Hi, I have been a 4 year nest WiFi user in Hong Kong since 2020. I originally purchased a 2 pack (1 router 1 WiFi point) then purchased another WiFi point to extend the signal at my home.
Recently for the last few months I have experienced dropping signal issues on the WiFi points like many other posts discussed here and on Reddit. My WiFi points appear to be connected to the internet but my phone and laptop devices are not picking up signals from the WiFi point. The router has been working fine all the way.
I recently had a very bad experience with the Google help centre which they tried to help me get the WiFi points back working by factory resetting the WiFi points. Following 1 hour’s phone call trying to reset the devices and many setting adjustments they were not able to resolve the connection issues so they asked me the send them a diagnostics report for them to further check. The following is their reply after checking:
We Apologize for the inconveniences with the Nest WiFi Points that are unable to join with your WiFi Network. We review the troubleshooting that you perform and we check for the information about the devices. According to the information Provided, we notice something that must be the cause of the issue. Your Main Nest WiFi Router that is identified with the serial number: xxxxx. This device was manufactured for Canada and according to the serial number of one of the Nest WiFi Point that is identified with the serial: xxxxx. This device was manufactured for Canada as well but is part of a different Pack, not the same as your main Nest WiFi Router. And for the other Nest WiFi Point that is identified with the Serial Number: xxxxx. This Specific Device was Manufactured for the United States. So basically we have an incompatibility with the Regions of the devices, Because we have 3 different Devices that are not part of the same Pack and have Different Regions, so the devices can't work together, When you setup the devices for the first time it was possible to add WiFi points from 2 different regions, they'll work fine for while until they got new updates on the firmware versions so right now if we try to add another devices from other regions or even if has the same region, they are going to be unable to setup on your WiFi Network, so our recommendation is to get WiFi Devices from the same region (A complete 3 Pack). We really apologize for all these inconveniences.
The problem to their reply is:
1. I purchased a 2 pack (apparently made in Canada) and an extension (made in US). The 2 pack was purchased in the same packaging so even after giving them the serial number, they failed to identify it was a 2 pack and gave me some easy excuses. There should be no way the 2 pack does not work.
2. When I bought extension (made in US), I was told by the reseller that it would work as an extension (there is no official channel in Hong Kong and we had to purchase the imported version). There was no mention on the Google websites that the same country is need for WiFi to work and it has worked for 3+ years.
3. they mentioned a firmware upgrade which resulted in my connectivity issues due to different manufacturing countries, which I think is the real reason of the problem.
Since my WiFi network at home as been working fine until they patched the firmware upgrade, I fail to understand why customers should have to suffer when they decide to make adjustments. I’m have responded their representatives by email and is still waiting for their feedback.
Would just like to share my experience here in case it is helpful to anyone, and would like to see if anyone has experienced the same thing and how they dealt with it in the end. Thanks for reading!
