 3 month phone support contract, they had to issue a ticket on that and I have to wait 2-3 business days for a response on that. I don't see why they couldn't address that directly on the phone with me.
What a terrible experience. I work in high end product/service field and am totally sickened by this experience. I hope moving forward, the ORBI will be reliable.
