I know some of you have suggested and used The Customer Factor for your CRM and scheduling needs. I recently decided to go for it and went through the steps on the website to begin my “30 day risk free trial.” I realized after completing the sign up that this 30 day trial didn’t mean that I got to try the software for 30 days free, it just means I can cancel at any time… which doesn’t seem all that advantageous given that you pay month to month installments of $34.95, so cancelling at any time is pretty darn easy. Anyways, feeling confused about it, I called Steve to clarify. After explaining my confusion, he got pretty upset and wanted me to explain to him why “30 day risk free trial” means that I don’t pay the first month’s cost. We went back and forth for a moment, then he asked for my user name and said he would “take care of it” for me. A few moments afterwards I went to begin using the software and realized he had completely cancelled my account. At this point, I thought to myself, “I just need to pay for it and see how it goes.” So, I went through the entire signup process a second time (using a completely different login/password). Started to plug in my company/customer information and after another hour was suddenly logged out and what do you know? My second account had been cancelled by Steve-O for a second time. Wow, I thought. This guy is so offended/upset that I mistook his verbiage about a “30 day risk free trial” that he realized I had signed up and paid for his software a second time and decided to cancel my account a second time. SO, I’m wondering if any of you have had difficult customer service issues with Steve and The Customer Factor? I’m pretty bummed that I clearly won’t get another chance to use this service. Thoughts?
Great customer service. Has always got right back to me with any problem whether it be an email , or phone call.
I don’t no what you mean when you say we had a back an forth. What was your tone with your side of the back an forth
Everyone handles confrontation differently
I’ve had back an forth with customers an decided to not have them as clients . So to answer your question nothing but good things to say about Steve an the customer factor
I’ve read many reviews of guys praising Steve and his service, which is why I was so thrown off by how upset he got when I calm and politely asked about the “30 day risk free trial.” Sincerely, my tone was not rude or pissy. After he responded by telling me I needed to go back to the pricing page and explain to him how the wording means that it’s a free 30 day trial, I got defensive and told him I wasn’t hoping to argue over the use of language, but that I was confused. Shortly after that the conversation ended. It felt like he maybe had gotten a call about this before and was pretty annoyed by the question right from the start, so it created a more intense tone to the conversation following his response. As someone who knows how awful it is to receive condescending remarks from customers, I’d like to think I handled myself with a bit more tact than that.
Anyways, so he cancelled the second account and didn’t answer when I called using my number. I then tried my wife’s number and asked he answered and I think we’ve worked things out. He was upset that I mistook his wording to mean it would be a free 30 days and I was frustrated that he couldn’t see how that might be slightly confusing, given that the payments are monthly anyways, and you can cancel anytime after 30 days, how is it actually a “30 day risk free trial?” All told, he is reactivating my account so I can give it a shot. Thanks
I couldnt have possibly asked for better customer service from Steve. He called me and spent an hour on the phone with me on a Sunday morning to help me correct transactions in Quickbooks that I screwed up while transferring. It wasnt even his software that he was helping me with. And hes always been awesome when I have any question no matter how dumb it is. If you have a suggestion for the software and its a good idea you shouldnt be surprised if he gets to work on it right away. I cant say enough good things about Customer Factor or Steve.
I’ve never seen Steve get upset at anyone on Facebook either. Maybe he did feel like he was being attacked and went on the defense, I really just cant see him just being a jerk. Honestly. He’s always super nice.
And as far as signing back up… When I see people fishing around responsibid, if it seems fishy I just block the IP Address. I’m thinking that he probably did feel attacked if he went as far as to shut you down again after the conversation. Or maybe he thought you did it by accident? IDK, I probably shouldnt be speaking on his behalf.
Are you a WCRA member? If so, The Customer Factor offers a $120 discount if you pay for an entire year upfront. It costs $299 for the year which comes out to an average of $24.95/month instead of $34.95/month. The only “catch” is that you do have to pay the full one year fee upfront so keep that in mind. I just got my account a few days ago and so far so good. It takes some getting used to and I’m no expert with it yet, but I think it will end up serving my needs quite well.
Maybe they should use the “puppy dog close” for the software. Once you’ve got all of your info saved on it and get familiar with the program. It’s a harder decision to cancel. I’ve read one other thread from back in 2010 where Steve supposedly “went off” in a very similar scenario.
It is not uncommon to offer a full refund within a certain amount of days for a service. It appears you did not understand how the trial worked. I looked at the signup page and don’t see how you can not understand this:
if at anytime in the first 30 days, I want my money back, all I have to do is send an email or phone your office. 100% of my payment will be refunded right away.
I can see how they would get frustrated when you tried to get out of paying the first month when it was your misunderstanding.
Good morning. as everyone knows there are always 2 sides so i’d like to present my side. Someone calls our office and right away starts in with a confrontational attitude about the fact he was charged when he thought it was a free trial. the best way to have handled that would be to simply say “i thought it was a free trial. can i have a refund on that and can i try CF out for 30 days?” absolutely no problem at all. or if at any point during check out (there is a button that must be clicked which actually says “Subscribe and pay 34.95”) they decide they only want to try CF out. no problem at all. we get many calls and we’re setting up demos all the time. we’re glad to do it. but instead of the conversation going like this, he decided to be confrontational about the whole thing which really makes no sense. we don’t need to trick anyone into paying 34.95 (changing to 44.95 in early february for new users). our goal is long term relationships and you don’t establish that by tricking people. when i tried to show him the pricing page and what the wording says i get a “i don’t want to argue about it” comeback meaning that he believes what he believes but i can’t defend his accusation of being deceptive. not a good way to start a long term relationship, right?
so naturally we’re going to cancel that person’s account. we don’t need people like that on board. we have a great group of customers and the last thing we need is a malcontent.
then he signs up for a second account which i didn’t quite understand. if he had a bad taste in his mouth because he thought we were trying to trick him then why would he sign up again? i actually thought he was playing games at this point.
but then to top things off, i get about the nastiest email i’ve received in about 10 years. it was a doozy. so needless to say after all that, i was surprised when he called at the end of the day asking if we can reactivate the second account, so we did that but i really don’t know how we can continue a relationship that started off as rocky as this. i’m not sure how anyone could. if a window cleaning client called me back when i was in the window cleaning business and started in with how my advertising was deceptive and then followed up with a nasty email about it i sure wouldn’t go back and do that customer’s windows anymore.
anyway…thanks for listening. and thank you to all users of The Customer Factor. we really appreciate you. we have some incredible things planned for 2017 such as a customer portal, online booking, automated reviews, and much more email and text messaging automation. and our apps are really coming into their own. the very next version will have gps tracking, clock in/clock out, more email functionality, etc. take care and have a profitable day.
It’s a little disingenuous to advertise a “free trial” that isn’t free if I understand your explanation. He’s right to be mad if you are charging a credit card before the end of the “trial period.” “Risk free for 30 days” is a gimmick if there is no difference between cancelling in the first 30 days and at any other time. Maybe you can explain the difference?
i looked at many for 2 years and tcf is the most awesome and getting more awesome all the time.
it’s also one of the cheapest on the planet.
re customer service: sometimes steve is hard to get hold of BUT when you get him you are dealing with the man! you don’t talk to some tech who really doesn’t know the software you are talking to the owner who thought of, developed and CARES about his product and his customer. i have certainly spent hours on the phone with various other software companies trying to get a problem solved sometimes with days or weeks going by without resolution. when i talk to steve he can usually figure it out instantly and if not usually offers to work on it HIMSELF to figure it out. he has also made adjustments to the software for me within days.
tcf customer service is BY FAR the best i have received from any company of any type and steve is the most gracious and friendly person i can imagine.
i try to be pretty good with my customers but over the years some have have really gotten under my skin life is too short, sometimes customers must be fired.
i just read thru the price page, i don’t know how you could get the idea it was a FREE TRIAL or why you would not be paying for it.
it is not advertised ANYWHERE as a free trial however if you talk to steve he does set up trial accounts often even though they are not advertised.
you should have a pretty good clue that you will be paying for something when your credit is required and you have make your way thru a shopping cart!
I just setup a free trial on a software for musicians and the card is necessary but isn’t charged until the 30 days is over. That is the normal practice and I can see how someone could assume the same thing about CF since that’s how most software trials work.
i just started the sign up process to see and not only does it not say anywhere that it is free trial it says quite clearly:
“if at anytime in the first 30 days, I want my money back, all I have to do is send an email or phone your office. 100% of my payment will be refunded right away.”
really there is no reason for confusion
interestingly hatch uses the cancel anytime line but what they don’t tell you is that you give 30 days notice.
another thing common with software free trials is you get the top version so you never actually see what the lower version does and then you are automatically billed for the top service when your trial ends.
not so with tcf, you get all features there is only 1 price unlimited users and locked in price for life.
you are completely wrong here in your interpretation of tcf site language, there is no indication of it being a free trial anywhere and it clearly state you can get a refund during the first 30 days if not satisfied.
‘Cancel at any time’ means you’re not locked into a contract, but you’re also not getting any of your money back. Risk free for 30 days means that if you don’t like it, you get the $35 back.
Doesn’t seem like a gimmick to me. I do sort of a similar thing when I take a credit card deposit for scheduling a job. $100, refundable up to 72 hours prior to service. They’ve paid me the money, but if they decide to cancel for any reason before that 72 hour period, I’m happy to give it back. Rarely happens, though. Whereas, before taking deposits, I had a number of people decide a week or so before they were scheduled, that they wanted to shop around or simply cancel all together.
So I think Steve’s model is a fair and shrewd one. It encourages people to sign up without fear of unnecessary loss, and at the same time, it probably helps weed out some of the tire-kickers and the people who just feel like “giving it a whirl”.
Not sure why things escelated so quickly in this situation, but no one’s perfect. Sounds like there may have been a bit of overreaction on one or both sides. It won’t stop me from trying out TCF in the future if the need/interest arises.
I personally think this issue could have been handled a little better if it were kept private. The very existence of this thread, indicates to me that the OP is probably the one overreacting
