Expired Forticare contracts == penalty fee

[yatafa]

Hi folks, I’m not sure this is the most relevant forum area for this question, feel free to move it if needed.

Late 2018 I bought 24x7 Forticare contracts to have my devices covered with support in 2019. I received the contract numbers but I did not add them to the portal. Fast forward to January 2020, I realize the problem, I try to add them but the portal no longer recognize the contracts. In early January I ask to renew Forticare to cover 2020 and Fortinet tells me that my devices support is expired at the end of 2018 (and not 2019) and I must pay a penalty fee to renew the support.

My opinion is either they waive the penalty fee or they refund me 2019 support because I did not use them.

What you think?

Thank you.

Yafata

[tanr]

I've had service contracts auto-apply within 2 months of buying them, even if I didn't activated them.  I didn't use a device for 9 months, finally set it up then found out I only had 5 months of coverage left.  I wonder if that is what happened with those contracts, so they got used up, but somehow that didn't count toward your coverage?

You should definitely talk with your rep and Fortinet about this and figure out how this actually works.  Seems like since you paid for the 2019 contracts anyway they should be  pretty understanding. 

Note that the "penalty fee" is supposed to max out at 6 months of coverage, so even if they won't help with this they shouldn't charge you more than half a years worth of coverage.