If you are considering signing up
for fax service from efax.com, don't. Boycott Watch has used that service and
found the company to be dishonest with billing, the company processed
unauthorized charges, did not live up properly apply credits to accounts, and
their customer service is appalling at best.
We at
Boycott Watch signed up for the efax service and within a several months, we
were informed of a rate increase of about 50%. Not long after, and when the one
year renewal came up, we were billed without any advance notification,
something we believe everyone deserves before a credit card is charged. After a
one hour call to the so-called customer service department, most of which was
spent on hold and speaking to people in foreign countries who had no power to
actually help anyone, we were finally transferred to someone in the U.S. who
promised a 4 month service credit to be applied before the next renewal.
Before that renewal was processed, we had received
noticed about the credit being applied, yet before that credit was actually
used; we received, once again, credit card billing for the year's renewal, once
again without notification despite a promise for that before any such billing
was made. After another 40 minute adventure on hold and speaking to oversees
people who are essentially powerless, Boycott Watch ended up having to cancel
the charges, thus cancelling the efax service, all without receiving using the
$67.80 credit for service promised to us.
Boycott
Watch canceled our efax service because of a complete lack of customer service,
and efax going back on their promises which included advanced notification of
billing and an actual credit for service. In the end, efax made a rates bait
and switch, offered a credit for service which they did not uphold, and then
did not live up to their promise of notification before billing as promised.
Additionally, their customer service did not improve even after complaints.
Fred Taub, President of Boycott Watch said
"Businesses which make promises to their customers, especially when repairing
customer service issues, have the responsibility of living up to those
promises. The fastest way for a business to lose customers is no not take care
of them. This becomes especially true in an era with companies which supply
legacy services such as faxing. Fax machines have been around for a long time
and only became standard business equipment in the mid 1980's. Today, when fax
machines are rarely used, so facilitating the loss of a customer will only
hasten the inevitable demise of such companies - bad service does not exist in
a bubble - it is a sign of the overall lack of interest by a business in its
own longevity. Without good customer service, there will be no customers to
serve."
Taub wants Boycott Watch readers to know
that while this report centers around the efax case, it is really a lesson to
all businesses that you can make a customer service mistake, but when those
mistakes compound without action to resolve issues, businesses will lose
customers. Taub continued: "This level of bad customer service always indicates
bad service to other customers as well. In our line of work, we call these de
Facto boycotts because although these types of actions are not organized, the
businesses own customers are refusing to do business with them and therefore
the consumer will shop elsewhere. Bad customer service always results in a loss
of customers to service." |
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