Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I wish I could give it NO stars! Not just because of the product problems, but because the company and customer service is HORRIBLE! I have been around Netgear, Linksys/Cisco, etc. modems/routers all my adult life. I have used several high end Netgear routers in my home and work, and I am an international cyber security expert, as well as worked for the FCC in Washington, responsible for the agency technology, so I know about setup, spectrum, channels, etc. A little over a week ago, I decided to upgrade to Comcast's 1gb service, so I chose another brand that was supposed to work with my provider (both confirmed by one part of Comcast's website, and Amazon). Long story short, it isn't compatible in my area and conflicting information on Comcast's site, so back it went. I decided to go ahead and splurge for the $400 Netgear C7800, as I didn't have much choice. I installed it, much fewer options for setup than other Netgear devices, but the basic settings should work fine... Well...who knows? I have it working with Comcast on the 2.4g Guest, 5g and 5g Guest networks, but anytime I connect ANY device (and I tried several) to the 2.4g main SSID, I got collisions into the BILLIONS! That is not an exaggeration! I started to dig into why the speed was not so good (almost half the speed I was getting from the Comcast equipment at 150-200 vs. Comcast's modem/router at 300-400!) I did get nearly 1 gig on the wired ports, so that was good. I managed to use my Guest 2.4g for my 2.4g devices (allowed ability to see other computers on my network) with no collisions for now, but no dice on the main 2.4g. I spent an hour troubleshooting with Netgear Tech Support from India, only to play "let's throw a dart at options to see what might work, regardless that there is no logical way they would fix it," and "whack a mole." I told him exactly and concisely what the problem was, and what I tried, to no avail, having to repeat it 5 times over the course of the hour. I asked multiple times to get to Level 2 Support as well as his manager, with no success. At one point, he put me on hold for ANOTHER HOUR, supposedly trying to get me to someone else. During that wait time, I called in again from another phone, and after 20 minutes, finally got another technician that told me he couldn't get me to a manager either, as "he" was busy and they were having problems with accessing Level 2 Support. i agreed to have them call me back. 4 hours later, at 10 p.m. EST, I get a call back from a Manager, only to still not have the actual issue documented properly, and offered to "try" to get me to Level 2. I waited another 30 minutes to try to get to Level 2, when he came back on the line and suggested that the best course of action is to get a replacement. If Netgear sends me a replacement for a brand new C7800 bought two days ago, they would send me out a REFURBISHED unit and I would have to PAY for shipping charges! REALLY??? He suggested I go through Amazon to get a NEW replacement! Their customer service has never been great, but this was as bad as I have ever seen anywhere! I feel sorry for people that don't as much experience with technology, dealing with these people. At one point, they were just making stuff up about distance from the modem/router with the wireless being too close, interference possibilities, channel saturation, normal collisions, number of devices causing collisions, etc. Really? If any of that was remotely true, why would the Guest 2.4 work perfectly with no collisions, yet the main 2.4 generating billions of collisions for just one device, on the same channel and settings, other than the SSID? I am very disappointed and this is not the first Netgear product recently that has not been as advertised. Buyer beware and good luck if you have to go with this modem/router.