Folks,
I've been waiting for a DIR-855 for months, just as most of the rest of you have been. Finally, I managed to pry a new A2 model out of Sparco and, aside from the fact that my laptop doesn't deal with its 5GHz signal well (and this was expected as it's an old IBM T-41 Centrino with an internal antenna optimized for only 2.4GHz and I'll be buying a D-Link PCMCIA N adapter soon), all is well. This is a product that lives up to my high expectations so far. I've purchased many, many D-Link products for myself, friends and family since I bought my first DI-704 four-port router back in 1999 and I've always been happy, this in distinct contrast to my experiences with Netgear (makers of the most foul Pre-N router ever "designed"), LinkSys (with its idiotic lack of DHCP server supplied address persistence), Belkin and Buffalo, all of which appear to spend more time marketing than designing.
And, over the years, D-Link customer service has been excellent, until now.
D-Link no longer answers my e-mail. And since I've tried all of my many e-mail addresses (a couple of main ones and Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail, etc.), I can only assume that D-Link has been ignoring most if not all of its customer service requests coming in via e-mail.
When that failed, I started phoning. On other forums (this is the first time I've tried this one since discovering it this morning), there were raging arguments this Spring regarding the availability of the DIR-855. When CDW officially dismissed it as a discontinued product, the arguments regarding the viability of this product started. Someone claimed that he had absolute proof that the DIR-855 was discontinued as he'd called D-Link in April and that was what he was told. So, I called D-Link Customer Service and was treated to a shocking lack of competence.
First, I was told that the DIR-855 never existed. Then, when I pointed out that it was still listed on the D-Link site, the guy changed his tune and said simply that he'd never heard of it. I asked him to check and, after about five minutes on hold, he returned to tell me that, indeed, it was officially discontinued. I called back repeatedly over the next few weeks and was always given a different story, including a fantasy concocted by one D-Link mischief-making representative who told me (whilst refusing to divulge his name; perhaps he was the janitor or something) that millions of A2s had been shipped and that the lack of availability of the DIR-855 is a distributors' conspiracy.
D-Link Customer Service is still being singularly unresponsive and is clearly in a state of extreme disarray.
D-Link should learn that the fact that it produces the very best home networking products on the market, and some of the best commercial networking products as well, is not enough. D-Link must also respond to requests for information and help. This is an absolute requirement that, if ignored, as D-Link has been ignoring it for at least a year or two, will certainly lead to D-Link's ultimate downfall.
Jeff Broido
Author
Topic: DIR-855 Discontinued? - YES (Read 27248 times)