Very poor customer service

[K Drage 7]

I am currently receiving very poor service from Evernote.  As a Premium User for more than three years this is very disappointing.  Evernote on my Laptop has not worked for a number of weeks.  Customer Service are slow to respond and require a lot of prompting.  Paraphrasing the most recent response from Korben D says "we don't know how to fix the problem, we can't tell you when it will be fixed."  I have asked for a refund on my Premium payments as they are unable to provide the service.

 

Is anyone else experiencing a technical issue such that the software doesn't run, and the very poor, unresponsive service contact?

 

[jbenson2 2,147]

I am currently receiving very poor service from Evernote.  As a Premium User for more than three years this is very disappointing.  Evernote on my Laptop has not worked for a number of weeks.  Customer Service are slow to respond and require a lot of prompting.  Paraphrasing the most recent response from Korben D says "we don't know how to fix the problem, we can't tell you when it will be fixed."  I have asked for a refund on my Premium payments as they are unable to provide the service.

 

Is anyone else experiencing a technical issue such that the software doesn't run, and the very poor, unresponsive service contact?

 

I am surprised that Evernote said they did not know how to fix the problem (software doesn't run).

Are you using Windows, Mac, Web, Android?

 

Yes, Evernote support for Premium users has deteriorated substantially over the past few months.

Waits of a week or longer for Customer Support have been reported by Premium users.

There have been several long-time Evernote users who have posted their decision to move to other programs.

[K Drage 7]

The software that doesn't work is on Windows.  I use both Windows and Android platforms.

 

Any thoughts on the best programme to migrate to?  I guess the candidates are OneNote or Keep.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I am currently receiving very poor service from Evernote.  As a Premium User for more than three years this is very disappointing.  Evernote on my Laptop has not worked for a number of weeks.  Customer Service are slow to respond and require a lot of prompting.  Paraphrasing the most recent response from Korben D says "we don't know how to fix the problem, we can't tell you when it will be fixed."  I have asked for a refund on my Premium payments as they are unable to provide the service.

 

Is anyone else experiencing a technical issue such that the software doesn't run, and the very poor, unresponsive service contact?

"Doesn't work" is a very general description. If you want help, you will need to be more specific as to what exactly is happening and any error messages you receive. Screen caps are also helpful.

[andikam 1]

Same - I sent a bug to Evernote, they told me to send my Activity Log, I told them no way due to privacy issues and then the next email said: "Thanks for sending us your activity log" so they hadn't even read my email and they just copied and pasted an answer. Nice. Premium user for years now!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Same - I sent a bug to Evernote, they told me to send my Activity Log, I told them no way due to privacy issues and then the next email said: "Thanks for sending us your activity log" so they hadn't even read my email and they just copied and pasted an answer. Nice. Premium user for years now!

While I can understand privacy issues, if you are unwilling to provide the information they request, in order to help you, it's really unfair for you to complain about not getting good support. (And if you search/peruse the board, you'll see I have been very uncomplimentary about Evernote's support in recent months).

[jbenson2 2,147]

The software that doesn't work is on Windows.  I use both Windows and Android platforms.

 

Any thoughts on the best programme to migrate to?  I guess the candidates are OneNote or Keep.

 

I don't believe there is a best program out there. 

I've been burned in the past by putting too much of my data into one program.

(Lotus Symphony, then GoldMine, and now Evernote)

 

So I am moving my data into multiple programs and maintaining an aggressive backup program.

• Google Keep - for reminders, todo items, appointments
• WorkFlowy - outline format for managing multiple projects
• OneDrive & DropBox - for storage of docs and spreadsheet
• OneNote - for my 2nd brain - stuff that I want to jot down
• Flickr - for my photos
• LastPass - for password management and confidential information

[andikam 1]

Appreciate that BurgersNFries - however, my point is not about sending the private information (which in itself is a topic for a separate discussion), my point is that despite not sending this information, their response was copied and pasted saying "Thanks for sending it". Is it unreasonable to expect a customer service representative to actually read the reply that you send?

[K Drage 7]

BurgersNFries, you misunderstand my reason for posting.  I am not looking for help from the Forum to the solve a clearly technical issue that Evernote are having with the Software as a Service that I pay for.  I do not have time to fix their problems, that's why I pay for the service.  Rather, I have posted on the Forum to share publicly my disappointment in the service - or lack of - that I am receiving so that 1. it may spur Evernote management to improve and actually solve my problem, and 2. so that other users and potential users can get a more rounded picture of this supplier.

[K Drage 7]

jbenson2, thank you, that is really useful, and I can see myself possibly going down a similar route.

 

I currently live by Evernote and Drop box, but Evernote's poor handling of tables the formatting of them, leads me to embedding a lot of Spreadsheets for automated functionality in checklists.  The cumbersome way that Evernote embeds Spreadsheets (which isn't at all Evernote's fault, it just could be better) leads me to using Drop box and Excel for checklists.

 

I am about to get a Surface Pro 2, so can imagine OneNote functionality may get supercharged.  Same with OneDrive I guess.

 

I've also recently started using Pinterest for collaborating, and found it very useful.

[CalS 5,280]

,,,, my point is not about sending the private information (which in itself is a topic for a separate discussion), ......

Agreed, awful customer service to blanket reply to an email,  Customer service has dropped precipitously of late, as has quality, not a good combination.

 

However, on point two, EN is a cloud service, the private information you reference is some sort of techno-speak log stuff, and they already have your actual data, unless you only use local notebooks, but then there wouldn't be much of a log.  Sounds like a thin topic to me relative to the privacy issues of sending the activity log.  IMO.

[Sun Face 1]

In got this response today after about a week of sporadic back and forth trying to get support:

*** BEGIN

Thank you for your reply!

First, my apologies about any delay in response.

I appreciate you taking the time to work with me as we work through this issue affecting the indexing and search of PDF's.

We have identified this issue as a Bug and I have reported it to our product team for resolution.

While we are working to address the issue, I do not have specifics as to when the issue will be fixed.

At this time, I’m going to close your ticket.

However, if you would like, I can notify you when your issue has been fixed and scheduled for release.

In this case, I have gone ahead and refunded your purchase of Evernote Premium for 1-Year.

We do not want to charge our users for functionality that is not working to their expectation.

Additionally, I have gone ahead and added 20 Evernote Points to your Account to try and help compensate for the lost functionality.

(10 Points is equivalent to 1-Month of Premium)

You can spend those points here:

https://www.evernote.com/Points.action

I appreciate your consideration, and thank you for using Evernote!

*** END

I am frustrated they have no timetable on fixing my issue but at least the are trying to compensate me for lost functionality although I'd just rather have Evernote working...

[Jon T 0]

Been using Evernote Business since it's inception or close to it and also a premium account. Piss poor support. Always has been piss poor. If there was a viable alternative I would have switched long ago.

[K Drage 7]

By way of an update.  Over one month on from raising my original issue with Evernote, they have failed to resolve it.  They refuse to refund my Evernote Premium Service (haha) payment, but have offered to fund a further 12 months Premium.

I have bought a new lap top, and the problem continues on the new lap top.  Evernote continue to be unable to confirm when they will have the problem resolved.

I am really surprised by the poor customer service and technical incapability of a business whose image would suggest otherwise.

[everytime 1]

I've contacted Evernote recently and took a week to get a response, that's a canned response.  When I replied with the info they asked for, all I got was a canned response back which tells me they don't read more than the first few words or first sentence that you type. I gave up in frustration as many others here have noted.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

By way of an update.  Over one month on from raising my original issue with Evernote, they have failed to resolve it.  They refuse to refund my Evernote Premium Service (haha) payment, but have offered to fund a further 12 months Premium.

I have bought a new lap top, and the problem continues on the new lap top.  Evernote continue to be unable to confirm when they will have the problem resolved.

I am really surprised by the poor customer service and technical incapability of a business whose image would suggest otherwise.

 

Over one month on from raising your original issue with Evernote... and still no clue as to what your issue is on this thread. This is a user forum where people actually seek and more often than not, find solutions. Yet you insist that Evernote "doesn't work". BurgersNFries asked you for more specifics... yet you maintain that the issue is Evernote's poor CS. Doesn't look like you were so much interested in a solution... Often people on the forums can help you troubleshoot in an effective way, but you turned that down a month ago. You're complaining about a refund, yet they give you a year of Premium subscription. That's got to count for something. If you're not interested in those points, I'll volunteer to take them off your hands. 

 

So... fill us in on your issue. Maybe... just maybe...

[K Drage 7]

Thanks Frank.dg,

 

I will explain the issue here.  My point however, is that I am very busy and I pay for a service.  I am not a hobbyist or bothered about being able to fix the issues that I pay Evernote for.  I am sure that I could, if I had their dev tools to hand, but I use my time for other matters, I don't get paid by Evernote, and surely it is far more effective for their developers to solve their problems, rather than their user community to.  It is frustrating being without the service, which is very useful, but falling short.

 

So the problem, basically, is that Evernote fails to sync.

I have completely removed it and re-installed it, so that it has had to pull the data down again to sync and it continues to fail.  I have then, coincidentally, happened to purchase a new Lap top.  The same continues to happen, so it is an issue with the software, not something local to my machine.  For these reasons I have not updated the Evernote software on my desktop, as that continues to sync.

 

So, in summary, it is failing to sync.  Let me know if you need anymore information in order to tell me how to fix the issue.

 

I will remind you, however, that my purpose for posting was to inform people that Evernote is failing, as potential users should be aware, until such a time as Evernote come out with a workable fix.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

@K Drage,

Sure... you can inform people that Evernote is failing... but for the vast majority of people, they are not experiencing the same issues as you. If many people have no issues syncing, then at some level it must be working. Many people are quite happy with the EN service, and if there is something Evernote does not allow them to do, or if their system starts freezing up after 25,000+ notes, that's an entirely different issue, and they find a solution from there, which might mean branching out to other software. Nevertheless, Evernote is still a pretty necessary part of their workflow. I digress. The point is that there are relatively few people who are experiencing sync problems of your nature (users on a global scale). If you'd like to issue a warning for people to not set out on an Evernote journey, perhaps another place would be more effective. Most people who stop by these forums have already invested a heck of a lot of time in their Evernote workflows. So while you might be giving a reality check for *some*, you're not going to have much influence or reach in these forums. There is one pretty good thread on alternatives to Evernote you may want to look into.

 

On to the problem... It seems that your problem arises in one of the new releases. As you mentioned, your PC is working fine, and as a result you're not going to update. Good decision. That seems to be working. Specifically it seems the issues you have are with your old and new laptop failing to sync. What versions do you have installed? You've mentioned that you're on Windows.... but which versions specifically are giving you hassles... and which is the version on your PC that is syncing fine?

 

So you are on Android and Windows. Your PC is fine since you have an older version installed and haven't upgraded. The more recent versions on your old and new laptops do not sync. Is that correct?

 

BTW, have you looked at some of the threads of other people who have the same issue here in the forums?

[Metrodon 2,184]

Windows...jeez...but anyway.

 

This seemed to prevent some Windows users from syncing - https://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/101867943

[K Drage 7]

Thanks Metrodon, yes I have tried this, and still get the unable to sync issue.

What is the alternative to windows if you don't like Mac products?

[K Drage 7]

Frank.dg, thanks for your response.

 

So the failing versions I have are:

Old Laptop: Windows 7. Version Evernote_5.8.0.5902.exe

New Laptop: Windows 8.1 Pro. Version Evernote_5.8.1.6143.exe

 

Your summary: "So you are on Android and Windows. Your PC is fine since you have an older version installed and haven't upgraded. The more recent versions on your old and new laptops do not sync. Is that correct?"

 

Is correct.

 

I have looked for similar problems in the forums.  I will look again as it has now been some time.

Thanks,

Karl.

[K Drage 7]

Latest news from Customer Service: "I don't have any exact dates for a fix, but it is still a top priority for the Windows team at the moment. There are many other users with the same errors in their logs."

So it is clear that this is a problem that a lot of Windows users are experiencing.