Our school bought a MikroTik Cloud Core Router CCR2116-12G-4S+. The router sat on the shelf for a year before finally taking over the core role. After just 6 months of operation, it 'died'.
The service center here in Poland wasn't able to fix it, so I asked them to ship it to HQ for a paid repair, since the 1-year warranty had already expired. After 2 months of waiting, I got this:
Manufacturer Service: Conclusion: Charged repair has not been made. Board is unrepairable.
Is this a joke? The school paid over 1000 Euros for this box...
Generally speaking, we have MikroTik gear everywhere, but it really hurts to see that their service department isn't capable of performing a repair, even a paid one.
It may be some serious problem with this particular device - I’ve sent also CCR2116 for repair (warranty) with faulty NAND, and it returned repaired from MT - also by distributor from Poland
I understand everything, but I don't get how you can leave a customer – whether it's B2C or B2B – hanging like this, especially after they've spent so much money on top-tier equipment.
Manufacturer Service: Conclusion: Charged repair has not been made. Board is unrepairable.
Is this a joke? The school paid over 1000 Euros for this box...
Do you yourself know that the board is repairable? What part of this for you is a “joke”? If it is past warranty, the board is unrepairable, what do you expect them to do?
Here's a google lens translation of what was on the "trouble ticket".
"MikroTik Cloud Core Router CCR2116-12G- 4S+ HF8090QTC4T Equipment: Device and box. No connection with the device. The first failure occurred after 3 months of use (it sat in the box since purchase). All SFPs light up, RJ, no response after reset or power cycling. The next day, it started working on my desk. I tested and updated it. When I didn't load it, the SFPs lit up again, RJ, no communication - no information on the console. And it stayed that way. Routerboot won't start, and the console shows 0 information."
I could more easily understand "not repairable" if it was lightning or water damage.
It's possible a reflow could have fixed it, but it was an "intermittent" problem, which seems like it could be heat related (evidence "the next day it started working on my desk"). Possibly a cold solder joint. If that's the case, then it probably was a manuafacturing defect.
I guess the bottom line is, don't buy early. And don't leave it on the shelf for a large part of your warranty period, at least use it in a lab situation.
I would be disappointed if the only explanation was "Board is unrepairable", without any reason being given. (e.g. cost to repair > cost to replace due to ...) Not even an offer of a discounted replacement, even a refurb.
I expect them to quote a price, receive the transfer, and provide me with working equipment in return. By 'price,' I dont mean 100% of the cost of new gear, but around 30%—since I assume theyll be recycling the rest of the parts anyway?
It must have been struck by lightning or exposed to water during operation to be damaged "unrepairable".
In a case, where no visible physical damage is present, a reputable manufacturer should offer a goodwill replacement or repair. This situation is rather unfortunate.
Why do you presume to quote the price it will take, when you don't know what's wrong and how to fix it? (This I infer from the fact that you did not fix it yourself.)
If your complaint is that it's repairable in principle, I will agree, but remind you that this presumes that local labor is skilled in the repair process, that their time is free, and the parts they need are ready at hand. For products machine-made in huge batches in another country across the world, it is likely that none of this is true.
Another way "unrepairable" is phrased is "beyond economical recovery". It can literally be cheaper to manufacture a new one than to effect certain repairs.
@tangent
Allow me to disagree.
It is a long standing issue in modern times.
But in this specific case it does not sound unreasonable.
Cost of repairing is made of:
knowledge/training/tools
cost of spares
time (labor) needed for repair
Now, very often on electronic devices the cost of spare components, excluded "core" ones, is (where available) trifling, cents or in a few cases Euros.
The cost of time is high, and can be doubled or tripled by incidence of #1, but if we assume that the cost of labor of a technician is around 50 Euro per hour, it can be invoiced, included #1, at anything between 100 and 150 Euro/hour.
Since a CCR2116-12G-4S+ retails for around 1000 Euro, 1/3 of it is around 300 Euro, that allows for a two-three hours repair.
It is not unresonable at all to expect that much for a - rather complex - repair.
If you apply the same reasoning to an cheaper device it doesn't of course stand, try repairing (say) a hAP Ax S that retails for less than 80 Euro, unless it is a DIY job replacing a capacitor or two, any such defective device is "beyond economical recovery".
Let me summarize i am fully aware that theres a warranty and that it expired after one year hic.. I also realize the device sat in its box when it should have been tested (though I never had issues doing this in the past).
However I'm certain the device failed on its own—it was kept in a climate-controll server room with separation and UPS protection. 'Right to Repair'—Latvia is or wll be in the EU—and fine, I get it:: business is business, and it might not be 'cost-effective' for you to repair this router. But for heaven's sake, why can’t anyone even reply to my email with a basic explanation?
This is where my frustration lies: the manufacturer simply doesn't!! give a damn about providing an explanation despite my repeated emails!
How can the MANUFACTURER be unable to diagnose their own flagship device? We cannot have a situation where we scrap top-tier units just because...
160 hours/month is simply wrong when assessing cost of productive time. You neglected public holidays, annual leave, special leave, sick leave, long service accumulation, all of which factor down the effective hours in a year and thus in a month.
After that, you have only the raw cost of salary excluding overheads for workshop and equipment, but cost is not income, i.e. no profit.
After that you need to work out how much time is spent actually repairing stuff, which depends also on how much work comes in and the mix of difficulty, then work out your profit margin including a risk component for jobs inadequately done or for unreasonable customers.
160x50=8,000
Actual take home pay 2,000.
I am not familiar with Latvia taxes, but in no Euro country I am familar with (and I am familiar with a handful of them) the cost can be more than 3x the net take home pay.
So, 2.000x3x13 (including a 13th mensility)= 78,000
160x50x10=80,000 30 days holidays+30 days vacations
And invoicing/billing something that costs around 50 Euro at 100-150 Euro allows for tools, training and profit.
