$100 rebate problem for VTECH modems from Bestbuy

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 20, 2007 Posts: 1

Hello,

Last January, I bought a Vonage package including a VTECH phone/modem from Bestbuy with a $100 rebate promise. I filed the rebate application along with all required documents and information on time.

A few days ago, I received a card from the Vonage rebate center telling me that the rebate was declined because "The MAC Address submitted is not valid or was not activated at www.vonage.com/activate" and asking me to resubmit before some date in April.

I called the rebate center at 1-800-347-4017 and verified that they had the correct MAC address, as indicated on my VTECH device. However, their system could not accept it as valid. So they suggested I should activate it again at the given address. I asked the hotliner to wait until I redid the activation. Since I had already activated my device when I purchased it, the system wouldn't allow me to activate it again and returned the same error message as above. I was then invited to call the technical support concerning my MAC address.

I called the technical support to inquire about the validity of the MAC address. The address seemed fine and my account is active (I know that, since I have been using the phone for 2 months and paying my bills) and suggested that I called back the rebate service and asked them to do a manual processing of my rebate application since the system does not seem to accept the information. The tech person said a note was added to my file about this problem.

Of course, when I called back the rebate service, they wouldn't accept doing a manual rebate and would stick to their procedure stubbornly. I even asked to speak to a manager who proved to be the most inflexible least understanding of all Vonage employees I got on the phone. I was asked to resubmit the MAC address again, despite its being invalid according to their system. When I insisted that they already have that same information, I was told to activate it. When I explained that I wouldn't be able to use the phone if it had not been activated, I was told to call the technical support. So on and so forth... Finally, the manager said that she will "escalate" my case to her hierarchy and that is all she can do, and asked me to call back in 7 to 10 business days.

All in all, I spent 75 minutes on the phone with three different Vonage services each bouncing me to the other.

This is simply unacceptable.

To avoid giving Vonage any cheap excuses, I will resubmit the MAC Address as requested. I actually scanned the back of my modem, and printed a copy of my dashboard stating that my account is "active". With that, I hope they will realize they have a problem in their system and stop jerking around.

I would appreciate any advice as to what should be done next. if you have any experience with a similar situation (VTECH modem not recognized as valid and/or purchased in store) please share it with us.

Regards,

Posts: 172 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Apr 19, 2006 Posts: 172

Try going to Bestbuy and ask help from then since you bought the device from them. Probably it needs some verification code from them. I am sure they'd help you since you bought the device from them. Smile

Posts: 1327 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1327

I did a search on this and somewhere in this forum someone had stated that you need to put all capital letters in when submitting the information for the Mac Address, worth a shot.

Do a search here on the forum.