Netgear customer service scam Netgear customer service scam California

Bought A Netgear dual band router 4-5 months prior to this model R6300.  The 5G band of the router stopped showing up,  Tried to reset it but it still did not work.  Called their customer sevice to see what the the problem was.  I was really expecting a $200 dollar router to last more than 5 months.  My last cheap netgear router lasted 5 years and still worked.  So I was happy with them and decided to buy another one.  

So when I called their customer sevice they used every scare tactic to try to get me to pay them at least $175 for a 1 year service package!  They tried to tell me the router was hacked, which I'm pretty sure was a lie.  The call center guy said we had been IP Spoofed. The next day I talked with a IT guy I work with and he confired this as being a scam.

 He said IP Spoofing isn't done in the router, the IP address changes and the solution was to reset the router. On the phone with the call center guy he told me we had to pay immediately or risk damage to our "delicate" Mac computer. He implied that paying NetGear to install a firewall and pay for support for a year was the only thing standing between us and identity theft. The call center guy didn't want to let us off the phone because he said we'd have to spend another 20 minutes the next time getting the problem diagnosed. When I finally got off the phone with him, he said that we needed to call back and ask for him or for another guy (Preeti or Jerre) because they were the only ones who could help us. I don't know if this scam is something NetGear operators are trained to do or was particular to these guys. 

I think its a pretty dirty tactic for companies to operate like this.  I would have been ok with a reasonable service fee say $20-$40, but I can buy a whole new one for what they were trying to charge me $175 and I can asure you it will not be a Netgear.