Sunrocket horror story:
Ordered 3 weeks ago. Got no email confirmation on shipping, though they had my account set up in a day or so.
A week later, still no email. I call them, get put on hold, eventually am told that my equipment was backordered. Of course, they should have emailed to tell me that, but they didn't. He swears it'll be shipped out Monday, since it's in their warehouse now.
No email confirmation Monday. I wait till the end of the week. Nothing.
The next week, my referral, who signed up a week after I did, gets her email confirmation. Since we live in the same area and both hers and mine are being shipped to the exact same address, I'm confused. I call them again. This time I'm told they don't know, very sorry, they'll get back to me...they transfer me, and I'm cut off.
I call again a day later, and am cut off again.
I receive my email confirmation (this is the third week) after my friend receives her package.
I receive my package a day later...they sent me the email confirmation two days after shipping my package out.
I try setting up my service. No go. Sunrocket sales swore I could connect this thing downstream of my computer, using my computer as a wireless bridge...nope. Nothing.
Talk to my landlord, get in to his basement, get at the router / cable modem. Still nothing.
Call sunrocket support. I say "support" with sarcasm, if you must know. Am on the phone for four hours. The moron on the other end knows nothing about networking, IP addresses, or his gizmo. Tells me to connect it upstream of the router. I do this. Tells me I need to connect the router as well...I ask him why, wouldn't it be easier to just connect the Gizmo, cable modem, and phone and troubleshoot my interior networking problems later, and he says no, the device has to see and "configure" my router (what?).
I go along with this. No, I wasn't drunk, just masochistic. Nothing works. Can't get the voice light to come on. He says ok, we're going to have to open ports on your router. I say really, why, my router's connected downstream of the gizmo, remember? He says yeah, but we have to.
I suggest at this point if there's a problem with my router and the gizmo both trying to assign IP addresses to the network. He says sure, there is, turn off DHCP on the router. I say wait, are you sure the gizmo's assigning IPs? He says definitely.
I turn of DHCP. Computer loses connection to the world. He says ok, no problem, turn DHCP back on on the router. I say how, since my computer won't connect to the router without an IP address. He says yeah, so turn DHCP back on on the router.
We go through this a million times.
Eventually my patience snaps and I yell at him. Was this a tech support person or just some neanderthal that wandered in from the jungles and decided to answer the phones that day? Not sure. Anyway, so he says he'll talk to tech support and they'll call me.
I say no, because i don't have a phone, and was borrowing a friend's. I also say that if he thinks i'm going to sit here with no internet connection till his boys call me back, he's mistaken...he just left my network in pieces, can't offer a solution, and now he wants to bail.
The solution, of course, was simple. I eventually took pity on him and explained: you set up a fixed ip address on your machine, access the router switch to dhcp, go back and tell your tcpip connection to get an ip address from the dhcp server again, and then repair the connection in XP.
So now he's confused, and knows he's screwed up. Unfortunately SR has no system for escalating calls other than to send it to tech support. This was a call center in the Philipines...if you're lucky enough to get one here, you might have better luck.
Anyway, so he hangs up on me, on the pretense of transferring me directly to tech support, so they won't have to call me back. I call back again, and get a new breed of idiot, who makes me jump through the same hoops. I refuse halfway, and demand to speak to a supervisor. She says no. Reminding her that I work in internet marketing, have several blogs, and will share my experiences with the BBB, FCC, my organization (a network of community technology centers and advocates) and God, she changes her mind.
Supervisor arrives, we go through the same process. He's marginally more intelligent, and has received my angry emails on this matter. He apologises. Swears he'll call me back in 15 minutes at the number I give him, which he also says he has on his caller ID.
It's now 2 days later. I haven't heard from SR via phone. The first and second techs both said they would email me if they couldn't get me on the phone, and i haven't gotten an email from them, either.
To be fair, I plugged my friend's into her router, tried it, and it was working perfectly in a couple of minutes, with no problems.
My recommendation: If you aren't seriously involved with networking, stay AWAY from SR. It's totally hit or miss if it'll work for you or not, and if it doesn't, Dante would be proud of the ensuing purgatory.
On the other hand, you'll be cleansed of any sins you (or your family, ancestors, friends, neighbors, race, etc) may have committed. And there are girls who like those holes from tearing your hair out, too.
Incidentally, they sent me two Gizmos. I've tried both, and the same problem...can't get the voice light to come on with either one.
Ideas?
-Dave.
Facebook
Twitter