Zendesk

Do NOT use zendesk for website chat, sms and phone. The software interface is not user friendly and looks like it was designed 10 years ago and never updated. We spent multiple hours trying to get it setup as there was very little help/tutorials available.
Voip calls have significant lag when answering the call and overall call quality is very low.
You cannot send an sms to customers in any simple way.
There is no mobile app for answering calls so EVERY phone call must be answered at your desktop.
When I requested cancelling today they screenshot the contract saying I have to give them 30 days so will bill me for another month.
Ironically their website support is slow to respond.

We have changed over to Coax app. So much better for about the same cost.

I installed it to find dead ends to onboarding, and a reluctant support culture that is evident. There's also a superiority complex, "we're the best!" when it is not. I deleted it after an afternoon of research and trying. Hope you have better luck than I did!

The worst plugin I have ever used. I was really hopeful about Zendesk but left bitterly disappointed. The set up process is horrendous and extremely confusing. ZERO customer service when trying to reach out for help, instead you just speak to a useless robot who is no help. Do not waste hours of your time with Zendesk. After spending hours I am a no further forward and very frustrated. They tried to charge my credit card over £8,000 for an annual fee, luckily for me it got flagged by my bank and wasn't taken.

I was hesitant to write this review in case it led to worse support/service than I’m already getting; however, upon reflection, I realized that if I can save anyone else the headache of diving into Zendesk then it will be worthwhile. The fact that I was unable to get help choosing the correct plan for my needs should have indicated things would only get worse, but I proceeded because I needed a solution ASAP. In December, upon subscription renewal, I realized I’ve been paying for a feature I don't use. I tried to get help addressing the financial aspect of this and... crickets.

In April a new account manager was assigned to me and he offered to help but ghosted me, too. Shocking for a company that literally claims to provide customer service infrastructure. If you’re interested in details, please find below a copy/pasted summary of my correspondence that went unanswered again and again (apologies for my typos).

More recently I noticed my faq bot wasn't working - I couldn't save edits, it wouldn't load on my site. ZD’s status page reported everything was fine, but even the bot on their website wasn’t working, so clearly this was a system wide error. I tried to report this error on Twitter since there was no reporting mechanism on the status page itself. ZD's twitter user DM'd a community page that linked to a page that didn't work. Then they sent me a link that didn't work. Then they told me to submit a support ticket so someone could help me troubleshoot. I confirmed it was a system wide error, not me needing personal assistance. After an hour of very slow, useless back and forth, I received this message: "Hi there! The issue is already reported and our engineers have been working for the issue resolution. Thank you for reporting." And THEN I got a reply via twitter feed inviting me to send a DM. Really? Who was replying without realizing an hour was already spent via DM?

Between my experience over the past ~1.5 years, and everything else I’m reading, it looks like Zendesk is happy to keep taking our money until we finally give up and leave. I’m so glad it wasn’t possible to lock myself into a multi-year contract, and now I’m exploring my options. I truly hate leaving negative reviews but am deeply disappointed about the time/energy/money spent on zendesk and wish I'd made a better choice.

Anyway, here’s the headache inducing effort to get help if anyone wants a firsthand account of how ridiculous this is:

On 29 Apr 2023 7:13 pm, I wrote:

Hi N*,

Thank you so much! Please find the thread copy/pasted below - it goes back to a question I asked on Dec 17.

With all best,
M*

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On 12 Jan 2023 11:19, I wrote:

Hello,

Can you someone please reply?? I'm seeking refund for the live chat service that I never needed, and won't be using in 2023. It looks like it won't be billed again Dec 2023, but I think we can all agree it's unfair to pay for something I don't need, wouldn't have purchased if someone had helped me had helped me get set up in 2021, and won't be using this year. Details below.
Thank you,
M*

ps. Is anyone getting these messages? Is this happening to my clients when they try to contact me by replying to messages using zendesk? I hope not, but now I'm worried that's happening ...

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On 4 Jan 2023 14:35, I wrote:

Hello again, E*

I've attempted to remove live chat from my subscription several times, but it keeps re-appearing in my plan summary... meanwhile, I've already noticed a difference in how my chat bot is behaving (I'll work around it) so something has changed in terms of what is being delivered, but it looks like I'm still agreeing to be billed for something I'm not using/don't want. Please see screenshots attached.

I must say, I've had difficulty getting assistance from zendesk going all the way back to 2021 when I first requested help determining what I needed for what I was trying to accomplish. My messages went unanswered so I registered for a trial on my own without knowing what zendesk products/services I need for what I wanted on my website. I found this unusual, particularly since Zendesk is selling a customer service management system.

As mentioned, I don't want to offer live chat on my website -- I'm one person and don't have time to spend live with customers while actually making orders already placed. I only want zendesk for a bot to serve FAQ and to use as an email portal so customers who can't help themselves can send their questions for me to answer when I have time -- this, I figure, would avoid messages being lost to spam folders (mine, and theirs)

I haven't intentionally chatted with of my website visitors during the time I've had zendesk, so I don't want to pay for something I don't/won't use. If a zendesk rep had been available to answer my questions from the onset, I would have had my subscription set up correctly from the start. My subscription also rolled over without any notice --- I have all kinds of subscrptions, and receive upcoming renewl notifications by email -- so I didn't have a chance to contact support to clarify details before seeing how much I would be re-billed.

Then, when I tried to contact support via email in Dec, I received an "unmonitored email address" autoreply directing me to zendesk support chat -- weird for a company that offers multichannel integration for customer service. Anyway, I was extremely busy with my job (November/Dec are the most busy times of year), so I had to find time to initiate a conversation by chat so someone could get back to me by email.

I appreciate that I'm in touch with you now, but I had to follow up to my questions on Dec 21, and I still don't know how I can get a refund for the service I didn't use in 2022 and don't want in 2023 because I would have never subscribed for it if someone had been able to actually help me in the first place.

Can you please help? Again, if I'd been able to get the assistance I needed in 2021 I wouldn't be in this situation now. I'm trying to unsubscribe from something I don't use, and would really like to not have to pay for and unneeded/unused service for another year.

Thank you -- I really look forward to your help.

All best, M.

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On 4 Jan 2023 11:05, I wrote:

Hi E*,
Thanks for your reply. I do have a question: can you tell me how to go about getting a refund for the services I don't use and accidentally ordered, and was just billed for a year in advance?
Thanks,
M

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On Jan. 4, 2023 9:48 a.m., "E* wrote:

Zendesk Logo
Your request (#11087364) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email.

E*

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Jan 4, 2023, 9:48 AM CST

Hi M*,

Happy New Year! Thank you for following up. The easiest way to make the changes to your account is through the Admin Center in your Zendesk instance. This article from our help center explains how. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me an email!

Thank you!

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Jan 3, 2023, 11:40 AM CST, I wrote

Hi E*,

Happy 2023! I hope all is going great, so far =-)

I'm writing to follow up on our conversation from December. Thanks again for the info provided =-) I'd like to adjust my subscription so it covers only what I'm using -- no live chat; only bot to serve FAQ and act as a contact via email portal.

I look forward to learning what steps I should take to correct my payment for 2023, and to be billed for the correct zendesk products/services being used in 2024.

With all best,
M*

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Dec 21, 2022, 3:58 PM CST, I wrote:

Hi E*,

Thank you so much for this very helpful information! I wasn't sure what guide professional was, thank you for clarifying

Yes, I would be happy to unsubscribe from Chat Team if I will still be able to run the chat bot + FAQ, and use the chat bot interface as an email portal so clients can write to me with questions to answer they didn't find. I run a small operation, and really just want to reduce the amount of email that comes in, but also make sure my replies to any questions don't go to spam folders -- Zendesk seems to help with that.

Thank you also for clarifying that Zendesk doesn't offer multi-year subscription. I'll keep an eye out in case that changes in the future.

Please let me know what actions I should take to make the subscription change you have suggested.

Thanks again and all best,
M*

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Dec 21, 2022, 2:32 PM CST zendesk replied

Hi M*,

My name is E*, I am an account executive with Zendesk. I am happy to review your subscription with you:

Your current subscription consists of 3 Zendesk Products- Support Team, Chat Team and Guide Professional. If you are using the chatbot and FAQ page with Zendesk- then you are using Guide Professional. In order to use Guide Pro, you need to have a Support license, (Support Team). Support Team is our lowest tiered plan for Support so you cannot save any money on those two products.

If you are not offering live chat, you could remove Chat Team from your subscription and save $14.00 per month.

I am not able to extend your contract term longer in order to receive a discount. You already pay annually- which offers our biggest discount on pricing.

Please let me know if this makes sense or if you have any additional questions!

[...]

While this is pretty much the standard against which customer service apps are judged, and there are some worthy competitors, in the end most people will default (like we did) to this. It can be a bit tricky to learn and the pricing has proved higher than we'd like for what it does, nonetheless it functions reliably and seems to have capabilities that we can grow into.

I think Zendesk is far superior to other systems in terms of ease of setting up the system and logic. It has helped us during a time where our inventory tracking system has been problematic so we keep record of customers orders here as well. Our response time has improved dramatically as a result of the usage, tracking, and reporting. I wish it was a bit clearer in terms of reporting the pieces that would be taken away post free-trial. Salesforce desk offers a little more robust reporting for a lesser price. The other issue I am currently having is the integration with our Ringcentral application. Its been weeks with no fix unfortunately and I'm feeling like we are being pigeon-holed into buying Zendesk's talkdesk instead, so the system is coming off as nickel and dimey

The worst experience ive ever had with a company in terms of customer support. Matthew Dunn in particular but also Marvin and patrick. All treated me with complete contempt and dis interest and on multiple occasions was just left waiting mid live chat. was told to wait while they looked something up. 45 mins later they just stopped responding. This happened at least 5 times. then when i viced my annoyance at this Matthew Dunn revoke my trial support and then my trial itself. AVOID THIS COMPANY. I tried all the big ones freshdesk, zendesk etc. Gorgias was easily the best. start with gorgias people. honestly youll thank me.

The Shopify/Zendesk is an integral part of our business, we use it to have surface-level visibility into customer order history and details as well as customer notes while doing sales and support. The app largely eliminates the need for an entire additional window. The reason I can only give 4/5 stars is that there are a few features I'd still love to see, that could truly let our team work solely through the Zendesk interface:
1. If we could place orders within the side-bar app
2. if we could connect ticket numbers with the SKUs in an order created from that customer interaction.

DO NOT USE ZENDESK. HIGHLY RECOMMEND GORGIAS!!! The irony of running a customer service company and yet having the absolutely worst customer service in the business is not lost on me. We finally upgraded our zendesk level, after years of them begging. They set it up incorrectly, and then absolutely ghosted us when we asked for assistance in correcting their error. So essentially, we paid for MONTHS for a service we did not receive. They are an absolutely terrible company. Please, please save your money and use someone else for your customer service needs.

We have been using Zen Desk for over 4 years but had to cancel it this month. They are way behind the times when it comes to automation/Ai support, have poor customer service, a clunky ap interface and the cost is high with many additional fees for additional agents, programs etc. Also their billing is a bit shady with auto-renewals and no refunds for cancellations. 2 stars because Zen Desk worked well for us for years, but there are much better options out there.