Newegg.com Holds Woman's Account Hostage Until She Gets Her Brother To Reverse Chargeback
Newegg seemed to think Jenn was responsible for her brother's chargeback with them. When she tried to place an order using her own name and credit card number, but with the same shipping address as her brother, her account was suspended. Jenn figured she could resolve the problem with a conversation or two with Newegg's customer service department, but as you'll see from the transcript below, Newegg's CSR blatantly says Jenn's account won't be approved until her brother reverses his chargeback.
First, here's what happened to trigger the suspended account in the first place:
I attempted to order a memory card from Newegg.com. I say attempted because beyond running the financial transaction and holding my money hostage for a week, nothing else was processed. The only reason I became aware that there was an issue was due to wanting to check the status of my order and attempting to log in. They locked my account which was less than 24 hours old. So I played the customer service game.
First came the email I sent, "I do not understand why my account is suspended.... I just wanted to check my order status. I tried to log in for the first time and it is suspended. Help me understand please."
Then the reply, "We apologize for the misunderstanding. However, we have an account that has a charge back with the same information you have provided. This is the reason we are unable to service you at this time. You will have to take care of this matter before we can further assist you."
Jenn called Newegg to talk to someone about the matter, and was surprised when "they gave me the name on the other account without prompting. The privacy act does not seem to be in their training. The name was my brother's, who lives at my house with me."
Jenn asked the CSR directly, "So, does that meant I'm not allowed to have an account because my brother has an issue with you?" She was told they'd get back to her via email:
The next email they sent said, "Unfortunately, we are not able to re-open your account. Apparently, there is a 3rd account yours is linked to. I have no further information than this.I apologize for the inconvenience."
Now annoyed, Jenn tried reasoning with Newegg via their live chat customer service, which is where the really shocking part of the story comes in—that Newegg is holding Jenn accountable for her brother's actions:
In that chat they gave me my brothers full name and account number. This is making me nervous as that's all private information that should not be released, I don't really care if we live at the same house. They proceeded to tell me,
Phoebe: We have checked that your acct is related to account with customer number CENSORED That account has charge back record with us. so we block that account. The account holder name is CENSORED.
Jenn: Yeah, thats my brother.
Jenn: We have the same address.
Jenn: Shipping and billing, or do you mean credit card information.
Phoebe: Sorry for keep you waiting.
Jenn: Not a problem.
Phoebe: I have checked that you need to let your brother to reversed the charge back with his bank and provide us with proof that shows the reversal was successful done.
Phoebe: We will then be able to further assist you.
Jenn: in order to have an unrelated bank and account unlocked....
Phoebe: Yes, please send the proof of the reversal to [redacted].
Jenn: I have absolutely no idea what you mean by reversed charge either.
Jenn: Are you kidding....
Jenn: Seriously are you kidding?
Phoebe: It is the issue between your brother and the bank. He may have issue with bank.
Jenn: So you're telling me, that I have to go to my brother, tell him that you guys gave me his personal information, tell him that unless he calls you, finds out what it is that you want done, takes care of it, emails you proof that its been taken care of, that I cannot order anything from you.
Jenn: My brother, who has nothing to do with my money and I have nothing to do with his.
Jenn: I just live in the same house.
Jenn: And this is the only way I am going to be able to order anything from you ever....
Phoebe: Sorry for all the inconvenience this may have caused you. I have checked with our related department that we will not unblock your account.
Jenn: Is there a reason why?
Jenn: Is there something I did that violated terms of service in any respect?
Jenn: Or is it simply that my account is related to my brothers account?
Jenn: And I still need to know if its banking information or credit card information thats related.
Jenn: Rather shipping and billing.
Jenn: Sorry.
Phoebe: You brother's account has charge back record with his bank. Your account is related to him since the address is the same.
Jenn: Gotcha, just so I have the facts straight.."
That was all strange enough, but then Jenn filed a complaint with the BBB and her story took a weird turn when a Newegg rep called her directly to explain why they would really never, ever, not in a million years, ship anything to her (emphasis ours):
Since going through their customer service did not get me the desired result, I filed a Better Business Bureau complaint. I was not happy about being used as a collection agency, the financial transaction being done before address verification, or the amount of information they were willing to release to me about someone who I have no legal bond to. Well, they got the BBB complaint, and they called. I answered and the woman on the other end of the phone seemed appalled and apologetic of the behavior of the customer service department and was totally utterly shocked. She requested all the emails and the chat logs to be emailed to her, so I did.
She called me back about 45 minutes after that conversation and said that it had nothing to do with me or my brothers account. Someone, who's name I don't recognize as they gave me that too, did something so horrible years ago that they have banned our address until the end of time. Absolutely no dealing with anyone at that shipping or billing address allowed. I politely said well that's fine but we've only lived here for 3 years that person is no longer here. She said "Well I cant help you, it doesn't matter that you haven't been the owner of that house for very long, its a security issue and we will never ship to you.
I find it truly terrifying that a business can ban an address until the end of time. She also told me that I could still order from them if I got a new address, shipping and billing of course. Which is kind of funny. I have absolutely no intentions of moving or changing my billing, address so I can order things from Newegg.com. I wonder if that's going to go along with Inspection reports when you buy a house from now on? Who will and will not do business with that address? I guess what bothers me more than anything is that I had to find this all out by chance. I was never contacted and told that due to security reasons my money was being refunded and my order was not going to be processed. They obviously don't need the business or the money.
Was Jenn's house the former site of a massive scam perpetrated against Newegg? Was the Newegg rep making up a story to put an end to the drama because the billing department refused to cooperate? We may never know, but it's clear that even Newegg has its limits when it comes to making sure the customer is satisfied. Or is even a customer in the first place.
(Photo: Getty)
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Comments:
having worked with Newegg before, they are probably right, Newegg has one of the best customer service policies in relation to equipment out there and I have never in all my dealings (and at least 3 RMAs) had to even threaten a chargeback.
While this doesnt absolve Newegg of the mistake of linking her
account to her brothers, there is no doubt in my mind her brother is
probably a douch who tried to scam them out of parts for his "leet
system yo."
So yeah... Even talking to you, how would they know your not trying to place an order for your brother?
Also anyone, any store, etc. has the right to refuse a customer. They never took your money so it's not like they are ripping you off.
Kick your brother for being lame, and get a memory card from any of the other 800,000 stores online.
If it was the brothers account that was the problem, I totally understand Newegg not wanting to ship to the same address. This alleged 3rd party situation is a bit hazier. The CSR's didn't exactly treat the situation correctly, but I can't blame a company for not ever wanting to ship to an address that appears to have been the origin of fraud ever again. They are no doubt out-of-state and unable to ever know for sure who is using that address and for what.
"said that it had nothing to do with me or my brothers account. Someone, who's name I don't recognize as they gave me that too, did something so horrible years ago that they have banned our address until the end of time."
So how was her brother able to order something in order to do a charge back in the first place?
Maybe Newegg thought that Jenn and her brother were one person, trying to scheme them.
I'm really sorry for that to have happened to her, especially since I shop newegg. But the idea of permanent ban from shipping is funny.
This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine got her boyfriend banned from the Chinese restaurant.
i think this would be similar to someone walking into a store with your friend/brother who is known to shoplift from the store (picture by the counter or something). They can refuse to sell you things because they banned that person and you're trying to get around that (innocently or not). but newegg doesn't know faces or family relationships, it only knows names and addresses, so it would make sense that they would deny selling things to you.
i've personally bought lots of things from newegg and never had a problem with them, and they usually have pretty good customer service and good support when it comes to returning stuff that arrived DOA, so i'm sorry you had this bad experience.
@officeboy: Before blaming the OP, it's courteous to at least make a vague attempt to read the posting.
"....I say attempted because beyond running the financial transaction and holding my money hostage for a week...."
Change your address to "123A YourstreetName" and see if the system still catches it. :P
Newegg customer service is aces, as far as I'm concerned. Nothing beats them.
Sounds like they are just protecting themselves from another chargeback. If they don't want to sell to her, that is there prerogative. She can go elsewhere.
Just goes to show you, no matter how good of a customer service dept you have, you can not please everyone all of the time.
I vote for the "making shit up" theory. If the address was banned from years and years ago, how did her brother get to place an order in the first place? If they're concerned that she's ordering items for her brother, then why didn't they notice that she's using an entirely separate account and billing information? And really, why lock her money for a week instead of voiding and reversing the transaction.
I guess actually reading the facts isn't as much fun as "STFU and we blame you OP!!!" though.
But...but...I thought we LIKED Newegg...
OH and for anyone worried about newegg leaking "personal information". She is probably calling from the same phone number registered on her and her brothers account. Has the same address and probably the same last name. I think it's reasonable for newegg to let her know the name of the person responsible for her being blacklisted.
At least they gave her an idea of how she could clear the mess up.
Also folks these aren't medical records. Get over this silly fascination with "personal info", it's not that big a deal. You can get 100X the info just calling up your local tax assessor and getting info about your neighbors addresses, phone numbers, how much they paid for their house etc.
Woah... Newegg why must you hassle this women for her brother's mistake? It's not like she dishonored your family somehow.
that makes no sense. it's a different person but the same address. in this case it was your brother but it shouldn't matter. if it was a roommate that you hardly know, would they have banned you the same way just beacuse it was the same address?
@ThunderRoad: Change your address to "123A YourstreetName" and see if the system still catches it. :P
Then the delivery is sure to arrive!
First, why would they care who she's buying it for?
Second, at least according to the summary, they did take her money - they gave it back after a week, but that's too long if they never intended to ship things to her.
Finally, you assume her brother is "lame" without knowing his reason for the chargeback or anything at all about his interaction with Newegg.
People pick Newegg because they have the sweet-spot combination of price and customer service. She surely could buy her memory card someplace else, but it's likely she went to Newegg because they were a known good quantity. Her interaction with them resulted in dissatisfaction and bad publicity, and it takes very little of that to undo a whole lot of good will.
I think Newegg handled this badly, but I also think that they'll probably make it right again, because they tend to do that.
I think a more reasonable debate would be for all of us to speculate on what unspeakable evil occured between New Egg and the previous owners of the house that causes a permanent lifetime ban on the the present and any future homeowners of that address?
Poaching?
Well I vowed to stop buying from Newegg on June first when they started collecting (rather than vigorously fighting) New York state taxes. (I purchased an Asus EEE PC from a smaller vendor 2 days ago and didn't have to pay the tax.) But, this is one more reason to shun Newegg until they clean up their act.
If you're at the same address, especially with the same last name, how are they to know that the 2 accounts aren't the same person just trying to get around the block/suspension and scam them? First thing she should have done was talk to her brother to find out what's going on, but from the conversations posted above, they never even speak to each other even though they live in the same house.
And as for giving the brother's name, again, it's obviously the same household and a relative (and for all they know, the same person), it's not like they're telling a complete stranger. Get over it.
As for the thing about banning that address forever, I have no clue. I'd ask them about their policy about that and see if there is any way to prove they are not the other person. I am curious as to what the hell happened to get a permanent ban on an address.
Is it just me, or did the bit at the end indicate that this really wasn't related to the brother's charge back?
I also would really like to know why the brother has a charge back in the first place--maybe he did it because they took the money from his card and never shipped anything because of this mysterious ban on their address?
@DojiStar: Agreed, If they have had continual problems with an address, they are *well* within their rights to take this type of action. If I had multiple accounts from a same address costing my business money with consistent charge backs and problems, I'd do the same thing. They could have notified her more quickly however.
Newegg does have some of the best customer service around and I've been ordering from them for almost 5 years now.
I don't find it unreasonable for any vendor to freeze something being sent to the same address where they have a disputed transaction. They shouldn't HOLD the money, but I've seen plenty of small businesses hurt by frivolous chargebacks by people trying to work the system who then use different names at the same location to pull it off again.
It's an annoyance and she should take her business elsewhere, but I won't fault Newegg for holding up the process.
@mythago: They've obviously had an issue with billing and account information from that address and for all they know, they've stolen someone's information or used a relative's information without their permission, which would result in another chargeback.
I would like to hear Newegg's side of the story on this however.
@MarcoVincenzo: Um is it really their responsibility to fight it? As a resident of NY if you don't like the tax you should be fighting, not the corporation.
She has to understand that even those she is a different person, using the same shipping/billing as an account that owes Newegg money is going to cause a problem. I would not have taken it this far.
"First, here's what happened to trigger the suspended account in the first place:"
No, that was not what happened to trigger the suspended account in the first place. What apparently triggered the suspension was your brother's chargeback. The fact that you refuse to tell us about that speaks volumes. I'm with others here, I'm guessing that your brother scammed Newegg and so Newegg is doing to reasonable thing by avoiding a second scam.
Given the overwhelmingly positive reputation NewEgg has, I'm forced to take this one with a boulder-sized grain of salt. I'll withhold further comment until we get NewEgg's side of things.
I'll concur with the "Newegg gives good customer service". The only problem I've ever had with them was actually through a friend of mine who was building me a new computer and honestly, it wasn't even their fault necessarily, but they fixed it anyway.
Mobo shows up DOA, but my friend didn't discover it until after their return window was up (since he was building the complete system, waiting for all parts, etc.). Newegg initially refused to do an exchange...but changed their tune once they saw a scathing post of his on a consumer message board. Heh, oops.
So even after a problem, Newegg still made good.
This situation is just bizarre-sounding, though.
that last part seems to indicate that some fraud may have occurred in the past with regards to her address. she should talk to her brother & find out his story.
i don't think they did a very good job explaining the reason for the block, but that doesn't mean it's not a valid reason for denying service.
Well considering NewEgg changed their initial story, that automatically tells you they are full of crap. And the new story makes it even worse that they gave out all her brother's information because now they claim that her brother's transaction was unrelated. Plus if the ban was from a previous order, her brother should have never been able to place his original order that had to be charged back. So NewEgg is doing nothing but lying about the entire situation. I am not sure if the BBB cares or not, but I would hope they care when an organization flat out lies in a response to a complaint. And to those saying the information doesn't matter because they are related in the same house, it is not inconceivable that up to 4 unrelated people can live at a single address all with separate leases.
@mac-phisto: RTFA, it was not her brother!
She called me back about 45 minutes after that conversation and said that it had nothing to do with me or my brothers account. Someone, who's name I don't recognize as they gave me that too, did something so horrible years ago that they have banned our address until the end of time. Absolutely no dealing with anyone at that shipping or billing address allowed.
@Terd_Ferguson: Why would there even be a law for it? If a business does not want to deal with you, they have every right to do so.
Newegg is lying with the new story. If they don't ship or bill to her address, why was there a transaction that required a chargeback?
I feel Newegg is completely in the right to tell her to fuck off if her brother did a chargeback from the same address. A business ought to have the right to not service customers they have a reason to suspect are just going to make them lose money.
Truth is Newegg can sell to whoever the f### they want. They don't owe her sh!t. The transaction is money for goods. If they dont want her money, she doesnt get the goods. Simple. Kick your weeny brothers ass and tell him to b!tch up and be man.
Seems to me the brother has grounds for a lawsuit if the sister can provide the transcripts showing that NewEgg is giving out his account info.
Wow, I've never had any troubles with newegg amongst the rma's and many orders I have had with them. They have always resolved any issue I've had. I'm surprised that they took such a turn for the worse!
@theblackdog: i did RTFA. i said, she should find out what her brother's experience was - perhaps he knows more about why she can't get the items shipped.
jenn doesn't tell us what her brother's experience is, just that a csr told her it has nothing to do with his account. but does he have an active account? can he receive shipments? has he had any problems in the past? these are all questions that jenn could ask her brother to help shed light on why her account can't be validated.
Ouch that's pretty harsh...
I've been buying from Newegg for years and never had as much as a minor glitch with them. In fact, they've gone above and beyond for me several times so this tidbit is quite surprising to hear. While I think Newegg is w/in its rights to decline shipping to a specific address, the CSR agent could have been a tad more polite along with Newegg possibly shedding some additional light on the real problem at hand.
Newegg is awesome.
Hmmm, I always ship to my work address since I am not at home during delivery hours, what keeps the person in question for using that as the shipping / billing address???
I know many people I work with who have their CC statements sent to work as in the "older" days, online places wouldn't ship EXCEPT to the billing address...
Now, I have 2 addresses saved in my CC files that are checked, presumably, before shipments...
Can someone say next door neighbor???
@officeboy: Actually the annoyance comes from not fighting a new law that may or may not be legal (just because something is passed as a law doesn't mean it'll stand up to a court challenge).
This is particularly dumb on their part since once all states decide to get in this, they'll either have to lose some sales, or they'll have to cut into their profit on their merchandise. Neither of which sounds like a great business strategy.
Since many of the people here have had to deal with NewEgg's customer service, does that mean that they mess up a lot of orders? Why would you have to talk to anyone in the first place? Shouldn't it be as easy as: place order online, get charged, get product in mail?
Newegg service has always been great for me. I bought 2 vid cards a while back and noticed 3 weeks later they had gone down $40 in price. I called newegg NOT expecting anything, but they refunded the difference!
That said, their prices arent near as good any more. For example I was looking for an antec 1200 pc case. It was over $200 on newegg, $143 at microcenter. When a retailer is beating newegg's prices by that much (and its not the only example I have found) then something is up.
Oh wow. Is that even legal?