1

Watchguard Support needs some help. Has anybody talked to a live person when calling in?

If we have an issue we have to leave a message, then its sometimes 1 or 2 days later that we get a call back. What is the point of paying for the 24x7 support if our equipment is going to be down for 2 days?

A few years ago support was awesome - seems like it has gone downhill quite a bit.

What happened to companies actively supporting their products with people instead of online knowledgebase articles?

15 Spice ups
2

We’ve never had a good experience with Watchguard support. Sometimes they wouldn’t call back for almost a week. Half the time when they DID call back the person didnt know how to help us or fix our issue.

Best move I ever made was switching to Cisco. Since then (made the switch 3 years ago) I’ve only had to call support TWICE and spoke to a real person BOTH times, AND had the issue fixed within minutes.

We went “Office Space” on the old watchguard appliance, I should have video taped it.

3

Sounds almost as bad as out customer service department!

4

I’ve never called them. I’ve always created a ticket but again I’m not on the same shoes as you. They are growing faster than what they can support since they have just received a few VERY large customers in my area since their HQ office is only 15 miles from me.

5

I worked there in support at one time (Years back when support was great!) They have made many changes to support. Yes support has gone down hill. At one time they were a great company… Sure hope they can get it back together.

6

Don’t know if this is a USian thing.

Every time I’ve spoken to WG support from the UK, I’ve spoken to a real person and had my issue resolved within minutes,

1 Spice up
7

Great product, but I have ran into the exact same issues with their tech support. You’re not alone.

8

Only had to get in touch with their support once about a year and a half ago and had a good experience. I think it was a guy from the US I was talking to. That was just when I started in this job and this has been my first exposure to their products.

I’m using an X750e appliance and I think its a great device. Its been solid the entire time.

9

Huw3481 wrote:

Don’t know if this is a USian thing.

Every time I’ve spoken to WG support from the UK, I’ve spoken to a real person and had my issue resolved within minutes,

Same here. We used a company called ControlKey (now part of concorde i think)

10

Been using Watchguard products for nearly 9 years and have never had a problem with support but I will also say that I have not had to call support in several years. We have 5 fireboxes. Thanks for the heads up.

11

We have two fireboxes. When we have to call in it literally takes a half day or more for them to get back to us. We’ve even tried submitting requests via email and it still takes that long.

12

Make sure specifically request a tech in your time zone. If you don’t, it can become very frustrating.

13

Watchguard=bad

Barracuda= BEST I’ve ever worked with!! I wish that ALL I.T. companies would model their support centers after Barracuda’s!

14

I have 15 fireboxes and they have been good to me so far.

15

Thx for this post…

Have had lots of people rave about watch guard products but never used them myself…

When I don’t get support within 20-30 minutes I tend to shy away from those companies… ( occasionally I admit I will wait 2-3 hours but I it doesn’t make me happy)

8+ hours and I’m looking for another vendor… some cases i’m stuck with the one I’ve got but it does keep me shopping…

16

Update: got an emailed response today with links to 2 KB articles about resetting the device to factory defaults. WTH?? Thanks for the terrific support for my hardware failure WG.

17

You should check with your Rep with the issues that you guys are having.

18

When I had a major communication issue with WatchGuard, a manager actually called me and handled the case himself. The support issues with the company are valid. Regardless of support issues, I think WatchGuard make an outstanding firewall appliance.

1 Spice up
19

Sam430 wrote:

When I had a major communication issue with WatchGuard, a manager actually called me and handled the case himself. The support issues with the company are valid. Regardless of support issues, I think WatchGuard make an outstanding firewall appliance.

No doubt - I love their equipment. Like another posted said, if WG could adopt the same service levels of Barracuda, they would be unbeatable. For a company who makes such a great product, their support just stinks.

20

We called WG with a network down emergency early one morning this week. I had a tech call me back in under 10 minutes and he stayed on the phone with me until the problem was resolved. We used to use Cisco and I thought their response was fast. WG’s response I got was the absolute fastest response I have ever had.

1 Spice up