Zendesk

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!

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Dec 21, 2022, 12:16 AM CST I wrote:

Thank you, J*

I also prefer email and would have liked send only one message in the first place, but my email to support@ received an auto-reply sending me to chat instead. I opted to use the chat as an email portal. I'm currently taking my first days off work since October, and am too tired to chat.
I look forward to a reply by email -- I'll be checking messages intermittently.
Thank you again and all best,
Milena

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Dec 20, 2022, 8:17 PM CST zendesk wrote back to the support request I had to open via chat when I realized no one was going to reply to my email:

Good Day M*,

It seems that you are currently offline, I will be escalating this to your Account Manager to further assist you with your concern. Your Account Executive prefers to work over email, so I am reassigning this ticket we had on the messaging channel to him and start the email conversation to kick things off.

Best regards,
J*|Zendesk Online Sales

System (Zendesk Support)

Dec 20, 2022, 8:10 PM CST

(7:59:03 PM) Web User support@x__zendesk__11848…: [the chat I opened when no one responded to my email]

Hello,

I really wish it was possible to request support via a simple email. I received a bill and have questions about it. Please find below my reply to the original message I received. My questions are about the categories I'm billed for, an about pre-paying for multiple years for a discount. Please find it below.

Thanks, M

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Hello!

I have been using Zendesk for one year -- the features I use are a chatbot to serve faq and act as a portal to send questions to me by email -- I'm not interested in offering live chat as I don't have employees answering questions on my behalf. I understand the "chat" and "support" part of what has been billed, but can you please tell me: what is the "guide professional" portion of this invoice?

And, is there away to pre-purchase two or three years in advance for a discount? The Canadian dollar is very low compared to the US dollar and I'd like to save some money. Other companies I use send advance email informing of upcoming billing and package options, so I anticipated the same from Zendesk.

I look forward to your reply,

Thanks,
M*

On Dec. 17, 2022 6:08 a.m., Zendesk wrote:

Hi M*,

Your payment was successful. View subscription details.

Invoice date
12/17/2022
Date paid
12/17/2022
Amount paid
$576.00
Currency
US Dollar
Zendesk ID
11848045
If you need any help, contact Customer Support. All they need is your Zendesk ID.

See you next time,
The Zendesk team

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On 29 Apr 2023 16:19, N* <@zendesk.com> wrote:

Hi Milena,

Yes, feel free to forward your unanswered correspondence to me and I will be able to address them.

Best,
N*

Good service for automating customer service.

This app is the best for keeping all our customer emails and inquiries in one place rather than bombarding an email address. I love being able to look up the history when a customer returns with more questions. Also appreciate that our agents can have a conversation internally prior to replying.

Great app for our store. Works great and we never have any issues.

Really nice CRM app.

Used it on my store: https://happypatron.com

Great app, easy to install and works well for us!

It's pretty good, almost terrific... my biggest bugbear though is it's sometimes easy to miss updated tickets.
The colour of a ticket changes from yellow to red to indicate that's it's been replied to but still 'open'; however if a customer then does respond, the colour doesn't change. So you have to keep going back to check if a new message has been left.
This could be solved simply by changing the ticket colour again. Basic but very frustrating.

Not a bad product. Needs a few more features from a support perspective. Integration is easy and works well. But it needs to support more than one shopify store.

Extremely customizable and well thought out app. Would recommend!

If customer service matters to you, you should have a system like zendesk to allow to centralize all your communication in one dashboard. I have been using Zendesk forever. And the fact that they bought Zopim Chat and integrated it into their system was a dream come true. A+++ Zendesk.
Team Zendesk forever.