Just Cancel My Account - Part 1

In my last post, I said that I planned to share some recent examples of the less than WOW experiences I’ve had as buyer of business products. I wish I could say this post would be the only one, but I have many more to showcase going forward.

All I wanted to do was cancel my account…it should have been easy.

Business concept of problem, cancelled

At the end of 2012, I transitioned my email marketing to Infusionsoft. I’d been a long time Constant Contact user, but now I needed a more robust system that supported more sophisticated marketing campaigns and was integrated with an online shopping cart. I’d heard a lot about Infusionsoft from a variety of sources - all of it positive. After doing more research myself, I decided to make the move. Over $6,000 dollars later with nothing much to show for it, in January I decided to cancel my account.

The promise is that the system is easy to use. That wasn’t my experience. Even creating basic newsletters burned too much time. Two assistants never could figure it out and were constantly flustered. Without having the support I needed to manage the system - unless I wanted to spend thousands per month for a “certified” consultant - I let the account languish while I explored other options.

Experience matters. Every interaction counts. The system didn’t work for me, and that’s OK. I was fine to cancel my account and move on. Instead, I’m calling out Infusionsoft as one example of a company whose processes/policies make life difficult for their customers.

Here’s my story…

1. I wanted to cancel my account but Infusionsoft doesn’t make it easy for you. I should have been able to cancel online or with a quick email to the service department. Nope. Infusionsoft insists that you call them. Right away I knew why that was their policy. They wanted an opportunity to “sell me” on remaining a customer.

2. Grudgingly, I make the call. The gal who answers the phone notes my request and tells me that someone will be calling me back “to verify” that I want to cancel. WTF? I’m thinking, why am I talking to you then? I’ve already burned up time making this call to handle something that shouldn’t be a hassle for me. I gave you my name and account number but someone else has to call me to verify that I do want to cancel? Argh…

3. Later in the day, I receive a call from a representative who is a “loyalty guy”. I understand you want to cancel, he says. Yes, I do. The system isn’t working for me, I tell him. He says, tell me what the problem is…maybe I can help. I basically lay out the story for the 2nd time (I’d already told the gal that I talked to) and tell him that I am firm on canceling. OK, I see you’ve made up your mind, he says. Well, yeah dude. That’s why I’m canceling; otherwise, I would have called tech support for help. Stop wasting my time.

4. Loyalty guy confirms that my account will be canceled immediately. Imagine my surprise when 3 days later, I’m billed for another month of service. Then I notice that my account is still active.

5. Phone call number three and this one to the accounting department. Naturally, I had to leave a message. I explain the situation and ask for my money to be refunded.

6. Later that day, I receive a phone message from accounting gal saying that - yes, she confirmed my request to cancel but that my billing cycle was in progress when I called them. According to their billing policy, Infusionsoft doesn’t issue refunds, so my account remains active until the end of the billing cycle. Of course, you won’t be billed again, she says. Isn’t that nice. Another $259 wasted for software that I’m not using.

What really ticks me off here is the time I had to waste going through their silly gymnastics to cancel my account. Then I’m billed for another month of service to boot. We are talking 3-days into the new cycle but Infusionsoft doesn’t prorate or return your money if your cancellation timing happens to be off. On top of that, loyalty guy never confirmed that I understood their billing policy or told me that I was already into a new cycle. Yes, I realize that I agreed to the written terms at some point. Still, the right thing to do was to tell me to be sure I understood what would happen. It would have saved me another phone call!

This is not service excellence. It is a classic example of how companies like Infusionsoft are blowing it. Even if a customer decides to cancel your service, the last thing you should want to do is piss them off! I was already annoyed at the wasted money and time that had been spent trying to get the system to work for my business. Infusionsoft’s process only made it worse.

The final point I want to make is this…

Had it been easy for me to cancel my account, I would have gone on my merry way. If someone asked me what I thought of the Infusionsoft system, I would have told them it didn’t work for me, but that I knew plenty of people using it successfully. Now I’m telling everyone I know to steer clear.

P.S. To the Infusionsoft consultants who want to come at me and tell me how easy the platform is to use…please, save your breath. I’m very accomplished with technology. You think it’s easy because A) you are drinking the Kool-Aid and B) you’ve invested hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to become certified. Contrary to the Infusionsoft marketing hype - without extensive training, it is not that easy to use. I don’t have that kind of time to waste, and if I can’t pay someone a reasonable fee to do the administration for me it isn’t worth it.

 

Comments

  1. says

    Oh gosh, I know what you mean. Good to know I’m not alone.

    I wonder if it’s just easier to block the direct deposit with them? To cut them off from the bank.

    This might make them more money, but you’re right – it turns a neutral exit into a bitter one.

    Thanks for the post.
    jason

  2. says

    Thank you so much for this post. I will take it as fair warning! We’ve had Infusionsoft for 3+ years and have never used it. Because it’s so expensive, we were always hesitant to cancel — after all, we had already invested so much. It must be all our fault that we weren’t using it, and soon enough, I would devote the needed time to putting together our campaigns. (Mind you, I have used MailChimp and Constant Contact and a couple different CRMs during that time — all were exponentially more user-friendly.)

    I finally decided that I need to pull the plug this week. But, a colleague told me that if we change our mind within a certain time period (60 days?), we could get a new account without the set-up fee. Ever hopefully, I contacted their live chat tonight. Needless to say, things did not go well:

    Mike Healy: Hi, thank you for contacting Infusionsoft Support! How may I help you today?
    Leslie: I have a couple of billing questions. Does Infusionsoft still charge the set-up fee for new accounts?
    [TWO FULL MINUTES PASS]
    Leslie: (Um, that’s not a hard question. Why the wait?)
    Leslie: Waiting on the answer to that question before I ask the others.
    Mike Healy: That is not something I can answer, that is more for the billing department. They can go over the billing issues with you. If you like I can put in a ticket to our Customer Resolution Team to have them reach out to you.
    Leslie: Does the Billing Department have a live chat?
    Leslie: Or, is there any information about the set-up fee on the website? I couldn’t find it.
    Mike Healy: They are not currently in at this time. They are Mon-Fri 8-5 US Pacific time.
    Leslie: Do they have live chat during those hours, or do I have to call?
    Mike Healy: Yes they do have a chat you can get to them via this site.
    The agent is sending you to http://www.infusionsoft.com/pricing.
    Leslie: Thank you. Appreciate your help.

    So, pretty much, they want to make it as difficult as possible to get pricing information and want to keep every freakin’ cent they make. By comparison, I cancelled a Mailchimp account for a client recently and they promptly offered me a three-month refund. Also cancelled an account with Lynda.com last month, and they gave us a SIX MONTH refund, because they could see that we hadn’t been using the service. (It’s a great service, btw. Highly recommend.)

    I apologize for writing practically another blog post in the comments, but bad customer service gets me all riled up. Appreciate you calling out Infusionsoft, because the reprimand is rightly deserved!

    • Barbara Giamanco says

      Leslie - thanks for your comments! If the individual managing Live Chat cannot answer questions about product pricing then why are they there? If you get the chance, read the follow up posts to the Infusionsoft saga. Doubt they were happy with me.

  3. says

    I read your article at the time I was closing my account with Infusionsoft. They really don’t make it easy to leave, and simply cancelling the associated payment card is not an option. I called and spoke with John, made it clear I did not want a courtesy call from anyone, I was making an official cancellation order..

    Let’s be clear. I do not need to request a cancellation of services. I simply need to state that I no longer wish to use their service.

    John said, “Call back on Friday to be sure your account is closed.” Really? After spending over 30 minutes in the phone queue waiting to speak to a customer representative on a Wednesday morning, I want to take another 30 minutes on a Friday to check up on Infusionsoft employees to see if they’re doing their job? I have my own employees, thank you very much. John gave me the cancellation reference number, and we parted ways.

    Next, I went to my billing agreement online and removed my payment agreement, just to be sure they didn’t forget to cancel my account.

    Imagine my surprise this morning when I saw they billed me for August.

    So if we can’t cancel via email, and we can’t cancel online, and we can only cancel via phone call, at which point does the company Infusionsoft become responsible when they “forget” to cancel an account? My interactions with this company have left me feeling so disheartened I worry when I call in the morning (it’s Sunday) they’ll say they have no record of that cancellation reference number. It’s just not the way to run a company. They’re either extremely disorganized, or extremely dishonest.

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