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Thursday, September 17, 2009

Who else gets frustrated with wireless internet?


It can't just be me! We bought a brand new router about 3 weeks ago because we lost the antenna on our old one and the signal wasn't very strong anymore. We used to use D-link, who had wonderful customer support and it always worked. This time we bought Linksys because we had heard pretty good things and knew people who had used them in the past. The new router never worked quite right, but I was always able to fiddle with the settings a little bit to make it work a little longer until yesterday. Yesterday the router would connect and then stop working about every 10 minutes. I would have to go unplug it and let it restart and then lo-and-behold, it would work for another 10 minutes and stop again. SO...over the past two days I have spent close to 3 hours on the phone (a total of 4 different calls) going through trouble-shooting, and each time the people from Linksys told me they would be happy to upgrade my firmware for a small fee of $39.99. Anyway, I was not about to get taken advantage of, especially since my router was brand new, so I pitched a verbal fit until they told me how to upgrade my firmware for free on my own. It's been about 15 minutes and so far so good... The thing is, I don't mind paying for service, but when you spend so much money on a product, it should work!! Sorry for the rant, but I was very frustrated with the hoops I just had to jump through to get my product to function properly.

**UPDATE 9/20/09** The router didn't work after upgrading firmware so we took it back and got another one. We bought another Linksys (I don't know why!) and it had problems as well. After they asked me to pay money to upgrade the one I bought that morning, I got fed up with them and returned it for a different brand (netgear). The new one has worked perfectly for 48 hours so far :)

6 comments:

Elizabeth said...

good for you for getting what you deserve! i too have many frustrations with wireless internet, especially with my phone because i don't fully understand it.

ashley said...

oh man i am right there with you, and i'm so glad you didn't have to pay for the upgrade! those linksys people are awful :(

Dorothy said...

So sorry for the frustration. I would have been on the phone to Eric -- Help! Glad you got it fixed.

Rob said...

I feel your frustration sista!

maggie said...

good for you for standing up to them! i have learned in the past few months that persistence pays off! its still so annoying when the things you pay for don't work.

jennie said...

way to go kt! we have that same router at my new house, and it wouldnt connect at first. i spent about 30 min on the phone with linksys until the guy told me that our router was a year old (it's my roommates so i wasn't sure) and i'd have to pay him 40 bucks to even try and help me over the phone. i refused, told him that was ridiculous, and hung up. i eventually figured it out but no thanks to them!