Review on 💨 NETGEAR Nighthawk CM1100: Next-Level Speed Cable Modem for XFINITY, Spectrum, and Cox Networks by Stephen Johnson

I ordered this modem to increase my wired internet speed to Gigabit. When I tried to activate it I couldn't use the automated service for my ISP so I called them and after an agonizing hour and a half they told me that my modem had the same MAC address as another modem that was already connected Service. She. I verified the actual MAC address by logging into the device to make sure it actually matches the sticker on the outside of the device. I then called Netgear support, as the sparse literature in the box would suggest. Let me tell you about the crap that is Netgear customer service. It's all bad customer service stereotypes and memes rolled into one big trash can. I'm well beyond what you would call the average technology user. I have no problem working from the command line, deploying server environments, working on any operating system, and troubleshooting my own problems. The first thing Netgear tried was to shift the responsibility back to the seller as apparently it was their fault for releasing multiple modems with the same MAC address. They wanted me to return it to the seller so that if it were resold, maybe another poor guy would have the same problem as me. I have told the customer service representative that this is not acceptable for the reasons above and that Netgear needs to fix it. It was very difficult to impress her, her English skills were mediocre to say the least. She was also very difficult to understand. After they finally agree to replace it, she asks me for a picture of the receipt. This is not a problem for me. When she tries to get me to upload a picture of the receipt she insists I go to her support portal on her website. OK, that's no problem either. When creating an account, I'm prompted to enter my email address as my username and use my email password. Not OK Netgear. You should not phish people's email passwords. You can't even understand the concept of MAC address uniqueness, I definitely don't trust you with my email password. Someone with less knowledge will follow these instructions and will inevitably be compromised if your username/password database is leaked. She put me off for the 5th or 6th time while she had to run AGAIN to her boss to figure out how to change it, except she must have pissed him off too much. Instead of coming back and letting me know they'd call me back when they sorted it out, she just hung up after waiting an hour. When I called back and gave her 15 minutes to call, I dialed the number. a center in a dark corner of India where I could barely understand the operator's broken English over the static on the line. I was put on hold again for another hour, this time I hung up because no one seemed to answer, and again the hold reached the limit of my patience. Then some guy somewhere in India again thought it would be a good idea to call ME at 9:30pm. For real? I was in bed by 3am to get ready for the start of the workday. But no, definitely the person I barely understand and would probably be too incompetent to help me now please waste my time. NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM NETGEAR. It breaks, it's cheap junk, and their support is one of the deepest levels of hell. No one there even speaks English properly, let alone have any idea what they are doing.