woosh equipment problem

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Joelee

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#27791 6-Nov-2008 19:07

Hi all, I got a problem with woosh wireless equipment. In March 2007, I discontinued my woosh contract and sent back the wireless modem shortly. A few days after that, I got an email from Woosh asking me to return the modem. I called the customer service and was told the modem had been received.

All right, seemed good. But guess what, this Monday, 3th Nov 2008 - 20 months after I discontinued my contract, I got a call from some collection agency asking me to return the modem or pay them $247.50 if I lost the modem. I told her I returned the modem already. She asked me for proof or otherwise I still need to pay the money. What the heck...!!!? How am I supposed to keep this kind of things for 20 months.

And today, I received a letter from the collection agency, giving me three options:return the modem, pay the money or have a default listed on my credit file. This looks really ridiculous to me. How can woosh ask its customers to return the equipment after such a long long time? Even I haven't confirmed they had got the modem, I would not have kept the track number for such a long time and I bet most people will do the same thing.

Anyone has encountered this situation? Or anyone has any suggestions? As a foreigner, I don't know if there are organizations to which I can make a complaint about this funny thing. Any feedback will be much appreciated?

nate

6473 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#176446 6-Nov-2008 22:59

Ring/email the collection agency and tell them there is a dispute on the debt collection. I don't think the collection agency can collect from you if you are disputing with the company that raised it with them.

As for a resolution, this really turns into a he said she said scenario. Unfortunately I don't have an easy answer for you. See if you can find the track and trace number, though it will be hard to prove that the parcel contained the Woosh modem (you could use the argument that what else would you be posting to them?).

natedog

120 posts

Master Geek

#176504 7-Nov-2008 08:44

I have had two "reminder" emails after having returned two lots of equipment to them also. Clearly they are pretty maticulous at recording their incoming mail! However, has always been cleared up for me with a phone call confirming that they had received the equipment. But given your scenario, who knows, they might still chase me yet!

Have you called Woosh to ask them to go over their records for March/April 2007? They should have a record of your phone call to check that the equipment had been returned.

I would:
1) Tell the agency the debt is disputed immediately
2) Call Woosh and nicely ask them to check their records to see if it is a simple mistake.
3) Failing that, dispute the debt with them. Be assertive. Ask for call records, in particular the one in which they confirmed they had received the equipment. Tell them, if they are not willing to acknowledge that you have no liability, that you will be disputing their claim in the disputes tribunal
4) Find any proof that you can (even details/dates of your calls/emails/courier etc.)
5) IF they don't confirm their earlier advice, lodge a claim with the Disputes Tribunal and hope for the best! (Info here)

Disputes tribunals look at each case on their own merits as opposed to who has what strict legal rights, proof etc. So hopefully you could convince them that given that Woosh had confirmed they had your equipment, their confirmation and delay in bringing the liability to your attention has made it unreasonable for you to retain records for this length of time. (Even though some might consider that this is not a long period of time for you to keep records).

Make sure you keep all your records of calls to the agency and woosh about this.

Good luck!

Joelee

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#176820 8-Nov-2008 12:58

guys, thanks for the replies. Nath, you look really professional in handling this kind of situcation

My problem solved now after talking to one of the staff in the Wellington branch (thank god, they now have a branch in Wellington)

What annoied me here is they asked me to return the equipment after such a long time, during which no contact was made. If they had asked me one or two months after I discontinued my contract, I'd have been able to tell them clearly what I'd done. If they can't find it, I might consider myself as a unlucky bastard and pay for the equipment. But 20 months is just too long. This is really unfair to their customers!

Anyway, it's solved now. Thanks again for the help.

natedog

120 posts

Master Geek

#176825 8-Nov-2008 13:29

Good to hear a positive outcome. Yes, clearly some good systems lacking on their part.

Before you completely forget about it now though, seek confirmation that their claim has been completely rectified/cancelled with the collection agency. You don't want another nasty surprise a year down the track to find that, if/when you go to apply apply for credit/an account somewhere, you have a black mark on your credit record resulting from this if they haven't followed up on it for you. I would personally ask for written confirmation that their mistake has been rectified so that you can keep it in case of any probs in future.

Cheers

Joelee

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#178719 18-Nov-2008 23:55

Thanks for your suggestions, Nath. You're right - I definitely need confirmation from the collection agency.

I asked the lady in the woosh office if she could send me an email confirming the return of the equipment. She said she had marked the equipement as "returned" in the system and that's the best she could do. I rang the collection agency twice last week. They said they were waiting for confirmation from Woosh and would call me back after it had been confirmed. But so far, no calls. I guess I need to call them again.

striker77nz

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#184120 14-Dec-2008 21:17

Joelee, I have had a similar issue with Woosh as the one you have had to endure. This is beginning to sound like a very serious issue for Woosh.

I was just informed that the faulty modem I returned 9 months ago via track and trace courier is showing up as 'pending' in their records and I will be liable for $250.

Back at time I had received a follow-up email saying the equipment was still outstanding, but I made a quick call to Woosh and they assured me I had nothing to worry about. 9 months later it is a different story.

So back to the present day ... after calling Woosh and speaking with a friendly team leader he assured me that, (if I called back next week) they could "probably" sort it out and I would get an apology letter from the debt collector. He explained the "probably" statement further by saying they don't really have a good record of what has been returned and that many of them are sent back to Dick Smiths (not sure why?) so it is uncertain where the hardware has ended up.

The serious issue is that he said Woosh have gone through the database and sent any records stating "pending equipment return" (older than a certain date I assume) directly to the debt collector. I would have thought trying to contact the customer would be a good starting point, especially given the state of their records. How many people would just pay the fee because they were unsure of what they actually did a year ago? I am not a lawyer, but this sounds like a major breech by Woosh that the Commerce Commission would take a serious exception to.

How many other people out there facing a similar issue? Hopefully I just encountered a frazzled team leader who was just a little bit confused, because I am still in disbelief that a NZ company would ever try to pull such a stunt.

gomez

84 posts

Master Geek

#184168 15-Dec-2008 06:39

"Sent back to Dick Smiths"

If you return something to Woosh, then it goes back to Woosh's 'Returns Dept' who then send it on to a company that refurbishes the units, then repackages them, and then sends them back to Woosh for redistribution.

One thing you could do is see if you have any record of the IMEI number and get Woosh to run that against their records. They can check the RADIUS server for the times and dates you connected, with whatever cellsite, and then get the IMEI from the connect/disconnect log. (Yeah I used to work for Woosh).

From that point they can trace it through the refurbishment system and see if it's been introduced into the wild again.

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atomik

14 posts

Geek

#185151 19-Dec-2008 15:02

I used to work on Woosh's helpdesk and they are always pulling stunts like this.

One of those peices of junk is worth 250 dollars? pulease.

What is meant to happen is all returned equipment goes to a company called RGL in Hamilton. It is then tested and then its meant to be sent back to Woosh.

I returned my equipment a while ago via track pack and im now not so sure, might give them a call to make sure they received.

Its not unlike woosh to pull a stunt like this, I think there moto was "if it will make us money, do it!" as they are clutching at straws to try and break even for the last how many years?

I think the company should just shut down. I mean, they are saying they are gonna roll out WI-MAX but naked DSL is going to make that obsolete anyway.

so again, they plan on throwing loads of cash into an expensive investment with out knowing if its even going to be stable.

If they don't close, just become a DSL provider like every one else. Unfortunatly its already a saturated market.

gomez

84 posts

Master Geek

#185239 20-Dec-2008 05:02

Its not unlike woosh to pull a stunt like this, I think there moto was "if it will make us money, do it!" as they are clutching at straws to try and break even for the last how many years?

I think the company should just shut down. I mean, they are saying they are gonna roll out WI-MAX but naked DSL is going to make that obsolete anyway.

so again, they plan on throwing loads of cash into an expensive investment with out knowing if its even going to be stable.

If they don't close, just become a DSL provider like every one else. Unfortunatly its already a saturated market.

They can't afford to shut down as they have spent well into the millions to put up towers on leased land. Their investors would certainly not be happy and probably aren't anyway as the company is $70 million (and more) in the red. Every year they ask investors for a few million to keep on operating.

striker77nz

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#185270 20-Dec-2008 10:07

I still cannot beleive that a company is allowed to operate to those standards in NZ.

In my case I was lucky. I had a look back through my records and found an email from 9 months ago where I questioned the "outstanding equipment" email. They replied confirming the receipt of my equipment. Seems strange that 9 months later their records showed something different. Anyway, a happy enough conclusion on this issue (yes I have other outstanding issues).

Good luck all