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What is your experience with Evernote Support?


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I'm curious what other customer's experiences are with Evernote Support and, specifically, the responsiveness to support requests.  I submitted a support question two weeks ago and have not yet received a response.  I am currently a Premium customer after using a coupon for three months of free service.  That trail period ends in February, so I've got to determine if I want to continue as a paying customer.  The customer support so far, has been underwhelming.

 

What are other people's experiences?

 

Thanks in advance!

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Hi Jason, I believe Evernote is going through a rough period and are snowed under with their customer support due to a number of specific reasons. That should even out in the next couple of months. For the time being, you can post your issues here in the forum. You can include your ticket number if you wish. One of the forum members might be able to help you figure out a solution. If not, the forum has been a good way to expedite contact with customer support in recent weeks.

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  • Level 5*

I don't think Evernote are doing themselves any favours with comments about of "support within 24 hours for premium subscribers" when what they actually mean is "you get a ticket number and join our queue for live help...",  but compared with other support links I use,  I actually don't think they're too bad.  I haven't logged the response times I have received,  but I know none of them were within 24 hours,  and the average - discounting one or two who have never replied at all - is probably around 7 working days;  which,  as far as I know,  is where EN is when things are normal.

 

As Frank has pointed out though,  things haven't been normal for a little while.  I have run tech and CS support teams before now,  and we've found ourselves in this situation more than once.  What was (say) a steady 1,000 calls a day suddenly doubles or trebles because of a relatively short term glitch,  and everything falls behind for weeks or months.  No organisation can staff for that sort of sudden increase - you'd need to be able to call on a pool of experienced techs two or three times bigger than your current headcount to help out.  And my customer base had hundreds of thousands of users - not hundreds of millions!

 

Other factors that keep the pain going longer than it should are the users who report things once,  then get impatient and report it again,  and again...  Plus all the extra emails,  chat sessions and complaints which tend to tie up the management and stop the steady drip of 1,000 calls getting attention as fast as it might otherwise.  The team can draft in some extra resources,  but they need to more than double the output of the original team to make any headway.

 

One of the things they'll do is to triage support requests.  Serious issues - account access,  data loss,  crashes should get priority attention.  Less serious stuff - account problems,  screen layout,  issues for which there are already work-arounds - come second;  and some,  like badly behaved bullets and indents,  may require a complete rewrite of something fundamental,  so they go onto a pile to get shuffled in to ongoing development plans.

 

Please understand:  I'm not making excuses for Evernote,  they probably shouldn't be in this position in the first place.  But here we are,  and this is how tech support departments work.

 

Oh - and there's not much point in their saying anything in their own defence.  "It's a temporary issue" is gonna get the response  "when are you going to fix it?",  and they don't know.  "We're back to normal" - any slight drop in service gets another flood of complaint.  "We'll be back to normal soon" - can I borrow your crystal ball?  What happens if there's another problem in the next release... Better to say nothing and keep fixing than make any rash statements or promises.

 

As users,  all we can do is keep on trucking - use whatever version you have in the best way you can.  If there's a problem,  then Google is your best friend - it's where I get a lot of my 'power user' fixes from anyway.  And it searches the forums,  so you can check whether someone else already had this issue.  If they didn't,  you could do what I did recently with an Android Doc Cam problem. Post in the forums to see if it's just you,  or someone else shares the pain.  Someone did,  so I sent in a bug report.  About three days after my ticket number I got the usual 'reported as a bug' acknowledgement,  and with a bit of experiment I now know the way around the limitation.  It'll get fixed in an update or three,  in the meantime it's not the end of the world,  or preventing me from earning a living,  so I can survive for a while...

 

Not saying that a bug report is the ultimate solution - but just use the system.  If you don't know how,  post here,  and we'll help if we can.

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I reported an issue with Shift - Tag creating an erroneous search on 1/13 and got the automated reply.  Crickets since.  Not effecting me since there are other ways to get the job done.  But it does seem like it's the 100 year blizzard as opposed to just being snowed in for support.   ;)

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This is simply ridiculous. This should be put into a book and taught to students.

 

I have been waiting for 4 or 6 days already. No reply.

 

They simply do not care. They're raised $100+ M and probably do not need your or my $45.

 

same issue. Premium user. How long will this last ?...

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I really think it is a biggest issue for Evernote now and in the future. 

 

Looks their poor system design is the biggest issue. I am a business user which has deploy the system in our company. After identifying a major connection issue in the common situation and reported to them, no one take effective actions in the past months. It should not be a reliable and responsible commercial company should do.

 

I assert that either Evernote be acquired, or corrupted in this trend.  

 

So we'd better turn to other services, e.g. Onenote, for our priceless data and memories. 

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It has been lamented these past months in multiple threads in these forums of the decline and increasing lack of customer service from EN.  That in conjunction with the lack of robustness and quality of some of the key functions of the product, syncing jumping to the top of the list, has created a bit of a perfect storm of disaffection for some.  How big some is, I don't know.  I do know though that these sorts of issues not addressed don't bode well for a company no matter what their product.

 

For all that I still find EN to be a key element of my day to day life.  So I do hope they get their **** together.  (self censored) 

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Hi all,

 

FYI, Evernote eventually answered my support ticket (so maybe they read this forum !... :rolleyes:  ), and the problem was solved in minutes.

 

So, this could have been solved in one day instead of 3 weeks (THAT would have been Premium...) - but still solved !

 

So I felt I should close my part of this post... hoping not to have to re-open it to receive a reasonnable level of support... B)

 

Let's try & keep faith in the service...

 

Cheers !

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Eventually, after 3 1/2 weeks, Evernote responded and confirmed the issue I had originally submitted. It took re-submitting the same question and I got two responses (one for each ticket) in the same week. The responses were very different (one pinned the issue, a bug in the Yosemite version of Evernote app, the other did the broad-assessment-dance). Eventually the issue was identified and I'm happy.

Anyway, I under the difficulty of running a help desk during a period of expansion. There should be better expectation-setting in the process, especially for Premium customers. In the responses to this thread illustrate a message, it's that customers' expectations are not being met. One way to stay ahead of that Evernote, be proactive about setting more achieveable expectations. Here's hoping something changes.

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Eventually, after 3 1/2 weeks, Evernote responded and confirmed the issue I had originally submitted. It took re-submitting the same question and I got two responses (one for each ticket) in the same week. The responses were very different (one pinned the issue, a bug in the Yosemite version of Evernote app, the other did the broad-assessment-dance). Eventually the issue was identified and I'm happy.

Anyway, I under the difficulty of running a help desk during a period of expansion. There should be better expectation-setting in the process, especially for Premium customers. In the responses to this thread illustrate a message, it's that customers' expectations are not being met. One way to stay ahead of that Evernote, be proactive about setting more achieveable expectations. Here's hoping something changes.

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Bought a scansnap.  To be fair they were very responsive, but didn't have a clue as to what the problem was.  Have been trying to install the thing for a week.  They are clearly making claims they can't deliver, which brings me to a bigger issue in my mind than just non-existent support; will they still be in business in a year?  Delayed the IPO, cutting staff and poor customer support points to one thing; a business in crisis.  

 

I am returning the scansnap as I don't want to sink £500 pounds into something I have to depend on these people for.  And don't like beta testing stuff I have paid a great deal of money for.  It is really sad.  I have been a customer for almost 5 years.  Any suggestions as to good OCR software for a Mac that replaces Evernote, and a good business card software which will work with the iX500 I am replacing the scansnap EE with, would be greatly appreciated.

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  • 2 months later...

Evernote support is PATHETIC! I have submitted the same request numerous times and continually get an auto responder saying they can shorten my email address. It has nothing to do with that!

 

I reply to that email and nothing happens. I have all these support ticket numbers but no resolutions at all. Not even any attempts at resolution.

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Evernote support is PATHETIC! I have submitted the same request numerous times and continually get an auto responder saying they can shorten my email address. It has nothing to do with that!

 

I reply to that email and nothing happens. I have all these support ticket numbers but no resolutions at all. Not even any attempts at resolution.

 

Hi.  Sorry that things don't seem to be working well for you,  but if you can 1) post your problem here we might have some ideas and 2) if you can post your ticket number(s) we can ask a forum admin to have a look at your existing tickets.  If you're a premium/ business user you'll have access to a Chat option (7am-7pm PST working weekdays) - click 'continue' on the support page after logging in.

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  • 6 months later...

I've been actively using Evernote since 2009, and I've been a premium subscriber for at least the past two years. I use Evernote because it works so well with GTD and contexts, and I can enter, edit, and view content seamlessly across all of my devices.

 

That said, I think the Evernote organization is abysmal (truly abysmal) at serving their customer.

 

Evernote is a great idea, very robust, and something I'm reluctantly willing to pay for. Unlike when I started, today I have no loyalty at all to the brand. For their sake, I hope they continue to be useful to me because the moment anyone else can serve my needs better or, perhaps, just equally well, I'm dumping them. This is very out of character for me, as I have stuck by companies who have done me right through even extended "hiccups" in service (I'm looking at you, AT&T). When they come around, all is forgiven, I continue to be loyal, and I promote their brand. 

 

Evernote has repeatedly burned bridges with me and others and I only remain a customer out of cold pragmatism.

 

Honestly, Evernote is really great at making it easy for me to collect relevant content from a wide variety of sources. It's also great at providing a clever way to organize this content into useable groups and contexts. Outside of that, it's kind of a one-trick pony and that's getting really old: I need Evernote to be powerful and scalable. It's kind of going in the opposite direction.

 

In fact, it seems apparent that Evernote is wholly unconcerned with providing a powerful product: they're constantly working on the appearance of their product. Having a pretty interface is important for attracting customers, but when a customer has paid for a product that's when delivery becomes paramount. I'm sick of looking at prettier and prettier versions of a product that suits my needs less and less well with every release.

 

If you use Linux, find a different product.

 

I'm a computer programmer, software developer, and web developer by trade. I don't use Windows and I don't use Mac; yes, I have used both before, I will never use Windows (Microsoft has apparently decided that the cash register look from Idiocracy's hospital scene is a good design goal), and I gave my $1,500 MacBook to my teenager in favor of a $150 used ThinkPad with Arch. Evernote Windows is terrible in WINE, and I concede that's not Evernote's problem. I'm also not suggesting that Evernote develop a Linux desktop app because that would likely be a poor use of capital given the number of people currently using both Evernote and Linux.

 

Idiocracy_hospital.jpg

 

However making the web interface, I don't know ... usable? feature-filled? ... might be a good concession. Oh wait, that's right, they have the "beta" which they've designed to "remove distractions", lol. In other words, Evernote is adopting the Windows Idiocracy cash register design scheme mentioned above. Nice. Now not only are the useful lists and categories I used to have now missing (yeah, I know about the slide-outs: boo!), I still can't even duplicate notes! Where are the shortcut keys in Evernote Web? Google has managed to incorporate them into all of their web products!

 

So I'm using the old web version and nervously waiting for the day when even that limited functionality is stripped away from this already declining product.

 

One side note regarding Linux: Windows is now working hard to p*** regular people off, not just nerds like me (I know, they're "open source" now, ROFLMAO; stop it, stop it, I can't breathe!). With the advent of Windows 10, many people are just done: they just don't want to deal with Microsoft anymore. I have had three people approach me in the last two weeks to have me install Linux Mint on their Windows laptops and, after doing that, there is so much interest in my community that I'm now scheduling classes, complete with hard drive wipes and fresh installs of Linux.

 

Evernote's Android product is lackluster at best

  • Do you like the idea of being able to nest tags inside other tags?

Too bad, sucka!!! You'll have to go over to your computer (or maybe iDevice?) and move that tag into your stack.

  • Do you want to keep that cool widget on your homescreen but move Evernote to your SD card?

Nuh-uh! You can have your choice of two crappier widgets, but forget about having your internal memory freed up and having an awesome widget (which it really is). What were you thinking???

 

I think they may be (mistakenly) relying on the "problem" of migrating content to another platform?

 

That's Russian Roulette you're playing there, son. 

 

It would not be as hard as one might think to move all relevant content to another platform. Like I said before, as soon as anything else suits my needs (that next release of Google Keep maybe? Perhaps OneNote may step up with that one killer feature?) I'm gone. In fact, I'm so unimpressed that I would leave my notes behind and run to whatever platform can suit my needs like a refugee running from his tin shack of oppression to sweet homelessness under freedom.

 

In summary, no serious businessperson gives 1/4 s*** about your snazzy web interface, Evernote: type craigslist.org or drudgereport.com into your browser's URL field and catch a clue. We need nuts and bolts functionality. 

 

Where you at, Evernote? [smh]

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  • Level 5*

OK - I'd better stress that 1) this is all my personal view,  and 2) I have no connection with Evernote other than being a user myself.  However...

Evernote seem to be pretty aware of the demands of their customers - although whether those demands are reasonable,  or even (as you point out) cost-effective to implement,  is very much open to question.

They also have the small problem of a huge infrastructure of 150M current users,  who knows how much stored data,  and a constant tidal wave of syncing traffic 24/7.  If any part of their existing daily service fails,  they know there will be an immediate outcry.

An ex senior employee of Evernote recently wrote in Quora about the difficulty of satisfying everyone with delivery of their specific feature requests - none technically easy to implement - across multiple platforms.

"...in May of 2014, there were thousands of unique feature requests from customers for improvements and enhancements to "Evernote." Better versioning, real-time multi-user editing, enhanced formatting options , better print formatting and options, etc."

Evernote's new CEO has already directed a focus on improving 'core features',  the nuts and bolts functionality that you're asking for,  and recent (or upcoming soon) updates on all main OS's include a new editor as ground-work for better formatting - a project that has apparently been under way for many months.

Seems like Evernote is 'at' working hard to satisfy customers - like many companies they don't pre-announce developments: it's commercially dumb to give your competitors the headsup on what they could be working on,  and seriously risky if someone suddenly finds that there's a bug or a security hole to fill and a release needs to be delayed until a fix is found. 

 

Plus the customers whose wish is about to be granted will be very happy.  The other thousands of disappointed fans will all want to know why their preferred feature(s) didn't make the cut.  

Saying nothing - even if criticised for it - is still their best option.

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http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/14/evernotes-freshly-minted-coo-linda-kozlowski-is-leaving-the-company/

"But more recently, the company seems to be in disarray. It has been slammed for having a lack of product focus — rolling out and closing a variety of vertical apps and services, putting resources into a physical goods market when the core product is an app."

"The problem with a lot of Unicorn startups like Evernote, asana and slack is that they spends $$ millions on marketing and not on inovation."

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http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/14/evernotes-freshly-minted-coo-linda-kozlowski-is-leaving-the-company/

"But more recently, the company seems to be in disarray. It has been slammed for having a lack of product focus — rolling out and closing a variety of vertical apps and services, putting resources into a physical goods market when the core product is an app."

"The problem with a lot of Unicorn startups like Evernote, asana and slack is that they spends $$ millions on marketing and not on inovation."

 

Ouch!

Evernote has certainly been getting a lot of negative press lately. 

 

During 2015, Evernote replaced their CEO, issued layoffs, closed offices, cut back on support, and killed off products. And now we find out that the COO is leaving by next month, followed by 4 more executives.

 

I wonder why the investors are continuing to financially prop up the company... 

and why the new CEO is not more visible.

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http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/14/evernotes-freshly-minted-coo-linda-kozlowski-is-leaving-the-company/

"But more recently, the company seems to be in disarray. It has been slammed for having a lack of product focus — rolling out and closing a variety of vertical apps and services, putting resources into a physical goods market when the core product is an app."

"The problem with a lot of Unicorn startups like Evernote, asana and slack is that they spends $$ millions on marketing and not on inovation."

The Evernote of the past couple of years seems to be totally different from the Evernote of 2008-~2013.  Certainly distancing themselves from their customers is a very noticeable difference.  About three months ago, my last premium account expired & I have renewed none of them & don't plan to.  I used to use Evernote at least once every hour I was on the computer, iPad, iPhone, etc. and often more than that.  These days, I never open the app & use only the web version maybe three times a month to look up an old note. 

 

Prior to 2008, Evernote used to be a Windows only, payware, non-cloud app.  People loved it but not enough people loved it enough to support the company.  They were ready to close their doors when they took a different direction...  Being a multi-platform cloud app.  I'm guessing it's deja vu all over again in that millions of people loved it, but not enough people loved it to pay for it & sustain the company...  IDK, but certainly they have taken a different direction & are no longer concerned about being a 100 year company (b/c the issue of large databases not scaling well - to the point where the app becomes totally unusable, b/c the same search across different platforms yields different results, b/c record counts differ across different platforms, etc) and appear to be focusing on more of a business use.  I truly miss what Evernote used to be to me & what it would have continued to be for me, had they addressed some of the issues I've mentioned here & in other threads.  I used to be the poster child for using Evernote.  But no more.  I've yet to find an alternative that works well.  But at least the apps I'm forced to now use work, even if it's a cobbled together thing.  Whereas Evernote became 100% unusable to me on my idevices and my PC. 

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Well said, BurgersNFries. I'm in the same boat!

I've been kicking the tires on TagSpaces, and went so far as to create an OwnCloud WebDav server on an ec-2 instance to have cross-platform integration, but nothing is as good as Evernote could be.

It makes me sad to think about...

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