Kicked off Premium, asked to resubscribe at higher price ?

[ColoRyan 0]

I was notified by Evernote my credit card was declined (not true) they said I had until November 16th to fix my billing or be downgraded.

 

I checked my account on the 10th, and I was ALREADY downgraded to Basic.

 

I submitted a ticket on the 10th, the next morning I received a response and Evernote admitted it was their fault. They gave me 30 Evernote points, which they said was good for 3 months of Premium.

 

Excellent customer service there.

 

They told me I had to resubscribe to get Premium back.

 

When I went to do that it is now $5.99/month.

 

I have been paying $5.00/month all year.

 

When did this increase?

Are other people that are long time users still paying the old price?

[Metrodon 2,184]

The prices went up a few months ago when they changed the pricing tiers. 

 

But if you were an existing customer then I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be bumped up till next year - https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2015/04/29/introducing-evernote-plus-and-the-new-evernote-premium/

 

You should probably open a support ticket (although they may treat you differently if you pay monthly rather than annually).

[dledhead 0]

Have no clue what is going on with everyone regarding their premium subscription and renewal issues. No problems here nor have there been. I pay yearly. Is that, perhaps, the difference?

[gazumped 11,661]

I pay yearly (it's cheaper) but in answering another query I did have a look at my subscription renewal page and found I could switch to monthly if I wanted.  Nothing's changed AFAICS apart from the pricing - slightly - for new subscribers allowing for the new tier.

[ColoRyan 0]

Thanks for the response, I thought somehow being a long time Premium user I would have been notified of the price increase. It's pretty small so not a big deal, just was a surprise that it happened to me right after a glitch in their system. I realize now the two are not related at all.

 

dledhead it's not everybody, last year there was an issue where it happened to several people, this year I only see two including myself that are talking about it right now.

 

SUPPORT IS SO CONFUSING, I just don't get it. I submitted a ticket asking when the price increased and why I wasn't notified, they replied within a few hours, told me it happened in April, and that they are refunding me the $5.94 difference in cost and are downgrading me to Basic! Not sure how they are refunding since the whole reason I was downgraded was because they had a problem with the card.

 

I did not ask to be downgraded to Basic and don't want to, and I didn't ask for a refund.

 

I just used my Evernote points to purchase 3 months of Premium. Surely they would know that if they checked my account, I hope I don't lose my Premium again just because I asked about the price.

 

I know there are a million petty users on the internet and I don't mean to sound like one, but when I lose a service I have been paying for and then have problems contacting support it can be frustrating. The condescending tone I received last year, implying that it was user error when it clearly wasn't, still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and now they say they are downgrading me after I just paid for 3 months is very frustrating.

[gazumped 11,661]

If you still need this resolved,  please post your ticket number here - we can ask an admin to try to short circuit the response time which might not be stellar if they think you're a basic user - all the paying types get priority,  although you'd think that someone who wants to pay should be on a fast track too...

[villandra 2]

I think admin had better start reading this forum - atleast, as long as they don't deign to have someone answer the phone.  

 

These "post your ticket number here and we'll escalate it" - I don't think so!

 

The NEXT time I run into this issue I WILL post it here, but no posting a ticket number.  The Better Business Bureau will have my ticket number.

 

GET WITH IT!  And LOSE THE ATTITUDE!!!!

 

Yes,  I'm shouting.  

[villandra 2]

Oh, I just realized I've actually not replied to one of my own posts!

 

I posted the same problem about two weeks ago.  At the time, Evernote knew the problem was at their end and was investigating it - allegedly.  

 

AND I posted the SAME problem, on November 26, 2014!   

 

After carefully checking to make sure I haven't told the same story on this page....

 

I solved it by complaining to the Better Business Bureau.  And posting my ticket number on the forum.   My ticket was escalated to billing and then ignored, until they heard from the Better Business Bureau.  

 

Better Business Bureau gives Evernote an A+ rating, based on a grand total of 6 complaints, folks.   You all need to start complaining, EVERY time this happens.    Put your ticket number in your complaint to the Better Business Bureau, and Evernote will get it.  

 

In my answer to the Better Business Bureau, I said, yes, Evernote has resolved the problem, but Evernote's service is only as useful as it is reliable, and problems resolvable instantly, and neither part of that is true.  If there isn't the ability to phone Evernote and get a billing problem resolved, the service isn't reliable.  

 

Evernote has no excuse for no phone customer support.   It makes billions of dollars a year off of its millions of customers.  

[ColoRyan 0]

Thanks for the update, so weird we were in the same batch of billing errors.

 

I have been getting replies to my tickets by the following morning which is fast enough for me. They explained they were not downgrading me, that was a mistake on their part. Better training for their reps will help. At least they allow people to vent on this forum, though I think outsourcing technical assistance to other users is kind of low brow. Maybe it's just a reality for some of today's tech startups with so many users.

 

I don't have a problem with the price increase, as it was going to hit me anyways, and they did refund me the difference.

 

I don't think they make billions of dollars, but I certainly share the frustration of paying for something and not getting good service.

 

I really like the app, they just need to keep up on customer service when things go wrong. Kind of like car insurance, people are going to judge them when things go wrong, not when everything is going right.

 

I think a lot of new tech companies think they can get by on a brilliant idea and slack off on management and customer service, when in reality people will not care about the idea without good service too.

[villandra 2]

Following morning would WORK for me, but I really want to just contact Evernote and get back in business.

 

For a student doing a research project, or a business, that definitely would NOT do.

 

For me, it took four days to get their attention by posting here and complaining to the Better Business Bureau.  

[gazumped 11,661]

I appreciate this is frustrating,  but to put it in context - if you're downgraded from an upper tier to basic because of a payment problem,  you lose a lot of 'headroom' in terms of upload limit and note size,  but there are work-arounds to allow you to keep going for a few days while this is sorted out.  If access at your chosen level is business- or career-critical,  it behooves you to have backup systems,  because internet access / device failures and general gremlin attacks might stop you using Evernote for hours or days at any time,  and you need to have an alternate system,  maybe mirroring data to OneNote as well as backups.  Evernote doesn't have an 'always on' guarantee,  and the app isn't a life-or-death support for heart surgery,  it's for record-keeping and lookups.

 

Nancy Fu Magee posted,  in response to one of the several complaints about payments,  a straightforward request to raise a support request.  https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/78135-evernote-wont-process-my-payment/?p=342361

 

In my experience over the past few years of answering this sort of query,  they give responses pretty quickly - not weekends because Evernote likes its days off too; but within a working day or two,  which is about as good as you can expect.  Occasionally,  these things fall through the cracks - Evernote is (mostly) only human after all - which is why we hear about them.  On those occasions we always counsel - post your ticket number here,  and we can flag it for an Evernote employee admin on the forums to poke the account team to remind them the ticket is still outstanding.  That normally works within a few hours on working days.

 

There's no security issue in posting your ticket number - we're all users too,  with no access to the support or billing systems.  All we can do is pass it on.  There are security and confidentiality issues in posting personal details - maybe this is your fault,  not theirs - and they're not keen to say that in public.

 

Multiple posts about customer service and aggravation without actual personal details are thoroughly pointless - neither we nor Evernote know who "fedup and frustrated" is on their customer database,  nor can they fathom which bank or credit card bounced to cause the issue.  They need details,  which have to be in a secure support ticket.

 

We're all very pleased to help if we can,  but mistakes do happen - all we can do is try to fix Evernote's reasonably quickly.

[gazumped 11,661]

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/90227-kicked-off-premium-asked-to-resubscribe-at-higher-price/?p=386033

[villandra 2]

@diedhead:  I've seen someone who pays yearly report the problem.   However, you have only 1/12 the probability of running into Evernote's payment system glitch if you pay annually rather than monthly.  Some of us don't have that option.   I've run into it twice in the past 13 months. 

[villandra 2]

@gazumped, you are not being helpful by denying that there is a problem.   First of all, getting back to you tomorrow doesn't work for very intensive Evernote users such as students and businesses, and second, in my case it took four days and some very visible complaining.   Online people are reporting that even going through Chat doesn't get problems caused by the billing system glitch resolved.  

 

How would you like to need to study for an exam tomorrow, or term paper due in two days, and "we'll get back to you tomorrow".   Not to mention having your presentation on Evernote.   Excuse me, but what planet are you on?   Not the same planet as Evernote; they are failing to do their job properly to save them money.   Your motivation is a true mystery.   You don't work for them, right?

[Metrodon 2,184]

I don't get it, your account has been knocked back to free and you want it to be Premium. Very annoying, no doubt but completely fixable if you work through support.

 

This doesn't stop you using Evernote to study or work, you still have access to all of your stuff don't you?

 

Of course, if you have a business account and get locked out of your data then that's a whole different story.

 

Unless I'm really missing something this seems to be a real storm in a teacup.

[gazumped 11,661]

My only dog in this race is that other users have problems that need lots of fixing,  and - with all due respect - blowing a minor accounting error into a major storm with multiple posts across several threads just makes more work for the unpaid idiots like me. (Not to mention public services like BBB who really don't need to be involved - with a total of 5 complaints reported,  I'd take it that Evernote has so far managed to resolve all of its complaints amicably when they were received.)

 

Like Nancy said - one support request,  and (maybe) a posted ticket number to get it chased up,  will get everything resolved in a few days.  Meantime you retain full access to all your existing notes,  and can continue saving content - allbeit to a local notebook if necessary - while things get resolved.  It really isn't life and death,  and doesn't restrict your activity in any ways that can't be gotten around if necessary.