Retail Signup Trouble - Invalid MAC Address

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 17, 2005 Posts: 3

I recently purchased a Linksys RT31P2 router online. When I received the router, I went to the Vonage website and tried to use the Retail Activation page. When I give it my MAC, it tells me it's invalid. Being overseas, it costs me money to call the 800 number for support, but I made a call anyway. The man on the phone looked up my MAC and said my router was defective. Obviously, it's not - I got it brand new out of the packaging and works fine. What I'm wondering is if there is some way a tech support person can adjust the MAC database to allow me to register. Any help from people who have experienced this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Posts: 646 · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:19 am Post subject:

Are you sure you didn't just misread it or something? I don't see how an address could be defective...

It should only consist of the numbers 0-9, and letters A-F. The first half is likely to be "001217"

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 17, 2005 Posts: 3

I know I didn't mistype it - I've tried re-entering it about 20 times. I'm aware of what a MAC consists of, so I didn't put the letter 'O' where I needed to put zero or anything.

Posts: 28 · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:20 am Post subject:

Make sure you are entering the WAN mac address. If that is still not working, it may mean that you device's mac id is not registered in our database. Sometimes devices fall thru the cracks and do not get registered. If you pm me with your model, and mac address, I will request to have it registered for you.

Posts: 2257

Alchie wrote:

I recently purchased a Linksys RT31P2 router online. ...Being overseas, it costs me money to call the 800 number for support,....

Seeing that you are overseas, where exactly did you buy this from?
Are you sure it is a Vonage Linksys?

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 17, 2005 Posts: 8

Sorry to bring up an old topic, but did this get resolved? I am having the same problem after purchasing a Vonage router from "The Source by Circuit City" - I PM'ed Richl just now in the hope that my MAC address can be added into the system as well, as this is clearly a brand new router, and has the Vonage logo stamped right on the box.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

Ryan

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 17, 2005 Posts: 3

Actually, this is the whole story of what happened:

Richl informed me that the MAC address from the acccount of the previous owner of the router could be swapped onto a new account after I sign up. So I explained my situation to the lady that helped me create a new account, and she said the same thing, and put in a ticket to get the MAC address swapped to my account. After 2 days, the MAC still wasn't swapped - I called the tech support guy, and he said that it was impossible to remove the MAC from the other account, and, being overseas, I am unable to get one shipped directly. So, after paying only ~$30 to sign up (shipping fees were waived as no router was shipped), I also incurred a total of $100 cancellation fees - 2 $40 dollar fees (one is probably refundable if I return a router that was never shipped to me....., I don't know what the other is for), and a $30 fee (probably for account cancellation - but I thought a money back guarantee protected me from this.....). Now, to be fair, I haven't tried to resolve these charges, but it still irks me that employees have varying stories about what they can and cannot do in my situation.

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

Alchie,

It is always frustration for us when the "whole" story is not given. As far as we know, the rt31p2 cannot be purchased anywhere in a retail environment. So when you mentioned that you purchased it, it always rings a bell. The consistent answer we get here is that Vonage will not transfer a "used" router to a new customer although under extreme circumstances, they might do just that. So the answer you received from CS is the standard one we have all heard before. What Richl is trying to do is out of his own desire to help.

rstrauss,

has your situation been resolved however? Your purchase is a standard one from a retail store and should be resolved by richl. Please post back and update us. Not that we can do anything on our end since it's a registration issue with Vonage.

mundy5

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 17, 2005 Posts: 8

Nothing yet, I'll update when I hear something.

Posts: 28 · Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2005 11:47 am Post subject:

Alchie,

I apologize for whomever you spoke to. But yes you can have a device removed from an account. If someone has 2 devices on one account and wants to move one to another account it needs to be removed from the main account first then added to the new account. This can be done, I have had it done for many customers, who purchased devices off of ebay or are using a friends old device. If you do wish to try again pm me and I will get it done for you.

Rich