Karoo Router Support

[Hobbisbang]

Hmm so you try to sell the same model KC do becuase they support them?
And i beleive KC's price for the netear router includes their techincal support and setup so will be more than yours as you dont offer that?
so you sell them cheaper and undercut them, which is fair enough competition and all
Yet their price includes their support and yet you complain that your customer dont get that for free?

am i missing something here?

Ok then if your so smart why do I have to pay for support on a netgear router when I don’t need it ??

Another thing if you need someone to pilot that Exchange system X for you properly give me a call

[Andyucs]

Hi All

First off i own a computer shop in hull

i help customers set up modems and routers etc for Karoo Internet

As they support and recommend the use of netgear equipment

we thought ok we will sell netgear equipment to our customers so if they need help karoo support them

THATS WHAT WE THOUGHT

Response from karoo help desk yes we support the netgear product only if purchased from Karoo not your local computer store

And they wonder why we get feed up with Karoo

Hmm so you try to sell the same model KC do becuase they support them?
And i beleive KC's price for the netear router includes their techincal support and setup so will be more than yours as you dont offer that?
so you sell them cheaper and undercut them, which is fair enough competition and all
Yet their price includes their support and yet you complain that your customer dont get that for free?

am i missing something here?

We do offer support on all our products

if you ring kc help desk and have a edimax router or one from solwise you don't have a chance

if you have a problem with a Netgear router surely because kc support them and recommend them should they not help

and also if your a new subscriber to kc you get a free router so no support charges paid

My main point is that we all seem to hit the kc brickwall

[fasttrack]

I can see it from both sides.

I can understand it from the customers side but to be honest if you go and buy a computer from PC World then it should be PC World that support you.

KC as much as I don't agree with most of the antics, for this one I have to agree with them.

There a business and have to make a profit.

There technical support is one of the best I have come across after dealing with a number of other technical support helplines.

I'm no novice myself so I do know most of I talking about.

I mean come one it's a free helpline FFS.

I was speaking to one of the tech guys from KC the other day and he was explaning the situation concerning the router support.

Company's like yourself  selling customers routers and then just palming them off to KC tech support for them to deal with it.

I'm sorry if I missing anything here but if I purchased a router from you I would expect you to support me with it. 

[Andyucs]

We Do

But i can not do a line test

check there noise levels

why it wont let them connect to the net etc

we set up loads of router here in the shop go online with it etc the customer takes it home it dont connect

then karoo say take it back to supplier

BUT IT WORKS

thats the point im trying to Get over

we do fully support our products anyone who knows us will back this up

i know what your saying and understand

maybe i put it the wrong way

[dylan]

I again can see it from a couple of points of view. No doubt KC tech support is overworked, and of course when you're bogged down in other people's problems it becomes easy to forget that the customer is a person too.

I remember reading in one of Dominator's posts that he went to help an elderly woman who was having problems accessing the internet. She had been told by KC tech support that it was a router issue (which was unsupported by them), but when Dom checked into it it seemed that KC hadn't enabled her at the exchange. She paid two months of internet even though she hadn't been connected!

Saying "It's not a supported router love" is an easy way out. The call handler moves on to the next call and the next one until he finds one that he is *obligated* to deal with...

It's my opinion that KC should simply try to assist a customer attempting to connect to their network as long as that customer is using hardware they know about and understand...

[Soul Cruiser]

It's my opinion that KC should simply try to assist a customer attempting to connect to their network as long as that customer is using hardware they know about and understand...

Smack on the money Dylan my feelings exactly, they seem to forget that the customer pays a fee. So the service it provided for a fee and like a customer at any shop they should provide a good level of service to promote themselfs and products as Andyucs says he wants customers to return. There is the old "However" here in that KC have a closed market atm and customers can't go elsewhere.

On the Tech Support side People always remeber bad experiences more than good. From my own experience the level of service has been adiquate (ish!) the only bad time I had, apart from having to drop my speed to 2Mb, with KC support was that a PC could contact my router  (it's an E-Tec 6 port wired) but not the internet, the router could see the internet and the PC .....tic........tic........tic.......tic Then  I realised I'd fortotten to configure the NAT to allow traffic through DOH! but I beat the techie to it so I was not impressed after 25 minutes on the phone.

I suppose it's all too easy to critisize KC .................... But then we would'nt have this excelant forum to air our views and socialise   

[Project Novo]

Hi there

I think Kingston mean that they mean that they only "support"  / guarantee the device if the device was bought from them as part of the service or from the KCOM shop - ie if the device goes wrong it has to be supported / guaranteed under the sale of goods act .

You or the user will still receive technical support from Karoo in terms of checking router settings.

To be fair the level of customer support, when you can get through is pretty good and have always found the technical helpdesk to be very helpful . Remember its not the poor old techies fault if KCOM understaff the helpdesk. Be nice to them and you will get what you want. They also have to learn many different router configs and devices. 

Tecnnical support is included as part of the service for the broadband line and does not expressly include router support. With all routers its best endeavours Im afraid.

Maybe if they offered "PC remote assistance" as part of the service this would help. 


project Novo
     

[Robo]

Never thought that I would be doing this but this time I have to stand up for Krapoo, the few times that I have needed to ring them with router type problems they have said  "we do not support that router but we will try our best" and they have managed to help out.

[dylan]

And as long as they try their best to help thats great. I think its when helpdesk cant be bothered to try people get peeved.

[Amiryth]

The point i was trying to make was it seems all the local computer shops have jumped onto the Netgear bandwagon, i even heard in one pc shop that karoo owns Netagear and are making money from sales? lol
I went to pc world and its like i have no choice over which router i can buy, they were only interested in selling me a netgear becuase thats what KC "recommends" rubbish its because thats what KC support which means i wont be bringing it back or bothering them

Its hard enough as it is to get through to technical support i bet they are just swamped with granpa Joe's ringing them to say ive just bought a Netgear router from Unreal computers and can you now set it up for me please.

If you do help them to se it up etc thats fair enough, anyone can ring up and get a bandwidth check regardless of what router they have, i spoke to them loads about my Blekin but i can see them drawing a line when idiots ring them who dont even know how to set them up and ive got to wait longer in the que because of it

[desandcaz]

netgear  DG834G   broke this morning,  rang tecchnical, 55mins and a lot of work by the very friendly and paitient guy, took me through everything at least 3 times,  finally figured it out.i thanked him and he was very happy to ring back a few mins later to check on things.this is karoo/kc everyting i contact them and has been for the 5/6 years i have been connected to them.

got router as part of move to new tarriffs.

[dylan]

netgear  DG834G   broke this morning,  rang tecchnical, 55mins and a lot of work by the very friendly and paitient guy, took me through everything at least 3 times,  finally figured it out.i thanked him and he was very happy to ring back a few mins later to check on things.this is karoo/kc everyting i contact them and has been for the 5/6 years i have been connected to them.

got router as part of move to new tarriffs.

That's good to hear. You should consider making a post to the Karoo Praise forum. I know that KC staff visit this site and they'd probably be pleased to hear some praise about an aspect of the service that people do like.