Several weeks ago we sent in two 3Com SuperStack 3 3300 24 10/100 Switchs into 3Com for repair. They both had spontaneously died out of the blue with in a few months of each other. Since this product was still covered under the “sort of lifetime” warranty from 3Com we figured that we’d simply send these units in, get them repaired and then put them back into use. Of course when ever you think something should be that easy and straight forward it rarely is. The first unit they fixed and sent back without any problems. After waiting a few more weeks for the second one to show up (we’d sent them both in at the same time) we finally called 3Com wanting to know where our second device was that we’d sent in for repair. We were told that it had arrived physically broken and that wasn’t covered under the warranty. Obviously it was in one piece when it got sent, we’d had insured. Long story short, UPS wasn’t going to cover the broken hardware either because 3Com had thrown away the box the device had been shipped in, which UPS wanted to confirm that the damage was done during shipping.
At this point I’m trying to figure out two things about 3Com’s support. One, why didn’t they call us when they opened up the box and found that one of the devices was in pieces? Two, surely 3Com shipped and receives enough packages each day to know that if something arrives broken then maybe they should hold on to the box to prove it was damaged in shipping.
Fast forward to this morning when a box from 3Com shows up at the office. We figured this would be the (hopefully) fixed second 3Com switch. What we found it the box was truly amazing. It was indeed a 3Com switch, but it wasn’t ours. As matter of fact it wasn’t even the same model as ours. On top of all of this the one they sent us back looks like it has been through a fire and then sent to the bottom of the ocean. I’d never seen a piece of network equipment look so incredibly toasted. So my boss had the honor of calling 3Com to chew them out over the complete uselessness. Once that was done I wanted to make sure we could all look back on this, so I took a few pictures. The thumbnail above a close up of the back expansion port. There are two more of the back, one is head on from the back and the other if from the top side back. The last shot is from the top side front. Notice how black the fan vents are on the side, ouch!
Hey 3Com, don’t expect me to be recommending your equipment if this is the type of service I can expect for products with a “lifetime” warranty. It shouldn’t be noted that their lifetime warranty isn’t really lifetime. The warranty is good up until five years after the product has been discontinued. It would be cheaper for us to simply buy Netgear switches every five years.