Apr 24 2008
The changing face of WatchGuard Technologies
Several years ago, WatchGuard Technologies was recommended to me to manage our SMB perimeter security. I did some homework, and found that it had an attractive user interface, great reviews in business journals, and had a competitive pricing module. So I bought one for our firewall defense. I also began recommending and selling these to a few of my consulting clients - and everything went fairly well.
This was until I needed service. WatchGuard had just recently off-shored their support and I evidently didn’t buy gold support - which really slowed down my response time to issues. It was taking me days to get technical issues resolved and weeks to get contract issues resolved. The service was horrible.
I was just about fed up with their whole organization and lousy customer support. There were times when I felt like I was trying to throw money at them and they just kept putting up more walls. Something changed… About 18 months ago, it was like a light started going off.
I started getting calls back from the helpdesk within minutes instead of hours. I could not only get expert advice from sales engineers, but advice from multiple levels of individuals, and best of all - when something got goofed in my order they made it right and quick.
On Monday I had the most amazing experience, and I’m hooked. I had been going back and forth with technical support via their interactive ticketing system online, and got to a point where something had to be done. Out of the blue, almost as if the engineer had felt my frustration and concern through the web portal, he simply offered an RMA.
I was used to having to go through a battery of tests to PROVE it was their issue. I mean, the problem might have been a half dozen other things, but it almost seemed as if my experience had reached some predetermined, internal threshold at WatchGuard, and they quickly moved to intercept mounting frustration.
I felt a little guilty of not conducting my technical due dilligence, and the engineer did offer a utility to conduct some testing. However, after reading some of the documentation, it was going to require some travel to our branch office 2 hours away to run. I responded back that it would take me a couple of days to schedule the visit, and to my surprise, the engineer simply authorized the replacement right there. Wow!
I am scheduled to replace Tuesday, and even though it is a minor irritation to have to go through the swap out, it’s man-made and things like that do break. I wouldn’t have a job if not, right? (that’s rhetorical, by the way).
Let me tell you above all else, I am impressed with the dramatic turn around in WatchGuard’s focus on their customer. They got back to the basics that made them what they are, and I highly recommend their offerings for the SMB, but make sure you get their gold-level technical support. Overall though, I would give WatchGuard high marks for customer support and focus.
Update: April 29, 2008
I thought I would post this update. I drove out to our branch office today, and within 20 minutes had a fully operational system, and this even included an .1 upgrade to correct some security issues. … WatchGuard, you are making things too easy on me. Pretty soon, I may just end up like the Maytag repairman!
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