I’m looking for an experienced reseller for tier 1 support as I might be in the market to get a new router to cover downtime incurred by the RMA process for my current one.
I came across a post here describing Peplink’s “thin support” model while searching for an answer to this question, and it goes a way towards explaining some of the delays I’ve had with a current ticket here.
It seems like platinum resellers would be my best bet - distributors like Frontier work closest with peplink but only sell to resellers unfortunately. Access wireless touts their peplink connection but has an aging product line and broadskynetwork doesn’t exist anymore and redirects to a site that doesn’t advertise peplink as a partner.
5G store and Source Inc are the remaining options, the 5G store seems much more of a generalist but perhaps they have a good internal team?
My previous peplink router was bought by an unlisted reseller that apparently had just started offering support. It took them 3 weeks to get me a speedfusion license key after multiple assurances on their part and me repeatedly pushing back over dozens of replies in a support ticket. Their excuse was that they were used to Frontier handling things, asked what could make things right, then ghosted me without ever doing so. I’d rather not go down that dead end road again.
Just placed my first order from 5Gstore and, in general, am pretty happy with them. Only thing that rubbed me the wrong way was that they would NOT give me the direct tracking number for my order. We paid handsomely for overnight delivery, and they said they don’t give out tracking numbers “due to fraud” for first-time customers. I asked to speak with a manager and he still wouldn’t give it up. They give you a summary tracking page, but it doesn’t give you specifics on delivery time. A small gripe, but annoying, nonetheless.
Their support team, however, is friendly and willing to help you with setup and pre-sales questions. This is where I see the value in purchasing from them.
That is weird about tracking numbers - if you were somehow fraudulently ordering a unit it’d be showing up to the address you asked them to ship it to anyways.
I’ve done my research for pre-sales and have setup my Duo - what I’m looking for are cases where the unit isn’t working properly or there’s anything beyond what basic training can help out with. I’ve basically had to research and solve all of my own issues up to this point, which seems kind of silly given that I’m paying for an annual support contract.
no, you can redirect packages if you have the tracking #. i had to jump through hoops to prevent that on my corporate fedex account. they could do the same and make it so packages they send can’t be re-routed.
I’ve never had luck with re-routing packages with a tracking number from my end, but good point. Most of the time something is shipped it’s set so that only the shipper can change that information - which makes sense for fraud but is annoying when you send in a request because a package is delayed and then the company responds days after it arrives.
Back on topic - I just got off the phone with the president of sales (!!) at Source Inc and briefly described my current situation and business needs.
They have a $99/year plan which provides tier 1/2 support with an actual guaranteed service response time as well as a “spare in the air” program where they will mail out a unit if issues cannot be fixed remotely. Having 3 weeks of impacted service since opening a ticket with no end in site, then potentially being without a router for another week or two when it’s being sent is not a situation I’ve enjoyed being in. Simply buying a new one will actually save us time and money over continuing with standard PrimeCare - which seems a bit ridiculous to me, but I’ve learned more about the “thin support” structure and weak links of particular resellers and the importance of who you buy your unit / primecare from.
