D-Link Tech Support Part 1

So, I posted yesterday about getting Parental Controls on my home network so I can control what my kids can see/do on the Internet and here is an update.  I have a D-Link DIR-655 wireless N router.  I was on D-Link’s website yesterday and it said that I could upgrade the firmware on my router with the newest firmware version, 1.31 and this would add the SecureSpot to my router, I had firmware version 1.21.  This way I didn’t have to buy another hardware box and add it to my network.  Instead of just downloading and installing this, I decided to call D-Link and ask some questions.  All my questions were answered and I was told exactly what I needed to do to upgrade my firmware to 1.31.  At around 2:30 or so yesterday I did this.  Here were the steps that I was told to take and these are the steps that I did:

1.  Save current configuration.
2.  Reset router to factory default.
3.  Upload new firmware to router.
4.  After router re-boots, upload saved configuration file.

So I did this, and step 4 didn’t go so good.  It told me the configuration file was the wrong type of file.  I thought to myself, no problem, I will just configure this manually…it is not that hard.  The Internet part was done automatically because of default settings.  I went to setup my wireless network, I have 7 wireless devices at home, and this is where I hit a wall.  It doesn’t matter what change I make, but I get this message “cannot use a multicast MAC address in WDS.”  What?  So I call D-Link tech support, this is around 3:00.  Got a tech support rep on the phone and we go through some changes and nothing works.  Make more changes and somehow we get disconnected.  So I call back and get someone new on the phone.  Once again, we make changes, the same ones, and of course the call gets dropped.  I call back and get someone new on the phone again.  I explain to the all the things we have done, so they make me do it AGAIN!!!  After this person is convinced that they cannot help me, they send me to the Tier 3 level.  I get a guy named Simon on the phone, and he once me to make the same changes as the Tier 1 level.  I asked him that if our call gets dropped if he would call me back.  He says of course he will.  Guess what?  Our call gets dropped.  Do I hear back from Simon, NO.  I call tech support again, get the Tier 1 support, explain every thing that is going on and finally the transfer me to Tier 3, I’m on hold for 30 minutes before someone picks up.  I finally get a tech, Sarah, and she, of course, wants me to make the same changes that I have done with the other techs.  After all the changes, she says there is nothing more she can do that I need to talk to a Product Manager, however, they have all gone home.  I asked Sarah what time the go home, oh…it is 7:11, 5:11 their time.  She says they go home at 5:00.  Man was I a little upset.  Oh, and get this, she tells me that I will have to call them back tomorrow, between 8:00am and 5:00pm their time.  I told her to hold on, I had to call them back, how about you call me back???  Anyways, I am waiting for it to be 10:00 here, that would be 8:00 their time, so I can call them back.  This is very frustrating!!!  I’ll post an update after my encounters with them today.

Dear Zappos,
Please call D-Link and give them some great tips on how outstanding customer service should be.
Thanks,
Your Friend, Joe