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Update on my NAS Situation (Supply Chain Woes)June 13th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in customer experience
Just back from attending the Forrester Forum in Portugal, which I will blog about separately. I met some interesting people, had some fascinating conversations and had more sun in three days than I’ve had in three years! But I digress.
So back to the NAS device, which featured in my last blog entry. When I last left you, I was waiting for a replacement disk to arrive from Seagate. That came, and I installed it and we were hoping that the NAS would simply see the blank disk and extend the RAID over this new disk. That didn’t work. When I installed the new disk and started the NAS, it recognised that a blank disk was there, which I could see by the flashing light against Disk #2. Fine, as expected. It then tried to do a file system check, which we were also expecting. What we were expecting, was that the original disk #2 was thoroughly broken and that is why the NAS couldn’t load properly last time and used to get stuck at 41% of a file system check, but now that we had installed a new disk it should skip merrily through the file system check and start rebuilding the RAID.
Unfortunately, it got to 70% of the file system check and then froze. Hours later I finally conceded that it was still very broken, so rebooted it and bypassed the file system check. It started rebuilding the RAID and during this time I got hold of the logs and sent them off to Jose. Everything looked fine in the logs and the RAID was rebuilding, so of I went to sleep thinking all was well.
In the morning I looked at the NAS and all four disk lights were on, no pulsating blue power button. So I thought that all was well and thought that I’d download a couple of files from the NAS. It wouldn’t respond. Not to pinging, not to the RAIDar software, not to the Power button. Uh oh. Rebooting it again and this time it won’t even come to life. Dead. The power button flickers and flashes but it won’t even get the disks spinning. So Netgear come to the rescue - again.
They think that there is a problem with the chassis. Ouch. You’ll recall that this is no longer covered by warranty. But Jose has already sorted this out for me and as a goodwill gesture they are going to send me a new chassis (and by new I mean the latest model, since my model is no longer manufactured) but will not support it going forward as they’re going to transfer the warranty from my old chassis to my new chassis. Very generous of them and I’m again delighted by the customer service.
So I get home to package the chassis up. When I get home it looks as though “something” has been happening as disk #1 light is on, but it’s flashing as though it’s being rebuilt. I hope not, since I have no confidence that the RAID really has been rebuilt over disk #2, and therefore if both disk #2 and disk #1 are out of order, that’s 2 out of 4 disks gone and it’s goodbye forever. Sigh. But anyway…
So I turn it off, remove the disks and label them so that I can reinsert them in to the new chassis in the right order. I haul the heavy chassis to work and somehow find a box and bubble wrap to wrap it up in. I call A Novo UK on +44 208 443 8718 and quote my RMA number. They are going to arrange for Parcel Force to come and collect the device. And that was last Friday. I flew out to the Forrester Forum on Monday, thinking that when I returned to the office on Friday that my new chassis will have been delivered, and I can take it home and see what happens over the weekend.
I get to work this morning and there is no parcel on my desk. So I call the mail room. Nothing there. I call reception. No delivery there, but by existing parcel is still sitting there waiting to be collected and could I call the courier company to prompt them to come and pick it up??!?!
So I call A Novo UK on +44 208 443 8718 and quote my RMA number once again. They are showing the job as cancelled. Come again what? Yes, that’s right, cancelled. By Parcelforce?! I assure A Novo UK that I’m VERY keen for this device to be picked up and keener still for the replacement device to be delivered, and so they reschedule the job to be picked up.
So I call Parcel Force on +44 8700 844 500 and get stuck in a series of voice recognition systems and “press ‘1′ for…” nonsense. I then get put through to Joseph. He looks in the system and he can see the job once I give him his reference number and is going to call the driver to find out why it was cancelled. He’s then going to give me a call back.
He never calls back. So I call him back. He does - to his credit - remember me. Maybe there’s something in my tone by this point that is unforgettable. Even money says that that had something to do with it. He apologises as he was expecting his manager to call me back. His manager, Djamel, still has not called me back as I write this blog entry. Apparently Djamel is going to have a sit down with the manager of their IT department since it appears that “it happens” that sometimes a job just doesn’t get in to the system. They can find the job if a customer calls and quotes the booking reference, but the job never actually works it way through the system and their work flow, so a driver is never assigned and the job goes precisely nowhere. Much like my NAS, sitting mournfully in reception. Still. A week later.
So apparently Parcelforce is going to assign a driver and get it picked up today. We shall see. This is clearly not the first time that this has happened. Firstly, Joseph from Parcelforce conceded that it has been known to happen. Secondly, looking at the Parcelforce website there is a dedicated link for “driver did not turn up to collect my parcel as requested“. Hmm, this is obviously known problem. Oh, and the solution on their website? “Can you please book again.”
Netgear has been fantastic from start to (what I hope is soon) the finish. Jose even sent me an email earlier this week to ask how I was getting on with the new chassis. When he heard about the courier situation he reported it to his customer service and also checked to see if Netgear was out of the new chassis, which might have accounted for the lack of action from Parcelforce. Fantastic customer service from Netgear and Jose.
UPDATE 16th June 2008: Apparently Parcelforce picked up the chassis on Friday 13th June and then delivered it to Netgear earlier today. So imagine my surprise when I got a call from reception a moment ago advising me that Parcelforce was here - again! - to pick up my parcel today. How very useless.
Tags: File Systems, NAS, Netgear, Network Attached Storage, Novo UK, Parcel Force, RAID, Seagate, United Kingdom, voice recognition
Banking on IT by Katherine Coombs, Jun 2008Note: The final appearance of your post may be different, depending upon your blog’s style sheets.