Evernote don't want to refund my $500+ annual subscription fee.

[pando 0]

I have to post this to get attention from the Evernote Support Team.

My situation is that I suddenly received an invoice from Evernote for the 2024 subscription fee but I never used it since my first subscription. I soon realized I have been paying $500+ for 2 years. I checked the refund policy and it says: "For any annual Individual Paid Service subscription fee, Evernote will process a refund if the request is received within sixty days of the date of the payment." 

I requested refund (ticket id: #3871871) at April 15, the same day I paid the 2024 annual subscription fee. However, the Evernote Support Team refused to refund me. Their answer is: "You signed up for an annual subscription on 15 April 2023 and it renewed on 15 April 2024. Therefore, in accordance with our Refund Policy, we regret to confirm that we won't be able to issue a refund for this charge. For any future reference, please note that subscriptions should be canceled prior to the renewal date to avoid unwanted renewals."

This is totally ridiculous, unfair and wrong. I asked several questions in the request since their last reply 4 days ago, no one replied so far. 

Evernote is violating my rights as a customer and probably breaking a law.

[pando 0]

I also cannot approve the huge price increase from ~$300 to ~$500 per year without any notice. I have not received any reminder for price change or annual subscription renew in advance. 

[gazumped 12,078]

Hi.  The Support team aren't here - we're mainly other users;  and if you're already in touch with Support over your requests,  you have a direct line to continue your argument.  Plus if you have a Teams subscription,  that's a business purchase and doesn't have the same level of protections in most countries as does a private payment.  You have my sympathy - I was just denied a (much smaller) refund by Google in similar circumstances - but unless you paid by credit card,  when your card company may be able to refund the charge,  you are dependent on Evernote to perhaps refund your April 2024 payment.  If you have access to any legal advice you might want to run the situation past them too...

[pando 0]

Thanks for your reply.

To billing support: it is very unreasonable for a software company to have a "no refund at all once paid" policy for users. I didn't get any notice for price increase as well. This is stealing.

[pando 0]

“No prorated refunds or credits will be offered for partially used subscriptions after the start of a new payment cycle.”  BUT, we have not used EN for a single second since a year ago. I asked refund immediately after I saw the invoice. EN should totally refund based on the policy.

I see similar posts from many many users on difference media platform. If EN keeps doing business like this, no one will trust EN anymore.

 

By consumer protection laws: 

“In the United States, businesses must send a renewal notice to consumers between 15 and 45 days before the renewal if the initial term of the program is a year or longer. 

A subscription plan or service price may change, but the change must not apply without 30 days' notice. If a consumer does not agree with the price change, they can reject the change by unsubscribing from the paid subscription.”

Notification in advance is required by law on top of EN's own return policy. EN has an obligation to notice customer before renew and price change and needs customer's consent for price change.

[PinkElephant 8,845]

Just a few remarks, from a fellow user who is running his own little business:

There is no necessity to actually use (=interact) with EN to be in a contractual relation. You had your data stored on their servers, they were maintained and safeguarded. The service was available at any moment for you. You received what you had booked - no matter if you actually thought about logging in to add information.

If you don't need it any more, you can cancel your subscription at any time. And as with all subscriptions, it will then end at the final day of your subscription period. If you choose yearly to safe money compared to monthly, then it's 1 year. Actually you can cancel whenever in this year, and it will only run for the rest of the subscription.

B2B services as Teams are usually not eligible for the same level of protection as consumer contracts. The assumption (wrong or right) is that anybody running a business knows what he is doing, and which contracts he is using for his business. You can (depending on the place of your business) refer to B2B business law and practices, but consumer law will in most jurisdictions not apply.

E-Mails informing about price changes have been send in due course - I can tell because I received one of them as well. If you didn't receive it, check for what may have prevented it. Spam filters, not sufficient storage space, an email address registered for an employee no longer active are just a few possibilities. You will likely have a hard time to prove that the email with the price information was never received by your email server.

That's a wrap up of what is the legal side.

When interacting with support, make a word count. If the word "Please" is high up in the ranking, they may consider helping you. Because that is what you are asking for.

[pando 0]

Hi PinkElephant,

This is the worst customer support reply I have ever seen, with 0 intention to help or any sympathy but 100% fighting against your customer.

This has been a request ticket for a while. If "please" is working, I don't need to ask for help here in the first place. 

No email is just no email. I received the invoice email without any issue. I search all emails from EN and no reminder email in my mailbox including spam. My email is 100% working and evidence is totally possible. 

Customer is customer, both consumers and teams are your customer. If you don't treat your customer as a customer and provide nearly no support to them. 

Quote

"The assumption (wrong or right) is that anybody running a business knows what he is doing, and which contracts he is using for his business. "

There is huge bug in the login system. My account email is a google account, I can login using the same email via either google account login or email login. They go to different accounts, but have access to the same account information and same email. I saw no subscription if I login using google login (which I cancelled it last year), but only realized that I have to use the email login to the same account to see the subscription. That's is why I didn't know I had the subscription until I see the invoice and was told the email was wrong (because I used google login).

You can see the conversation about this in #3871871. (check out the "please" in the ticket). I couldn't see and cancel my subscription if I login using google login.

[agsteele 3,061]

Nobody here works for Evernote. So we aren't providing customer service.

I can see that Evernote replied to your request requesting confirmation of your Email, the last payment date and the invoice number. I don't think you provided what they need to locate your payment.

[pando 0]

Quote

Nobody here works for Evernote. So we aren't providing customer service.

Oh. If that's true, I am so confused. 

35 minutes ago, agsteele said:

I can see that Evernote replied to your request requesting confirmation of your Email, the last payment date and the invoice number. I don't think you provided what they need to locate your payment.

This is just to show EN will say you used the wrong email if I login using google login. With the email login using the same email address, no such issue. 

[PinkElephant 8,845]

On 4/23/2024 at 1:02 AM, PinkElephant said:

Just a few remarks, from a fellow user who is running his own little business:

This should tell it all, doesn't it ?

[pando 0]

 

3 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

This should tell it all, doesn't it ?

OK, my bad. Thank you for your kind reply as a follow user.

You guys spent a lot of time and effort solving issues for other users. You should totally get paid by EN. 

EN should have a real customer support team other than just request tickets, which only get reply on a weekly basis. 

I am just user who need to talk to a real customer support person. 

[PinkElephant 8,845]

Yes, we all feel an impact from EN support being very slow since last summer.

Many issues we can help solving - but account and payment issues are out of reach. Communication with support will be entirely based on emails exchanged. They will come back to you, but it can take ⚔️💣👿 ⚡️ 🤬 long.