Discrepancies between Mac and PC support costs

We recently received a letter from a MacFixIt reader who complained that NetGear, a manufacturer of networking hardware, requires that Mac users pay an additional support fee in order to access the advertised 24/7 technical support:

"Netgear, makers of routers, ethernet hubs and the like, says on all six sides of their boxes that they provide '24/7 free technical support.' It turns out that this is true only for PC owners. I called with a question about my new router and was told (by three people) that, since I am a Mac owner, there would be a charge of $ 2.00 per minute or $ 30.00 per incident.

"They have no such thing as 'free 24/7 technical support' for the Mac. Of course, I read all the documentation and no mention of this was made anywhere."

NetGear's Web site says that the firm offers free 24x7 support on all products, covering Basic Installation, Hardware installation, Driver installation, Basic product configuration, and verification of installation and network connectivity.

We are following up with NetGear officials in order to obtain confirmation of the policy. In the meantime, what have been your experiences with platform support discrepancies? Let us know at late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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