| rev:text
| - In short, terrible customer service, great sales department and VERY VERY expensive mistake.
I have a small business, est 1998, 25 employees, about 3,000 clients a year.
We have a small online marketing department, focused on internet promotions.
In Feb 2015 I attended an Digital Marketing conference, Traffic & Conversion, in San Diego, where I was introduced to Infusionsoft.
To say I was impressed is an understatement. They came with amazing stories, client references, personal recommendations from Ryan Deiss (an internet marketing guru).
But it was expensive, so I held off.
Then I attended their ICON2015 conference in Phoenix, and again got the sales talk.
In March 2015, I enrolled, paid out a couple of thousand dollars, and started re-training my staff. Not just the marketing staff, but all my employees, on the upgrade to a "better" online based CRM and how to effectively use emails and other tools.
Then came the problems. First, Infusionsoft could not import our database of 12,000 clients. Issues with fields, platform, etc. I had to hire a programmer to convert our data.
Then I discovered that many of the features required additional apps, which cost more.
Implementation turned into a nightmare.
We were spending hours everyday, for weeks, trying to get things working.
I started complaining about it being too complicated. I was told I should hire a full-time specialist ($50-60K/yr), or attend 'Infusionsoft University" which is another $7,000.
When I tried to cancel, they referred me to a specialist firm, Think Automate Grow.
It started well, and after a few days over two weeks working with them, I was encouraged.
Sadly, they too just upped and left - I was initially told they were busy.
After three weeks of nothing happening, I contacted my Infusionsoft people, and told them I (again) wanted to cancel, as nothing had been implemented yet.
In July I complained again, and again, a supervisor "R" REDACTED of ThinkAutomateGrow contacted me.
Offered his apologies:
"Thank you for taking my call today. I am very sorry about the experience you have had across the board. I would very much like to help you be successful in the future. I have also sent over my recommendations to "A" (REDACTED) and I am hopeful that will help with what you are asking for today. I also sent a timeline of events to Digital Marketer so they are aware that you are 100% Infusionsoft's customer and not directly our customer. When you contacted Digital Marketer, they contacted me directly."
I quote because one of the tactics used by these guys is to constantly switch handlers, so you keep thinking something is being done.
In August 2015, yes, you read that right, FIVE MONTHS LATER, I finally had had enough.
I asked them to stop charging my credit card, and to cancel my account.
Yes, they tried again to switch me to someone else, but after many thousands of dollars, I had had enough.
I requested a refund of 80% of the fees paid.
They agreed, but as of September 8th, 2015, not a dollar has been refunded.
I should mention I think digital marketing is important. I still think using someone such as IS is needed, as are many of the other partner companies, CustomerHub, Digital Marketing, etc.
But they need to take better care of their clients, and inform prospective small businesses of the risks and the need for experienced implementation. The upfront costs of $2,000-$5,000 are a drop compared to what it will eventually cost.
I don't often write negative reviews on YELP. As a business owner, I rely on good reviews, and understand the damage a bad review can cause. I have given Infusionsoft multiple opportunities (and months) to fix this. I think their focus on selling new clients, and hope the unhappy ones will eventually go away.
If you're wondering how many clients we signed as a result of this!
How many emails did we send out?
How much revenue did we generate?
The answer is ZERO. ZERO clients, and ZERO emails.
Our database conversion was never completed.
Input forms were never done.
I believe our costs in time and cash paid out to be around $18,000.
The funny part in this, just today, I received another email from them asking me to return.
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