Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Ordered Wi-Fi extender and decided to save $25 by buying the manufacturer refurbished model ($40 versus $65). Unit arrived with a blackened serial number, no software and no instructions. I should have known better at this point. I installed the unit to a Netgear router. Set-up was straightforward using WPS. The extender worked but had several drop outs which I had to repeat the set-up process to resolve. I found on-line that several others had the same problem which was fixed by updating the firmware for the extender. I logged in to the firmware site and found that I needed a serial number to download the firmware. I contacted Netgear to determine how I could update the firmware without a serial number and found that Netgear has a policy of not supporting refurbished units without paying a nominal $40 fee. Really!!! Is this what "manufacturer refurbished" means!!! Nowhere in the Amazon product information is this mentioned. Both Netgear and Amazon should be ashamed of this marketing and support. I could get better support from Craigslist buyers. Reading other reviews it appears if you have no problems that the manufacturer refurbished model saves money. If you have problems, buyer beware.