Tell HN: Netgear Orbi support is atrocious

I bought the Netgear Orbi RBK763S plus a satellite from Amazon in July 2022. The main router was plugged into a TP-Link modem, and this setup worked fine for 10 months.

This morning, it stopped working. The TP-Link still had an internet connection, and anything plugged into it worked, except for the Orbi. The Orbi itself still had working wifi, but couldn't get internet access.

Netgear "technical" support claimed to know this was because the TP-Link was MAC filtering, despite the Orbi not having any internet access, and me telling them I'd checked this in the TP-Link admin panel already.

So far, so typical offshore technical support. But then Netgear offered a "support contract" which would enable them to fix the issue in the Orbi for me. I refused, and was transferred back to Amazon, with Netgear telling them the problem was with "TP-Link because they are my ISP".

If you're thinking of getting Orbis as a wifi mesh, don't. They are overpriced but bog-standard wifi access points that need a whole load of extra subscriptions to get any additional value out of them.