Why I'll never buy NetGear again - EVER

[BongoKongo]

OK,, So I just discovered that there is no freedom of speech here on this forum.
You cannot post anything that is truthful or which may reflect badly on Netgear. All posts are moderated (or censored first).

Well,,So be it, if you want to play dirty then so can I!

I always copy & save my posts,, so unless you decide to post them here I will post them where they get 1000 times more views than they get on this forum.

Now,,Lets see,, I will start with the "Whirlpool Broadband Forums", then on the "Not Good enough.org site" for starters & a few others besides.

But just by posting on those two sites alone,, my TRUE complaints about Netgear will be seen by millions.

[JonnoT]

I wish NetGear would just fix this issue. Surely, it's not worth the bad publicity?

I've had bad experiences with NetGear in the past (again, dodgy firmware), but decided to try their Ethernet over Power products as they seemed to be one of the more mature vendors of EoP.

The sleep issue pretty much sabotages an otherwise perfect product!

I don't have much hope that they're going to fix it, but would like to hear a response from NetGear.

[marc311]

Originally Posted by whoit

Support? For a fee? When issues aren't resolved?
Yes, Netgear's support is garbage and I'll never buy another of their products.

What's the story?
I bought 2-XAV5001s and 1-XAV5004 in Oct 2011.
The 5001s work fine.
The 5004 rarely comes out of sleep mode. I usually have to unplug/replug it to get it to connect.

I discovered this within the first 30 days of ownership and had a replacement unit sent from the reseller. Nothing changed - still the same. I opened a case with Netgear and it was never resolved.
The firmware is the same version as when I bought it.
The forum has several other people complaining about the same thing.

I still have the problem and now that I have a little time to address it again, guess what? The case was closed, and they want me to pay for support. The support tech wouldn't stop talking about the one-year contract and how it covers all my devices. I don't want that junk - I can manage my own devices myself. I really don't want their support for my pc or my ipod - how stupid is that?

What I want is for them to stand behind their devices, stand behind their software, and quit ripping off their customers with crappy support for 90 days.

If you dont want to pay the paid support(phone extension support), you can avail the support website to do a self research on how to fix your concern or you can avail the email support which is for free as well.

[humbala]

Same problem here, need to power cycle the unit, it's super annoying and we cannot downgrade the firmware!

[JonnoT]

I've just about had enough.

This is an otherwise perfect product let down by a simple bug introduced by a new "feature".

I've written to Netgear's CEO, Patrick Lo appealing for assistance on this. Might be worth people affected by this to do the same (email address should be first.last at netgear.com).

[JonnoT]

Hi All,

There has been some progress on this which results in a unit that works, but at the expense of the power saving feature altogether.

After writing to their CEO, NetGear have produced a firmware release for the XAV5004 that disables the power saving feature.

The unit remains on all the time, but hasn't missed a beat since updating. The firmware isn't available from NetGear's support site for the XAV5004, but can be downloaded from the link they provided me:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/inipoj

The last reply I received from NetGear on the issue is:
----
I am glad to hear that the firmware update was able to resolve the issue with the Powersave mode preventing the data connection from coming back on your device. I apologize that there hadn't been a response from the expert to your email contact.

Our engineers are currently looking at getting a permanent fix in place to make the Powersave mode work properly, but they do not have an ETA as to when this will be completed. Any firmware update would be posted to our support site, so I would recommend checking there every so often for one, as your device doesn't automatically notify you of updates.
----

I remain skeptical that the power saving feature will ever return considering the experience we've had to date in getting this far.

In any case, I'd have been happy buying the unit without said power saving feature and have it working as it is now - I can finally make use of it without having to power cycle each time.