I read a piece last year where a repair guy said routers get killed by heat and always-on power, so the makers basically bank on you buying a new one every year and a half. That lines up with what you saw, same unit handed out over and over like it's a script. The $12 shipping thing is wild too, since one guy online said he just told them he'd cancel and they dropped the fee.

Man, the victim card thing is so real. I heard a therapist on a podcast say that people like that don't actually hear "no" as a boundary, they hear it as you breaking some unspoken deal you never agreed to. That clicked for me because my uncle pulled the exact same thing when I stopped loaning him my truck. Suddenly I was the bad guy after like six years of him never putting gas in it. The weird part is the silence after you block them feels louder than the fights ever did. You did the right thing though, $200 with no plan to pay back is not a ask, that's a bill.