★★★★★ 1
Product Quality Issues, Lip Service Product Support, Don't Buy
Size: 1 router + 2 extenders, Configuration: without eero Plus
I wanted to activate Amazon Key Delivery to my garage but my ASUS WiFi router signal was a bit weak to the MyQ sensor, so I ordered the Eero router to remedy the problem. I was happy to see that a stronger signal now reaches the MyQ sensor. But soon I noticed various problems with my devices connected (both E/N and wireless) to the new router, problems I did not have with the ASUS router. Video streaming would sometimes drop out, freeze or pixelate with both E/N and WiFi connections, and it happens to both video streaming from the Internet (YouTube, Amazon Video, Disney+) and local network streaming of Xfinity cable card decoded TV channels. The problem is very intermittent and unpredictable. Audio streaming (Amazon Music Unlimited) would sometimes disconnect after a station has been running for a few hours. My first suspicion was that some component or device in my setup has gone bad, but the problems were happening across different devices. WiFi signal strength was "good" to "excellent" to the problem devices, and video breakups were occurring concurrently on two different devices while watching the same show. I spent over two months trying to isolate the problem. My home setup is a bit unusual and that made debugging the problem more complicated. Besides the usual devices such as computer, laptop, tablet, and phone, I also have the MyQ garage door opener, fire TV stick, Android TV box, Nvidia Shield and a cable card tuner/decoder that takes Xfinity cable transmission and decodes the encrypted stream into a regular video stream that all my TV's at home can watch without paying extra for Comcast set top boxes and extenders. Some are connected by E/N, others are WiFi connected. However I'm the only user of the network so at most 3 devices would be active at any one time, hardly a load on an Internet bandwidth of 80+ Mbps on Xfinity cable. So signal quality and bandwidth were eliminated as problems. I replaced E/N cables, reset all the devices, changed the location of the Eero extenders, replaced HDMI cables, switched the E/N devices to WiFi, and numerous experiments to find a common thread. None of the components seem to be the cause of the problem. Finally I had to conclude that the problem is in the Eero router.
I finally called Eero product support on the phone. First level support clearly does not know enough to help. He couldn't even understand my hardware configuration, even tried to tell me that I could connect my component to the Eero E/N port the way I did because he doesn't know how E/N works. I finally insisted on talking to level 2 support. After much stalling, level 2 finally came on the phone. He insisted that the problem is either with Comcast or with one of my non-Eero components. When he found out that I have an E/N switch in my configuration (had to because this Eero router only has one port available after the other port is used to connect to the cable modem), he blamed the E/N switch as being not compatible with the Eero. I doubted his assessment but I went along with getting a recommendation from him for a compatible E/N switch. Turns out that I'm already using a TP-Link E/N switch that he recommends. I asked him to send me another Eero unit to try out in case I received a defective unit but he refuses, saying that he can't just take my word for it that the unit maybe bad. He needs definite proof and that I need to log occurrences of the video streaming problem with specific date, time and problem so he can check into an Eero log to help me fix the problem. After over 4 hours on the phone with Eero support, I decided to go along with their recommendation.
To simplify problem isolation, I decided to narrow down my connectivity configuration to the minimal, in the process I removed the E/N switch, deleted the cable card decoder, and stream all contents through the Internet. Now all I have is Xfinity Internet through a cable modem connected by E/N to the Eero gateway then E/N to a LG smart TV watching YouTube TV. The problems persisted. After watching a few days of TV and logging down the date, time and problem, I wrote a lengthy email to Eero product support, asking them to look into the log and determine the problem. After not hearing back for more than a week, I finally made one other configuration change: replaced the Eero with the original Asus router. Guess what, I don't have those problems anymore. It has been a few weeks since I switched back and I'm still running trouble free. I left Amazon Music Unlimited running for over 40 straight hours and it never disconnected. I'm not having any video drop out issues anymore, and UHD movie streaming on Amazon Video no longer drops down to SD quality occasionally as it did with Eero.
It's clear to me that Eero product support pays lip service to working with their customers, but once they realize that the problem is with their product, they disappear and ignore you. The impression I got is that they have all been taught to blame something else and when it's clear that the problem is in their product, they will ignore you and hope that you will go away.
Either that I received a defective unit or that the product has design problems. I suspect it's the latter by the way the support team refuses to take responsibility for their problems even when it's conclusively proven to them. My recommendation is that people should not buy from a company that doesn't back their product. I sent my email to them on Jan 24, 2021, and as of today, Feb 18, I have not received so much as an acknowledgement.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2022
