Yesterday, I realized that I had a Constant Contact e-mail sign up form on an old project I thought I had taken offline. I logged on to Constant Contact to reactivate my old account because I wanted to access the emails addresses of my subscribers. I knew I was going to have to pay the $15 for the month to use the service but what I wasn't expecting was for them to charge me an additional $25 to reactivate my account.
I called Constant Contact and asked a rep if it was really necessary to charge me an additional $25 to get my e-mail list and the rep yes. Curious, I asked him what the charge was for and he explained that they need to charge for the storage space my information occupied. I told him I understood the logic but all they were storing for me was a mailing list with 100 or so address, not gigs worth of files or data. He wouldn't budge. I told him that I have used their service and liked it, and have even steered a majority of my clients to them which now I wouldn't feel comfortable doing because this new rule seemed ridiculous. He told me that was my prerogative and we hung up.
Feeling a wee bit f'd over by bureaucratic red tape, I hit my Twitter account and pecked out a mini-rant about my customer service experience. Within a half hour I received a call from another Constant Contact rep, James, who not only apologized for the previous rep's arms-crossed approach to customer service, but gave me my list free of charge. I told him I could understand the charge to some degree, but there needed to be flexibility in the pricing structure. I would have paid a $5 reactivation fee as a slap on the wrist but $25 seemed harsh.
Constant Contact probably uses a service like TweetBeep.com (I use it religiously) which e-mails them the Tweets that mention their name. I think some people forget what customer service is all about. James not only went out of his way to help me, but he made me trust the company again because he showed me that my business and my clients' business is important to them. More important than having both $25 and a bitter ex-client and losing a a dozen or so other clients. VERY cool.
I called Constant Contact and asked a rep if it was really necessary to charge me an additional $25 to get my e-mail list and the rep yes. Curious, I asked him what the charge was for and he explained that they need to charge for the storage space my information occupied. I told him I understood the logic but all they were storing for me was a mailing list with 100 or so address, not gigs worth of files or data. He wouldn't budge. I told him that I have used their service and liked it, and have even steered a majority of my clients to them which now I wouldn't feel comfortable doing because this new rule seemed ridiculous. He told me that was my prerogative and we hung up.
Feeling a wee bit f'd over by bureaucratic red tape, I hit my Twitter account and pecked out a mini-rant about my customer service experience. Within a half hour I received a call from another Constant Contact rep, James, who not only apologized for the previous rep's arms-crossed approach to customer service, but gave me my list free of charge. I told him I could understand the charge to some degree, but there needed to be flexibility in the pricing structure. I would have paid a $5 reactivation fee as a slap on the wrist but $25 seemed harsh.
Constant Contact probably uses a service like TweetBeep.com (I use it religiously) which e-mails them the Tweets that mention their name. I think some people forget what customer service is all about. James not only went out of his way to help me, but he made me trust the company again because he showed me that my business and my clients' business is important to them. More important than having both $25 and a bitter ex-client and losing a a dozen or so other clients. VERY cool.
I am Liberation Iannillo, a web designer and social media consultant based in New York City. I work with authors, artists, publishers, and other creative professionals who want to promote their projects online and attract new creative opportunities. 
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