Here's the essence of my experience with BluDomain via the later emails with them. I tried numerous times to get them to call me to no avail, so had to rely on spottily answered emails.
Basically, their template that I wanted simply read "galleries" (whereas most of the rest had a number specifying how many I'd get). My attempts for clarification were painful and then when I got a response, I misunderstood it and moved ahead believing I'd be getting an unlimited number of them. I - after many emails - finally got my blank template from them and saw that I only got five. Many more emails later and I got a response saying, "Our site clearly shows that you get four with that template". The thing is, they updated their site since I bought and put a number in!!! We never did get to the bottom of why I got five in the template if I was supposed to get four.
Below is the stream of my conversation with Aundrea of their Sales/Marketing team - we got nowhere, as you can read. Lisa in their customer service department was polite, but she seems to be held at bay by the "interesting Aundrea". I'll let you judge for yourselves, though. I tried to go through my credit card company to dispute this, but since I don't have a screenshot of their original site, I have nothing to stand on but my back-and-forth. So, I'm stuck with these guys if I don't want to be out $200. An awful experience, basically.
Forwarded Message
From: Brian N
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, March 12 4:48: 26 PM
Subject: Re: Request for Consideration
Thank you for your interesting perspective, Aundrea.
You still have neglected to confirm that I will be getting five galleries when I go live?
Kind regards,
Brian
From: BLUSUPPORT
To: Brian N
Sent: Thursday, March 12 4:05: 12 PM
Subject: Re: Request for Consideration
It's a shame - you do not hold yourself accountable for the choices you make. It's a shame you expect us to break policy or you become in mature when you do not get your way. Please do not email us anymore unless you are going to be kind and respectful.
Have a good night we really do wish you well.
On Mar 11, at 3:01 PM, Brian Nelson wrote:
Aundrea,
This is too bad. The friend of mine who recommended you had this to say when I wrote to him of my issue: "I've had nothing but good experiences with Blu, but I hear others have had problems. They seem like a small but fast growing company that generally works well, but whose service falls apart when anything goes wrong." His assessment seems to be correct.
I'm not trying to threaten you, but to get you to understand that your side of this could have been more clear and that you're partly responsible for the confusion in this matter. As a matter of fact, I still have yet to get an answer to whether I will be getting four or five galleries when I go live? I expected unlimited, the template you sent me has five, but your site now reads "four". I do not want to spend time working on that fifth one if it's not going to show on my site. Please clarify this.
It is unfortunate that you seem hell-bent on sticking to your policy when you could have easily remedied five minutes of activity on your part and you'd have had a customer who was going to buy a second site for a friend and would have heartily recommended you to others - now, all I can tell friends who ask is who not to use.
Many thanks for your time,
Brian
From: BLUSUPPORT
To: Brian N
Sent: Thursday, March 12 2:28: 19 AM
Subject: Re: Request for Consideration
Brian
If you have received your links - then your site was built out. Really, there is no one on our team that will make an exception. You are asking us to break a policy for you and we simply can't do that. I am very sorry. You can go back to your CC company - our legal team will state the contract - the electronic agreement you signed - your site links
WE are not going to sit here and listen to your threats. Unfortunately we can't be threatened to break our policy.
Please understand thanks
Aundrea
On Mar 11, at 3:46 AM, Brian N wrote:
Thank you for your reply, Aundrea.
We have two options here then:
1 - since your site simply read "galleries" when I purchased it and you have limited my number after-the-fact, you have not provided what you advertised. (I still have yet to get an answer about whether I would have received four or five as shown in the template you sent.) So, I can go back to my credit card company to have my money reimbursed and they can open a case to recover it with your company. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure this goes a long way toward blacklisting you with their very large bank as an uncooperative merchant.
2 - you can have a higher member of your staff who is able to reconsider my request call me so that we can progress with this. I'm not asking for a refund... All you've done thus far is give me a generic template to populate... And I've not gone live. So your "building of my site" has not happened. Why is it such a break in policy to give a customer what they want and, in this case, give me a template that fits my needs? I do not think I'm being unreasonable here.
I request that I be called regarding this matter at xxxx (please kindly call me during your afternoon as I am currently living in New Zealand and there is a significant time difference).
Kind regards,
Brian
From: BLUSUPPORT
To: Brian N
Sent: Wednesday, March 11 5:59: 01 PM
Subject: Re: Request for Consideration
Brian
I am very sorry - we have a strict policy that we have never in over 6 years broke. For good reason. Again I am very sorry
Aundrea
On Mar 10, at 8:08 PM, Brian Nelson wrote:
Thank you for your prompt reply, Aundrea.
I understand what you're saying about not offering to exchange a template once it's been built - but my site has not gone live yet. I have only been sent a blank template and a folder in which to place my files.
Your generically worded and confusing description of James along with my two unanswered tickets to get you to call me for clarification forced me to rely on occasionally-answered emails with your customer service for information. I like your templates and really want to use one of them - which is why I made my purchase.
Your site description for James started off with "galleries" only - which, since the rest of the templates had a number, one could easily determine that the number of galleries was unlimited.instead of assuming, though, I queried your customer service and subsequently misunderstood Lisa's email reply to me and moved forward with my purchase believing I would receive "unlimited galleries". Then you sent me the blank template giving me five galleries and now your site reads that I get four galleries with that template. Surely you can agree that your company's growing pains and my misunderstanding have paired to cause confusion. Since I've not gone live, I do not think it unreasonable for you to send me a new template that better fits my needs.
Lisa has done her best to answer my questions and resolve this, but we're going on a month now of back-and-forth and I'm no closer to having a website completed. I'm sure you'd rather have a happy customer that is eager to recommend your site to other people instead of someone who's using a template they're not happy with that will leave after a year because they've spent the year grumbling about it. It can't be *that* much work to give me a new folder in which to build my site.
I'd really appreciate your reconsidering your position so that we can all move happily forward.
Thanks very kindly,
Brian
From: BLUSUPPORT
To: Brian N
Sent: Wednesday, March 11 12:57: 07 PM
Subject:
Brian
Unfortunately we have a very strict policy - once the site is built out we offer no refunds or exchanges. I am very sorry. Jack is only $100.00 and perhaps James will become useful very soon. Sounds like you have brilliant ideas always.
Thank you
Aundrea
Brian N.
Auckland, Alabama
New Zealand
0 comments