Enjoy this real-life customer service interaction that I had yesterday
Background
I signed up with a UK-based online graphic email marketing company a couple of days ago to help promote a friends’ short charity campaign. We had 4 days and counting to get 2000 emails out. It’s a ‘vote for my YouTube’ campaign – cut off point Friday, so time (clearly) was of the essence.
Having used this particular company before (doh!) I went straight to their site and tried to sign up. Ah, no buy button. Anywhere. Bizarre. I know what I want… I just can’t buy it.
I phoned them and asked how I could buy the product I knew I needed. I was told rudely that I had to sign up for a free account. Uh? ‘Then you convert it to a paid one’. I offered him the feedback that nowhere did it tell me that information. He couldn’t care less.
Despite that experience, I signed up for two reasons: 1) I’d used the software before and although it was cranky, at least I knew it worked in the end and 2) my friend was running out of time. She paid her money and I then spent a full 4 hours (yes, 4) fighting with the visual editor to create the newsletter email.
I triumphantly pressed ‘send to mailing list’ – and got a message saying ‘cannot send until your account is verified’.
Nothing in the help made sense of that message and there was no online help (as it was 8pm in the evening by that time).
So we lost 14 hours or so – until I had the chance to get onto them via a live support chat widget the next day. Here’s what happened.
Sam: Hi – signed up yesterday, been trying to send to mailing list since yest PM but says ‘account not verified’ – verified account yesterday afternoon. Can you pls look into that for me
Joe: Hi Sam
Sam: Hello – did you see my question?
Joe: yes
Joe: let me check your account
Sam: thanks
Joe: your account is now verified Sam
Sam: Thanks, any explanation what happened? Lost us quite a bit of time out of a 4 day campaign.
Joe: all accounts need to be verified before they can send anything other than test sends. You need to request verification when you are ready to send out to a list.
Sam: We clicked the verification email link yesterday. Is that what you mean? If not, where does it tell me we need *another* kind of verification?
Joe: no, problem – you’re verified now and can use the account to send straight away
Sam: Joe, would appreciate an answer to my question
Joe: there is no < verification link >
Joe: maybe you mean the < activation link >
Sam: Ok. So I clicked < activation link > in email. Where does it tell me I need to < verify > my account before I can send?
Joe: when you try to send an email, the pop-up will tell you that you need to contact support to have the account verified
Sam: Nope. It just pops up and tells me ‘Can’t send because your account isn’t verified’ it doesn’t tell me to contact support.
Joe: what point are you trying to make Sam ?
Joe: the account is now verified
Sam: The point I’m making is that your system a) uses ‘verify’ in a way that a customer won’t understand is different from ‘activate’ b) it then fails to send but doesn’t tell me clearly why c) it doesn’t say contact support
Sam: Result is I couldn’t get this send out last night, costing my friend 14 hrs out of her campaign
Joe: would you prefer us to cancel the account and refund your money
Sam: Did I ask for that?
Joe: you state that this caused ” your friend ” – is this YOUR account Sam ?
Sam: Listen, Joe – before you start trying to be confrontational, please be aware that I work in online reputation management – I will be blogging this experience
Sam: This account is for a friend who is running a campaign
Sam: a charity campaign
Joe: actually – if you are a charity
Sam: She signed up for the account, I created the newsletter
Sam: She isn’t a registered charity yet
Joe: we do offer a free account to not-for-profit
Sam: thank you but she is not a charity yet
Joe: ok
Sam: Ok, before I go
Sam: I called Aacme Graphic Email Marketing yesterday to offer you some feedback about how hard it was to buy your product
Sam: – I got a rude reception
Sam: I eventually signed up and haven’t had a satisfactory experience with information definately missing
Sam: with the result I couldn’t send, have lost time and don’t feel very good about Aacme Graphic Email Marketing
Sam: I contact you for support and you’re reluctant to either accept my feedback (which could possibly save you a lot of lost sales) or give me a satisfactory account of why the site doesn’t offer the right information
Sam: so…
Sam: it’s not great.
Sam: Thank you for ‘validating’ – I have sent the emails
Joe: the reason for the verification process is to limit our exposure to spammers. Every account needs to be manually verified
Joe: this gives our clients a better experience once they have been validated
Joe: as there is less chance of our systems and network being corrupted by spammers
Joe: we are sorry if this has caused you any inconvenience
Sam: Joe, that’s fine – but if you p*ss them off before they even get ‘validated’ (by not telling them that’s what needs to happen) then you won’t get to give them a better experience
Joe: This is not usually the case
Sam: Seriously how would you know?
Sam: Who ever takes the time to fight through your defensiveness to give you this feedback? Hmm? Seriously
Joe: via the amount of sign ups we get
Joe: and yes we do get feedback
Sam: Oh, lordy. How about the ones you DON’T get
Joe: generally via our live support
Sam: Anyway, look, I still hear you don’t want to accept my feedback
Sam: so thanks for sorting this out
Joe: no we do
Sam: and I’m outta here
Joe: and it has been taken on board
Sam: ciao
Joe: have a good day Sam
Sam: you too
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