Communique Conferencing Inc

We have been working with Communique Conferencing for over years and could not be happier with the level of service we receive from these guysIn addition to their great customer service, the service has been very reliableI can confidently recommend Communique as a solid and reliable supplier

First let me say that I spoke to Communique about the prior review before I signed up for the service. This is an unfortunate case of Communique going above and beyond to help someone in a pinch that ends up with the person complaining. She was using a Microsoft web conference product. She called Microsoft to add an audio conference line but Microsoft does not offer this service. Microsoft referred her to Communique. Her meeting was the next morning so she called customer service instead of sales. Customer service informed her that they do not have pricing information but she authorized setting up an account in a pinch anyway. The rate at the time (2011) was very competitive. Her expectation of the cost with no basis was less then a penny per minute which is below Communique's cost.

In any event, we've been using Communique Conferencing for 5 years and could not be happier. The rates are super competitive, the bill is accurate and the customer service is unmatched.

Review: On 7/31/13, I had a 4-hour webinar that was conference code #[redacted]. August 5th I received the billing statement Invoice #: [redacted] for $954.10. Long story-shorter ... I have never used the audio service before with this company. I have been with them for almost 3 years and pay $588 for a year of services and utilize the webinars weekly with my customers. The night before my big class, I realized I did not have access to my home phone for speaker-phone like I usually do ([redacted] services were down for 3 days!). In a panic, I called to ask what other options I had. I spoke to [redacted] Live Meeting and they suggested I use the audio conferencing option. I remembered there would be an extra cost for it, so I asked how much that would be. He was not sure, as it was through a vendor (Communique) but he said it wouldn't be that much. Wednesday morning, I called into the conference and it asked for a “Conference Code #”. When I used the [redacted], it said it was not valid. So, I called ###-###-#### and got a hold of a nice lady (I was in such a hurry, I did not get her name!). She said she had to “re-connect” my ability to have audio conferencing, since I had previously not wanted that option. I asked her if she could give me an idea how much it would cost to do a 4-hour webinar. She said I would have to ask Billing, because she “did not think that it was very much”. At this point it was 6:50 a.m. and I knew my customers were going to start calling in soon. I was sweating bullets. She got it all set up for me to call back in.

I do also offer classroom C.E. here in [redacted] City, utilizing [redacted] College and [redacted] University classrooms. I have a key to their rooms, use their projectors and laptops, and I’m there from about 6:45 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. I pay $125 to rent the room for the day. I tell you this to give you my perspective on what I thought the webinar audio conferencing might cost (in my mind $50-$60)!

That night my husband asked how much it cost me to do the teleconferencing. I said I never really found out … but two people told me it would not be too bad. I called in and was told that they wouldn’t be able to see the charge for 24 hours. I called the next day and they said it would be “next week” before they could tell me what the charge was. I said I needed some sleep, so I asked if they could check into it. The person I was talking to said it looked like I used 8,709 minutes and it was going to be $762.04 before taxes! Total panic attack at this point (you know the kind where your throat closes up and you feel like you are going to be sick?)! I asked if there was anyone I could talk to. He gave me [redacted]’s number ###-###-####. I called, but her answering machine message said she was out of the office for a while. I called back to Communiqué and they gave me her boss’s number [redacted] ###-###-#### … I left a message on his machine on Thursday, and again on Friday 8/2 when I had not heard from him.

After receiving the invoice, I call again. They give me the name of [redacted] Wood, ###-###-#### [redacted] and tell me he is the one who can make adjustments. He did not respond, but forwarded my email to my sales manager, [redacted], ###-###-####, [redacted]. [redacted] tells me on Tuesday 8/6 that they will look into it for me and to not bother [redacted] or anyone else with the matter. I thank him and ask him to make sure my charge card that they have on file is not charged in the meantime. [redacted] sent me an email on 8/12 that said "the determination came back today that it’s a valid invoice and the charges are due as shown." (P.S. I found out today that they charged my [redacted] on 8/5/13). I sent an email back to him and **. [redacted] asking for them to reconsider and not to charge my credit card. The response I got back from [redacted] on 8/13 included an email that was sent to me February of 2011 and in the small print, it did show that the cost of audio conferencing would be 8 cents a minute per line. And that "All is in order on the invoice".Desired Settlement: I am not saying I don't owe something. I believe the charge is extremely unreasonable, and based on my expectation (and the comments of two people before I used the system) this shouldn't even be a $100 charge. I would like to have them work with me on this bill. And, I did not give them authorization to charge my credit card that they have on file for my yearly payment. As a matter of fact, I specifically asked them not to charge the card. And they did it while they told me they were "looking into it". That's deceptive business practice.

Business

Response:

There is no basis for a complaint here. The customer only purchased our [redacted] Meeting web conferencing service. At the very last minute, because her [redacted] service was down, she determined that she needed an audio teleconference call service too. She first spoke to "[redacted]" customer service which is NOT Communique Conferencing. [redacted] suggested she use Communique Conferencing audio teleconference call service. So the customer called our customer service # to add the audio conference service at the last minute for a meeting. Our customer service reps do not have access to pricing (only sales) as they only help with technical problems. The sales representatives have pricing information. Since it was last minute, the customer made the conscious decision to use the audio teleconference call service even though she had no idea what the price for the service was.

The customer was billed our standard audio teleconference call rate correct which is 8 cents/min. per caller. There is no basis for a complaint to decide to use a service in which no pricing was discussed. $800 for a 4 hour long telephone conference call with a 72 callers is absolutely reasonable. It is no acceptable to compare the cost of a 70 person audio conference call for four hours to renting a conference room and conclude the conference call should cost $50 - $60. There was 8,603 total minutes used so $55 would equal less than a penny per minute. Our cost to provide the service is way above that.

This is the only complaint that we've had in 11 years.