Sonicwall Tech support--You SUCK.

[nlinecomputers]

Ok one of my clients is a stockbroker and has an office but she also likes to work from home. So she has a Sonicwall TZ205W to connect via a VPN link to the office for access to the files on the server. It is a new unit purchased last February. Storms blew in Sunday night and a power surge came in via the cable line and cooked the Cable Modem and that Sonicwall. So I get a new modem and get her up so that she has internet and tell her until Dell replaces the unit she is SOL running on VPN.

So I login to mysonciwall and open a ticket. The Dell sonicwall site sucks. Slow and hangs on anything but IE11, real PITA.

I open a Level 2 ticket which is supposed to have 2 hr response time. 24 hours later nothing. I try and call in and after 30 minutes on musak I hang up. Post a message on twitter and finally get a response. I send email and get a phone call from someone who's damn accent is so thick that I have a very hard time understanding her. I finally convince her that yes my sonicwall is dead and needs to be replaced. She sends me an email asking for shipping and billing. But when I reply it bounces. She failed to put the SR# in the subject line and so it can't be routed. She didn't have a clue thankfully the autoreply had the proper instructions and I found out what I did wrong. Hopefully the replacement shows up tomorrow but this sure has soured me on ever buying a damn Sonicwall appliance ever again. They used to have great support. Thanks alot for fraking that up Dell.

 

[BlackLabTechs]

Yeah - Dell seems good on hardware products (servers, desktops) but when it comes to software and buyouts, they botch it everytime. Used to run some software for monitoring network bandwidth that was pretty slick and free up to 50 devices or so. Dell bought them out and botched that. It's happened to me more than once.

 

[Mercenary Roadie]

Sonicwall was a good product before Dell got their hands on the brand.

 

[TAPtech]

I've installed ZyXEL USG40W units at 3 of my lower budget clients so far. I don't think they have the quality of the SonicWALL units but their tech support is great. Cheaper too.

 

[BlackLabTechs]

I'm testing a Sophos UTM at the moment. Initial impressions are great and pricing is right. If testing continues positively, I'll be putting another larger unit in at the main location where all the action happens.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Have done Sonicewalls now 'n then....back years ago before Dell bought them....I hated their support. Was useless. I found the key back then...was to purchase them through a "Gold Partner"...and get the support through that gold partner. And so I did for years.

Great hardware, stable, fast, performs well, but since I don't do a lot of them...it's time consuming for me to configure them (can stare at that screen for hours setting up their complicated equivalent of port forwarding).

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I'm testing a Sophos UTM at the moment. Initial impressions are great and pricing is right. If testing continues positively, I'll be putting another larger unit in at the main location where all the action happens.

They have some great products...but what I didn't like about them was the "buy-in"...in order to become authorized to resell their products, part of what you are force fed is a pricey training program to authorize you.

 

[BlackLabTechs]

what I didn't like about them was the "buy-in"...in order to become authorized to resell their products

Hmm - I'm not signed up as a reseller yet but so far the "buy-in" hasn't been brought up. Maybe I'm just not that far into it yet to be told about it or they have changed the program. From my understanding even as reseller I'd be going through distributor and not direct. How long ago did you check on this?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Hmm - I'm not signed up as a reseller yet but so far the "buy-in" hasn't been brought up. Maybe I'm just not that far into it yet to be told about it or they have changed the program. From my understanding even as reseller I'd be going through distributor and not direct. How long ago did you check on this?

About 4 years ago for their spam filtering system...
and about 1 year ago for their MDM.
Would have been through Ingram Micro...not direct...although you work direct via Sophos regional sales reps.

 

[BlackLabTechs]

Thanks - I'll keep that in mind when I get more serious about it. Just testing the product now for functionality, ease of use, cost effective, etc. So far it has me won over sonicwalls.

 

[pceinc]

If you're not a partner I recommend becoming one. Your calls will be routed to a live support rep right away. Sometimes their native tongue of call center, other times not. One thing I learned that will get a call back from an USA based rep is to post a negative response to support in their forums. Works every time.

Yes, mysonicwall.com does suck.

 

[putz]

Sonicwall's support is and always has been horrible. Their technicians are nowhere near experts with their own hardware. Its a nice appliance if you just need basic firewall options but if you require any complex configurations that are not straight-forward their support is terrible at helping you. I recall for a school we were trying to use their CFS on their Sonicwall and apply policies based on the AD user that was logged onto the PC. We essentially got it working but needed the capability to apply policies based on nested AD group membership. After spending hours of my time talking to 5 different people telling me it was possible they finally told me it wasn't possible. It was actually easier for us to completely restructure their network and apply CFS based on IP ranges instead.

This is why I always opt for Cisco appliances if I can get them. Their hardware support is insanely good. Aside from Cisco, I have never worked with a hardware vendor where I called with a problem and they basically recreate my setup in their lab remotely and test it and show me why said configuration isnt working and provide me with a solution. They may be more expensive products but its worth it when your deploying these types of devices in larger more complex network environments because of the support you get.