Wireless 1 Sells Products That May or May Not Work as Advertised - You Only Have 30 Days to Find out

snook on 16/05/2016 - 17:23
Last edited 16/05/2016 - 17:27

I bought a D-Link Powerline AV500 (thing that extends wifi via electrical sockets in house) from Wireless I in Parramatta and gave it to the people in my house. They couldn't get it to work. Email help from D-Link sent them to a firmware update - something the users had no technical capacity to do - well they aren't completely useless but it became too difficult. The box says - plug and play. Got someone else involved who turned up with another product that DID plug and play.

Went to return the useless D-Link to Wireless 1. Told them what about it didn't work. They were only interested in the purchase date. Was bought 29 Feb. Don't know when it was delivered. 3 different people got involved. Each one said it was outside 30 days so bad luck. Sent me to manufacturer.

Manufacturer said they had no case numbers as quoted from the help emails we had from them. Manufacturer said emails no proof that it didn't work as advertised.

Rang Wireless 1 for manager's name. They offered store credit. I don't want that (and it wasn't offered before). They have no ability in store to check whether what they sell works or not, so get a note from the manufacturer that it doesn't work or bad luck, no refund. They said they'd give me a refund but only if I go through lengthy process of trouble shooting with manufacturer.

The box says: "Simply plug into your electrical sockets, no set up required"

Second help email instructions said to:

  • Hardwired the base unit to your router
  • Connect your computer to the secondary unit
  • Open a web browser and try to access http://dlinkapWXYZ.local.
  • If you can access the setup page of the device, please update the firmware of the device under tools-firmware

I dunno, but that looks like setup to me.

When the box says: "Simply plug into your electrical sockets, no set up required" … then that's what it says. Updating firmware for inexperienced users should not be required. It's just ridiculous … and if it is required, then it should be advertised as such.

Don't think much of Wireless 1 right now and I wouldn't want store credit because I get things to play with at my leisure, not on a deadline. This thing clearly didn't work as it should have.

All I wanted was to return it and move with my life. Now I have to go via Fair Trading to get my $129 back.

Electrical & Electronics

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Comments

  • spackbace on 16/05/2016 - 17:32
    +2

    Did you try turning it on and off again?

    • scrimshaw on 16/05/2016 - 20:27
      -1

      Wow, can't believe it worked. Can I hire you as a Cisco engineer? Could use your expertise with my cloud servers.

      • ProjectZero on 17/05/2016 - 09:25

        Well, did you try turning it on and off for your cloud server?

  • [Deactivated] on 16/05/2016 - 17:37
    +2

    Their "set up" really isn't much more than what you need to do anyway to get it working. It seems reasonable to me.

  • snook on 16/05/2016 - 18:06

    Yeah well, the next one just got plugged in and worked, zero anything required.

    I'd call that 'no setup' which is my only point here.

    If you read anything about d-links, they may or may not work. I expected that possibility & bought it from somewhere I could easily return it to.

  • ProjectZero on 16/05/2016 - 18:11

    OK, whilst I sympathise with you… the issue is probably not with the product you bought but with your house's electric system. Before I get neg'd to oblivion, let me first start by saying I have tried 2 separate EoP products and they both did not work because the electric wiring in my house is not all connected circuit is not connected.

    EoP products require the two points of connection to be on the same electrical circuit for them to work as intended. If they are not on the same electrical circuit, it will not work. With this said, unless you can prove to them that the products either do not turn on OR they do not work even on the same electrical circuit the product is not faulty.

    Whether fair trade will be able to help you in this instance I do not know, but most likely you may have to cop the $129 loss as this would be classified a change of mind rather then the product being faulty

    -Edit- this might explain it better

    • snook on 16/05/2016 - 18:41
      +1

      Yeah nah, we couldn't get them to see each other in the same room, and they were definitely on the same circuit then.

      • ProjectZero on 16/05/2016 - 20:16

        Were they on power boards? I've heard that they dont work through power boards.

        • snook on 17/05/2016 - 10:25

          definitely not. Read all the instructions before I bought it.

      • supnigs super skids on 16/05/2016 - 22:17

        Plug them both on the same power board and see if it works. If it does its your house power circuit that's problem. t

      • Nugs on 17/05/2016 - 06:48

        same room does not necessarily mean same circuit. flipping off the fuse/circuit breaker will identify which points are on the same circuit.

        • snook on 17/05/2016 - 10:26

          Same double powerpoint is same circuit.

          As I said, couldn't even get it to recognise itself.

  • snook on 18/06/2016 - 20:06

    Involved Fair Trading - got money back, no further drama.

    A business is not allowed to palm you off onto the manufacturer.

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