(I am SO sorry about the title)
Netgear have joined the list of computer related companies that piss me off to no avail, which really only consists of PC World and Netgear.
Anyway on Sunday my router packed up, no signal, couldn't even connect to it using cables. So after fruitlessly trying to fix it in the usual fashion (pulling the plug, pushing the reset button), I called Netgear support and was met with a plethora of accents, firstly the calm British male who asked me what type of router I was using, followed by the ear-splittingly loud American woman (don't get me wrong, I love american accents, as long as they are below 100 dB) who asked what type of tech support I needed, and finally the strongest Indian accent fathomable, who could only tell me to do what I could read out of the trouble shooting section of the manual. So after 20 min of saying to the guy "Yeah, already done that, still doesn't work" he passed me onto the replacement compartment where they guy hadn't learnt the letter W, "R.O.U...", "No, it's R.O.W...", "OK, so R.O.U.U..." FFS.
Anyway, after that fiasco, I got them to have the new router sent next day delivery, which to give them credit it did arrive next day. I unplugged the old one boxed it up so ship back to them (SHIT... I've still got to do that!) and got the new one all set up, only to find... that the fucking thing wouldn't send out a signal, and would only work wired, not really what I wanted from a WIRELESS router.
So, while rather pissed off, I called Netgear again, and went thought the whole tech support nightmare again, this time responding "It's new out of the box, and I've already done that!" they sent me yet another new one, which I must happily say is sitting in my kitchen, sending out its wi-fi signals of happiness.
All's well that ends well... right?