D-Link: Possibly the Worst Customer Experience Ever

I recently bought a D-Link 323 network-attached storage bay. I was psyched to get network storage...no more annoying USB cables, and I can access the drive from any computer. I ordered the unit, bought two 500GB drives, and set everything up per instructions. With the drives formatted, I was able to push 350GB of my data onto the drive. So far, so good. Until I tried to log in to the admin utility and get an ugly message:


"The hard drives have been installed incorrectly. Please power off and swap the hard drive locations."

OK, seems simple enough. I tried swapping the drives, but no dice. I got the same message. So I decided to open a ticket on D-Link's support site. Simple enough...I fill out the form, submit, and wait for an answer. Two days later, I get a reply:

This problem is better diagnosed over the phone. Please call our support center and reference ticket number XXXXXXXXXX to work through the issue with one of our specialists.

So far I'm calm...I nuderstand that some issues are better-diagnosed over the phone, with live interaction. So on Friday the 28th I dialed D-Link. What follows is a basic transcript of the call:

Minutes 1-8: On hold, waiting for a product specialist, listening ot a constant stream of advertisements for D-Link products. Yeah...I really want to hear about your products when I'm on hold, waiting to resolve an issue with one of them.

Minutes 8-13: Speaking with a first-line tech support person with a thick accent I couldn't place. She couldn't find the ticket I filed online. It took her 3 minutes and four explanations just to understand what was going on with the device. She put me on hold for another minute, then decided to transfer me to another support office.

Minutes 14-25: Holding for another support office, again listening to advertising.

Minutes 26-35: Speaking with a second-line support person. I again had to explain the issue 3 times. We eventually get to the firmware version and hardware version I'm using. He put me on hold while "researching" the issue.

Minutes 36-43: On hold, again listening ot advertisements, while the second-line tech was "researching."

Minutes 44-46: Tech 2 spends a minute and a half explaining to me that he needs to transfer me to D-Link's "business" support office. I reluctantly agree, and he transfers me.

Minutes 46-47: The answering machine for the "business" level support office explains that they're away for the holiday, and to please call back during business hours.

Minutes: 48-48.5: I throw the phone across the room in a rage, wondering why I spent part of my day off doing this.

I poked around D-Link's website a bit, and discovered that they have forums! Why, the community might help me out here! I posted a question, with full details and even a screenshot. Someone in the community offered up the idea to reformat my drive...but that requires getting into the very admin utility that's giving me the error. I may eventually resolve the issue, but I shouldn't have to. And the level of support should be much, much higher.

Tell me: if any of us ran a business that way, how long would we last? How is it that modern corporations can treat people this way and still sell enough product to stay afloat?

So Much for Usability

Like many, I think some of Apple's consumer products are fairly slick. The iPod is an undeniable boon to my entertainment...and I'll hopefully have an iPhone 3G in the next couple of weeks. Apple is renown for its products' slick form factors and, more importantly, their usability. They made the iPod dead-simple, and following in the long tradition of the idon-driven MacOS, the iPhone's interface is simple for a smartphone. I recently lost my beloved Belkin travel router, and replaced it with an Apple Airport Express. The results have been severely disappointing.

Like many technologists, I'm fairly well-versed in setting up home and travel networking equipment. Linksys products, for all their flaws, helped revolutionize home networking by providing a fairly intuitive web interface to routers, hubs, and access points. Along the way, a fairly standard set of terminology developed. I understand terms like SSID, 802.11, bridge, hub, etc, and I've become accustomed to using them when setting up my equipment. So it's not surprise that I was in for a bit of a shock when I installed and tried to use the Airport Express configuration utility. Apple has tried to dumb down networking, hiding the important details from the person configuring the router. After 3 days of trying, I still can't get the Airport Express to work. Reading the manual doesn't help: it doesn't go into nearly enough detail. That's another pet peeve of mine: manuals that were written by marketers, instead of technical people with writing skills.

Worse yet, Apple's configuration usility seems to have taken over control of the computer's wireless card, and is preventing it from connecting to non-Apple 802.11 networks...I guess it's all rosy in the world of Steve Jobs until you decide to mix platforms...