Linksys: Technical Support brought to a new level of Incompetence!

[NogginBoink]

I have a Linksys router that I've been having problems with, so I emailed tech support today.

I wrote:

I purchased a Network Everywhere NWR04B router a few months ago. For the most part I have been quite happy with this product. It does what I need it to do for my home network, it was easily configurable, it let me specify advanced routing... just an absolute delight.

The router connects my home network to the Internet. I use it to route incoming DNS, FTP, HTTP, SMTP, POP3, RDP, and XBOX traffic to various internal hosts. My VoIP home telephone is also inside the router.

For the most part the router works like a champ. However, it does occasionally just stop routing traffic between the internal and external networks. This happens sporadically, about every few weeks. When it happens, my internal machines can 'see' each other on the network, but I cannot access resources outside my home network, and clients on the internet cannot access my mail/web/etc servers inside the router. I must physically power off and power on the router to restore connectivity. The reset button doesn't help.

I called Network Everywhere's technical support line a few months ago and was just stunned at the absolute lack of competence of the engineer I spoke with.

I believe my router (if not this model in general) has a bona fide hardware problem. When my network goes down, it's critical: I can't get or send emails, I can't access my computers remotely, and worst of all, my home telephone stops working because it is a VoIP phone.

Have you heard of this problem? Is there a known fix? If not, how do I RMA this router? I am running firmware version 1.02.0001(2002.12.20) which appears to be the latest version from the Network Everywhere website.

This issue has caused my great problems at home. I would appreciate a quick response.

They replied:

Dear Valued Linksys Customer,



Thank you for contacting Linksys Customer Support.



Try to do hard reset first on the device. Disconnect all the cables except the power and press the reset button for about a minute. Reconfigure again the router and see it is resolved, check if you have the internet connection. Try to reflash the firmware if the same problem exists. If after upgrade, you have the same trouble try to have it replaced, you can go to linksys page, support tab and warranty return link. Fill up the form, just make sure that you do have the receipt and it is still under the 1 year warranty.

If you have further questions, please contact us at (800) 326-7114 or send us an email at support@linksys.com so that we may further assist you. Please use this phone number given as reference for future support calls.

I replied:

You can't be serious.

Did you actually READ my email, or is this an auto-response?

This is exactly the "absolute lack of competence" that I mentioned in my original email.

Is there anyone I can talk to who actually knows something about support?

"Valued Linksys Customer" my ass! Guess I won't be buying another product from them any time soon.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Well, I don't know what to tell you because 90% of their problems reported are solved by that message. 9% are user's problem he can't fix because he makes the same mistake over and over again, and 1% or less is actually having a problem due to a bug, hardware issue, etc.

 

[rocadelpunk]

it seems pretty obvious it's a autoresponse, just do what they say, use that e-mail and reference phone number and send out your problem again.

 

[amnesiac]

Uh, did you read THEIR email?

1) They said to hold down the reset button for "about a minute" which you didn't mention that you tried. You just said "the reset button doesn't help" which doesn't tell them much.

2) You state you have the current firmware but did you try their suggestion of RE-flashing it just in case yours was corrupted?

3) They offered to RMA already if it's under warranty and gave you instructions on how to do so.

What's so bad about their response? Maybe you should get pissed at your English teacher for giving you poor reading comprehension skills instead of tech support for actually giving you a useable solution. Yeesh.

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: amnesiac
Uh, did you read THEIR email?

1) They said to hold down the reset button for "about a minute" which you didn't mention that you tried. You just said "the reset button doesn't help" which doesn't tell them much.

2) You state you have the current firmware but did you try their suggestion of RE-flashing it just in case yours was corrupted?

3) They offered to RMA already if it's under warranty and gave you instructions on how to do so.

What's so bad about their response? Maybe you should get pissed at your English teacher for giving you poor reading comprehension skills instead of tech support for actually giving you a useable solution. Yeesh.

1) Holding down the reset button for about a minute to do what... prevent the thing from locking up every few weeks? I don't want to recover from a locked up router, I want it not to lock up in the first place! How is holding the reset button for a minute going to fix that?

2) No, I did not try that. I suppose that it's vaguely possible that in some quantum probability equation this might fix a random lockup problem that happens every few weeks. But I doubt it.

3) While an offer of an RMA is nice, I kind of expected competent troubleshooting first.

 

[Soybomb]

This thread reminds me of how much I hated doing tech support. Everyone knew better than you, and nothing was good enough. What sort of "compentent troubleshooting" do you expect? Its a cheap router and its not working right. They're not going to fly an electrical engineer to your house to open it and test it. You mail it back and they'll send you a new $20 router. I always loved how whenever we had an outage too that people would complain that it was critical and they were loosing like $20000 a minute while their dial up connection was down. You know if something is that important to you, buy more than a budget piece of equipment or service.

 

[beer]

Alright, you bought Linksys. The cheapest of the cheap networking equipment. It is a product sold in Wal-Marts across the country.

If your 'network reliability' is so important, DON'T BUY LINKSYS. This is obvious and you are a moron if you expect something made and marketed like Linksys products to be reliable for 'critical' operations.

Linksys products work 95% of the time. They cost $20. Entry level cisco equipment works 99% of the time, and costs $250. Top of the line equipment works 99.99% of the time, and costs $25,000. Do you see a trend here? If you are too lazy to reset it then buy a better router. Come on people....

I nominate this thread for the 'you suck at the internet' award.

 

[Placer14]

So send it back and quit b!tching. Technical Support NEEDS to check basic stuff first, then they move on to other options. You were explicit in the fact that you have tried those steps so they suggested them. T/S is hit and miss. If you don't have time for that, send it back. I wouldn't want you as a customer.

In addition, there was case history on this so the basic email you got was fine. Everyone else that responded above has it right on the nose.

 

[NogginBoink]

Well guys, I have to disagree that their tech support was 'right on the nose.'

I cannot imagine that either holding down the reset button for a minute nor re-flashing the firmware that I already have loaded is going to prevent this thing from locking up every few weeks.

No arguments about Linksys being cheap crap, tho, and I never said this was a mission critical application. I'm bitching about the poor quality of tech support. The response I got from Linksys gave no inkling that the person reading my original email even understood my problem.

But hey, I can agree to disagree.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Sleeping with the enemy ehh Matt? 🙂

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: Placer14

In addition, there was case history on this so the basic email you got was fine. Everyone else that responded above has it right on the nose.

Well that is where I think you are wrong.

Customers make or break any business. If a customer is not happy and they tell others and it spreads you are screwed as a business 🙁.

Even the ones that 'really' piss you off (not op, just saying) you have to be nice to in the end.

Koing

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Sleeping with the enemy ehh Matt? 🙂

Hey, I can be just as cheap as anyone else on this board! 🙂

(That does bring up a good point, tho... my employer's price for a similar product on the employee purchase plan is... two cents more than I can get it at buy.com. Rats.)

I did some reading at dslreports.com and others have found that leaving the cover off of this product seems to produce better results. It does get quite warm, so I popped the cover and we'll see.

The part that sucks is that I lost my IP address, so now I have to wait for DNS to propagate my new address. No email for me! 🙁

 

[isaacmacdonald]

canned responses are par for the course. just rma the thing.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: NogginBoink

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Sleeping with the enemy ehh Matt? 🙂

Hey, I can be just as cheap as anyone else on this board! 🙂

(That does bring up a good point, tho... my employer's price for a similar product on the employee purchase plan is... two cents more than I can get it at buy.com. Rats.)

I did some reading at dslreports.com and others have found that leaving the cover off of this product seems to produce better results. It does get quite warm, so I popped the cover and we'll see.

The part that sucks is that I lost my IP address, so now I have to wait for DNS to propagate my new address. No email for me! 🙁

Ehh, I figured it would have been cheaper via your company. To be honest though your company's router (wireless anyway) isn't too configureable - lots of options missing that are available in others. But it's a painfree setup though

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: NogginBoink

Originally posted by: amnesiac
Uh, did you read THEIR email?

1) They said to hold down the reset button for "about a minute" which you didn't mention that you tried. You just said "the reset button doesn't help" which doesn't tell them much.

2) You state you have the current firmware but did you try their suggestion of RE-flashing it just in case yours was corrupted?

3) They offered to RMA already if it's under warranty and gave you instructions on how to do so.

What's so bad about their response? Maybe you should get pissed at your English teacher for giving you poor reading comprehension skills instead of tech support for actually giving you a useable solution. Yeesh.

1) Holding down the reset button for about a minute to do what... prevent the thing from locking up every few weeks? I don't want to recover from a locked up router, I want it not to lock up in the first place! How is holding the reset button for a minute going to fix that?

2) No, I did not try that. I suppose that it's vaguely possible that in some quantum probability equation this might fix a random lockup problem that happens every few weeks. But I doubt it.

3) While an offer of an RMA is nice, I kind of expected competent troubleshooting first.

as far as 3 goes...... That's the way tech support works these days. It's much cheaper for the company to only address problems a,b,c,d,e... Then, if the problem isn't resolved, rather than spend $$ on competent tech support, they just save the hourly wages and replace the unit. To them, the probability that it's defective is probably high enough not to throw tech support money at it before also having to replace it.

 

[Yossarian]

I don't see how you have a right to complain when you haven't even followed the suggestions they gave you.