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Netgear service or the complete lack there of.

I have had Netgear products since I swiched from 10BASE2 to 10BASE-T Ethernet with my friends back in 1996 or so. After using the 10Mbit hub we upgraded to a 100Mbit hub and later on a 100Mbit switch. My home network is running on a ProSafe 8 Port Gigabit Switch (GS108) and I have never had problems. On May 25th I ordered a Netgear WG102 ProSafe access point and I received it the following day. It worked fine for a week and a half but on the morning of June 6th it was dead, no lights, no nothing. I unplugged and tried everything I knew to try to get it working but nothing. Tuesday June 9th I was off from work and called Netgear support in Denmark and after 2 calls they concluded just like me that the device was dead. The lady I talked to said that usually devices that died within 30 days were considered DOA and should be returned to the store where it was bought. Since I had bought it in an online store she agreed that it was probably easier if we did the standard RMA process instead and she would get their service partner ANOVO to contact me with information on how to return the product. 2 days later (yes you read it correctly) 2 days it took ANOVO to issue an RMA number and send me information on how to return the product. Friday I found a box to pack the dead unit in and I did so during the weekend. Monday June 15th I called TNT Denmark to arrange for them to pick up my package and it was agreed that they would pick it up from my work place the next day. I took the package to work, labeled according to the email with shipping address and waited. The lady from TNT arrived to pick up my package but refused to take it since it was missing shipping papers or some such thing. I wrote an email to TNT customer service explaining what had happened and received a reply that they would look into the matter and get back to me. Today Thursday June 18th I had not heard back from TNT yet so I called them again and was told that ANOVO usually sent the shipping papers in an email for people to print and include with the package. I have now written an email to ANOVO about the missing shipping papers but have yet to receive a reply from them. I then went to Netgear and wrote to their support complaining about this poor service to which I get a reply, not saying how sorry they are for all my troubles and they will try to expedite matters but just saying I should return it to the store I bought it from since it was considered DOA. I then contacted the online store who said that their process was the same for them as for me and that they wouldn't send me a new product before they had received a replacement product from ANOVO in Sweden. I then wrote a very sour reply to Netgear asking them if they really think it would be a good solution for me to return the product to the store since I could only see how that would increase the time I had to wait for an access point with at least a week. I have yet to receive a reply from Netgear on this. Well I guess I have learned an important lesson from all this. Netgear products may work fine if they work but when they fail the process for having the product replaced fails as well. I am strongly considering buying 2 D-Link access points which would set me back less than this Netgear AP did. Then I can duct tape the Netgear AP to a large brick and return it to Netgear through their window in Ballerup!!!

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