Need warning about plus campaigns

[BrennaF9]

I went through the process of creating a survey, but not until I spent time working on it did I realize you needed to pay extra - I think it would be beneficial to include this information at the beginning, as it was incredibly confusing and frustrating. Then, when I clicked the link to learn more about the costs, etc., the site continued to time out...so after an hour, I'm still not sure if it's part of the tool I can use or how much it's going to cost.

[TracyW327]

Just created a registration page only to find out after all that work/learning curve, that I have to upgrade or pay $50 to use it. Thanks a lot for making me waste my valuable time!!!

[NikkiP57]

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Totally agree.  They are very sneaky with how they promote their services.  If the survey will cost extra JUST SAY SO ahead of time.  Be upfront and transparent with customers and they dont mind paying for premium services.  Instead they like to back customers into a corner and try to force their hand to pay after they have invested time and energy on the front end.  I dont trust vendors like this and I would rather pay 3x the price with a vendor who clearly has my best interests at heart.  After using this tool for 7+ years, I can attest CONSTANT CONTACT DOESNT CARE!!!

[Volunteer_Cowichan]

Hi there!  I spent lots of time creating a survey, only to learn that as a user but not owner of the account I could not send it without paying an additional one time fee or upgrading.  Maybe a block or notification or something before all that work is done so unsuspecting users like me don't use a bunch of their time only to not be able to send it?  Just sayin'

[PatriciaN6]

Your cost of surveys is outrageous! I have been with you for over 8 years and I am insulted that you would try to charge me $25/month more just to have access to surveys. That would be great if I sent out surveys on a regular basis maybe 4 times a month or more, but if I only send out maybe 2 surveys a year that is $150 each! And even to pay $50 for an individual survey that is ridiculous! I will definitely be looking for an alternative elswhere. 

(and while I am on the subject of surveys... why is it that I have the option to Bold, italicize, underline, link, choose fonts etc in this email but not in a Survey where it would be far more useful??!

[AngelaM7685]

I just had the exact same expereince. 

[KeeleyT]

I am absolutely furious, just spent a hour developing this survey only to find out after taking the time to complete it, that I have to pay an extra premium - absolutely foul play.... money grabbing company.... It should be made clear in the first instance that this is a paid for service, instead you let us create the **bleep** document and right at the end when we have spen1t ages perfecting it - you slap a charge!!! Disgraceful

[SarainaH]

I just wasted a bunch of time creating a birthday invitation and now I can't send it - I already pay too much every month

[MickiW2]

I just spent over an hour creating a coupon & when I hit the 'Activate' button, I got a pop-up that says this feature is not included in my subscription. Why do I even have access to features that are not part of my subscription?! I am UNIMPRESSED!

[BrianT84]

I was qute pleased to try the Event Promotion interface, but was a buit put off, when after an hour of editing my Event Promotion, I was informed that the fee to make it live was $50 on top of my monthly subscription fee.  :smileysad:

[HCOEcommunications]

It is incredibly annoying that if one has an account that (unbeknownst to them) requires an upgrade to actually publish a survey, one is not told that until AFTER ONE SPENDS TIME CREATING THE SURVEY.

Be up-front with your surcharges. We are not all experts in your pricing structures.

[RobynM03]

Are you kidding me that I just spent an hour creating an event just to be told that I need to pay extra to make it live?  Not happy!!!!

[sues71]

You could mention that there is a fee when you begin creating one, rather than at the end

[JessicaD814]

It would be helpful to clearly state the cost of creating and launching an event, before creating one.

[AimeP9]

Agree - I just went through the whole process of creating an event campaign only to find out I have to pay per campaign but cannot find basic info on what the cost would be - I have a small list at present.

[GBW]

I'll add my displeasure with this bait n switch

[JulieC155]

I wished the system would have stopped me from creating my event and THEN telling me I had to UPGRADE to utilize the feature. What a waste of my time

[AuthorPOG]

I have less than 2K contacts, I pay almost 450 a month, but I can't make a survey without upgrading? **bleep** you. I'll be a mailerlite customer by the end of March and you can go out of business.

[JuliaH903]

Seems like every customer should be able to send the following emails without paying extra.

Birthday email

Anniversary email

Autoresponder

[CarolinaT33]

Hello, I was trying to set up a survey through your service and after I had created it and tested it I was informed when I hit the "publish" button that my account wasn't allowed to do that and I need to upgrade. So I and your future users don't waste time creating surveys they then can't publish, please prompt users with the "upgrade" screen when they first click survey and NOT after they go through all of the hoops to make a survey only to deny them at the last step.

[SueW450]

Please inform the customer that if they are designing or working on/with something that is not included in my package, that they may incur and extra cost. Or, do not have the access to design and build something in my portion of the app. A customer doesn't always remember what features were included in their purchase package. Seems like a simple notification would help with customer satisfaction.

[AndrewK645]

Why, Constant Contact, wait until I have finished spending time to create a survey to my members before telling me that sending it will require me to double the cost of my contract?

[JohnD774]

I attended the Webinar today "Practical Uses for Email Automation". I thought we might be able to use some of the features discussed and demonstrated. However, I found out toward the end of the webinar (and only because I asked the question -- it was never mentioned that I heard) that the features demonstrated are only available for Email Plus users. I think this should have been clearly spelled out ahead of time. I checked and it was not mentioned in any of the promotions I saw about the webinar. So, I ended up spending my time attending, took notes, tried to learn the methods, etc. only to find out that there's an extra cost to use those features. We are a small non-profit and can't afford to double our costs for Constant Contact. I feel this was misleading. Just as bad, in my opinion, is that when I went to try the features, I found out they were available to setup, and that you only get a message that you need to pay to use the feature once you've been all the way through setting up an email automation and hit the "Activate" button. Both of these practices feel like a "bait and switch" sales tactic to me. I think Constant Contact should be better than that! You should have provided full disclosure up-front in the webinar and in the UI that Email Plus is required to use the features.

[bluebird944]

I am very annoyed that I spent two hours creating a survey only to discover I need to buy an extra plan. There was no indication when I started building the survey so I was under the impression it was included in my plan. Super annoyed. Not to mention the survey interface works like crap. I set defaults that were not applied and text changes were not applied/saved.

[PatriciaW6]

Yesterday I created some email automation emails to send. I'd say I worked a couple of hours- I'm slow- When I though I was read to activate the email- It notified me that I need to upgrade my account. Needless to say I wasn't expecting that request. I was very disturbed and was ready to cancel my account- This is not a ethical business practice, your business practice reinforced what I already knew about caring for your customer.. Only do unto them what you would have them do to you. Shame on you constant contact.

[DarrylS87]

I did know when I created a survey that I need to upgrade my membership. I was VERY frustrating to create the entire survey and add emails and then realized at the very end I needed to upgrade. Can you please add a notice at the beginning of the survey process for users letting them know they need to upgrade. I spent a good hour setting up the survey but did not realize until I went to publish the survey that I need to upgrade. Please place a notice in the beginning that we need to upgrade. This will avoid frustration for all. Thank you

[user4896238]

I am pretty **bleep** off that I have wasted time signing up for you free trial, setting up emails, and THEN discover that I must upgrade in order to automate??? Next.

[wendyhoag]

I spent an hour creating an automated email after seeing it on my options. Not until it was completely done and perfect did the message pop up that that service is not available on my plan and that it is an extra FEE. I'm so disappointed this was not communicated BEFORE I spent time creating that. I've never been unhappy with constant contact in all these years as a client, this one is poor form.

[SharonP619]

Please indicate a additional fee is required BEFORE we spend time filling in all the boxes. What a crock!

[JimBeach]

You should have indicated that this had to be paid for specially BEFORE the end of creating the event.

[DarrylS87]

PLEASE LET ME KNOW FROM THE BEGINNING THAT I NEED TO UPGRADE TO SEND MY SURVEY. I JUST SPENT THE LAST 30 MINUTES CREATING IT!

[DaveA325]

you need to let it be known before that there is an extra cost in using the survey offer. I did a lot of work to set this up and then told it would cost extra RIP OFF!!!!! not a happy customer and may not be renewing at the end of this month.

[Frankie_P]

Hi @DaveA325 we apologize for any inconvenience this lack of messaging may have caused. What step of the creation process would you like this message to appear? Would you expect it to offer a one-campaign purchase, or the option to completely upgrade your account to Email Plus?

[MarysaD]

I have the the function to create a survey. I have never use it but decided to today. I spent HOURS creating it to get the questions and test correct - and I went to push the yellow PUBLISH button and it is telling me I have to upgrade. What a JOKE. If I don't have this service on my account - it shouldn;t be showing as an option. I have lost hours of my precious time. I'm very disappointed and angry at this time.

[MaryS395]

Why don't you say at the beginning of creating a survey, that you must upgrade in order to use this feature. Instead I spent time creating it only to get to the publishing phase to learn that I have to upgrade. Our small non-profit would ot do more than one or two surveys a year, so the upgrade does not make financial sense

[Friends.of.Ballona.Wetlands]

We are a small non-profit trying to figure out how we can safely restart volunteer programs during a global pandemic. I spent a few hours creating an Event, only to find out that I needed to upgrade our account in order to use this function. It is absolutely dishonest and predatory to wait until the very last second, clicking the "Make Event Live" button after hours have been wasted, to let a paying customer know that they can't use this part of your service. Do better.

[Glade_Run-1854.]

We pay for our membership, and surveys are an option on our screen. Disappointed to find AFTER I'd done the survey that I'd have to may extra over and above our fee monthly to publish it.

[JeanneS727]

Apparently I would have to upgrade in order to do a survey. But I had to really dig to even find this out. I am not pleased that you're not upfront about this, and that you wasted my time. When you click on survey, it should let you know that it's an additional cost for your plan.

[DianeC035]

after spending 2 hours putting a survey together....at the publish point you choose to tell us it is not available without an upgrade ....really?

[JuneW7]

After being prompted to create an event I thought I'd have a go. I spent quite some time creating the relevant pages and eventually got got to the 'go live' point. Here I was told I need to upgrade!!

I gather this is a marketing tool to allow email users to try out the event feature (which then can't be used unless you upgrade).

PLEASE make this clear upfront before your customers spend the time on this. I've been a loyal and happy customer for years and have always liked your values. I feel tricked and cross because of time wasted unnecessarily.

[ThomT5]

I thought I would create a poll for some employees. When done, I hit publish only to find out that I have to upgrade to use this. WHY THE HECK WOULD YOU LET ME GET THAT FAR???? What a waste of my time.

[SarahP433]

You should let people know before they spend a lot of time setting up a survey that they will need to upgrade their level of service in order to use it!!

[HelenO222]

If you need a plus account for Events - please indicate that before someone makes an event - not right when they push Make Event Live. I created a whole event and then was told I need to upgrade.

[user431529]

I have a similar complaint.  I was recommended to try Constant Contact specifically because of the Events feature.  I thoroughly researched the website (i.e. spent hours trying to find the correct information) and even found a plan comparison that shows events are available for both plans: email and email plus (see screenshot - ticks in columns for both plans for event management), so decided to just give the free month's trial a test run.  Like many of you, I was successfully able to complete all details for a test event but unfortunately got this same "pop-up box to upgrade" in order to publish my event.  Very unhappy - especially considering the time spent to determine if this is what would eventuate and finding specific information to indicate that it would not! 

Additionally, it does not appear that a user in Australia can connect to WePay for credit card payments, as I had a lot of issues with their system not recognising an Australian address or post code.

  

[PeterA045]

Well - that was a waste of time. I just figured out all the steps to create and event flyer - and the last step is when you say I have to upgrade to send it. That is a horrible way to treat your customers. Why not put in something that says - you need to upgrade to send this event at the start...

[DanielV17]

How often do organizations poll their mailing lists?! I want to add ONE poll to ONE email and it would require an upgrade of our plan from $19 to $43 per month? That's bananas...

[NatalieS681]

I was charged $195 without being told.  Therefore it should be removed.

There are many mailing programs out there

[Daniel_Nahmod]

Constant Contact has been collecting my monthly fee for over 15 years. Instead of getting better, getting fairer, getting more generous, getting clearer, I find that not a year goes by without an erosion in support, reliability, or value. Today, i'm unable to make an event go Live because of an error message "You must upgrade to send this email". Never mind that I'm not trying to send an email. Never mind that it's probably the 30th event I've created through Constant Contact. Never mind that you're now gouging me and my customers for registration fees. I look forward to taking my business to one of your many competitors and never attempting to make Constant Contact make sense again. I'll gladly leave your catastrophically greedy, self-absorbed, inconsistent, demoralizing and non-customer-focused business philosophy to millions of other suckers. Thanks for wasting my time dealing with so many bugs, price increases, feature losses, changed and degraded menus and options, and now the prospect of migrating 15 years of email list development to a company that knows how to treat a customer AND handle its tech. I'd say that management ought to be ashamed, but clearly that's not something Constant Contact is capable of feeling.

[Frankie_P]

Hi @Daniel_Nahmod thanks for sharing this feedback with us! We apologize for any confusion caused from needing to upgrade your account to Email Plus to successfully activate and share an Event Campaign. We have merged your post into a similar thread focused on needing an account upgrade warning before creating an Event Campaign.

[JackieG920]

Learning that our subscription doesn't support events AFTER I spent nearly 2 hours working on the event content feels crummy. You don't respect my time nor my nonprofit's budget. Crappy, crappy experience. You should WARN people about this before they do the work. Bad feeling. Grrr.

[Hot4lax_Lacrosse]

Just wasted forty minutes on this only to find that I need to upgrade and pay more to utilize this event I created. Very **bleep** off!