Real Life "Peggy" Belkin Customer Service Rep Gives YOCC the runaround!!!!

Have you seen the "Peggy" Discover Card Ads?

Here's a true story - 1st person. Honest!

I had an old router and wireless access point that crapped out.

While I'm fine now with a new Netgear WNDR3400 wireless router deployed, I hit an "INTERESTING" bump in the road.

My first router replacement attempt was with a Beklkin N600 wireless router. I was having connectivity issues and was methodically working my way through the installation and testing.

At a certain point, I chose to drop the Netgear customer service line (a 24 x 7 service) provided by Belkin (phone number on the router box). I was having trouble connecting in to my home network from my Iphone and was trying to rule out possible culprits.

I got my "Peggy" on the phone. Here's a summary of the dialog.

1. When I described my issue to the Customer Service Rep (CSR), they indicated that the Belkin N600 router did NOT support what I was trying to do. I believe that to be a completely false statement. Though I will never know for certain.

2. When I indicated I believed the N600 would be able to support this functionality through port forwarding, the CSR reiterated their assertion that the Belkin N600 did not support such a feature.

3. When I persisted and asked for a second opinion, the CSR told me I could take it up with sales and customer service and gave me a phone number other than the one that I had initially called. The one on the box.

4. When I called the number, it was answered by a VERY SEXY woman asking me if I was interested in beautiful girls.

5. A second attempt yielded the same result.

So much for my Belkin N600 router. Back to Best Buy and my new Netgear WNDR3400. All is well with my new wireless router - faster, better and more reliable than my old router and wireless access point.

I remain believing the Belkin N600 would have sufficed. But my "Peggy" cost me:

1. another trip to Best Buy

2. a couple of wasted hours.

"Peggy" also cost Belkin a router sale plus the honorable mention in this blog entry.

By the way, I did also need to contact Netgear customer service (another matter) and fortunately for me, "Peggy" was NOT at home.