I used Microsoft's Bcentral as a list builder for my emails for my business. From this listbuilder I would send emails to my customers weekly to let them know what was going on and special events. I did pay monthly for this service. As of June 1st this service has been discontinued. I was not aware of this, did not receive and email, nor did it state on their site that the service was shutting down on June 1st. They are claiming that it did state on their website but it was on the overview page, which I bypass since I don't need to read the overview as I know what I am doing as far as using the service. They should have put it somewhere where we could SEE it, like the page we process our email newsletters. They have deleted my list of 6000 emails. My collection of my customers over the last 9 years. Alot of hard work. Now they are telling me it is gone and there is no way to retrieve it. And that's that... Oh well. I need that list in order to function as a business. Without it I will loose thousands of dollars. I trusted as a customer my list to Bcentral. I know that I must not be the only one, in fact the rep at Microsoft said I was not and the gentleman he talked to right before me had a list of 25,000 that is poof... Gone forever. I have written corporate and encourage anyone else that this has happened to do the same. I will be talking to my attorney. If they can not fix this I can see a possible class action suit coming their way.
Here is the address and the letter that I wrote to Microsoft:
Microsoft
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA. 98052
Attn: Microsoft Small Business Management Team (Bcentral)
To whom it may concern:
Last night I went to send an email to my 6000 subscribers through Bcentral and I was shocked to find out that Bcentral is no longer in service and all of my subscribers are lost, gone forever and there is nothing that can be done about it.
I have to believe that I am not the only customer of yours that was not aware that Bcentral was shutting down. I never received an email. If I did it was probably lost in the myriad of junk mail I receive on a daily basis with Microsoft in the heading or email. The website WAS NOT marked clearly that the site was closing. I send out emails to my subscribers nearly every week and I have NEVER seen any mention that the site is going under. My last email was just before June 1st and it let me go right in, never a mention anywhere or a reminder that the site is shutting down in several days and you will need to export your emails immediately.
I am completely aghast at the total lack of compassion from Microsoft, stating in an email to me that your list is gone, nothing we can do about it. Im supposed to be ok with that? I have built up this list over 9 years in my business. Bcentral was a very important marketing tool for me. My customers know what Im doing because of the weekly emails I send them. Im a small business owner and I struggle day to day barely making it and then you guys can just pull the rug out from under us? Im just devastated to say the least. All that Ive worked hard for is now gonejust like that. I trusted you as a business that you would take care of my list. You owe your customers better then what you are telling them now.
You HAD to have seen this coming. Did you think about making sure that everyone knew about the closure before deleting everything or did you just not care? This may not be a huge deal to you. But it is my livelihood. Please reconsider and find a way to get these lists back to the customers that did not know what was going on until it was too late. I would never treat my customers like this.
I will be contacting my attorney in regards to this. Losing this list will cost me thousands of dollars in the long run, especially as I am preparing to sell my business and that list is a huge part of it. I hope to hear from you very soon telling me that you have resolved this. Not only for me, but for all the others that are in the same predicament I am.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matte
0 comments