(Archived) Payment deferred = Business account lost?

[alecoq 0]

Dear Evernote Admin/Community,

 

As long date Evernote Business users, and one of the very first in Spain, it has been quite an unpleasant surprise to one day discover that for a deferred payment, all our Business Account and related notes, worth several hundreds of Mb had altogether been lost.

 

Sure, we sent a ticket (forced to go the long way with mail support, since we basically ceased to exist as a Business user) now about two days ago (#251215) to no avail. 

 

We perfectly understand that no payment means canceled account, but should there not be like at least a warning or a notice that last payment has not been received? Before simply erasing anything and canceling the account? In that specific case, we used to receive the pending payment notice on a credit card and from there validate it. This time, Evernote did not send us anything and out of the blue canceled us, without even notifying us.

 

To be honest that have been a serious blow to our day to day office operations since we basically lost a LOT of information, and there is no clear indication of what happened to that content? Will it be there if we renew the account as Business once more?

 

Thank you for your kind help, we will need it!

 

Best regards,

 

Alexis

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi - don;t know the process for Business accounts,  but I'd be very surprised if your notes are lost.  You clearly need to get the account reconnected quickly - I'll flag this for someone's attention!

[alecoq 0]

Thank you so much gazumped, it's now 48 hours since we lost all our documents and we haven't been able yet to speak with someone from Evernote, you can imagine it's getting kind of urgent!

 

We talk about 17 primary users with about 1500+ notes (there might be more), using Evernote as one of their main daily work tool.

 

Thank you again for your kind help,

 

Rgds,

 

Alexis

[gazumped 11,652]

Hmmn.  Evernote are open working hours,  weekdays US Pacific time,  but there's a holiday coming up;  hope they get back to you soon..

[alecoq 0]

Hi, I'm pleased to announce that after 3 days we have been able to get back our data and our account.

However, I maintain that Evernote should work a bit on that, on a Customer care point of view. This is incredibly frustrating as a long-time customer to be dropped off Business/Premium support without notice, and as a consequence to only have access to basic support by email.

Hoping it will not happen again!

Thanks gazumped for you assistance,

Rgds / Alexis

[gazumped 11,652]

No problem.  Not defending Evernote in this - (don't have any information either way) but with literally millions of paying customers I'd imagine their billing process is about as automated as it can get.  Recognising one customer's access needs over another who's just decided not to renew is probably going to need lots of fine-tuning...

[sgarcata 49]

Evernote is way behind the times re: customer service.  If they monitor this forum they no doubt realize that by now.

Here is a phone number for billing issues: 650-257-0885

No one answers, but you can leave a voice message.  Here's what they ask you to say in your v.m.:

Name, email address, Evernote username, payment method, invoice #, last 4 digits of credit card used, amount of payment, reason for calling.

This just seems like a hassle / discouragement approach since with just the invoice # they would have nearly all of that information other than reason for calling.  Still at least you feel like you may get a response (although I didn't).  Either they are overwhelmingly understaffed in this department (customer service) or they just don't see the need.  Maybe this is the standard in other countries; certainly not in the U.S.  I get better/easier access to the I.R.S., hardly a high bar of customer service.  I suspect the latter since they spent gobs of money on developing a fancy font for their biz2 product.

Apparently they are riding the wave of a loyal, enthusiastic customer base however this discourages new customers who haven't developed that sentiment yet.  They lost a sale with me as I was ready to buy the EN scanner until I experienced their lack of customer service directly.

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  No disrespect,  but you are one of 80 m.i.l.l.i.o.n. customers.  Any suggestions how any firm could handle one2one conversations with that many users?

[sgarcata 49]

I'm talking about pre-sales conversation... I don't think there are that many non-Evernote users just getting started that need to know more about their product which is pricey (the EN scanner) but even an email within 24 hours would have been welcome.

[gazumped 11,652]

I'm talking about pre-sales conversation... I don't think there are that many non-Evernote users just getting started that need to know more about their product which is pricey (the EN scanner) but even an email within 24 hours would have been welcome.

 

Sorry you feel/ felt ignored,  but my query still applies:  Evernote have a website,  help screens,  FAQs,  a responsive (mainly) Support team for feedback and tech issues,  this forum,  the YouTube channel, a blog,  various get-togethers and conferences... they do as much as possible to get the community feeling out there.  If there's something more you can suggest I'm sure they'll take it on board..

[sgarcata 49]

 

I'm talking about pre-sales conversation... I don't think there are that many non-Evernote users just getting started that need to know more about their product which is pricey (the EN scanner) but even an email within 24 hours would have been welcome.

 

Sorry you feel/ felt ignored,  but my query still applies:  Evernote have a website,  help screens,  FAQs,  a responsive (mainly) Support team for feedback and tech issues,  this forum,  the YouTube channel, a blog,  various get-togethers and conferences... they do as much as possible to get the community feeling out there.  If there's something more you can suggest I'm sure they'll take it on board..

 

 

You make it sound like a potential new customer is already part of this "community"... which is an invalid assumption.

 

I found out about Evernote, tried it out, wanted to buy the EN scanner but had a few questions.  It isn't unreasonable to expect some interaction before making a decision about their customized scanner.  At the time I didn't know that their staff conducted this interaction via the forum... I used the "support" form on their web site which is targeted towards existing Premium and Business customers... I didn't hear back in a reasonable time.  I saw some red flags (like a virtual no-return policy) and I needed to check them out.

 

Chat was never available no matter what time I checked; the site indicates it is for Premium and Business customers.  The "support" form was set up for an existing customer who has a problem.. check out the drop down selection boxes... none apply to a pre-sales question.  In any case my query (via the support form) wasn't responded to until Jacko intervened.

 

What I suggest is that Evernote management make a distinction between an existing paying customer who  is already part of their "community" (and thus knows about all the resources you mention) and a potential new customer (who doesn't and has some reasonable questions to be answered before committing to this or that service or product -- and I'm not talking about their latest T-shirt or pair of socks) and give the latter reasonable access... like a form or chat availability from their web site to answer pre-sales questions without waiting for days to hear back. 

 

This isn't rocket science... just basic good business sense.

[gazumped 11,652]

So you weren't actually a customer, but wanted to kick the metaphorical tyres on the scan options.  In a similar situation I'd be looking for reviews, forums and existing users to get any feedback that was available,  and doing my due diligence on any available information before purchase.  I'm doing exactly that currently on a potential new camera purchase,  and I don't think Nikon or Canon will be answering the phone to me at any time soon either.  As I said - sorry you felt excluded;  we're mostly not Evernote employees here, but the staff do read posts,  so you can consider your point made.  Maybe there's something more that they can do - now that you've brought it to their attention,  I'm sure they'll try.

[sgarcata 49]

No I had done all that already... I was ready to buy if I got good answers to my final concerns.  In fact I was ready to buy if I got ANY answers to my final concerns.

 

Really? you're comparing Evernote to Nikon or Canon?  (Have you noticed that they sell retail and some of those folks actually help you).

 

And no, I don't feel excluded... I have no expectations of BEING INCLUDED.  And I REALLY dislike evangelism.

 

This isn't high school and Evernote isn't a club, but I think you've hit on something.  The more matchy, matchy T-shirts and tote bags, the more users helping users (cause Evernote isn't much), the more it is presented as a PRIVILEGE to own the EN special scanner ("OMG, it even has the elephant logo on it"), the more Evernote feels like a club.  Reminds me of when IBM rolled out the first pc in the early 80's and offered no support,but friendly user groups formed and it was users helping users and IBM ignoring the pleas of their plaything customers.  Well, we all know how that turned out. 

 

Having said all that, I like the Evernote app (although it hugely pales in comparison to Lotus Notes -- even as it was in the mid-90's) and they are likely to have some stiff competition... already do from what I can see.

 

I wish them the best... I sincerely hope they have a good look at themselves and realize that customer service goes a LOT further than "the best font in the world".

 

Have a blast!

[alecoq 0]

Having it all settled now with help from Customer Service, I would just just mention a maybe overlooked but critical issue in our situation: we talk about a premium service marketed to "Lambda" users but also to businesses.

 

I understand Evernote cannot offer dedicated support to all of their needing member, mainly for the sheer sized of them, but maybe could we expect some more b2b approach. Standard users do not have, after all, the same constraints than large corporate customers, and the same dilemma applies for technical and billing support.