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"lousy support" on by jamdoc1
Pros: nothing since I can't get it to work outside of my living room.
Cons: tech support stinks. they want $29.99 to tell me why Port forwarding doesn't work remotely. I'd rather throw the darn thing out..
Summary: It worked at home but when I tried to view remotely I got an error message about DVI connections but I connected via s-video. I was on vacation in Canada and contacted Slingmedia tech support and 24 hours later received e-mail that they will help me at a cost of $29.99.
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"Excellent customer service; product works as advertised." on by RealDogfart
Pros: Best CS department in town
Cons: It's more difficult to get out of the box than to operate
Summary: The best part about my new Slingbox Solo is knowing that they’ve got an awesome customer support department to lean on. I’m one of those guys that tosses the directions aside in favor of figuring things out myself. I will admit however that I did look at the directions for a few seconds. After fiddling with the software setup for about 15 minutes I decided to give their chat support a try. I got Cathy. We chatted for a few minutes and I followed her instructions but I eventually gave her control over my system and watched her whiz through my multi firewall setup. It’s certainly not a real difficult task to setup the Slingbox equipment, but setting up port forwarding can be challenging. I have to tell you and everybody reading this review that my 6 minute CS experience with Cathy was ‘the best’ CS experience I have ever encountered. Anybody that’s purchased network equipment and had to contact the manufacturer knows how frustrating it can be. Most of the time you’re speaking to someone in India that knows much less about your equipment than you do. None of that at Slingbox. They know their stuff.
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"Terrible & Frustrating Customer Support" on by brownmitch
Pros: No positive attributes to the Slingbox Support since they can not help when I am in a remote location
Cons: Zero help, counter-productive trouble shooting techniques. Asked me to make multiple changes to set up then claimed success that I had a bad cable. NEWSFLASH..I did not change the cable, I did not reboot my modem, I did not change the port on my modem.
Summary: Save yourself $300 and don't bother with this technology. Use your local local cable via internet instead.
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"Paid Support????" on by dannyolds
Pros: Good idea, not sure if it works
Cons: Support is pathetic
Summary: I can't speak for anybody else, but I would assume most would be concerned that this company only provides free support for 90 days after purchase (after that you pay for it). Sounds an awful lot to me like a product that is either high maintenance, doesn't work, or a company that sees support as a profit center. I was encouraged by the "you are watching TV over the internet in 20 minutes" tagline. Sure enough I had the thing set up in 20 minutes, but it didn't work. After battling with obscure and misleading error messages for a few hours I called support and was told that I had to send proof of purchase before they could help. This was to ensure that I was within the 90 day horizon. Support closed at 7pm and it was 6:45. I was told I had to scan or photograph my receipt and email it in to get help, but of course that couldn't happen before 7pm so I was out of luck for the day. I asked four times if that was the standard means of confirming purchase and/or registering the product to see if there was a faster way via the web and the guy refused to answer. He eventually HUNG UP ON ME, and I spent several more hours in vain trying to get the stupid thing working. My error message had to do with "disconnected due to poor internet connection". Apparently this is a popular problem. The Slingbox was hardwired to my router and every other device in my house has good connectivity. The setup program found the Slingbox on my network, so clearly they are either masking their own problem or too lazy to provide actionable feedback about the real problem. Basically this forces you to contact them.........a very good strategy if you can get people to pay for support! Sent the stuff in today and now have the privledge of getting support. Every instinct I have is telling me that this is going to turn out to be a nightmare, but I will try and make it work because I like the idea.
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"Great idea Bad execution" on by sebringguy
Pros: None that I can think of
Cons: Everything
Summary: I purchased a sling adapter and sling turbo through Dish network and had it "professionally" installed by one of their installers. The device only worked marginally when the guy left. Since then (3 weeks) I have only been able to get it to work marginally once. I have an Airvana in my home and have full cell service and network. My wife has 4g at her employment and still can't stream any shows. Dish network must be spending millions on advertising this product and service, but the delivery is horrible at best. If you are adventurous enough to try this product and service be prepared for many hours of diagnosis, waiting on hold for tech support, trouble tickets, rebooting your modem, moving wires and ethernet cables, unplugging your DVR, many weeks of non-performance, and a host of other issues that will drive you mad. I am giving them just a few more days to correct the problems. If I can't send it back for a refund, I'm going to drive my car back and forth over it. At least I'll have some fun!
Sling Media Slingbox Solo user reviews
