My router, or actually one of my routers, died, or is possibly still very sick. And normally I would be very annoyed, and yes, of course I still am kind of, but I noticed something changed, as I noticed that I just say to it ‘thank you’, thank you for all the years you have served me. And it has been sick for quite a while and I have been trying to keep using it, which kind of worked, but right now it seems it doesn’t run at all anymore, as I can’t seem to connect to it. And this may sound strange, but normally I will just do anything to get something like routers, computers and such fixed. And yes, I will still try a bit more :).
But what changed is that instead of mainly being annoyed I am grateful, grateful for the years it has served me, even though it has been sick for quite a while, probably causing a lot of problems a while ago, even though I can’t fully figure out if it was the router causing those problems.
And this router being broken makes me think that devices like repeaters and routers, and mostly also desktop computers and other electronics seem to have a pretty long lifespan, while the last years I often experience that a lot of household equipment is not as good as it used to be, as I remember it was ten, twenty or more years ago when I was still living in The Netherlands. And the lifespan of things, especially the short lifespan of a refrigerator we bought a few years ago that gave up after four years or so, bothers me a bit. As I know of many refrigerators running for ten, twenty or more years, without any problems, except looking worse and worse. But still working, still useful.
And it reminds me how a company like Acer, where it is kind of funny I am using a laptop from Acer right now, doesn’t seem to care about customer service. As e.g. for this model, a ‘cheap’ model, there is no support or warranty after one year. A while ago when I needed something like software,drivers or something, I found that one year after buying their whole support system stops. You can’t even send them an e-mail anymore.
And I guess they have good reasons for that, as I presume customer support is very expensive and margins may be very small. But it is very strange to me that a supplier stops all support after one year, especially as we bought an Acer again as the old one had been running for years and years to full satisfaction, even though that one also didn’t look that good anymore, as it began to fall apart physically. But even after the hinges and such were broken, it just ran, and we used it for many, many years to full satisfaction. Contrary to the one I am using now, that is currently using its third hard disk. As the first hard disk died after one and a half year or so, which is too soon to me for a hard disk to fail, as I have many hard disks that are four years old or more and are running fine. So no, no warranty after one and a half year. So I had to buy a new one, that gave up soon after it had been installed. And yes, that one was replaced, even though the cause of the hard disk problems appeared to be a problem with the cooling, as there was a lot of dust blocking the ventilation holes.
And the weird thing is that you are not allowed to open it, as then warranty will stop. But then you can’t clean it. And the technician indicated it was our fault that the hard disk broke, as we hadn’t cleaned the laptop…
Anyhow, I am complaining now I see, contrary to how I started this post. So yes, thank you, equipment and manufacturers and service people who make things work for a long time and who give proper service. And Acer, maybe you should review your quality and support policies. As where I bought a new Acer because the old one did so well, I won’t buy an Acer again, as I believe a laptop should last longer than two years or so and even after that period there should still be service.
And for your information, my router is or was a Netgear. And I guess I would buy a Netgear again, but I hope they didn’t change like Acer did, I hope they still deliver quailty, which they certainly did with the router I have now.
