I purchased a Linksys wireless router less than a year ago. It has already stopped working correctly, providing an intermittent connection to the Internet, lately usually off.
I called technical support for help, in the hopes that they could resolve the issue. Naturally, support was offshore and difficult to understand. The resolution worked only for the rest of the evening.By the next day the same problem manifested itself in the router.
A few days later (once I had the time) I called technical support again with the same hopes. Once again it was offshore support difficult to understand, but I cooperated and did all that was required of me under the direction of the technician. The wireless router worked for the rest of the evening, but by the next day it was working even worse, mostly not connected.
Naturally, all these calls had considerable hold time. I am a senior citizen, use only a cell phone since I can't afford both a cell and a land line. I have a prepay account. All this not only ate into my resting time (I do work full time), but into my phone minutes. Naturally, I did not ask for nor was offered any compensation for all the time and money (on call minutes) I wasted trying to get this router to work properly to no avail.
Another few days went by before I had the time, energy and patience again to call. This time it was onshore tech support. However, the technician saw that I had called before and things were still not working. He gave me a choice: talk to a senior technician or he'd send out a replacement router. I explained to him that I would prefer (not insisted, but prefered) to have the replacement since this was taking up so much time and minutes on my phone and I really didn't want to keep calling back every few days trying different things that don't work. After being on hold for some time, he said that he'd send the replacement, no problem.
I did ask him at that time if Linksys would like the defective back and he did say yes, that one of two things could happen, that they'd send the replacement out first and I could return the defective, or that I'd have to send the defective first and then they'd send a replacement. He also told me I had to make yet another call to customer service for the replacement.
I made the fourth call, and after considerable time on hold, finally spoke to a customer service representative who told me that they would send me a replacement only if I sent the defective back first or gave them a credit card number so that they could charge me for the replacement in case I did not return the defective within 5 days! I had to pay for return shipment in either case although it was their product that was defective, not anything I or my other equipment was doing wrong. At that point I did start to get fairly annoyed and insulted.
I explained that I had spent about $200 on Linksys products, a considerable sum for a single woman in her 50's, that I bought the product in good faith, that I had done everything that Linksys had required of me regarding troubleshooting, that I had spent a great deal of time and plenty of money eating up my minutes on my phone. I wasn't thrilled about paying for return shipment, but that I was willing to do it, but I felt very degraded that although I had acted in good faith that Linksys would provide a good product and back it, they should do the same for me. I certainly would return the product, but that they should have some trust in me since I had already invested so much time and money in their company and that I considered there policy very poor customer service in this circumstance.
I also explained to her that I have a small income, that the one credit card I have has a very low limit, that I was near that, and if I let them put a hold on my card (never mind whether all their employees could be trusted in this day of rampant identity theft) if some emergency came up for me I would be left with a resource, that I was alone, and a senior citizen. I expressed a great deal of dissatifaction, but she would not be moved.
She did say she'd ask her supervisor to help me with this problem, but returned, after leaving me on hold for a considerable amount of time and said that the supervisor would not make an exception for me. She expressed that Linksys was being good to me since they were not insisting that I provide a paper receipt although the product has a 3-year warranty. I explained that I was offered the replacement, not that I asked for one. I felt even angrier at this point, because it seems absurd to me that I need a receipt since I obviously did not steal it off a shelf. Darned! I'm a little old lady! Therefore I asked to speak to her supervisor's supervisor.
She told me that supervisor was available right then and there would be no hold time. I was on hold about 10 minutes for the supervisor who was supposedly "immediately" available. He said to me, "I understand you are unhappy about having to pay shipment." I explained as carefully as I could that although I wasn't thrilled about the idea (especially since I've had similar experiences with other companies who sent out their product first and paid for return shipping), but that wasn't the issue. I was willing to pay for shipping, but that I was appalled at their inflexibility as to who sends what equipment first and how they would tie up the credit card I had for something that cost them so little, that they offered me the exchange and I hadn't asked for it, that I lived alone, worked full time, had very little time to go to a shipping company (I had 5 days to send back the equipment or get charged), and so on.
I explained that if I trusted Linksys and acted in good faith when I bought $200 worth of their products which to me was a considerable sum, they should trust me to send back a piece of defective equipment without holding my credit card hostage, that I should at least be allowed to use their shipping box and get the replacement first, as other companies had the class, dignity and respect for the customers to do.
Instead, this supervisor looked at the phone history and said that he was now not going to allow a warranty replacement because one of the senior technician hadn't had an opportunity to troubleshoot the equipment over the phone! I explained that I had already worked with 2 other technicians, that I had not asked for a replacement, that the 3rd technician had offered it to me and I accepted it, that it felt as if I was being punished for complaining about the customer service, because now he would not honor what his company had already offered me. He said the phone notes said that I insisted on a replacement, which is not even slightly true. I was given a choice and I expressed a preference, did not insist on anything and I told him that quite plainly.
Certainly a lot more was said and I was very angry and very insulted. They would not back their product without me having to waste a great deal of time and considerable money although they were told that I had little time and even less money. They refused to send me the replacement unless I pay for it first or return the defective first, showing me that they did not trust me regardless of how much time and money I had given to them already, including buying a few pieces of equipment originally. I told them I need to have a little room on my credit card for emergencies, but they insisted on holding the number hostage before they would send me equipment and although their equipment was defective I still had to pay for sending it back.
Then when I complained at how unfair and insulting their policies felt to me, the went back on their offer to replace the equipment and will only replace it if I spend more time and more phone minutes on technicians shooting in the dark.
Needless to say, this is just a summary and I said a lot more than what's above, but I can assure you that I would never purchase another of their products again, that I intend to report them to the Better Business Bureau, the company from whom I bought the original equipment, that I will write the company directly, especially since they punished me for complaining by taking away the offer of the replacement, and that if they did send me a replacement now I wouldn't want their garbage in my house anyway.
Ultimately, to me the Linksys wireless router is merely a piece of junk that stops working after a few months and that their technical support can't fix, and that they will not back up their product without a great deal of expenditure of time and money on the customer's part as well as risking the customer's safety by insisting on a credit card number before shipping out a replacement unless they get the defective back, at the customer's expense. Their support of senior citizens. Well, I believe that the AARP should be informed about them, too.
I sincerely hope this will reach many consumers and that those consumers will be forwarned not to buy Linksys products. I hope some will even have the time and the desire for a better world to inform Linksys of their decision to not buy their products and why.
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