Newegg randomly banned my account and refuses to disclose why.
Written: Mar 28, 2012 (Updated Apr 2, 2012)
| Ease of Ordering: |
 |
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
 |
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
|
|
|
| Full Review |
A little bit about myself. I’m a formal CSR (Online sales and Customer Service for a cable repair department totaling 3 years) that graduated college, and got a job working for a company that is contracted by the Department of Defense, therefore I have to have certain clearance levels. So I know bad customer service when I get it, and the government knows about everything I’ve done in my past which would even remotely be considered suspicious. I’ve used Newegg for several years, and like most people I was that guy that didn’t understand/was skeptical of other people’s complaints because usually the customer is wrong and I haven’t had any problems whatsoever with Newegg. However, unfortunately this isn’t the case this time.
At the beginning of March (March 2nd)I ordered several hundreds of dollars’ worth of parts from Newegg for a computer I was building without any issues from them. Roughly two weeks later (March 13th) I ordered the last piece of my computer, the motherboard, on a Tuesday since it had gone on sale. Friday comes and they still haven't taken the money out of my Paypal, I call in to see what’s up, the CSR says it's still processing and to wait. Since it was a sale, I figured that might’ve been the delay so I waited.
Saturday comes, I try logging into my account online and it says that my account has been suspended and to call customer service. This concerns me so I called them a.s.a.p. on Sunday when they were open. The CSR says she asked for clarification as to what’s going on and will get back to me within 24 hours.
48 hours later (fail) and still no word so I call them back. While on the phone, the CSR hears back from the last CSR I spoke with and says that the verification department says my account has been flagged with "suspicious activity", and won’t tell me why for "security purposes". I asked about the order I placed, and I was informed that they went ahead and voided it without so much as even notifying me. Upset, I ask for a supervisor because I feel like I'm getting the run-around. I get connected to someone who says he's a supervisor. He tells me the same thing, says there's nothing they can do, it's an indefinite ban, and I could just open a new account with a different shipping address. Now why on earth would I send stuff to a place other than my home?? Frustrated, I ask him to email me my rebate forms since I can’t get online to get them. He goes and emails me the wrong rebate forms, and his signature title in the email is "Assistant Trainer" not "Supervisor" which I found insulting. After an email back he finally gets me the correct rebates. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
The next day I found myself still upset about this shenanigan, so I chatted in to a CSR who transferred me to the escalations department after reading my complaint. The agent in escalations asked me four questions to give to the verification department. Am I using an international card, do I have any other accounts with them, what’s the name of the cardholder, and if I placed the order outside the US. The answer to all of these questions was no, aside from my name. She said this had been forwarded to the Verification Department and that within 24 hours I’d receive a reply. I didn’t hear anything for 5 DAYS(FAIL), so then, yet again, I had to contact them.
At the same time I was chatting with Escalations, I talked to another CSR via email (to get my complaint out to as many people that will hear me), who stated that if Escalations told me she’d get back within 24 hours that “rest assured, she will”, and if she doesn’t to go ahead and email her directly. We see how that turned out. So I emailed her directly, stated my entire case yet again. She emailed me back 3 days later (fail) and asked me the same exact 4 questions that I answered for Escalations. So yet again, I answered those questions, and 24 hours later (for once) I received this reply:
“Dear XXXXXXX,
Thank you for contacting us back. Upon further evaluation of your account, we have been informed by our verification department; that we are unable to service your account. The shipping address and account have been determined to be unserviceable at this time. Unfortunately due to security purposes our verification will not release any further information. We apologize for any inconvenience. You may try to create a new account with a different shipping address to place order. Thank you in advance for your understanding.
Thank you,
CSR”
After this, I chatted back in and spoke with an Escalations supervisor who was very friendly and gave me more information than any other representative so far. She did however ask those same three or four questions that the first couple of reps asked, and again sent it to the verification department to see if that would get my account unbanned. After 3 days I received an email back saying that it had not worked and my account is still banned.
It’s so nice to know that Newegg can just randomly ban peoples accounts and “for security purposes” not tell them why. Somehow I doubt that they have some sort of secret suspicious information on me that the government doesn’t already have. I was a loyal Newegg customer for years and they just dropped me like that. So I went ahead and filed a complaint with the BBB as I stated to them that I would, and I’m letting everyone know how crappy their customer service is. It sucks to be one of the few that has a problem with them. Especially since Newegg won’t bother helping me sort this mess out to retain me as a customer.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? ASRock Extreme3 Z68 Motherboard
|
|
|
|
About the Author
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
|
