Woosh Wireless Refund

30 July, 2004

Well, I got my money back for the modem, even though I had the modem over 30 days. You don’t believe them when they say “Sorry, it’s over the 30 days” do you? Maybe it’s time to look into your rights as a consumer.

If you bought your modem directly from woosh, I fear you are out of luck as they won’t budge. But if like me you bought your modem from a retailer like DSE ( Dick Smith ) then you should be able to argue for a refund.

The main point I argued was becasue of the latency ( which I was not warned of when I purchaced the modem ) the goods are not “of ‘acceptable quality’, which includes being fit for all purposes that they are normally used for, and being safe and durable”.

Now what is a modem or internet connection normally used for? The internet. What do you do on the internet? Browse web pages, chat, email, streaming video and audio, voice chat, video chat ( MSN Meeting, Messenger ), and online gaming is huge in NZ. Becasue of the extraordanary latency of the Woosh connection, gaming isn’t possible.

As for the 30 days, and why I didn’t get it refunded sooner is becasue they were supposed to be fixing the latency. They have put out numerous press releases about the phone service but so far it’s been vaporware – for example, here Rod Inglis, Chairman of Woosh writes in against unbundling the local loop, talks about deploying the voice service in terms of “months”, that was in early February and now, 5 months later it still isn’t here. Originally it was supposed to be launched at the end of 2003. So I thought that was long enough to give them, and it wasn’t my fault that they hadn’t fixed the latency within 30 days.

Side note : Bruce from Aardvark.co.nz has some ideas about woosh’s motives

Under the act, which you can read in full here, if you buy something from a retailer, and you want a refund, they cannot tell you to go to the supplier/manufacture. So if you buy it from DSE and they say talk to woosh, make it clear that it’s between you and the retailer, you gave them the money, it’s their responsibility.

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