WordStream, Inc.

What I expect is nothing more than YOU would expectIf I took - without authorization - nearly $out of your bank account - then tell you "I will process your refund on Thursday, because that is when I process refunds for essentially what amounts to stolen funds - tough luck if you bounce checks in the meantime" - then that would be totally unacceptable to you, as it is to meThe fact that you intentionally sat on the funds for several days while my credit card was bouncing charges because it was overdrawn shows a total lack of regard for your customersBasically everybody just shrugs their shoulders and says "what's the big deal" and "this was only a small portion of the thousands of people" we moved over but I couldn't care less because I wasn't one of the "thousands" moved over successfullyOne person not being moved over is too many, you absolutely should have processed the refund immediately, and you didn't, so I am not satisfied and won't be satisfied until you offer me something more than a very late refund because it created a tremendous inconvenience for me, including bounced charges on my credit cardHow about refunding some of last year's fees or some other offer that recognizes you screwed up badly, which so far it is obvious that you don't want to admit since everybody seems to think they moved so expeditiously? It certainly wasn't expeditious as my charges continued to bounce and my emails were responded to with happy "Have a nice days!" while I was suffering significant inconvenience and bounced charges
Regards,
*** ***

We resolved this with Mr*** and agreed to refund him his full amountHe also agreed via email to remove the Revdex.com complaint on 5/25/17, so we were just waiting on him to do so

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ***Please add your rejection comments below. the monthly amount is $they added a consulting call automatically without me asking for it, that was not part of my monthly fees, I think they charged and refuse to pay back money they dont deserve but I definitely think even if they decide to charge the monthly without talking to me first the minimum they can do is to refund the part that is over the monthly fee
Regards,
*** ***

When Mr*** first signed onto WordStream he purchased the software subscription in addition to Premier Consulting servicesTo be clear, no consulting services were automatically added to his account without his permissionWhen his account pause resumed, so did his Premier Consulting session he purchasedGiven that Mr*** cancelled his subscription and never used his purchased Premier Consulting session, we’re going to refund him the full amount for that (which is $149)We will process that refund today

I am not sure what the customer expects. We acknowledged the error and moved expeditiously to resolve. As we said in the original response, we moved 1,000s of customers from one billing system to another. Despite our best efforts, this customer slipped through the cracks and unfortunately their cancelation was not moved over to the new system. There were only a few errors like this. We acknowledge this does not makes any affected customers feel better. But we resolved quickly. This time table is pretty realistic. Charged went through on 8/(a Saturday). We do not have weekend support. So, we responded on Monday, 8/3. We refunded on Thursday 8/as we process all refunds on Thursdays. We do all refunds on same day so they can be reviewed appropriately. The customer should have the money back by now. If they do that, the holdup is with their bank and not on our end. They need to contact their bank. So, we gave them the money back (as they requested) and resolved within days (of which were weekend days). We admit when we make mistakes and work to resolve. Not sure what else could have been done here. Matter of fact, this error cost us $in credit card fees. This was not intentional at all. Attached is proof of the charge and refund date

One of our core values here at WordStream is transparency.We are always upfront and honest with our customers about everything they canexpect as WordStream customers, including their contractual obligations and theterms of their commitment We have minimum commitments in place as part of our
standardagreements, and we never tell our customers that they can cancel theircontracts prematurelyWe understand that the needs of every business areunique, and we offer our customers several options to ensure that theircommitment is comfortable for them and aligns with their needsPaid searchtakes a commitment to get rightIf customers are only willing to try it for afew months, it is difficult to provide results in such a short period of time As such, our contracts are completely transparent and clear,have no hidden terms or conditions, and new customers are explicitly toldexactly what to expect in terms of their contractual obligations andresponsibilities to avoid confusion. In our preliminary kick-off-call with Mr***, we reviewedWordStream’s commitment and cancellation policies, which Mr*** indicatedhe understoodLater, upon learning of Mr***’ dissatisfaction withWordStream, Mr***’ Customer Service Representative offered to pause hisaccount, an offer that Mr*** chose to declineDocumentation of thiscorrespondence can be provided, should this be necessary.The Customer Success Representative handling Mr***’account did not specifically discuss the duration of his commitment with him(Mr*** notes in his complaint that the “on-boarding agent” discussed thespecifics of his contractual obligation, when in fact he did not)If such aconversation had in fact taken place, WordStream’s Customer ServiceRepresentatives are well aware of their inability to void customer contractsprematurely, and would not have suggested or claimed otherwise.We regret that Mr *** had a dissatisfactory experiencewith WordStreamIt is our sincere wish to make this right and help Mr***grow his business through paid search and the WordStream Advisor platform

Mr*** elected to pause his account for two months on 3/16/16, for the billing dates of 4/12/and 5/12/At the time that Mr*** chose to pause his account, our Customer Success team explicitly explained to Mr*** that after the account pause period expired, his subscription would
resume on a month-to-month basisMr*** was also told that this month-to-month subscription agreement would resume at the price he agreed to set forth in his initial contract, with no minimum commitmentThis subscription was permitted to be cancelled again with a 30-day noticeMr*** reached out to us to cancel again on 6/12/2016, and informed us that he wanted to be refundedWe explained that per the agreement that he himself had agreed to, we would be unable to process any refunds to his account, and kindly denied his request per our 30-day cancellation policy (a policy that was explained in full to Mr*** at the time he entered into a contractual obligation with WordStream)Mr*** was also aware that he would have incurred the 30-day cancellation period even if he had cancelled when he originally paused his account on 3/At WordStream, we go to great lengths to ensure that our customers fully understand their obligations as part of our contractual agreementsOur Sales representatives explained these responsibilities in full during their conversations with Mr***, and clauses such as our 30-day cancellation period are explained in full in the contract that Mr*** agreed toWe’re very sorry that Mr*** had a negative experience with WordStream, but the terms and conditions of his contract were explained at length to Mr*** at the time he signed the agreement

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ***Please add your rejection comments below.
During the initial calls, prior to signing the contract, the person that we talked to assured not only me, but my manager that if we were unsatisfied with the service we would be able to terminate prior to the month contract agreementHad that not happened, I would have never been given the green light to move forward with the serviceThe the owner of the company and general manager feel like we were mislead and are looking into doing a charge back on any service fees that occur after the initial cancellation request for the accountI do not know what motives, other than the obvious, the sales person we spoke to would have to lie to us, but he did and Wordstream seem unwilling to acknowledge or investigate the situationInstead, they reply with their almost form letter response about transparency
Regards,
*** ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the
business and have determined that the response does satisfy my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint #***I understand that by choosing to accept the business response that my complaint will be closed as resolved.
Regards,
*** ***

Hi there,A few months ago we upgraded our internal billing system. We switched over from using [redacted] to [redacted].This particular customer cancelled his service with WordStream, and his cancellation has been confirmed.What happened was when we upgraded to [redacted] from [redacted], a few customers didn't make...

it over. As a result this customer was billed through [redacted] by accident on 8/1 (Saturday).  He emailed us on Saturday and we responded on Monday (8/3) to explain the mistake and reassure him that he would be refunded. Thanks,[redacted]

"reassuring me that they would refund me" and refunding me are two very different things. This company seems to think it is acceptable to charge a company almost $3,000 because they have screwed up billing systems and then can take their time refunding that money. There was zero sense of urgency about providing the refund. I ultimately was refunded the money but believe this company's practices are deceptive and fraudulent and they only refunded the money because I continued to email and complain and filed a Revdex.com report.
Regards,
[redacted]

Hello, Our Finance team sent Mr. [redacted] multiple emails from December 2015 onwards regarding an ongoing issue of insufficient funds in the account provided to us for payment processing. Mr. [redacted] failed to respond to our Finance team regarding this matter, as well as several attempts made by our...

Customer Success team to help Mr. [redacted] with account support (assisting him with setting up Conversion Tracking on his account). Between December 2015 and April 2016, Mr. [redacted] received 22 separate correspondences from our Customer Success and Finance teams.  We received no reply.  Mr. [redacted] finally responded on April 30, 2016, requesting that his account be cancelled.  Mr. [redacted] replied to our Customer Success team’s request to credit his account for April and March bills or he would chargeback. We informed Mr. [redacted] that we would be unable to issue a refund, as we did not receive any notice of cancellation prior to April 30, 2016, and that his 6-month commitment (a contractual agreement that began in November 2015, the terms of which Mr. [redacted] was aware of at the time the agreement was signed) put his last bill due on 4/10/2016.  We also informed Mr. [redacted] that he would not incur any additional charges beyond this point. Contrary to his assertions, Mr. [redacted] has not been billed since the expiration of his 6-month contract with WordStream, nor have any charges been made against Mr. [redacted]’s account for any services other than those expressly outlined in the Terms and Conditions of WordStream’s customer contract.

Hello,WordStream has always, and will continue to, put the customer first. While our software may not have performed for [redacted] as he had hoped, we truly tried to help understand what was wrong with his account. In addition, we changed his customer success representative to ensure he was getting...

the best of the best. Even after this, [redacted] still decided to cancel, which we fully understood. Even though he was still in his 6 month commitment, we did decide to completely let him out due to the issues he was having that we could not resolve in his timeframe. Negative reviews affect all of us. Since we had already agreed to let him out and refund the money requested, we were taken aback that he decided to write a negative review. The first email from [redacted] is not indicative of our process with customers. We do ask customers to remove reviews that we feel were done to get a refund or particular action they seek, however we do not keep an already agreed to refund back for that to happen. In this case, we had already agreed to do what he asked which we felt was fair and asked for equitable treatment on his side, which was, in our opinion, to remove the review. One of our final emails to him said, “If you insist on keeping your review up, there is nothing we can do to stop you however as you can understand this is a very disappointing message to receive. I have petitioned your case to our finance team and we will honor our end and waive the remainder of your subscription. We legally could have held you to your six month commitment but have treated you fairly and equitably. We simply ask that you return the favorable treatment. If you are unwilling to do so, we cannot stop you but ask you to at least consider treating us as we have treated you. You'll see your refund come through within 3-5 business days. If it gives you any trouble, please let us know. Thanks & all my best, [redacted]”

Hello,Mr. [redacted] cancelled WordStream’s services on May 18,2015.  Mr. [redacted] was made aware that he was in a 12-monthcommitment.  We have different pricing programs based on commitment lengthand we allow our customers to choose any commitment they feel is right fortheir business. Our...

contracts are very transparent and clear. No secrets. On June 1, 2015, Mr. [redacted] responded to our attempts at contact.  OnJune 3, 2015, after discussing Mr. [redacted]’s frustrations, we agreed to let himout of his contract commitment (this is something we typically don’t do howeverwe made an exception in the hope that we would amicably part ways with Mr.[redacted]).  Due to a billing error, Mr. [redacted] was charged on 7/1 and8/1.  Mr. [redacted] contacted our Customer Success team here at WordStreamabout this error on Wednesday August 12, 2015 (around 8PM ET) asking for arefund. We promptly responded to Mr. [redacted] on Thursday August 13, 2015 andlet him know he’d see his refund come through for July and August in 3-5business days. The team here at WordStream is also a bit confused by Mr.[redacted]’s claim that we were not responsive as we’ve answered every email in atimely manner (and have the proof to back it up).Again, we’re 100% transparent here at WordStream. We’re notout to make false claims or provide misleading information. We’re here to helpbusinesses grow and succeed through paid search, simple as that. We apologizethat our solution wasn’t a good fit for Mr. [redacted]’s business, but our overallintentions are always to help, never deceive.

Hello, Mr. [redacted] is claiming 1) He was unable to get into the product due to a password issue 2) He claimed that we weren’t able to help him improve his Quality Score in one month (in the complaint below he states 3 days) and 3) That our contracts are illegal and we are fraudulently charging credit...

cards. We log every single customer phone call and email in our system. Our VP of Customer Success did a thorough investigation and we have no record of any calls or emails from Mr. [redacted] alerting us he was having trouble getting into his account. On our login page, we also have the option to reset your account password that Mr. [redacted] did not attempt to do.    One of our core values here at WordStream is transparency. We are always upfront and honest with our customers about everything they can expect as WordStream customers, including their contractual obligations and the terms of their commitment.  We also require initials on multiple sections in our two-page contract to ensure customers read and understand the order confirmation. We have minimum commitments in place as part of our standard agreements, and we never tell our customers that they can cancel their contracts prematurely. We understand that the needs of every business are unique, and we offer our customers several options to ensure that their commitment is comfortable for them and aligns with their needs. Paid search takes a commitment to get right. If customers are only willing to try it for a few months (or in Mr. [redacted]’s case, 3 days), it is difficult to provide results in such a short period of time.  As such, our contracts are completely transparent and clear, have no hidden terms or conditions, and new customers are explicitly told exactly what to expect in terms of their contractual obligations and responsibilities to avoid confusion. Mr. [redacted] signed a 12 month commitment with us. He cancelled in September of 2016. He attended 2 out of the recommended 3 training calls and never showed up to the 3rd session. We reached out try to get in touch to finish training and he was unresponsive. Because Mr. [redacted] was still under contract, he was still being charged for WordStream services after his cancellation notice. Mr. [redacted]’s wife called our finance team at the end of November about the charges, and we explained that Mr. [redacted] signed a 12 month commitment. Our VP of Customer Success worked with Mr. [redacted] and ended up cutting his commitment short and cancelled him after only 5 payments to hopefully put an end to it, but Mr. [redacted] has continued to call us and express dissatisfaction. We have been 100% fair in this situation and have treated Mr. [redacted] the same way we would treat any customer that has signed a commitment with us. Regarding the “fraudulently charging credit cards” claim Mr. [redacted] made, we explained to him that his September charge increased because his August paid search spend in [redacted] increased. Pricing with WordStream is determined by spend and Mr. [redacted] was charged per the spend tiers outlined in his contract. We would absolutely never charge someone fraudulently. As mentioned, we already cut Mr. [redacted]’s commitment down to only 5 payments. That said, we cannot negotiate any further refund.

We take customer satisfaction very seriously at WordStream. Wehave conducted a full internal investigation into this matter. Mr. [redacted]’Sales Representative asserts that he did not, at any point during hisconversations with Mr. [redacted], say that he could terminate his contract priorto the end of his commitment if he was not satisfied with the results. We appreciate that, sometimes, misunderstandings concerningcontractual obligations occur. For this reason, we structure our sales processand our documentation to make the customer’s contractual commitment absolutelyclear. We do not ask customers to sign lengthy documents without having thechance to read them, and we also request that new customers initial specificparts of their contract, including our cancelation policies and the specifiedlength of their commitment, to avoid situations like this. Mr. [redacted] indicatedhis understanding of these terms by signing and initialing these parts of hiscontract at the time he entered into his agreement with WordStream. Due to the additional steps we take to avoid confusion regardingcustomers’ contractual obligations, and to remain fair to other customers whodo not decide to renew their contracts following the completion of theirspecified commitment, we cannot offer Mr. [redacted] a refund. We are very sorrythat Mr. [redacted] was dissatisfied with his experience with WordStream, and ouroffer to rectify this situation through other means still stands.

Hello,There was a miscommunication with the customer and the issue was brought to our attention when this complaint was submitted. We resolved the issue with the customer and they agreed to remove the complaint.Thanks,[redacted]