I've had a bad support experience

[Mark lennox]

I didn't want to do this publicly but my hand has been forced. I also want to know if anyone else is experiencing the same level of service I have?

I first noticed that I was being charged for a 'Branded Media Player' however I had never activated this. I was told that despite this I would not be eligible for a refund. Clearly I didn't want to pay for something I hadn't asked for so I asked the support team (very politely) to please escalate this and also check into the potential that the 'Media Player' might have been activated by default on mind and other networks. I heard nothing. So after a week, I resent saying this was the 2nd time of asking and please response, again nothing. I'm now up to my 4th message and still no response. 

So, have you experienced anything like this. Have you checked to see what you're paying for and have you ordered it? 

Your feedback would be appreciated and maybe, just maybe I might hear from someone at NING before I take this to a wider social audience. 

Regards

Mark

[Paul Corona]

NING has always gone out of their way to help me resolve issues on our our site

[Eric Suesz]

Sorry you've had a bad go of it. If someone hasn't responded after multiple attempts then it definitely sounds like something isn't working right. Can you share the ticket number you received? I can at the very least find out where this stands. Thanks.

[Mark lennox]

Thanks Eric, I'm grateful for your reply. 

It was Amanda from your billing dept that was the last contact however I've sent emails to [e-mail] 4 times - without reply. This is the billing ref: Billing ref :_00D80cCLt._50040NDMpx:

Regards

Mark 

[Eric Suesz]

Mark,

Okay, I checked out all the details. It appears that you have been corresponding back and forth with a number of our team. So, I want to be clear that we have been responding. If you can't find that in your email inbox, you can review all of this correspondence directly from the Support link on your dashboard. For the ticket on 10/22, I see 3 comments by you and 4 by our support team (Kathryn and Amanda). 

Also, I would not recommend sending emails to a generic email address. We don't have a general email address, but you can always reach us by sending us a message from your site. That actually speeds things up because we can route the message and include identifying information like your site's URL, etc.

It looks like you activated an add-on on July 11th (the video player) and then cancelled on October 7th. Unfortunately, we aren't able to refund add-ons that customers have been using for many months. We try to make exceptions where we can when it comes to our refund policy, but I'm sorry to say that we probably won't be able to remove a charge of a service that's been active for multiple months. I don't know if you share your sign-in information with any admins, but these add-ons can only be activated by the Network Creator's account. 

Here's an example of this add-on being used by your Network Creator account: 

I am not confident I will be able to change this outcome for you, but I will ask our team to review it again and respond to you again. I'll ask the head of our department to weigh in and provide his opinion about your request, too. I can't promise any changes, but I'll do my best to make sure this is reviewed again by the billing team.

[Mark lennox]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the detailed response however I need to be clear on a couple of points. 

The point at which your team stopped responding was when I asked them to escalate my complaint. On reflection possibly the worst time for them to stop! There were a further 4 emails sent that remained unresponded to - I can forward you them if you like?

Also, it's important to mention I did use your ticketing system in the first place however your team began replying via email so I did too. I just wished they didn't pick and choose which emails to respond to. 

Aside from all of this my main concern was that I didn't actually turn this 'Branded video player' on in the first place. The fact that videos were added (as per your screenshot) doesn't mean I opted for the service. I presume you can still upload videos with or without the branding service? And in the screenshot, there is no branding anyway so why would I want to be paying for something I wasn't using or didn't opt for. 

Eric let me say, your effort in responding so quickly is noted and very much appreciated however it was important for you to know all of the facts, which hopefully you do now.

I have now received an email from your billing team letting me know I have been issued with a 'one-time courtesy refund of $14.94'. Whilst this is a good start (and I’m sure largely down to your efforts), I'd expect nothing less than a total refund from 11^th July 2012 until it was cancelled. This is not unreasonable considering I didn’t request nor use this service at any point. I think it’s fair to say you would want to pay from something you didn’t ask for.

I sincerely hope this can be rectified as I do like the ning platform and you may not know this but in addition to this 400 member community, I also run a 9500 member community (on ning with a pro account) called the UK Marketing Network. I also run the largest UK marketing group on Linkedin with over 42,000 members and these are the very people that are most likely to use your service. Why am I saying this? It’s not bragging I assure you, it’s more that the email ignoring annoyed me and it’s always worth doing right by your customers as you never know what influence they might have when disgruntled.

Finally, thanks again Eric you've been a consummate professional and I look forward to an amicable outcome.

Mark  

[Eric Suesz]

I'm very happy that our billing team was able to offer a partial refund. I don't think they will be able to go further than that, but I'll be sure to relay your comments. 

I appreciate that you have reach in your own and in other communities, but I don't agree that you've been ignored. We strive to respond to every request, and I think in this case we have. I'm sorry that we weren't able to meet all of your expectations, but I am at the very least happy that some middle ground was able to be reached. 

[Mark lennox]

A partial refund for something I never ordered in the first place? If you read that back, it doesn't really make sense does it? I'm glad you're 'very happy' I'm not!

And yes I was ignored. To be precise (seeing as you've doubted me), here is the transcript and timings which clearly show I sent 4 emails from 28th Oct - 14th Dec without reply, until I posted this discussion. Then miraculously, I receive a response. I hope you and anyone else here can see that this is unacceptable. 

1st email ignored sent 29th Oct 2012

Hello Amanda 

I'm afraid I do not accept this. I did not opt in for your ad-on video service and therefore should not be charged. Please can you tell me the circumstances in which this option was requested as it was absolutely not by me. Do you send confirmation emails etc? 

I await your reply, 

Kind regards 

Mark 

No response received 

2nd email ignored sent 19th Nov 2012

Hello, I have not received a response to my message below. Please can you get back to me. 

Thank you 

Mark 

****** 

Hello Amanda 

I'm afraid I do not accept this. I did not opt in for your ad-on video service and therefore should not be charged. Please can you tell me the circumstances in which this option was requested as it was absolutely not by me. Do you send confirmation emails etc? 

I await your reply, 

Kind regards 

Mark 

No response received 

3rd Ignored message sent Wed 5th December

Hello, This is now the 3rd message I have sent and I have not received a response to my message below. Please can you get back to me. 

Thank you 

Mark

No response received

4th ignored email sent 14th December 2012

Ok I'm starting to get very frustrated with your lack of response. This is now the 4th message. 

Please respond or escalate this to someone who will. 

Regards 

Mark.

No response received - until I posted this discussion in the creators forum. I then got a response from Amanda (so my emails were getting through) to say 'sorry for the delay'....

And just to confirm I can produce all the original emails if you need this for your training purposes.

Eric, what ever happened to 'the customer is always right'? Just a simple apology/admission with a full refund (just $60) would have appeased this situation and shown your network of creators how understanding and supportive you could be as an organisation. But that didn't happen. Instead you doubted what I was saying (publicly) and forced me to provide a full transcript for all to see. Do you really think I have time for this? What a missed opportunity!

To wrap up. I'm not an unreasonable person and by the looks of your responses throughout this forum Eric, neither are you, if fact quite the contrary. And to be clear I take no pleasure in airing disagreements like this in public. However sometimes you have to, if only to get a satisfactory response - which is all I ever wanted. 

[SweetPotato]

Good cricket all round, as Mr Benaud would once have intoned.

[Mark lennox]

I noticed this discussion had been closed? So I've re-opened it as to me (one ning's paying customers) the discussion is far from over.

Can I also ask... when a premium service is purchased is there a confirmation email sent out?

I'd be very grateful if this could remain open until this is rectified. I'd also appreciate your comments Eric as it took me quite a lot of time to fully explain some of the facts your accounts team had clearly not passed on to you.  

I look forward to hearing from you

Mark

[Mark lennox]

Also Eric, did you change the name of this thread? 

I originally posted it as "I've had terrible ning customer support have you?"

But someone then changed it to "I'm unhappy with support"

I'm sure you realise that editing your member's discussion posts to favour your position is a big no no. 

Please don't do that again or else I'll have to take this discussion to message boards outside of ning's control. 

Regards

Mark