My Receptionist, Inc.

On May 9th, 2016 [redacted] signed a service agreement with My Receptionist. Through telephone calls and the service agreement, it was explained that by signing that document she was committing to 90 days with our company.    On June 30th, 2016 several emails were exchanged between My...

Receptionist and [redacted] Matchmaking.    1. My Receptionist sent [redacted] an email advising her the credit card on file was declined when we try to take payment.  2. Christine Cole replied to the email stating she wanted to terminate the account. 3. My Receptionist sent back explaining the 90 day agreement and asking why the request to terminate was made.  4. [redacted] responded that their company grew and they were going to be answering their own phone calls. She requested for us to tell her the termination date and how much they would need to pay.  5. My Receptionist then explained that an exact amount that would be due could not be given because of the amount of minutes that could be used from now until the day of termination.  6. [redacted] replied asking for a lower billing plan and asking what would be the 90th day of termination.    Then on July 1st, 2016 My Receptionist responded explaining the company was at the lowest pricing plan and asked for a conference call to discuss the exact date of termination.    On July 6th, 2016 Christine Cole contacted us stating we answered one of their phone calls. At this time she called into My Receptionist. During this phone call we explained the 90 day agreement and that if her phones were still forwarded to us we would still take their phone calls. We have no way of stopping forwarding for them. We also requested a conference call with Lisa to discuss any issues with this account and explained Lisa was the primary contact who signed the service agreement so we wanted confirmation from her. It was stated by Christine Cole that she was just going to file a Revdex.com complaint. The call was then ended.    My Receptionist then sent Lisa an email on 7/6 asking for a conference call with no response.    My Receptionist called Lisa and emailed her on 7/7 asking for a conference call with no response.    At this time a conference call has not been scheduled. If the client would like to terminate they can on the 90th day of service with us. This has and will be explained to the client in detail to ensure they understand.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
On 10/21/13 I initiated a conversation with My Receptionist through [redacted] about My Receptionist taking credit card information for every client that is booked. This is something that did not occur for existing clients regularly and with new clients regularly. In the cases that these clients cancel without notice and a staff member is paid, it comes out of my pocket and My Receptionist has never compensated me for the mistake. I have additional materials to support this if necessary. On 10/22/13 A client was booked when there wasn't an appointment available. There was no compensation about this issue from My Receptionist. I had to compensate the client. On 11/8/13 I initiated this conversation with My Receptionist through email by forwarding a "caller hung up" report that I received in my email. It wasn't actually a hang up, and My receptionist mischaracterized the call in the report.  "Hi [redacted],This is a call I just made from my cell to the receptionist to see if they had a log of what the messages were and it was sent to me as a "hang up".I gave my name, what I was calling about and was put on hold." My Receptionist continued to send mischaracterizations of calls to me in reports that are called "call dispositions" and I would regularly call the client to confirm the actual nature of the call, being that it was regularly different than the My Receptionist report. I was never compensated for my time and My Receptionist never financially took an obligation to fix this problem, nor did they apologize when it happened regularly. On 11/8/13 I was told that the "message board was down" after the previous complaint and that there was no way for me to receive my messages other than calling in and asking for them, accumulating more minute time that I would be charged for to retrieve messages I would normally receive for free. (From a service that takes messages as it's primary role.) This was my response: "In the meantime I will call for my messages. How will this affect my billing? I'm assuming I won't be charged to call in and get messages that under normal conditions would be emailed and texted to me. Please let me know!"On 11/11/13 [redacted] Woodward agreed that I should not be charged for this time, but never reimbursed me for the time. My Receptionist did not offer any financial compensation for the days where my messages were unretrievable. Here is her response: "Hi [redacted], I apologize for the frustration and any troubles this may be causing you. I am hoping that the issue is fixed today but I don't have a definite answer at this point. Appointment Plus is working very hard to get this resolved. As soon as I have confirmation that this is fixed I will contact you. After the issue is fixed I will make sure you are not billed for the phone calls that you placed to the receptionists. I agree that you should not pay for this time. "On 11/12/13 I sent this message by email to My Receptionist: Hi [redacted], I received three messages like this tonight- (CallerID: Disposition: None)  and when I called in to My Receptionist to check on the missing caller ID, I was on some kind of hold for over 5 minutes. Is this normal? I would rather the calls go to the water house voicemail than be in some kind of limbo for over 4 minutes. Also- It's concerning to be paying per minute if people are in a limbo hold indefinitely. Is this part of the appointment plus issue or just a void in (your) the staffing at that time?  Warmest, [redacted]I received this response: Hi [redacted], Thank you for bringing this to my attention. First, I apologize you received messages with a disposition that said "None". The receptionist was doing internal searches for messages on all of our accounts that caused this. When she was in the processing of this search your account would appear which prompted her to do something inside the script. By not entering a disposition you received the "None" disposition. I assure you these were not phone calls and it was just the receptionist doing some internal work. I apologize for any confusion. This should not be an issue going forward. Also, I was able to find the call where you were on hold for 5.2 minutes. I am very sorry that you were put on hold for this amount of time. This is excessive and should not be happening. Unfortunately, we received an influx in call volume which caused your call not to be answered immediately. We are constantly monitoring call volume and making internal adjustments to ensure hold time is not an issue. I was able to run a report on your account to ensure hold time has not been an issue with your account. During last billing period the average hold time has been 11 seconds which is less then two ring counts. I believe this was an isolated issue and should not be a problem going forward. I also want you to know that you do not pay for this hold time. Billable time does not begin until the call is answered by a receptionist. "I continued to receive call dispositions that said "None" over the course of having the account and was never told that I did not receive an actual phone call in these events even though that would make sense to tell your customer why they are getting phone calls without a disposition. I continued to call into My Receptionist to research issues and was regularly on hold as well as received reports from clients who told me that they were regularly on hold for a very long period of time. Each time I made this complaint I was told it wasn't something that happened regularly and they would monitor it. I was never compensated for the loss of business that this could have caused being that customers call to make appointments, and when someone doesn't answer- they call a different business. On 11/19/13 I received this email from [redacted] about making a financial decision in the next 30 minutes that I could only make one time. "Hi [redacted], I hope all is going well. I was just reviewing your first full invoice and wanted to let you know where you are at with your minutes. You have billed 269.75 minutes for the last billing period. You are currently billing $175.00 with 150 minutes included and $1.16 a minute overage. That being said, you will be billed $138.91 in just overage minutes. We can certainly change your package if you would like. Please keep in mind that we can only change your pricing one time during the first 90 days. I would need to make the changes before billing tomorrow morning. Below are the other packages we offer.$255.00 a billing period with 235 minutes included at $1.06 a minute overage.Please let me know if you would like to make any changes.  Thank you,"This was my reply: Hi [redacted], You are giving me 30 minutes to make a financial decision?Were the minutes deducted that were me calling in to get messages when the system was unable to send me messages? Also, there was an evening where a client reported being on hold for a long time and I called in to check and I was on hold for 5 minutes- is this time also counted?Thanks for your help. warmest, [redacted]This is my follow up as well on not being charged for calling in myself when My Receptionist was having an internal issue. [redacted]'s reply: Hi [redacted], I apologize for the short notice. Do you know what days you called in for your messages? I can run some reports to try and find the times that you called in and listen to those calls. Anytime you are on hold, that is not time that you are being charged. You do not need to decide today. What we can do is when you decide if you want to change pricing and the package that you want, we can back date the change and issue you a credit on your bill for the charges for this billing period. Again, I am sorry for the short notice. Please let me know if you have any further questions. Thank you, [redacted]I was not given ample opportunity to make a financial decision. My Receptionist was not keeping track of the times that I called in to retrieve messages during their internal issue. (Which probably means they were not keeping track of it for any client and charging all clients twice to take messages, because they were being charged also to retrieve them. ) I never received confirmation that I was not charged for these calls. On 12/11/13 It was explained to me that even though I had set up a POS system within my appointment software, that costs an additional fee  of $10 per month for My Receptionist to take credit card information for every client, that I would be charged an additional fee if that credit card information was being processed for a gift certificate at an additional $10 per month. I set up the POS for the expressed purpose of My Receptionist to be able to handle my clients credit card information. Here I am told that this is not enough in the case of gift certificates, even though I am the one hand creating and mailing the gift certificates once an order is received. Here is my message : "[redacted], This is not how it was originally explained to me. I was asked to set up merchant warehouse and enable POS. which I did and which has cost me money per month. Now there is an additional function? Which costs additional money? There are very clear fields where the receptionist can record credit card information and leave me a message where I can run the card later. This isn't happening, why? If someone calls and asks to purchase a gift certificate please make an account for them and record the credit card information and I will process the gift certificate. warmest, [redacted]"This was never done in the years I was a client of My Receptionist. When a client would call and want a gift certificate, and be ready to give credit card information to the Receptionist which they were happy to take if the client booked an appointment,  My Receptionist refuse to take credit card information and would send me a message to call the client back. I would regularly lose business because the client would purchase a gift certificate elsewhere. I was never compensated for the loss in business. This was [redacted]'s response : Hi [redacted], I apologize for any confusion regarding merchant warehouse and what we are able to do with credit card numbers and gift certificates. Unfortunately you will need to have the gift certificate module in order for the receptionists to gather credit card information for the gift certificates. Please let me know if you have any further questions. Thank you, [redacted]"My Receptionist did not want to store the credit card information for gift certificates the way that it would be stored if someone made an appointment because they wanted to charge me more money for something they could easily already do. It was confusing to me because in the case of the client having to give credit card information the client would stay on the phone longer and My Receptionist could charge me for more minutes. They simply refused to collect the information. If a client called and wanted to update their street address- My Receptionist was happy to do that. If a client called and wanted to update their phone number- My Receptionist was happy to do that. If a client called and wanted to update their  email address- My Receptionist was happy to do that. If a client called and wanted to update their appointment time- My Receptionist was happy to do that. If a client called and wanted to update their zip code, My Receptionist was happy to do that. BUT- If a client called and wanted to give credit card information- even though it was on the same screen as the street address, zip code, phone number, email address and appointment time- My Receptionist would refuse. This was my response to [redacted] on 12/12/13 "[redacted], I'll disable the POS then and My Receptionist can refund me the cost associated with it ($10 per month) that I've been paying as I set it up per your instructions. I enabled it because I was given clear instructions that this is how you collect credit card information. Was that incorrect? Are you not able to collect credit card information even though POS and merchant warehouse is enabled? warmest, [redacted] "[redacted] and everyone at My Receptionist never responded to that email, [redacted] and everyone at My Receptionist never called me about that email. I was never refunded for the cost associated with the POS. I never had a client be able to give credit card information over the phone unless they were booking an appointment. This is only the beginning of my account with My Receptionist through 12/12/13. I have additional documentation that I can provide for 12/12/13-  cancellation date June 2015. Please advice and I will supply that information. Regards,[redacted]

My Receptionist received the above referenced customer complaint and appreciates the opportunity torespond.Research into this complaint shows that My Receptionist Support Staff acted in a professional manner andin accordance with the Terms of Service agreement that is signed by all clients prior to...

thecommencement of services. My Receptionist values and respects each of its clients and in no way wouldrespond to service issues in the manner described within the complaint. Communications regardingservice issues are documented and available for internal review.Additionally, any disputed amounts that may arise from possible service issues are addressed within thepreviously mentioned Terms of Service agreement.Virtual Receptionist services can involve many factors that result in continual updates to the callhandling process as specified by each individual client. When errors occur, we strive to provide the bestpossible support service to resolve issues to the client’s satisfaction. With regards to this complaint, MyReceptionist responded and worked to resolve each issue or question that was brought to our attention.These issues were addressed by the Client Support Manager along with the team of Support members.My Receptionist sincerely regrets any inconvenience any possible issues may have caused. We have, andcontinue to encourage the above complainant to contact My Receptionist to resolve any additionalquestions or concerns in this matter.My Receptionist

I had an similar experience to the above review, but they had also kept patients on hold for excessive amounts of time, so much so that I was getting 3-4 complaints a week. I also had to dig to get my call data from them which revealed more than half the calls either went unanswered or were on hold for over 1.5 minutes. When I started using them they were great, but in the last 6 months, they really went down hill. Every time I inquired they had an excuse but offered no solutions. I estimate they cost me roughly $3000-5000 a month in lost new business. I would avoid them at all cost. It may cost more money to hire an actual receptionist, but if you need your calls answered quickly and competently, it is a worth while investment.

Review: I have asked this company to refund me for the myriad of issues they have caused for my business by basically answering the phone but not taking any messages even though they are a receptionist service, not retaining customer information and basically telling clients they could not make an appointment (when appointments were available) as well as telling clients they could not make multiple appointments on different days and times because I could "do it with the touch of a button".. even though that is what I am paying them to do, and I can't do it with the touch of a button.

I find there customer service the most horrible service I have ever dealt with in my life to the point of severe panic at the thought of them handling my business.

Even though multiple errors are reported to them weekly, sometimes daily- and I cancelled my account. They refused to cancel it without 30 days notice and refused to refund me the $183.00 it cost me for the last month. They have no financial responsibility to do a good job for you, you cannot make sure they are doing their work until you hear horrible things from your customers. By then it is too late. They also refuse to send me recordings of the phone calls or let me speak to a manager. When I ask to speak to a manager I get emails like this that say "you cannot have what you want. haha."

Here is my email to the person apparently in charge of customer service:

[redacted],

Here is the customer of mine that you blocked from making multiple appointments. He didn't want to make a weekly same time appointment- he just wanted to make more than a few appointments and your company got in the way of that, making him a frustrated customer of mine.

I was never asked if I would prefer to have the receptionist allow or disallow recurring appointments due to time on the phone. I am paying for time on the phone. I have hired your company for time on the phone. One of my customers got your receptionist and they were told that they couldn't do something that required time on the phone. If someone has actually asked me I would have said that I didn't care how long it took to get more business- that I was happy to pay for it.

You have consistently ignored my request for refunds and consistently ignored my request to speak to your superior so I am now filing a fraud charge against you and your company and a claim against you and your company for charging me with services I did not receive.

In my opinion your customer service has caused me severe, severe stress, where I have been unable to get any change, or any confirmation of acknowledgement on your behalf of wrong doing where you and your company are financially responsible for them mistakes that cost me and my business money. It has been so stressful that I have been unable to work for periods of time when I am trying to resolve issues, which you refuse to solve on the phone and will only deal with by email, and I will seek retribution for this pain and suffering you have caused for being so unwilling to work with me and refund me what I think fair for causing me and my business so much financial strain.

Signed,

Here is the response:

Hi [redacted],

Thank you for providing me with more information regarding the telephone call with Daniel (I REMOVED NAME). I was able to locate this phone call and listen to what took place.

The caller was wanting to schedule several appointments with you and have one appointment per week. He was not looking for the appointments to be on the same day and/or time, just whatever was available. This does not meet the definition of a "recurring appointment". The receptionist should have assisted this caller and scheduled appointments with him. She was able to schedule three appointments, but I believe that she could have assisted the caller further. I apologize this did not happen.

I will be meeting with this receptionist to discuss the details of what a recurring appointment is. This will allow me to explain in detail that she could have handled this call differently to ensure this does not happen in the future. Again, I apologize for this.

Not allowing the receptionists to schedule recurring appointments was a company decision. The reason being is that you, as the admin user, can schedule a recurring appointment with the client of one button if you have this preference enabled on your account. For the receptionists they would have to schedule each appointment individually costing our clients a lot of time and money. This was a decision we made in the best interest of our clients.

As far as your requests to speak to my supervisor and/or the owner, they have not been ignored. Your requests have been passed on to the appropriate people more than once. However, as I tried to explain to you, I am the one who would handle any issues/questions that take place with our client accounts. I am the one with the knowledge and capabilites to properly address anything question/issue you have with your account.

I have advised that a refund will not be applied to your account. There is not a reason we would give you a free 30 days of service. The time that we spend on your account is time we are working for you which is valid billable time. I understand that errors have been made, but we are not perfect and errors can happen. We certainly try to prevent any errors from happening, but that is not always the case.

I apologize that you do not feel customer service has been adequate. I assure each and every issue you have brought to our attention has been addressed to the best of our ability. We take errors seriously. Each time an error is made it is addressed individually and with the whole company. We do this to ensure we are doing everything we can to prevent errors from happening.

If there is anything else I can help with please let me know.

Kind regards,

[redacted]Desired Settlement: I would like the last two months refunded. I have spent so much time correcting issues with my business that wouldn't have happened if they had sent me messages or actually done the job they claim to do. I have been unable to reach a manager. I'm being ignored and laughed at and there is no way to resolve the issue other than going to court. Please help.

Business

Response:

My Receptionist received the above referenced customer complaint and appreciates the opportunity torespond.Research into this complaint shows that My Receptionist Support Staff acted in a professional manner andin accordance with the Terms of Service agreement that is signed by all clients prior to thecommencement of services. My Receptionist values and respects each of its clients and in no way wouldrespond to service issues in the manner described within the complaint. Communications regardingservice issues are documented and available for internal review.Additionally, any disputed amounts that may arise from possible service issues are addressed within thepreviously mentioned Terms of Service agreement.Virtual Receptionist services can involve many factors that result in continual updates to the callhandling process as specified by each individual client. When errors occur, we strive to provide the bestpossible support service to resolve issues to the client’s satisfaction. With regards to this complaint, MyReceptionist responded and worked to resolve each issue or question that was brought to our attention.These issues were addressed by the Client Support Manager along with the team of Support members.My Receptionist sincerely regrets any inconvenience any possible issues may have caused. We have, andcontinue to encourage the above complainant to contact My Receptionist to resolve any additionalquestions or concerns in this matter.My Receptionist

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

On 10/21/13 I initiated a conversation with My Receptionist through [redacted] about My Receptionist taking credit card information for every client that is booked. This is something that did not occur for existing clients regularly and with new clients regularly. In the cases that these clients cancel without notice and a staff member is paid, it comes out of my pocket and My Receptionist has never compensated me for the mistake. I have additional materials to support this if necessary. On 10/22/13 A client was booked when there wasn't an appointment available. There was no compensation about this issue from My Receptionist. I had to compensate the client. On 11/8/13 I initiated this conversation with My Receptionist through email by forwarding a "caller hung up" report that I received in my email. It wasn't actually a hang up, and My receptionist mischaracterized the call in the report. "Hi [redacted],This is a call I just made from my cell to the receptionist to see if they had a log of what the messages were and it was sent to me as a "hang up".I gave my name, what I was calling about and was put on hold." My Receptionist continued to send mischaracterizations of calls to me in reports that are called "call dispositions" and I would regularly call the client to confirm the actual nature of the call, being that it was regularly different than the My Receptionist report. I was never compensated for my time and My Receptionist never financially took an obligation to fix this problem, nor did they apologize when it happened regularly. On 11/8/13 I was told that the "message board was down" after the previous complaint and that there was no way for me to receive my messages other than calling in and asking for them, accumulating more minute time that I would be charged for to retrieve messages I would normally receive for free. (From a service that takes messages as it's primary role.) This was my response: "In the meantime I will call for my messages. How will this affect my billing? I'm assuming I won't be charged to call in and get messages that under normal conditions would be emailed and texted to me. Please let me know!"On 11/11/13 [redacted] Woodward agreed that I should not be charged for this time, but never reimbursed me for the time. My Receptionist did not offer any financial compensation for the days where my messages were unretrievable. Here is her response: "Hi [redacted], I apologize for the frustration and any troubles this may be causing you. I am hoping that the issue is fixed today but I don't have a definite answer at this point. Appointment Plus is working very hard to get this resolved. As soon as I have confirmation that this is fixed I will contact you. After the issue is fixed I will make sure you are not billed for the phone calls that you placed to the receptionists. I agree that you should not pay for this time. "