If You Value Your Business Stay Away From Infusionsoft

You may recall this post I made on the 19th of March explaining I had been trying to set up an affiliate program to take recurring billing payments. All I was trying to do was set up Infusionsoft with PayPal to accept recurring payments. Not hard to do you would think wouldn’t you? I mean PayPal must be one of the largest payment processors in the world.

Well as hard as I find it to write this blog post I feel I must share my experiences to save you from going down the same road I did as I have had nothing but frustrations for the last 10 weeks trying to set this up.

I had heard many great things about Infusionsoft and decided to check them out. You can see what they offer here, Initially all I wanted to do was use their affiliate program and possibly use their autoresponder service at a later date. The plan was to put all of my products under one roof using one system. Now at $299 per month this was no cheap affiliate program but I decided to contact someone at Infusionsoft to ask about their service. This is where the problems started.

I asked if I would be able to use PayPal to accept recurring billing payments, I was told I would be able to do this no problem and was then told about the wonderful things Infusionsoft would do for my business. (If anyone from Infusionsoft reads this I still have the email from Scott Morrision telling me the setup with PayPal was possible)

So I decided to sign up and get things moving. Now remember I had done some research and while I consider myself to be quite technically experienced I knew this wasn’t going to be easy to set up so I had to get the help of a programmer to set things up.

Without boring you with the details I have now gone through 3 programmers and none of them can set this up for me, the reason they can’t set this up is it can’t be done and Infusionsoft have acknowledged it but that’s not where my problem lies.

You see, during all of this time I have had to contact Infusionsoft support numerous times and I must say their support is non existent.

  • They will tell you anything to get you off the phone.
  • They don’t reply to support tickets.
  • They pass you to another department which sends you to an answerphone.
  • They promise to ring you back but never do (this has happened numerous times)
  • The guy you need to speak to is always ‘in a meeting’ or ‘away from his desk’.
  • ETC, ETC.

They simply don’t seem to care about their customers, now remember this is a $299 per month service we are talking about here. Not some $10 product.

Anyway, to cut a long story short last week I decided to go with a different company and got set up in 3 days, if only I had done this in the first place. So I contacted Infusionsoft to cancel my account and request a refund of the $900 they have as they mis-sold me their product.

After submitting a support ticket last week and making 3 phone calls yesterday and being ‘promised a reply by close of business today’ guess what!

I’m still waiting!

Now get this, I can’t cancel my account unless I talk to someone at billing. When you contact billing you get an answerphone, but what’s the point of leaving a message as they don’t respond.

My next payment of $299 is due on the 23rd of May and I have given up trying to cancel my account. I am simply going to do a chargeback.

How a company that is supposed to help the Internet Marketer can treat a customer like this is beyond me. I may receive some flack for this post but as one of my blog readers I must warn you, if you value your business stay well away from Infusionsoft.

This whole experience has probably cost me in the region of $30,000 as I am now 10 weeks late with an evergreen product launch. Let’s just hope this blog post prevents a few people going through the same experience I have.

They will tell you what you want to hear to make a sale but that’s where the communication ends.

If anyone from Infusionsoft reads this please cancel my account so I don’t have to perform a chargeback. My username is ‘planetsms’

Rant over!

[Update] A lot of people are asking what service I have switched to. At the moment I just put the product in question on ClickBank. That’s one company who value their customers who I’ve never had an issue with in 5 years. If i do go with an all in one system I can recommend I will let you guys know.

[Update 2] I’ve just received this email from Infusionsoft:

Hi John, I tried to call you but there was no answering service. So am emailing you this response. My name is Clay Jeppsen. I am an Account Manager here at Infusionsoft, yesterday I received an email from my boss to contact you regarding your request to cancel. By the time I opened the email it was already late in the evening there in the UK. We are in Arizona, 9 hours difference. It proved to be a poor choice of me to wait and call you today. For that I apologize. And I am sincerely sorry for the fact that Infusionsoft was not able to get your project off the ground. I believe it is still a bug that our tech support is trying to fix, but that is not your problem. And, Infusionsoft is not in the business of taking peoples money. We are in the business of growing businesses; this is what we pride ourselves on. For that reason I have refunded 897.00 American dollars back to your Visa and canceled your account. I hope this helps towards your future endeavors and time lost with Infusionsoft. Like I said, we would have preferred a more prolific outcome. If we are going to part, I hope we can at least agree on one thing – that we wanted you to be successful with our product. Your success brings us success. That is healthy for the both of us. I wish you the best in the future. If you have any questions for me please call or email me.

It’s a shame it took this blog post to get action but there you have it. You have to love the power of the Internet and social media, thanks everyone for your support, I truly appreciate it.

[Update 3] Yet another response from Infusion, it’s strange how they suddenly want to communicate with me now.

John,

I have to say when I woke up this morning, checked Twitter and saw a handful of mentions to your blog post, I was disappointed to say the least. I was disappointed because I know great lengths Infusionsoft has made (and continues to make) to deliver exceptional service to all users. I am glad we’ve taken steps to resolve this as quickly as we have.

I hope you understand that we earnestly worked hard to earn your business and legitimately wanted to help you and your business grow. Our app had all the functions you desired, but it seems the point of failure was on the merchant processing needs. We have hundreds and possibly thousands of users who successfully use our app with PayPal Payflow Pro for recurring billing. I know this wasn’t what you expected and I totally understand why it was frustrating.

I would like to point out that we have been on top of the support cases you submitted. I wouldn’t exactly say we were “non-existent” nor have we pushed you off the phone. We take sincere pride in our 92% customer satisfaction and work hard to push that even higher. We will made necessary accommodations to keep our users happy and their businesses growing. We’ve listened to our customer feedback on help and have made numerous improvements to our Help Center — clearing away the unnecessary and providing more detailed articles, tutorials and helpful videos for users. To date, our support team’s support case ratings have averaged at 4.54 out of 5.0 which leads us to believe most users receive timely, satisfactory service.
We accept and apologize for the difficulty in reaching our account management team. We have sent an internal communication to advise all employees on how to properly handle such concerns. While this does not ameliorate your concerns directly, it will help us improve and provide even better service for all our users.

And one last point — and I want your readers to hold us to this – we commit to following up with every customer concern within one business day. We know it’s unacceptable to wait for a response from a modern, upstanding company and we’re stepping up to the plate to provide excellent service to everyone. We’ve grown quite a bit and that’s no excuse to accept inferior service. Conversely, we will take all the steps to hold our customers accountable once they use our app to use it successfully and accept our guidance in making the most from the app. After all, we’re both in this game and want to keep our customers happy. :-)

I hope you understand we meant this response with the best of intentions. As I mentioned to you on Twitter, any person who endured such a bumpy experience would have been met with such compassionate and rapid service from us. We’re a different company than we were before (Google us and see what mistakes we’ve made in the past) and would like to let you know that we welcome any feedback, suggestions and improvements to make our app and service better.

Thanks for the feedback the opportunity to serve you better. Let us know if you have any questions or feedback.

Warm Regards,

Joseph Manna
Community Manager, Infusionsoft
Email: joseph.manna@infusionsoft.com
Twitter: @joemanna | @infusionsoft
Ph: (480) 289-6814

Reply from John

My only response to that is if you ‘take sincere pride’ in 92% customer satisfaction that’s actually quite shocking as that means 8% of your customers are not satisfied with your service and you seem happy with that. If you were trading on eBay with 92% satisfaction nobody would buy from you and eBay would probably close you down.

61 Comments

  • John Chadwick

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hey John,

    Good for you. I’m glad you have expressed your anger and posted it to your blog. That alone will probably save many of your Master Class students and subscribers from following the Infusionsoft route. If more marketers shared the bad experiences as well as the good ones then a lot more people would trust them when they ask you to jump on the next “big thing”. Maybe you could start a Master Class forum thread relaying you and your teams bad experiences so that we can all benefit from your wisdom and “been there, don’t do that” experiences.

    Customer service is something you have always been exceptionally good at and it must have been really annoying for you that a (apparently and alledged) professional setup such as infusionsoft could be quite so bad. I too have fallen foul of “big promises, little substance” companies online and lost a fair bit of money in the process.

    A lesson to us all, I feel.

    Many thanks
    John Chadwick

  • Patrick Wooley

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Wow John,

    Sorry to hear you have had such problems with them. It seems like they would be more responsive with so many big name gurus using their services. I have not personally used them, and from the sound of your experiences, I doubt I ever will.

    On your recommendation, I’m still with Aweber. And their service is excellent. I hope you have this sorted out now and appreciate you sharing this. I’m sure you’ll get some negative feedback from this post. Many of the lists I’m on use them, so not sure why they wouldn’t be more willing to help.

    Thanks for your input. Take care and hope you have this taken care of now. All the best. Patrick

  • Richard

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi
    Doing a charge-back may not be your answer, that is if you are paying using a credit card like M@stercard. The reason, when you pay a merchant using your M@stercard you are also agreeing to the terms and conditions of the merchant and if part of their terms state that you are required to “talk to someone at billing” then you may not be able to cancel. As a last resort you may have to cancel your card. I hope that it is as easy as charge-back but my last experience, indeed my only one, the response was from m@stercard – you pay then you agree to the terms. Anyway good luck hope it all works out well for you John.

  • Dean Holland

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hey John

    Sounds like you’ve had it rough mate… I FULLY backup what you’re saying about thier support… Total TRASH!

    We use infusionsoft and have had issues but luckily for me it does not seem to have been anywhere near your bad experience.

    I’m actually wanting to get a separate setup in adition to infusionsoft so out of interest what other service did you go for if you dont mind me asking?

    Hope all is well matey!!

    Catch up soon

    Dean

  • Stuart Turnbull

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    You’ve built a great following online by sharing your good experiences, John.
    Sometimes a bad experience can be equally valuable so hats off to you for having the courage to share this bad experience with us.
    I ALWAYS follow your recommendations when it comes to online services and I’ve never been disappointed.
    Good luck with cancelling your account.

  • Andrew Stark

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John

    That really does suck, and although the main benefit of infusion for multiple product owners is that you can have everything under 1 roof I don’t actually think it’s that user friendly for the affiliate, everything always seems a bit clunky and difficult to navigate.

    You’d be much better having an affiliate page where you link together all of your sites and explain them on a static page.

    Look forward to seeing what this new evergreen product is.

    Andrew

  • Doug Prentice

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John
    Well done! One of the things we’re not good at in UK is standing up and letting everyone when we’ve had bad service. Our American cousins seem to be much better at this stuff. If it’s been lousy let people know. That’s the best way of driving change with poor providers. Hit them where it hurts – right in the wallet.

    John, you were the first internet marketer that I trusted, so your credibility was already A+ for me – you’ve now gone to A+++. Too often internet marketing seems like a cosy old boys club with everyone recommending everyone else.

    Keep on telling us like it is John. It’s what we need.

    Best regards
    Doug Prentice

  • Alex Newell

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    I’ve had tons of tech hassle myself but not had problems with companies like this. Very odd for such a well known company to serve you so badly.

    In a funny way it’s reassuring to know that even at your level such situations occur – we generally think it is because we don’t know the ropes. In other words people generally think it’s their fault when things go wrong – even when it isn’t!

    Hope it all goes well now John and yes we all want to know the company you moved to that worked so well!

    All The Best

    Alex

  • Ron Barrett

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Wow John! Sorry to hear about your not so good experience…it just goes to show that if you provide crappy customer service you’ll be able to find that kind of information all over the internet but if you provide good customer service, very few people talk about you.

    I wonder why some of the ‘big guys’ use infusionsoft if the customer support is so bad? hmmmmm…

    Good luck with the rest of the set up.

  • Katherine Cairns

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Wow John

    Thanks for that, looking at their sales page they promise the earth and at $299 per month you should expect one hell of a service.

    Thanks for letting us know about this. At the moment I am going through support issues with quite a big name internet marketing person who will only communicate through their support desk. The idea being that you raise a support ticket and they are supposed to come back to you. At the moment I am at support ticket number 7 for the same issue and I am still being ignored.

    Total frustration so I can fully understand where you are coming from on this. At least you have it now sorted with someone else.

    Thanks again for sharing this with us.

    Katherine

    http://www.MyEbookAndSoftwareStore.com
    http://www.Article-Marketing-Mayhem.com

  • Mark Lyford

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hey John

    It was good to see you at the weekend. Thanks for the info on this . Its worth noting to stay away, Id be interested to hear what solution you used instead though

    Regards

    Mark

  • Gert Chappell

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Thanks for this valuable post John.

    I follow your blog and have your newsletter too and all of the information is of great use to me being a new internet marketer.

    I hope you get this sorted and please let us know the outcome.

    It’s beyond me that some of these companies survive in a world full of other better companies.

    I don’t use Infusionsoft and now I probably never will.

    Thanks again John

    All the best Gert.

  • Keith Purkiss

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John,

    Sorry to hear of the problems you’ve had. I had similar trouble with another company and had to resort to a chargeback as well which they disputed but I won in the end.

    As an affiliate I’m promoting 5 people’s infusionsoft programs and from this side it’s good. The tracking links, tagging for life (I have about 1500 people tagged as mine) etc are great. Also it tells you the names of people who bought via your link which I like as some of them I know in forums and can thank them personally and help them out. The two tier system is good too.

    I don’t intend to use it myself though partly because of the cost, but also the support issues, the email per month limit, and deliverability problems that I’ve heard of from people who use it.

    I’m also interested in knowing which system you are going for, and look forward to joining your new affiliate program as it will be a great opportunity for anyone who gets in fast (especially if there’s a second tier 😉 )

    Thanks

    Keith

  • SEO Manchester

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John,
    Sorry to hear you are having a problems and also thanks for sharing
    this experience with us.
    If you dont mind me asking, which service did you go for?
    Gordan Bosnjak

  • Jerry Holliday

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    What a nightmare, how a company can get away with this in this social media age is beyond me.

    It surprises me because they have so many well known Internet Marketers using their service..you’d think they’d do better.

    Hope you get everything sorted out

    Jerry

    p.s great to meet you in Bristol btw, hope you got back ok (around the ash cloud!)

  • Brendan Carron

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John.
    very well said…good tactic to whip infusionsoft customer services…$299 per month..To you, you felt robbed….

    i believe you used awber already.. so have you consider email champ?? any good?

    contact BBC WatchDOG!!! lol.

    Brendan carron

  • Sue Schlaiffer

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John,
    I am sorry to hear of the problems you are experiencing with Infusionsoft, I will remember to steer clear of them in the future. I really hope you get this all sorted out quickly as it is disgusting to treat a customer this way, especially with the prices they are charging, this should be a Rolls Royce service! Thank you for telling us about the bad stuff as well as the good, as we need to realise that things can and do go wrong, and so we can be a little more prepared for it. It was great to meet with you at the LFMpire seminar this last weekend by the way, and I feel very priviledged to have had the opportunity to meet you and to attend.

  • Roy

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    I have often noticed that many internet marketers use Infusionsoft.
    Perhaps they did not suffer the same problems as you,it’s frustrating and annoying to be treated this way.
    When I make any purchase online I always prefer PayPal it is much easier when things go wrong to receive a refund.Making credit card payments for re-curring transactions can be difficult to cancel using some sites.Also do not be tempted to leave your phone number some marketers are passing on the numbers to other third parties,resulting in unsolicited calls.

  • Zara Lockwood

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John

    I’ve had this problem with some companies – it was usually web hosting related companies – you can tell a lot by their poor customer service, as I think it reflects the attitude of the whole company and you don’t realize how bad it is until you go to another company where they sort out things within the hour – rather than dragging it out over days with non helpful replies implying you are being the unreasonable one.

    I think the lesson we learn as the victim of bad customer service, is if you find a good provider with good customer service – stick with them like glue.

    I tend to cling onto my good services now – while still looking at others – like I have one main web hosting provider that is GREAT and 3 other providers that are OKAY and a several that are CR*P – that I’d not recommend to anyone – mainly because of terrible or non existent customer service.

    I have the same system for all products and services I buy on-line.

    The price of the product is irrelevant to me personally – it’s the support provided (or after sales added value) I remember – I’ve been more angry at spending $15 on a product that didn’t work than one that cost $300+ and didn’t on at least one occasion I can think of – this is because one tried to fob me off with a you get what you pay for argument and the other *listened carefully* to my problem and went away and came back quickly with an answer that fixed it.

    If a simple problem takes more than 3 e-mails for the customer service rep to sort out – I get suspicious THEY have a problem!

    Best of luck, thanks for the info.

    Zara x

  • Richard Davy

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    John, thanks for sharing your experiences good or bad, and in this case appalling!
    You’re quite to tell them to s**** it.
    Information like this is invaluable for ALL internet marketers looking to operate an Affiliate area, especially new guys like those lucky enough to be your Masterclass students and having you share info with us.
    Your info is some of the best on the web, and as soon as i see a blog post from John i rush over as i know i am going to learn something valuable!
    wish i could have got to Bristol (maybe next time?)
    good luck
    Richard

  • Gavin McCoy

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John,

    Thanks for sharing this information with us.

    I’m sure I speak for many people who follow your blogs and use your excellent products. You are famous for your honesty and integrity.

    The basis of good business is selling great products and giving great customer service. The company in question bring a very poor meaning to the term Forced Continuity.

    Hope you sort it out soon, and potential customers take notice of your advice. I certainly will.

    Kindest regards,

    Gavin McCoy

    Winner The Argos Consumer Journalism Award

  • Patti

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hey John
    Thanks SO much for that valuable input. I must say I have never seen an Internet Marketer take the time to tell their readers what NOT to do because they are always busy trying to promote the next best thing. I think it is crucial to expose BAD customer service.
    Thanks again!!
    Patti

  • Andy Michaels

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John,

    First of all let me say that it was a pleasure to meet you in Bristol at the weekend. An eye-opener in more ways than one.

    But secondly thank you for this refreshingly open blog post. I have seen many marketers using this service, notably Dean Holland as mentioned in a previous comment, but to hear that they treat the very people they are supposed to be helping in this manner is terrible.

    And as a marketing lesson it is invaluable as they have obviously just lost a MASSIVE amount of business through treating a highly respected, well followed marketer like yourself. You have shared your experiences and everyone who reads this post will look for an alternative solution, of that I have no doubt.

    Many thanks for sharing John.

    Regards

    Andy Michaels

  • Randy Smith

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John,

    What a nightmare that seemed to be! At least you know where you’re at with clickbank.

    Out of interest, I note that even some of the people who use Infusionsoft are now starting to add extra parts to save from using their built in autoresponder!
    They seem to have issues with the numbers of emails sent as well as delivery problems!! – so some are now using the affiliate program and then still having to source a separate AR.

    Another way to link all your products is via paydotcom – which Tony Shepherd showed with his free PMMS videos. I’ve used that system on two sites now without problems…. but it does work out costly as PCD aren’t the cheapest processor!

    Anyway – great to see you again in Bristol….I wish I was back to getting stuff done, but now I’m about to set off to gretna for one of my daughters wedding tomorrow :)

    Here’s hoping the I don’t end up drinking quite as much as we did over the weekend…lol

    Chat soon
    Randy
    http://www.WizardResponder.com

  • Ray Johnson

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hey John

    WOW! Wasn’t expecting this mate :)

    I thought you would successfully negotiate the problems with Infusionsoft, as you told me you were having in our recent email chats…

    As you know I was looking to use them, but was aprehensive because of the nightmare stories I’ve read and not to mention the support which I have also read is disgusting.

    I spoke to a guy called Corey at Infusionsoft and he was CONSTANTLY calling me back to get me to sign up – maybe now I am glad I havent.

    Just a side note for you, AJ’s guy might be able to help you out with setup I dont know, but I DO KNOW you are best off using a 3rd Party Merchant Account like Authorize.net and plugging that into the InfusionSoft API.

    Hope this helps, and I’m sure you’ll sort it all out in the end buddy.

    Bit of a shame though as the Infusionsoft system DOES KICK ASS, lifetime cookies on all products and all autoresponder mailings… maybe we could pool our resources and make a better programme, with better support!

    Good luck mate.

    Regards

    Ray

  • Niffy

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Thanks for sharing i was thinking of giving them a try but there is nothing i hate more than poor customer support.

  • Robert Deveau

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    I have to admit, I was starting to wonder what was going on. I should have realized that it was a problem that was out of your control.

    By the way, you didn’t sound nearly so angry in the video.

  • C.J.

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    John, might not Delavo be capable of what you were trying to
    do? While their silver level is $200 per month ($100 cheaper
    than Infusionsoft), and gold is $500 per month, I’ve dealt with their people who’ve been very good with my questions and doubt very seriously that were it not the solution for you that Mark
    Joyner and John Delavera would let things sink to the level
    that Infusionsoft has, since they are proving themselves to you by giving away their core program (totally free) and bronze level (with one referral). Thanks for the heads-up on Infusionsoft; bully for you and may they be ever so
    humbled for such poor practices.

  • Barry Wells

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John, sorry to hear of the nightmares you’ve been having. With regard to the charge back: like Richard said, you may have trouble there. If you paid by credit card and it is termed as a recurring bill then the only ones that can cancel it is infusionsoft. Judging from the lack of support they’ve offered so far i can’t see them cancelling it without a fight (of sorts).

    John, in the time that i have followed you and your advice i have come to trust and respect you like no other internet marketer. That respect has grown 10 fold!!

    A long time ago you taught me that customer services should be a priority, it’s a shame that such a large company can’t follow suit, especially when you consider the monthly charge.

    Thank you for writing this post and letting us know the pitfalls of infusionsoft. I for one won’t be using them.

    Respect and Regards,
    Barry

  • Antony Cecil-Wright

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Thanks for this John, sadly crap customer service is all too common. A lot firms seems to think that after-sales is some kind of joke, failing to realise that in many cases it’s actually an integral part of the product.
    The result is that customers cancel and the frustration of wasted time creates a shedload of bad feeling. Not clever.

  • Dawn Kay

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John

    Sorry to hear about your problems with Infusionsoft and I really hope you manage to get your money back soon.

    How someone can charge that much for a product and then offer such poor customer service is beyond me and thanks for warning us off buying it.

    Warm Regards

    Dawn Kay

  • George Nieves

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John,

    I’m sorry that you’ve had so many problems. It’s a disgrace that there are companies like that out there. I ranted also about certain issues on my blog recently.
    It’s all about being a professional & treating others, as you would like to be treated.
    Don’t worry, better days are ahead!

    Best regards,
    George Nieves

  • Ryan

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Sorry to hear that. I looked at Infusionsoft before and couldn’t fathom paying $300 a month even for a good service. Now I definitely won’t be going that route. Thanks for sharing.

  • Hi John

    So sad to hear of your problem, you are no fool and I am sure you will sort it out.

    It is very brave of you to go public but that’s our John…Just like you came right back after the Ebay debacle!

    I have been caught on this card situation in the past but my firm policy today is that if they don’t accept Paypal don’t do business with them because it means they are frightened of the strict Paypal fairness policies. I have won several disputes and I also know that if I want to discontinue a regular payment I can achieve it with a few clicks of the mouse.

    Kindest Regards

    Christopher

  • Donald MacLeod

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John,

    Unlucky that you lost that amount of money, hope you get it sorted but good on you for kicking ass. There are enough a..h..le. out there ripping people off. I got ripped of for over $100 last year and when you are struggling to make money online that is a lot.

    I’ve heard of the company but never had/will not be now. Thanks for the post.

    Regards

    Donald

  • Terry Conti

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John, sorry to know you had issues with this company infusionsoft. Thanks for letting us know to stay away from them. The internet is like a big city, you have good and you had bad. It’s also good to know how you perceive things when things go wrong, it’s a learning experience for us all. Terry Conti

  • Dave Lovelace

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hey John

    That sucks! I’m very surprised to hear that too, since the majority of affiliate programs I’m registered with are through Infusionsoft. I would have assumed their support would have been otherwise.

    I can totally recommend the affiliate/product management system that I use. You’re an affiliate of mine so you’ve seen the system, but may not recall.

    It’s a robust php-based script, feature full, and uses PayPal (or Clickbank, but not both).

    * You can pay any level of commissions (up to 100%)

    * It includes a built-in support ticket system that you can also use to assign to an employee or outsourced staff.

    * Has 2-tier capability (good for brokering)

    * Has built-in affiliate tools section and auto-insert affiliate links in the promotional material.

    * Sends affiliates email sales notifications.

    * Can setup recurring memberships

    * Mass Pay affiliates (if not using 100% instant PayPal)

    * Tracking for advertising

    * Integrates with several autoresponders including Aweber and Getresponse.. just by adding your campaign name in a field

    * Kunaki integration (coming soon)

    * Search function for customers and affiliates

    * Instant view of transactions (daily, weekly, etc) with gross and profit totals

    * Instant refund feature from within admin (coming soon)

    etc

    And it’s under $50 per month!

    I’ve been using it for about 6 months and very happy with it, especially for the cost. He could charge $97/mo for this easily.

    I’ve become friends with the creator/owner and he’s always trying to improve and add more features.

    John, if you want to get in touch with the owner to get more info, just hit me up and I’ll connect you. You’ve got my email :-)

    FYI – Anyone can get a 14 day trial over at http://digitalprofits.net/go.php?a=9608&p=32 (affiliate link) or learn more at http://surefireprofitsystem.com (non affiliate link)

    If I can do anything to help. Let me know.

    Dave

  • Eruwan Gerry

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hi John,

    Thanks for sharing your experience. Not many people are willing to rant on companies who don’t do what they’re suppose to do. So you have a lots of guts in doing so.

    Anyway, thanks for doing it. We now know to avoid this terrible company.

  • Rick Dearr

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    John,

    I was actually going to sign up TODAY for their 30 trial through a business partner. (He is an affiliate of theirs and swears by them)

    I felt compelled to send your email and rant on to the president of Infusionsoft to let him know their treatment of you will determine whether or not we get involved. I added this note to the end below your comments.

    I hope it helps you get resolution, or maybe even what you were after in the first place.

    ==========
    Clate

    I am partners with Robert Allen and Larry Loik, seems to love your product, so we were going to switch over this month.

    Once before, I was going to sign up for Infusionsoft and the system (run by Infusionsoft) crashed and would not let me purchase… so I did not and until Larry recommended you as a much improved company, I stayed away.

    I’m at a crossroads right now as I must set up a new system, and plan on running millions through said system.

    I would love to hear from you on how you took care of John Thornhill. I doubt that you’ll get him back as a customer, but if you can make him a fan again, he would probably sell for you, just as strongly as an affiliate as he has ranted against you.

    (His issue seems trivial for a coder at your company, and should be a standard part of your system for all purchasers anyway, a great opportunity to improve your standard product offering, and win back a customer and engage new customers.)

    Sincerely,

    Rick Dearr

    http://rnrmarketingllc.com

    http://winnerscirclenow.com/
    Referral Code: 3966502

    http://freecashinaflashvideo.com

    http://twitter.com/rickdearr

    131 E 11000 S.
    Sandy, Utah 84070

    801-999-4176 Home/Office
    801-647-2289 cell

    rickdearr.com
    bestsellerrobertallen.com

    =========

    I’d love to hear your end result.

  • Vivien

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hey John

    So sorry to hear about your bad experience with InfusionSoft. It’s really such a pain…I could understand. Totally unprofessional of them to provide such lousy customer service. Thanks for alerting us to steer clear of them! Hope you find a solution to your problem soon.

    Rgds
    Vivien

  • Ken Weiss

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hey John,

    Dude, that sucks….and specially since you are paying $299 per month. If this is an automatic billing to your credit card, call your bank and lodge a complaint to have them turn off the payment.

    I appreciate your rant as I think many of us have been there.

    Glad to hear you got the issue resolved with another…better company.

  • Graham Price

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Way To Go John – Don’t mess with the Geordie Crew :-)

    Seriously – Totally out of order and backs up the fact now that “Companies or individuals” cannot expect to get away with such shoddy practices in these days of instant communication on the net and a good thing to!

    Full credit to You for sharing, thankyou John.

    Kindest Regards – Graham Price

  • Dave Smith

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    I’m very glad you posted this John, I did a post on customer service myself after having problems with another company but its good to see you are alerting people to this problem. There are some excellent people out there who take customer service seriously (like yourself) but a few bad ones too who give a bad name to the internet marketing business.
    I’m glad you finally got some sort of response but of course it doesn’t compensate you for lost business.
    Good luck with the project now you can get it started.

    Best Regards

    Dave

  • Dave Nicholson

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hey John,

    Love the update mate, you did give them more than fair opportunity to get it sorted, wonder how many sales this cost them, ‘cos if you got it sorted I was going to try them too!

    Think I’ll take a look at the one Dave L suggested. :-)

    Dave.

  • John,

    I have to say when I woke up this morning, checked Twitter and saw a handful of mentions to your blog post, I was disappointed to say the least. I was disappointed because I know great lengths Infusionsoft has made (and continues to make) to deliver exceptional service to all users. I am glad we’ve taken steps to resolve this as quickly as we have.

    I hope you understand that we earnestly worked hard to earn your business and legitimately wanted to help you and your business grow. Our app had all the functions you desired, but it seems the point of failure was on the merchant processing needs. We have hundreds and possibly thousands of users who successfully use our app with PayPal Payflow Pro for recurring billing. I know this wasn’t what you expected and I totally understand why it was frustrating.

    I would like to point out that we have been on top of the support cases you submitted. I wouldn’t exactly say we were “non-existent” nor have we pushed you off the phone. We take sincere pride in our 92% customer satisfaction and work hard to push that even higher. We will made necessary accommodations to keep our users happy and their businesses growing. We’ve listened to our customer feedback on help and have made numerous improvements to our Help Center — clearing away the unnecessary and providing more detailed articles, tutorials and helpful videos for users. To date, our support team’s support case ratings have averaged at 4.54 out of 5.0 which leads us to believe most users receive timely, satisfactory service.
    We accept and apologize for the difficulty in reaching our account management team. We have sent an internal communication to advise all employees on how to properly handle such concerns. While this does not ameliorate your concerns directly, it will help us improve and provide even better service for all our users.

    And one last point — and I want your readers to hold us to this – we commit to following up with every customer concern within one business day. We know it’s unacceptable to wait for a response from a modern, upstanding company and we’re stepping up to the plate to provide excellent service to everyone. We’ve grown quite a bit and that’s no excuse to accept inferior service. Conversely, we will take all the steps to hold our customers accountable once they use our app to use it successfully and accept our guidance in making the most from the app. After all, we’re both in this game and want to keep our customers happy. :-)

    I hope you understand we meant this response with the best of intentions. As I mentioned to you on Twitter, any person who endured such a bumpy experience would have been met with such compassionate and rapid service from us. We’re a different company than we were before (Google us and see what mistakes we’ve made in the past) and would like to let you know that we welcome any feedback, suggestions and improvements to make our app and service better.

    Thanks for the feedback the opportunity to serve you better. Let us know if you have any questions or feedback.

    Warm Regards,

    Joseph Manna
    Community Manager, Infusionsoft
    Email: joseph.manna@infusionsoft.com
    Twitter: @joemanna | @infusionsoft
    Ph: (480) 289-6814

  • Mike

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Hey John,

    Good for you! tell everyone about this company InfusionSoft and the terrible customer service. That’s what we do in the U.S. Sounds like this is related to your previous post (The Struggles of an Internet Marketer) who knows with your post maybe this will help the situation of them realizing they need to improve their customer service.
    Wake Up InfusionSoft!

    Thanks John hope everything is well.
    Mike

  • Lisa Fair

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    John,

    I read in your post that it was a difficult decision in writing this post. As someone who has over 20 years in customer service and values good customer service highly, let me assure you, you made the right decision in letting us all know about your experience.

    The Masterclass is all here to learn from your experience; good, bad or indifferent. You obviously tried for a very long time to work with them to no avail. I doubt I would have given them as much time as you did.

    I used to let bad service go and not report it, but not so anymore. In reporting bad service with an individual or company, it brings to light the poor behavior so that they can hopefully correct it. If not, then it lets us know to steer clear of them and use someone else that deserves our business.

    I’m glad we have such a place as the internet world to share our trials and triumphs. I’m happy they responded in your favor. Thank you for taking your valuable time to inform us.

    Gratefully,

    Lisa Fair
    http://www.LisaFair.com
    http://www.TheVintageModernHouse.com

  • Dave B

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    John:
    So happy to hear the end is good…minus the missed product rollout.
    Listening to your story remindes me of my attempts to reach some one at my insurance company for a claim. I suspect Infusionsoft got their support people from my insurance company. Press one for English, and press two for stupid, press three to be enraged, leave a message and we will get back to you. CRAP!

  • Rich Moses

    Reply Reply May 11, 2010

    Man John I am sorry to hear about the problems!
    I was looking at them for future reference but holy S***
    am I glad I didnt sign up!

    I know you gave them ample time to get it together and well
    …they loose
    you would have been a great client and an asset to them..

    hope all goes well with the new company!
    rich
    P.S. thanks for the help with BFM

  • John Bertrand

    Reply Reply May 12, 2010

    Hey John,

    Thanks for the info. Glad to hear it got solved in the end – but so frustrating… I see there was damage control being done by Mr. Manna at Infusionsoft.com but in my case it’s a done deal. No way… When he states: ” I wouldn’t exactly say we were “non-existent” nor have we pushed you off the phone. We take sincere pride in our 92% customer satisfaction and work hard to push that even higher.” Sorry dude, I don’t buy it. A day without response is UNSAT and gets you fired. I find hard to believe they went the extra mile to work things out their end. Too little too late.

    Cheers,

    John B (Canada)
    http://skincareonyourterms.blogspot.com

  • Beverly Moore

    Reply Reply May 12, 2010

    Hey John,

    What a bummer. Sorry to hear about your bad experience and I applaud you for your action in handling the situation. All I can say is that Infusionsoft customer service stinks. By the way, here in the states my credit/debit card is affiliate with my local bank. If there is any dispute, I just contact the dispute resolution depart at my bank, and they deal with the merchant on my behalf if I am not satisfied with the product or service especially if the merchant procrastinates in giving me a refund.

  • Kirsten

    Reply Reply May 12, 2010

    I am so glad I finally found someone who had the same problem like me.
    Not really the same situation but Inufionsoft until today has not refunded me back 2 charges of 130 Euros in total that is 260 Euros. I was very surprised that a company has charged my credit card for 260 Euros in the first place because I have never ever ordered something in this price range. I have contacted their support team and until today have not received my refund. This has been a fraudulent charge on their part. They have told me that they are just the middleman and can not detect who charged this two amounts. They have lots of customers and it is not their responsibility to get into refunding their customers customers. Until today they have not helped me and the fraud happened in October and November 2009.
    Has anyone an idea what I could do about this. For the moment my bank is dealing with this fraud but I still have not been refunded for these 2 charges. If anyone has an idea how to deal with this fraud I would be very happy. This company is a fraud!

  • Graham

    Reply Reply May 13, 2010

    Sorry to hear about the problems John. I know the money is an issue but the hassle, upset and grief that goes with a problem like this I think far outways the money issues.
    Good customer service is easy to talk about and I think to many companies now think words are great and some lovely text on a website will do it for them.
    The old adage, Actions Speak Louder Than Words!
    The truth only comes out when problems arise and as we can all see from the posts on here, your not the only one.
    Forget your success online for a minute, like us your a customer, as such you should always expect good service from a company. Obviously you didn’t get it and as you said the power of the Internet is there for all to see, with how and why Infusionsoft finally replied.
    Best of luck in resolving this John.

  • Cindi Peery

    Reply Reply May 14, 2010

    Sorry you had this experience, John. I know if you treated YOUR customers (people such as myself) like that I for one would be gone in a New York minute. I trust your judgment and will steer clear should I ever need a service like theirs. Sounds like it’s time for competent competion for Infusionsoft.

  • Adwello

    Reply Reply May 14, 2010

    Yeah that’s always the way, you publish and suddenly the dud company comes alive – because they feel a need to justify themselves. Bit late for that. I understand your frustration with this company totally – it annoys me that aweber does not accept paypal either! In 2010 – don’t these BIG name companies realise paypal is THE international online account! Everyone wants to use! I am getting bad service from a hosting company called JustHost.com – at first they looked good so out of an option of £1.95 per month hosting 1 domain or £6.95 per month 3 domains I chose the latter. They said I could then only have 1 domain and if I want 3 I can pay £11.95 per month. I asked the price of a domain register. It’s £7.95. I asked again. It’s $14.95. Always different price structures! For the exact same thing! My account is overdue – yet they have set up continuity with paypal! Little bugbears like this – I try to set up the 2 domains I purchased extra, I’m not allowed add-ons: honestly, I wonder these companies exist at all!
    So I will look for a better host, you will look for a better 1-deal. Anyone out there want to build a rock solid business I suggest you plug into this and offer a reliable AUTORESPONDER, HOSTING SERVICE AND ALL-IN-DEAL because you will get a lot of custom if you can do it right!

  • Ed

    Reply Reply May 18, 2010

    Hi John,

    Even though, this issue is your own concern, i`m absolutely disgusted with these people, as strange as this may sound it is actually more the fact that as you hit on they suddenly are concerned with your business endeavours as regards to the recurring profits they will lose that you where trying to set through their disgraceful service!

    I myself have had simular issues with other online conmpanies of course on a smaller scale, but I can tell you in all sincerety that i didn`t particularly care that all phone calls where recorded for training purposes only as with what i said down the phone certainly trained their staff to get things sorted shall we say pronto?

    Anyway i fully understand your frustration and feelings on this, and your a better man than me for if i`m right staying reasonably calm with them, I have had my fill with organisations like this!

    Great post as always John, and a subject and company well exposed and addressed….John.

  • Harriet

    Reply Reply May 19, 2010

    Hi John

    Thanks for that full update of your issues and I’m pleased that the problem is now sorted. Full and frank disclosure is so very helpful to those in your masterclasses and others who read your blog.

    One of the problems of internet marketing for non-techie people is dealing with the technical stuff. It is an ongoing learning process.

  • Hi John,

    I just signed up at Dennis Becker’s new affiliate program, and got to think about this blog-post. Dennis actually chose not to go with Infusionsoft among other things because of not being able to do PayPal.

    He uses NanaCast (http://nanacast.com/), and at least on the surface of it, it seems to be a lot like Infusionsoft – but at a lower price.

    Morten

  • Sally

    Reply Reply May 23, 2010

    Hey John, that’s terrible how you were treated, I have never used Infusionsoft, it’s too expensive for me right now, but you have actually put me off using it in the future now anyway, Sally :)

  • Barry

    Reply Reply June 13, 2010

    Howdy Big J,

    A few weeks ago you advised all students to hold our tongues when it came to complaining and I almost disagreed with you.

    And then it turned out you were right.

    So now you DON’T hold your tongue and it turns out you are right again.

    Now I’m thinking that the lesson has something to do with HOW we hold our tongues.

    Right?

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