No notification when going up a billing/contact level tier

[Duffieer]

WARN US when we are trying to do something that will cause our rate to go up. I have never had to deal with someplace that can raise/lower your monthly agreed upon fee without notifying you ahead of time. If this keeps up, we will have to go with another service, even if it means fewer options.

[AlexandraP51]

You should set up automated notification by email or phone when billing is due to increase due to number of contacts expanding. This would make sure your clients are not being billed for contact lists that are not in use every month. We would be able to manage and upload them on months where required only.

[Hannah_M]

Awesome idea, I can see how this would help a lot of concerned users with limited budgets! Do you think a popup when you uploaded contacts that hit the limit would be effective or would you rather see an email? Do you think having the price included would be of any value?

[lruvolo]

When adding more contacts will cause a plan level change and increased billing, present the user with a warning message that they must accept. I inadvertently went above 500 contacts while on the basic plan. There was no warning message to indicate I would incur an additional charge. This is problematic because I work for a non-profit and am on a prepaid annual plan. if you need any more details.

[lruvolo]

I just saw this suggestion after I submitted the same item today. At least a warning message should be presented to the user when the number of contacts will cause a price increase.

I imported 504 and now have an extra bill. A support rep suggested I delete the bounced emails which will bring me down below 500, but then I will also need to call Cust Sppt again to request a credit for the additional billing. 

As a non-profit on a fixed budget, it's difficult to get expense surprises and is very time consuming to pursue a resolution. 

[AndreaS92020]

I think it is dishonest for your company to automatically re-bill someone for another year without any prior notification.  THEN on top of it - not allow someone to cancel (even if it is caught in that same month) saying that no refunds are given.  To me - that is dishonest.  If you think your product is great you should be willing to allow people the choice to continue using or not.  I have been with CC for over 6 years and find the way this was handled unacceptable.

[NABCO]

The fact that my package and therefore price increased without notice when I added more than 500 contacts is a terrible business practice. You should notify the user before they go over their limit, not just charge them for the higher package with no notice. This is very frustrating and impossible to budget for if there is no notice given. 

[MBCIA]

I am extremely disappointing with your service. We pay yearly and now I can't use the service because you never sent a bill or email bill. We mailed a check on Tuesday but the clown I spoke to says there is nothing that can be done to release the account. Why was I not sent a BILL? The clown is spoke to says it is self monitoring so I should know when the bill is due. I will be looking for a new company to do business with. You send out lots of emails about everything but not a bill. Not very happy. John Luther Secretary MBCIA

[AngelaJ219]

When uploading a new list it would be nice if you would get a warning letting you know that you will go over your contact limit if uploaded. I accidentally uploaded a new list of contacts without deleting the old and now it has taken me over the limit and started charging me extra with no warning. 

[Frankie_P]

Hi @Duffieer thank you for sharing this feedback! I can understand how important it is to be aware of the charges on your account. Your monthly bill is a combination of the pricing plan you've selected plus the number of active contacts in your account. Have you recently sent to a larger list than normal, or upgraded the Email Plan you are under? Your active contacts increasing or upgrading your Email Plan will are common reasons on why your pricing will automatically increase to a higher billing level.

[Duffieer]

Hi Frankie_P. I understand what the common reasons are for billing fluctuations, I am pointing out it is a rather unsavory business practice to not have some sort of notification that an action will result in a higher fee. I have to prepay in 6 month blocks, and it has only been covering 4 months because of rates rising.

The lack of digital communication / account agents is also frustrating. I communicate by email for transparency and historical record. You only provide phone numbers. I prefer when I have someone I can regularly contact about MY account. Why in the world does an EMAIL service not have a customer support EMAIL? 

I will most likely be signing up for another service that skips the canned public answers and will correspond with me directly and have up front consistent billing. So thanks Frankie_P, you helped make my decision easier.

[LisaD06]

In the process of updating my contacts I added a large group of contacts and then deleted another group about the same size. In the process of doing that I went above my 500 contacts.... for just a few minutes. That prompted my monthly fee to double! And to make matters worse, I did not know. I understand that if I am holding over 500 contacts in my account, you will need to charge me. But to charge for the few minutes it takes to update a list is sneaky and unnecessary. You could at least stop the upload and say.. you are going to go above 500 contacts if you do this. Are you sure you want to upload? With no warning, it is just poor customer service to charge in that situation. With that said, when I called, the charge was removed. However, that is unnecessary and an unproductive use of my time and yours. I have been very happy with Constant Contact and I find your customer service very helpful. I hope you will correct this situation. Thank you.

[ValS956]

Send a warning when account is going to move into a new fee range Our contact count recently went over 500 for the first time, dramatically increasing our charges. I had completely forgotten that 500 was the cutoff for the next fee, and didn't realize that contacts who are not in any email list would count towards that #. It would have been helpful and deeply appreciated to get a warning when I was trying to add the next contact that would send us over that limit. I realize that telling customers that they will be paying more is not really in your company's best interest, but the goodwill it would engender would do a great deal to keep customers using your service. Thanks, Val Schmitt

[JohnM5211]

I too went over the limit, at 502 contacts, and was billed for the next level without being notified of the impending increase.  This really sucks - this is the reason I normally don't sign up for subscription auto-pay but did not have an option with Constant Contact when I signed up.  It's the weekend so I will contact support on Monday to see if I can get credit now that I've reduced my contacts to under 500.  If not, I'm going to cancel the service. 

[NorrisD5]

You are an email platform so it's either absurdly asinine or selfishly greedy that I can't get an email notification that my account will be or even as been upgraded an my bill will increase. That is unacceptable customer service.

[IanB75]

Going from $20 to $25 last month was surprising, and then jumping up again to $45 this month was shocking. Any communication at all explaining what's going on would be great. I'm suddenly looking at a substantial annual investment ($240 up to $540) for monthly newsletters, which means potentially finding a more affordable service (after many many years of membership here.) 

[KorinJ0]

Originally signed up for the $20/mo for basic and $45 for plus back in March. There was never any indication that there were other pricing plans or that we would be charged additional if you exceed a certain amount of emails. I spoke with customer service to deactivate my account and she advised that we did get charged the $65 because we exceed 2500 customers but I'm positive we had below that amount. Even reviewing the receipts on the first month we were billed the $20, the following looks like they were going to charge $65 but looks like we were credited $20 being charged $45 for that month. However, our last campaign was sent in May so no other email addresses were added to our contacts. The pricing is extremely misleading as well as what tier you guys are currently using to charge people. What amazes me is that you don't have something in place to notify your customers that "hey you're nearing this amount of customers which will result in a higher price". It's absolutely ridiculous that you guys are charging us the additional $20 if we never exceeded the 2500- however many contacts for the next price hike. It's also absolutely ridiculous that back in February/March no other pricing plans were listed other than the $20 basic and $45 plus. For this I would have just went to. Terrible business practice. The least you can do is inform customers of prices being changed so they can adjust accordingly if neccessary.

[CarolynG310]

Just sharing my two cents......

I recently noticed my monthly charge was more than double what it usually is!  Learned that my plan only covered up to 500 contacts, and literally I had gone to 501 and it instantly went up.  I'm sure it's in the fine print, etc, and my fault for not catching it, however what I DON'T LIKE is the fact that there is no email notification that I've 'magically' bumped into the next category and charges would be increasing.  I'm a small one-woman business, and was charged the 'more than double' amount for 4 months before catching it (shame on me).  I never look to see how many contacts I have.

All of my other website and online services send emails when ANY change is coming or has happened, and I'm very disappointed there was no notification regarding this.  Lots of competitors out there...... the lack of communication and transparency has me considering a switch.