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NetMechanic customer relations sub-par - 2005-11-03
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| Reviewed by: Kevin Andrews |
After trying NetMechanic for two months, I decided that $20 a month was too much to pay for a simple computerized routine, one which any high school geek could write a script for quite easily. So I decided to cancel my subscription. I was annoyed that there is no ready way to do this on their website, and calls to their corporate office reached voice mail. It took some digging, but I did manage to find a web form on their site by which I could contact them, and they did respond, agreeing to cancel my service promptly. So far, a D for value, and a C+ for service.
What happened next, however, is truly amazing.
A month later, I received an abrupt demand for payment from someone in Keynote Systems, a company which unbeknownst to me had purchased Netmechanic. The letter offered no explanation of this relationship, nor why the credit card I had provided when I signed up had not been billed, just a demand for payment via email or by calling this unknown person on the phone.
I suspected it was either a phishing scam or a billing glitch, so I replied, requesting clarification of why Keynote was asking for this information on behalf of NetMechanic, and also for a secure means by which to provide the information to a verifiable secure NetMechanic URL once I determined whether they really had failed to bill my card.
To make a long story short, this person at Keynote became very ugly with me, even though I told her I would promptly pay if there truly was anything due and after my questions about their connection to NetMechanic were resolved. She thought I should just accept her word on the phone about everything and give her my credit card number! In the course of our correspondence, which lasted less than 24 hours, she revealed that the computer systems at NetMechanic and Keynote are secure "99.9% of the time"! Am I the only one who considers a security system failure rate of .1% to be unacceptable? Especially for a company which purports to offer the services they do!
She telephoned my office and got quite nasty with me verbally. Rather than get into it with her on the phone, I simply hung up.
Minutes later, she sent me a hostile email message, telling me that obviously I am "unable to communcate in a professional manner", and adding that she was therefor going to submit me to a collection agency and that I would now be required to pay collection costs in addtion to my $40 bill. Yes, that's right, this was all over a bill of less than $40, which I though had been charged at the time I signed up, and which in any event I had agreed to pay if it was due, and which was not even 60 days old!
Worst of all, she sent a copy of this nasty email to a totally unrelated, third party, an important business associate of mine, in violation of federal and state collection laws!
I managed to get ahold of someone at NetMechanic and paid my bill, although I really think I could have stiffed them on this if I was that kind of person.
After paying the bill, I attempted to complain to various people within both NetMechanic and Keynote, but all I got was the typical "we're sorry if you have been inconvenienced" blow-off.
Before you spend money with Keynote or NetMechanic, ask yourself if you want to deal with a company whose systems are secure only 99.9% of the time, which doesn't provide an easy way to discontinue service and billing, which can lose a customer's credit card data, and which will treat a customer so rudely after creating the billing mess to begin with!
Rest assured, I'm not done with them. I have filed complaints with the FTC, the California Attorney General, and am consulting with an attorney to determine what to do about the illegal collection effort which resulting in embarrassing me to an important business associate. I will gladly furnish copies of the email correspondence from this experience to anyone who is interested. Write to kevin@trainpro.com |
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