Linksys Belkin ROUTER SCAM, CUSTOMER SERVICE FRAUD Nationwide
I bought a top of the line Linksys EA6500 Router in 2013 from Best Buy for 2013. They told me it could support as many devices as I could throw into my home wirelessly, including my HD TVs. The router worked pretty good for the first year, but as soon as the warranty was up it started malfunctioning left and right.
Before hand it might reset itself once a day or every other day. This would interrupt watching Hulu on our HD TV and take a few minutes to resume. It became a normal aggravation after a while and we just went with it. But recently the router has been shutting down 10-15 times per day. It's interrupting business calls, online communications and our work. It's interrupting our personal time after work when we want to watch a show. And no, the modem is working perfectly fine - it only has an issue once every other month if that.
So I called Linksys who asks for the serial number. He then tells me that he cannot assist me because their crappy 1 year warranty "just expired". He said they wouldn't be able to replace it unless I bought the new warranty, nor would they be able to offer me ANY service. I said I would have absolutely no problem buying a new router if that is what I needed, but I simply wanted the one they sold me to work.
The sketchy thing is that the timing of these failures mysteriously happening RIGHT after going out of warranty, makes me wonder if Linksys isn't intentionally sending out messages/signals to these routers to make them fail. Like a major ROUTER SCAM. Then they force you to buy an extended warranty before they will diagnose what the problem is on your router (CUSTOMER SERVICE FRAUD). If they want to charge me for the fix, fine. If they want to charge me for a new router (if I need one) fine. BUT SCREW YOU LINKSYS if you think customer service is forcing your customers to pay you to speak to them!
I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER LINKSYS ROUTER, DESPITE OWNING THEM MY ENTIRE LIFE. You just lost a life-long customer and I'm sure this report will cause you to lose many others. Screw you companies who s**t all over customer service. You've forgotten what being human is. Linksys can keep running this fraud scheme, but I'm moving on. I'm not getting another device they can shut down on me in a year to sell me some extended warranty plan or a new router. The FCC should look into this company for fraud.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Tyg
Pahrump,Nevada,
Why??
#2General Comment
Wed, April 16, 2014
Why would you expect them to give you "customer service" for free? You do realize that it costs THEM money to employ people to answer your questions and to help you resolve YOUR issue. How exactly is it THIER fault that YOUR warrenty has expired?? Its awful nice of you and also HIGHLY paranoid of you to think that they design products to "fail" after the one year manufacturer warrenty is up. Im betting you dont have a clear idea of WHAT a manufacturers warrenty covers. It DOESNT cover normal wear and tear. It ONLY covers the "Build Quality". Nothing more. You bought this ELECTRONIC device over a year ago, that being said, in the past year you cannot sit there and tell the entire web that you DID NOT have power surges or power bumps. That you or another member in your household didnt ground out the router by accidentally sparking on it.
Your problem is the AC adapter. It needs to be changed. People like yourself NEVER think of the issues that just using a item can cause. When was the last time you UNPLUGGED the router and let the heat disipate from the entire unit? When was the last time YOU DUSTED where you keep the router. There are MANY factors that could have caused the router to fail and its construction quality is ONLY one of those reasons. The rest of the reasons are ALL on the consumers end. So odds are that you had some form of power interuption and due to excessive heat generated by the AC unit, you may have weakened the AC unit itself.
They are NOT responsible for the product AFTER you have purchased it. THEY are not responsible for how you have used it. You are upset that they wouldnt just GIVE you FREE support. Every company is now going towards the pay for service model that Apple has had so much success with. They are tired of paying thier employees to troubleshoot your problem if it is NOT in warrenty. To expect them to support a product or customer for FREE is silly and ONLY goes to show YOUR level of self-entitlment. If YOU were running a business and had to pay out over and over again and again because the very same people who YOU call a customer only want you to give them free support. YOU wouldnt stand for it and expecting them to do so is just patently wrong. They make NO MONEY doing this and because of the extremly FICKLE nature of consumers like you they no longer wish to spend the extra money attempting to keep YOU as a customer when its clear that YOU dont care one way or the other if THEY make money so long as YOU are taken care of.
At the end of the day its YOUR CHOICE who you give your money to. Being upset that they wouldnt just give you free computer support is just YOU acting like a child. They run a business and as such NEED to make money. You cannot be upset that they want to be paid, because YOU would want to be paid. I guess those double standards ONLY apply to you huh....