And people are surprised, why?
Remember, customer support folks are just script readers in India.
A Lenovo firmware update “killed” the cloudy version of the Home Media Network Hard Drive, according to a bunch of customers that took to its support forum to vent their frustration. A firmware update to the catchily-titled version 3.2.8.30031 was recently released - so customers installed it and waited for the product to re- …
I know it's supposed to be the right thing to do, but I can count on one hand the number of firmware updates I have ever done on anything. Scares me to think I could bork a server, or in this case essentally lose the data. Unless there is a critical need, it will stay on the original FW
It shouldn't matter either way. Certainly HARDWARE should not be shipped in a broken state. The idea that a consumer should ever have to do a firmware update just shows how bad things have gotten. The sound engineering once expected out of hardware has fallen prey to the same sort of "ship it broken, we can patch it later" that once primarily dominated only computer games.
It's a disgrace.
Ooh, bet you're fun at parties.
I, for one, was wondering the same thing, so I'm glad the OP asked, because the result is that another commentard has actually answered it for me, right here, which saved me having to research it, however minor an effort that might be. (So thanks also to the answerer.)
Also, I don't get the impression this was intended, but it serves as a bit of deserved public shaming for someone who DID do something wrong, namely the author who omitted the appropriate background information from the article (or the sub-editor who dropped a paragraph that explained that bit, but left the hanging mention of Iomega).
I guess I kinda just advocated being an elitist prick there, so I'll go easy on you, but you might try thinking outside your own bubble when choosing your targets.
this happened to me. Drive was borked, spent 30 hours scanning and restoring all my pictures and junk off it. Threw the whole thing in the bin and got a Qnapp afterwards.
It was a slow pile of garbage anyhow. you couldn't even stream high res movies off of the damn thing.
Good riddance, and a lesson in making backups more frequently.
Does anyone how this plays with UK consumer protection laws? Usually as a consumer buying in the UK (and other EU countries), you get some protection if you buy a product that was already faulty when bought (even if the fault wasn't visible at the time, and therefore it breaks down much too quick). No protection obviously if you caused the fault, or someone else caused it.
But what if the product was just fine when you bought it, but then the manufacturer tries a firmware update and that breaks it?
as much as I love the Lenovo products I DO own, I recognise that they are a CHINESE company; and the Chinese have never really understood the concept of "Customer Service".
This will have to change if they want to compete effectively on the world markets, right now they are selling on price, but if they ever want to move upmarket, the punters will want to know that they can get the support they need when they need it.
I have a number of Chinese company products that are good.... but could be great if they ever got around to fixing minor niggles in the firmware; including an £50 ICE unit that does everything digital far better than big names like Clarion, but clips a tiny fraction of a second off of the start of every track.
I think I made that decision (Re: Iomega) about 9 years ago after one of their Rev drives went kaput about a month outside the 2 year warranty. Options? New drive = £hundreds or chargeable support event (Eur 12) but no repair/replacement offered for out of warranty devices (see option 1).
Since the drive and backup software had always been flaky (at one point it regularly generated BSODs when backing up) I figured it was time for a different backup system.
Looks like not much has changed so thanks for the heads up about Lenovo!
"The moral of the story is always back up before performing a firmware update. Others may just choose not to buy Iomega or Lenovo again."
And that's why I have no sympathy for these idiots. Wouldn't be at all surprised to hear the upgrade advised a backup, but these lusers chose to ignore the advice and whinge later.