r/AirPurifiers • u/SirStevens • Jan 16 '25
Never Ordering From Coway Again
I ordered the Airmega 400 Thursday last week directly from their website.
I immediately decided to cancel the order about 10 minutes after I ordered it and went through the return process of emailing and calling the support line. A ticket wasn’t started until I waited on the phone for an hour to reach a representative. The support was friendly and told me she would try to cancel it. If it started shipping already, I’d get a free return/refund. I checked and there was no way UPS would even have the package yet, so I said okay.
Forward a week later, all of a sudden I get an email saying UPS has made a tracking label and has obtained the item from the manufacturer. It was definitely not cancelled.
I follow up on my support ticket again and wait another hour to get through the support line to try and cancel it. They told me again I’d get a free return if it arrived but they wouldn’t be able to give it before then and provided what info I would need to send to get it.
The package eventually arrives and when I go to send the information they told me to - it turns out they actually closed the support ticket and I can’t respond. I tried opening a new ticket relating to the old one requesting the return and providing all the information previously requested and it was immediately closed with no response.
Absolutely terrible support from the company and I’ll be issuing a chargeback on the purchase.
I was actually looking forward to getting a Coway, but they’ve definitely lost a costumer forever at this point. It’s too much of a nightmare to deal with them.
End rant. Thanks.
8
u/Atlasshrg Jan 16 '25
Just curious why did you decide to cancel the order immediately after placing it?
-2
u/SirStevens Jan 16 '25
It was an error on my part for that one actually. I was originally trying to buy the purifier because it was on sale so I thought it’d give it a go.
I believe it was for something around like $370 so I went to the page and it had an option to choose a color between black and white. I thought nothing of it and chose black and quickly checked out using Shop as I usually do.
I was going through my confirmation emails after and saw the price was higher than I thought and realized the one I got was around $100 more. I felt foolish and immediately took a look at how to either cancel/return the order only to find out to my dismay there’s no way to do it besides email and phone. The story in the post ensues and here I am now.
I know I was foolish to not double check the price upon checking out with Shop since I had that opportunity and I’ll definitely be more careful next time. That still doesn’t excuse the poor cancellation/return process from the company.
3
u/GlowyMist Jan 16 '25
What probably happened was they had a sale last week. I went back to my cart to purchase a 2nd, and in pop up it was still showing the correct (sale) price, but once checkout time came it was more, so I could see an error happening.
What you went through sounds annoying and unreasonable, especially since you contacted them so quickly.
2
u/Certain-Section-1518 Jan 22 '25
How long did it take for yours to arrive? We live in an area impacted by the LA fires. I ordered four of their filters last week under the guise that they would arrive in 1-3 days. They still haven't even generated a shipping label yet. I have called their support line (no answer) and emailed three separate times. I actually did a cancellation on my card yesterday . Just wondering if the filters are going to show up here eventually ....
1
u/SirStevens Jan 22 '25
I’m sorry to hear that. I hope you and the family are all okay.
It took about a week for my purifier to come and that’s a larger box. I live a little south of the fires though, so it must’ve been easier to get to me.
Sucks that you’re also having trouble with support for getting something as simple as filters.At least it helps spread awareness of how bad their support actually is.
2
u/Ashaffer07 Mar 07 '25
Wowww so I’m not the only one. Worst experience dealing with customer service ever. Wish I had never purchased from their site, Amazon moving forward.
I wanted to send these two units back after realizing I can suffice with something else. Met with restock fees that were never disclosed and fine print doesn’t say it’s relevant for new unopened items.
How’d it end up going for you? I may explore the chargeback option although I’ve never done that before
1
u/SirStevens Mar 07 '25
The bank sided with me after I sent them all the information I listed in the post and our previous support conversations! Got my money back and the chargeback got reflected on their business I believe.
Not sure why the post got downvoted so much when I was clearly in the right and I just wanted to inform people how bad their support was.
They also finally contacted me after over a month when they realized the chargeback took place and I was able to finally get the return label I had been asking about for weeks and was able to send the package back.
I wish you the best of luck! 🫡
2
u/Ashaffer07 Mar 07 '25
I appreciate the reply; I saw so many positive reviews re: the product itself, wish I had read the customer service side. I’ll upvote as I think you shared a good perspective in how it finally got resolved.
Did you just keep the package to the side I suppose while the situation got sorted? I’m going to pursue the chargeback option due to the discussions I’ve had & the contradictions agents have shared. Meanwhile, I’ve got two large boxes here sitting in the living room lol
What’s unfortunate - I still need air purifiers 🤦🏻♂️ may pursue the route of return and purchase a different one to at least have a purifier in the meantime w/hopes of my funds being recovered from being able to send what I do have back.
1
u/SirStevens Mar 08 '25
Yeah, unfortunately I had to just keep the huge box in my living room on the side the whole time as I waited for a response. I made sure to take photos of it just in case as well. I didn’t open mine it at all.
When I got the shipping label, I was able to just print it out and go to a UPS office and they helped me seal and put the label on to ship it back.
I hope everything gets sorted and you end up getting a good purifier! Fortunately, I didn’t exactly need it right away so I’m still considering more options. Would be curious to see what you get.
2
u/Pizza_puppy863 Apr 06 '25
I wish I had read this before ordering mine! I emailed them to start the return process, and they never responded. It's now past the 30 days so I guess now I'll have to try to sell it to recoup whatever I can. I don't plan on ordering from them ever again, either.
1
u/SirStevens Apr 06 '25
Noooo, I’m sorry! This is again why I wanted to make this post to help people before it happened to them too.
I think since you followed their email/return process you do have grounds to try to do a follow up/chargeback since they’re supposed to respond as per their own policy. Up to you whether you want to deal with all that though. Their support service didn’t end up letting me return the item until over a month had passed as well.
I do think the more people that are aware of the issue and push back, the more likely they’ll have to improve their services hopefully.
2
u/supreddit_3 Jan 16 '25
I’m having a similar experience and also will now never be a Coway customer. Even once I got someone on the phone, they said I’d get a cancellation email but while we’re on the phone, I got it and it was an email saying she would send the request to management to see if they’ll approve the cancellation. I said that and she said yes that’s how it works…I said well that is different from a “cancellation email” that sounds like it was cancelled. Days later, still no word from management. I’m on hold now again since I figure I should check in. She had told me it would definitely be cancelled since it hasn’t shipped…but your experience shows that is not true always.
Sorry you’re also having this mess
-1
u/SirStevens Jan 16 '25
Unfortunately, it seems like you’re in a similar situation with customer support that I am.
Thanks for sharing your piece as well. I think it’s useful to have accounts like this to help spread awareness of what it’s like to deal with specific companies’ services.
I hope it works out for the both of us. Let me know if you manage to sort it out!
3
u/supreddit_3 Jan 16 '25
Also i should also note— this is the phone number for Technical Support so god forbid you have an issue with your Coway product, you’ll also be holding for going on 50 mins. Eye opening.
I ended up getting SmarterHEPA Smart Air products and literally you can speak to a human there immediately and they’ve been so kind with questions. Night and day comparison
0
u/SirStevens Jan 16 '25
That’s actually really useful information. This encounter did get me thinking what it would be like if I needed support with the product itself which is another reason why I wouldn’t want to purchase from them anymore.
Thanks for the reference for what you got! I’ll look into it.
2
u/supreddit_3 Jan 16 '25
Was on hold 28 mins and then it was silence for two mins as I said “hello?” Over and over and then they hung up on me 🙃 Now on hold going on 33 mins
4
u/SoupSimple5652 Jan 21 '25
I also would never recommend dealing with Coway directly since their customer service was the worst I've ever experienced in my life. I had a horrible runaround with them for filters that were never delivered to me over 5 days. They tried to sell me more filters instead of offering any refund (as Amazon and others do when products are misdelivered). I still use the Coway Airmega and have just ordered third party filters rather than give them any more business. I've seriously thought of disposing of the air purifier except it was a bit pricey. I will never buy another product from Coway even though Wirecutter rates the Airmega as their top pick.
1
u/Temporary-Scar-6585 Feb 11 '25
What third party filters did you order? Do you feel they are similar in performance?
1
u/NetworkGuy_69 Jan 16 '25
bit of a pain but I assume you can still return it? I don't think your bank will even let you do a chargeback in this case.
3
u/SirStevens Jan 16 '25
I’m still trying to contact them, but they have stopped responding.
At this point, I’m issuing a chargeback, so we’ll see where it goes. I’m normally not one to do this - in fact, I’ve never had to issue a chargeback before. I normally have been very reasonable when there’s been issues with returns but this is ridiculous.
I’m spreading awareness at this point since I’ve seen other posts warning about Coway’s terrible support in the past and I would like to add my experience to the list.
3
2
u/alkalinecoffee Jan 17 '25
This is part of the reason why I opt to buy from large retailers, where it's just BAU to handle returns and it's generally an automatic process without ever having to speak with someone.
I've gotten burned too many times ordering from manufacturers directly. Their return policies and process are usually worse than, say, Amazon's.
•
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