No explanations... just read if you care. Don't if you don't. Every tech support rep on earth except for me and a few of my co-workers suck big floppy donkey dick. Oh, and Anna at U.S.Robotics seems lucid and sane.
Anna,
I really appreciate your assistance and I followed your advice. The call started off well as the rep put me on hold for 5 minutes as he read everything previous to the call that was associated with my case number. However, after having "read" this information he immediately began asking questions that were, presumably, already answered. I realized, then, that he hadn't really really read the previous correspondence thoroughly but in fact had been asking his co-workers what to do. This trend continued as I was repeated put on hold only to have him return with another round of questions based, not on critical thinking but on "the customer is wrong" attitude that one usually gets in a call center when your peers are asked for advice. Ego rules nothing if it does not rule Tech support. Unfortunately, after another ridiculous round of trying to blame the router, the settings, the environement, etc. and telling me that if there were a problem with the pcmcia card it just wouldn't work at all and that the fact that it does work at all means it is not malfuntioning (seriously, that's what the phone rep told me, that there is no middle ground... it either works 100% perfect or it won't work at all) I was told that he would have to escalate it to a higher up and have him call me back within 24 hours. He pretty much ignored all of my information asked me silly questions like "Are you using the most updated drivers for the card and firmware for the router?" Why is that silly? Well it's silly because there are no updated versions. The original firmware and driver versions are the only ones available. And yes, I have downloaded them from the site rather than trust the ones on the disk but it didn't make any difference. He said "I would hate to RMA the card only to have the same thing happen with the new card!" Yeah, I would hate that too, but since all the troubleshooting points to the card as the problem it seems like a reasonable risk to me. It did not seem to be a reasonable risk to him. He did try a new tactic. He began to gear up towards blaming the laptop. Too bad I'm not an idiot. That might have worked had I not had the sense to test this (malfunctioning 5411) card, and my other (working) card in a different laptop on two separate routers in two completely different environements. I don't know I bothered doing all this troubleshooting if the results were just going to be ignored. I guess I just should have called in screaming from the beginning. Anyway, I appreciate that you actually took the time to read my email and apply the appropriate logic. Please accept my compliments and understand that it was not you who inspired me to return my equipment and go buy a Belkin. It was every other person at U.S. Robotics I had contact with.
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On 11/30/05,
usr_amr_eng@aqinc.com <
usr_amr_eng@aqinc.com> wrote:
Kyle,Sorry for all your frustration with the MAXg PC Card. From your description, it does appear that the card is not functioning as it should. Please call our tech support line between the hours of 10 AM to 7 PM Eastern Standard Time. The phone number for network products is 1-888-216-2850.As part of USR procedure there are some trouble shooting steps a tech support rep will go through with you. Mostly likely it will be determined that your MAXg PC Card is indeed defective and the tech support rep will issue you a RMA, for a replacement MAXg PC Card. Thank you for choosing U.S. Robotics!Your customer number is 300522843Please refer to case # 300836489 if you have any further questions.If you need further assistance, you can also reach us online at
www.usr.com/supportPlease include all previous replies when/if responding to this message.Best Regards,Anna R. at Technical SupportUSR Technical Support
-----------------------I'm still waiting for a response. I also, just to rule the offchance that the uninspired and robotic answer I recieved earlier mightactually be true, moved the router even closer. I'm not less than 8 feet from the router with nothing between the router and the laptop. I alsotried connecting to my old USR 8054G with the new pcmcia card which Isuspect is causing the problem and noticed I was having the same problem. So... that's two different routers in two locations (three if you count mynegihbor's linksys) where the problem exists. If i switch to a differentpcmcia card the problem does not exist. I suppose you could copy and paste some irrelevant material from your support site again. But it won'thelp. What would help is if you could actually read through my problemand process it, think about it, and give me an answer that is relevant to the problem. In case you aren't sure what I'm getting at please myprevious correspondence (copied below) to which I am still awaiting arepsonse:Obviously the location of the router is not an issue since it is less than 10 feet from the pc. Also, if you will notice, the signal to noise rationis very good and the noise (interference) is very low. This problem alsoexists with the MAX-G pcmcia card but not with any other pcmcia card. Your response would seem to indicate that you didn't read my originalemail. I would appreciate it if you could actually address the issuepresented because a generic email about moving the router around doesn't help me at all. My old router (also a U.S. Robotics) was in the samelocation with no problems. As stated in my original email the connectionis always listed as excellent even when the Windows XP wireless connection icon says I am connected at the lower speeds. The USR utility always saysI am connected at 125 mbps. As it states in my original email, the signallevels are quite good. The noise is almost always at -99 and the signal to noise ration is above 40 all the time, from what I have observed.There aren't any concrete walls, lead base paint, or VLA microwavetelescopes between me and the router. Since the problem doesn't existwith the old router, and happens when I connect to my neighbor's wireless router as well, and doesn't happen with my other pcmcia cards that wouldindicate the problem is with the pcmcia card. Of course, all of this wasplainly spelled out in my original email like this:I have a Max-G router and Max-G 5411 pcmcia card. It's set for Max-G 125 mbps acceleration. The USR utility says I am connected at 125 mbpsbut the windows wireless connection description will start out saying Iam connected at 54 but slowly, 10 minutes or so, go to 36, then 18, then 11, and then down to 1mbps. The signal strength is excellent. Ithappens on every channel. The signal on almost all channels is at -58,noise -99 and signal to noise ration is always around 40. This wouldseem to be a pretty excellent connection. I cannot figure out why it isdropping so low. Throughout, the USR utility always says I am connectedat 125, even while I am running the tests the prove I am at 1mbps. I have tried every combination of settings ont he router. I did, however,switch over to a USR 5410 Wireless Turbo card which maintains a clearand constant 54 mbps without a drop over time. This would suggest the new Max-G 5411 card is the cause of the issue. Any assistance would beexcellent.Perhaps if someone could actually give me something other than thestandard blow-off b*llsh!t repsonse that doesn't address the facts presented I might be able to resolve the issue.- Hide quoted text -
