by Earlier today, I sent a request to ManageFlitter — a Twitter service that helps you follow and unfollow accounts — for an account credit because their system has been having a terrible time over the past couple of weeks. Some of the problems I’d been having with the service had been going on longer than that, and technical support was always helpful and kind — until today, when I asked for the restoration of account credits I could not use because their system was down. As promised moments ago on Twitter, this is the article detailing what happened.
As a long time business level customer with ManageFlitter, I would get 10,000 “bonus” RAM actions per month for $49. That meant I could follow and unfollow Twitter accounts automatically using a system of sophisticated filters I’d created, and for each Twitter action, a RAM credit was spent.
You could buy RAM credits as needed, or you could choose to pay for a monthly plan where RAM credits were bundled with the price.
The problem with ManageFlitter, is that, over the past couple of weeks or so, the service was unavailable. That meant the RAM credits you paid for could not be used because the system was down.
Last Friday, I took the ManageFlitter CEO’s public advice and emailed him and asked for some sort of account restoration for the RAM credits I was unable to use. He did not reply.
Earlier today, I decided to drop down to the pay-to-play Plan, the Pro Plan, because I did not want to continue to pay for 10k monthly RAM credits if I wasn’t able to use them if the system was down.
When I dropped down to the Pro Plan, I lost 4,000 remaining RAM credits. Those were credits I was unable to use on the Business Plan before my next $49 payment was due because ManageFlitter was unavailable.
Earlier today, I sent a request to ManageFlitter support to ask about RAM credit restoration and, for the first time in my long history with ManageFlitter, I was told something cruel: Because I had switched plans, I had lost the RAM credits!
What?
When I explained I could not use those credits because ManageFlitter was down, I was treated stonily and told, again, for the first time, those RAM credits on the Business Plan were actually “gift” credits, and not real credits that I paid for as a user.
Huh?
ManageFlitter are going to punish me for their service being down?
No thank you.
That last bit about the credits being deleted from my account because they were a gift was incredible! Since when does one pay $49 per month for a gift?
The RAM credits are purposefully included with the ManageFlitter tiered service to entice you to sign up for the higher-priced monthly plans! The Business Plan is not worth $49 per month without the bonus RAM credits — a gift, they are not!
I can take hatred and rudeness, but don’t play me stupid!
ManageFlitter technical support took a hard-line and told me those credits I’d paid for, but could not use, were gone forever!
ManageFlitter support would not back down from that unreasonable position — I lost all remaining “gift” credits when I changed service tiers — and my argument that why would I continue to pay for something that does not work, did not get an effective reply.
I then took to the public square that is Twitter to lodge my complaint against the private ManageFlitter policy.
When the CEO finally touched in via email after I Tweeted about ManageFlitter for their refusal to restore my account credits, he was polite, but scolded me for going public with “Shaming Tweets” on Twitter — all complaints which I had previously, and patiently, held private until I was told there was no resolution.
Sorry, ManageFlitter, but if you make your living on Twitter, and you’re a company doing business in public, you can’t be warm and kind on Twitter with the world watching — and then privately charge your loyal customers, who stuck with you, and who paid full price for a service that did not work — with “shaming” you on Twitter.
The shame, dear CEO, is not in our stars,
but in ManageFlitter, that we are underlings.
So, I did the only reasonable thing left after being pressed off — I canceled my ManageFlitter account by following my own, right, advice: “Vote with your wallet!”
Don’t pay to be treated poorly by a company that does not value the entirety of you — even when you are making a human and reasonable request to have things set right that were wronged beyond your hand.
You shouldn’t have to write a blog article to cull a company into doing the right thing.
UPDATE:
As I promised ManageFlitter CEO Kevin Garber in the comments below, if Dave Zoradi deleted his Tweet, I would republish the screenshot here to keep alive the fact of what happened with his continued “Twitter shaming.” An hour after I published this article, Dave Zoradi published this:
On this blog, we believe in the power of the people and in the righteousness of the written word. Perhaps, one day, Dave Zoradi of ManageFlitter technical support, will also be a believer.
Hi David
Whilst obviously I am disheartened by every unsatisfied customer I do appreciate you taking the time to articulate things from your perspective so we can improve things on our end.
Indeed unfortunately I did miss your original email to myself. As you are aware we have been having some technical outages over the last few weeks and I encouraged customers to email me direct if they had any concerns or questions. I spent a large amount of time responding individually to each email from customers over the last week. Somehow your email to my personal email got missed the first time around by me. My personal email address is not attached to our ticketing system and emails to my work address land up in my work Inbox where I have hundreds of unread emails – an easy environment for emails to slip through – I seldom have had customer emails slip through but this time around I missed yours and I apologise for this. I provided my personal email address so that customers can open dialogue with me if they need to but I was still pushing specific account issues to our support team as once there is a ticket in our system it is much easier to keep track of.
Next I heard about the issue was when you emailed me again to my personal inbox resending your original email.
I replied to you direct by email about an hour after the second email from you hit my inbox.
My reply was:
“Hi David thanks for your email. Sorry if I missed your previous email. I will get Dave in support to handle this and provide any refunds.
Let me know if I can be of any further help .”
I emphasised in a further email to you that I will resolve the issue for you. I also left a voicemail message on your cell and landline to see if I could be of any immediate help to you. After I had provided reassurance to you that I would get your account sorted with whatever credit/refund you were after – I noticed a flurry of tweets complaining about ManageFlitter.
Again I apologise for missing your original email and if any information about your Business Account was miscommunicated by our support team. We did however work hard to immediately resolve the oversight and we worked hard to solve the original issue of RAM credits that was causing you frustration in the first instance.
Our policy remains and has always been to give the customer the benefit of the doubt when it comes to refunds or credits and approach any individual situation with reasonableness, flexibility and fairness. This issue should have been easily resolved with a refund or top up of credit by our team.
RAM Credits on the Business Account are not paid for individually as happens with the Pro account as you know and are included in the price. As you were having issues with your account it would have been no problem to provide you with a refund and / or RAM credits to assist you moving forward.
Again I apologise for any oversights on our end. We work hard on our product and our service and we work harder to continue to improve both. Which we will do.
Regards and thanks,
Kevin Garber – CEO ManageFlitter
Thanks for the comment, Kevin.
If we’d been able to resolve this between the two of us all would have likely turned out well.
The fact that Dave Zoradi in your technical support team took an unfamiliar tone with me when we had worked closely together to solve problems on ManageFlitter together in the past felt like a great death blow — and he’s now taken to hacking at me on his personal Twitter account, which, according to the ethos of Habit of Action, is not to be unexpected:
https://twitter.com/davezoradi/status/722154311023591424
I have a screenshot of that Zoradi Tweet in case it disappears because it so utterly and wholesomely proves my point; and so let me be clear the reason I canceled your service, and will never recommend ManageFlitter again, is because of how you told me not to shame you on Twitter when that was precisely what was deserved after the way Dave Zoradi pressed me off about “bonus” and “gift” credits that never were.
Hi David –
Point taken.
I was trying to work out exactly what was going on as I had just responded to you saying that I would sort it out when the flurry of tweets started.
I then sent you an email:
“I will get it sorted for you . I assure you. Please stop with the shaming tweets. Leave it with me.”
Your point has been made and I take it on board and I will chat to the team about oversights made.
Feel free to drop me an email direct anytime.
Thanks and regards,
Kevin – CEO ManageFlitter
Thanks again, Kevin.
While you and I were privately chatting in email, Dave Zoradi was concurrently using the official, public, ManageFlitter Twitter account to shame me about precisely what you were telling me was not a problem.
That sort of public disconnect belies any reason.
Hi David
It was about 5:30am where I was in Sydney ManageFlitter HQ and I literally had just woken up but when I saw your email I wanted to get straight on to it! I was not across at all what was happening hence me trying to just get on top of what was happening.
Point taken and will chat to our team.
Regards,
Kevin
I understand, Kevin, thanks.
UPDATE:
As expected, Dave Zoradi of ManageFlitter Technical Support, deleted his Tweet about this article —
https://twitter.com/davezoradi/status/722154311023591424
— and so the article has been updated to include a screenshot of that Tweet, just as I promised Kevin Garber.
UPDATE:
https://twitter.com/DavidBoles/status/722472663843741697