bad client support! VENT THREAD

Ok, so i have had some ups and down with NATS (TooMuchMedia.com),
but all the bad parts aside, i had a member of staff there who was very helpful if i ever had any problems.

Since starting with NATS, the only way i was able to send card payments was with Paypal. Paypal are a BIG issue with me, and im currently fighting them over fraud charges.

So, Kim, the member of staff who was always great with me, used to send me "payment requests" from paypal, which simply involve filling in your card details and clicking "send" as such, and off the payment went, invoice done.

SO!!!!!!

Over a week ago i get this months invoice.
I straight away sent an email back requesting, AS USUAL, a paypal payment request to get it paid.

I waited 3 days, NO REPLY, and NO REQUEST.

So i sent an email requesting it again.
I waited a few more days, untill today, with no response.

So, a few minutes ago i called up TooMuchMedia, and spoke to a guy called Boris. He spoke to me like i was a piece of DIRT, which wasnt a great start.

He then later told me Kim had LEFT the company so my emails were not being read.. GREAT SUPPORT GUYS, i wonder how many more people are left in the lurch?

BUT HERE IS THE SHOCKING BIT!

Boris, one of their support guys, told me he doesnt have access to the company paypal account, and anyone who does is not QUOTE: "TECHNICAL ENOUGH" to send a payment request to me! He suggested i found a "new" way to pay their invoices.

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Right now im REALLY annoyed. I would love to hear from anyone else who is experiencing similar issues with Too Much Media.

And what would REALLY be great, is a post from John Albright, or another high up member of staff at the company in this thead.

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Some Companies really dont apreciate the business they get!

Boris is a little on the abrupt side, but he's a good guy. I don't think he means to be rude, I just think it's a cultural thing. Next to Fabian, he probably knows more about NATS than anyone else there.

He's probably essentially "telling it like it is" from his perspective, meaning whoever handles Paypal is probably an accountant type who doesn't know Paypal well enough to figure out how to send an invoice. I'd ICQ John and explain the situation, and I'm sure they will find a way to work with you on it.

BTW, I assume people have been reading the thread on GWW from "Nathan, formerly of TMM/NATS" and his new software. I was of the impression that Nathan is Fabian, who is the person who wrote just about all of NATS. Has anyone else confirmed that Fabian is, as the GFY thread says, no longer with TMM/NATS?

i hate it when companies let their employees go and don't forward their email to someone else in the same department!!! anyone with cpanel or directadmin can do this in like 5 seconds. why can't sponsors, programs,traffic brokers, etc, do this simple, logical thing?

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Originally Posted by basschick

i hate it when companies let their employees go and don't forward their email to someone else in the same department!!! anyone with cpanel or directadmin can do this in like 5 seconds. why can't sponsors, programs,traffic brokers, etc, do this simple, logical thing?

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In the case of NATS, our experience is they've never been very organized and, my comment above notwithstanding, they do seem pretty arrogant as far as their approach to customer service. Very, very rarely if ever have AJ or I ever gotten an "I'm sorry" or "We really value your business" or "what can we do to make you happy" response from them. I honestly think that there probably isn't much of anyone at TMM that "gets it" from a customer service perspective.

When another company comes along with an amazing product, aggressive pricing, and fantastic service, they will either belatedly figure it out or they'll no longer be around. Right now, their only real competition is Mansion, so I guess they feel like they can afford to be arrogant.

BTW, I just looked the other day and Executive Stats is now leasing their product, which is apparently new, it used to be purchase only. But I think the price has gone up; the only lease they offer is $800/month which includes a (required) dedicated server at National Net. Or you can purchase for 20 grand.

If Exec Stats gets serious about marketing and competing pricewise with NATS and MPA3, they might actually be able to give TMM a run for their money.

I have had excellent support from everyone with Nats that I have dealt with. They usually handle requests in a professional and timely manner. I would talk to John about the problems you have had.

Mark

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Originally Posted by IntenseCash.com

I have had excellent support from everyone with Nats that I have dealt with. They usually handle requests in a professional and timely manner. I would talk to John about the problems you have had.

Mark

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Sorry man but you run a multi million dollar site everyone in the world knows about I would hope they could muster up some good support for you. I would be shocked many of theses services don’t have some one on the payroll just to kiss your ass, from day to day :)

My guess is this year or next year will be the end of NATS as a must have independent service anyway, consolidation is the name of the game in these times. :morning:

To be fair, I've never heard of TMM (NATS) ever being totally unresponsive to anyone. For a while, they were a little slow, and they used to have almost no support on weekends or evenings, but that's improving too.

It's not that their support is bad, it's just that you never get the sense they *appreciate* your business, and I've heard that from programs 10 times our size. I've never gotten the sense they take better care of bigger programs over smaller ones, just that, in general, they are a bunch of tech geeks with a good product and reasonable support, but no sense of what it takes to make customers feel good about spending $150-700/month with them.

Well i cant speak for other countries, or the USA, but here in the UK telephone support for anything, from cell phones, to banks, you are always treated and spoken to with the up most respect and spoken to in a polite manor.

Maybe i am to used to be treated like a fellow human on the telephone, and need to except that a lot of companies in other parts of the world are quite happy to be rude to clients and customers.

it's not like that here at all.

in the last year, i've needed more customer service across the board than i ever needed in the past and only 2 companies were satisfactory to deal with in mainstream. in fact, i have been well treated by only 2 mainstream company in the last year - whole foods and trader joes - and they stood out. my host is very responsive, too - but other than that, i've been spoken to rudely, ignored, put on hold for over 10 minutes at a time, had my emails not responded to at all and responses that took up to a month or my problem was simply not resolved by probably over 25 companies.

google, btw, was the worst. they never solved my issue at all and it appears i may have to take legal action :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by samebb

Well i cant speak for other countries, or the USA, but here in the UK telephone support for anything, from cell phones, to banks, you are always treated and spoken to with the up most respect and spoken to in a polite manor.

Maybe i am to used to be treated like a fellow human on the telephone, and need to except that a lot of companies in other parts of the world are quite happy to be rude to clients and customers.

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=====Update====

I have spoken to Mr Albright on ICQ just a few minutes ago. He was very apologetic for his employees phone manor, explained the whole situation to me, and managed to get my problem sorted in under 5 minutes.

Im very happy with the response from Mr Albright, so thumbs up to NATS again from me. He also informed me they are planning to employ a new member of staff to deal with clients directly, and also Kim's replacement is starting on monday.

Thanks TooMuchMedia for helping me out.

Since we are venting about TooMuchMedia - please guys get a merchant account and start doing rebills on a credit card, this paypal shit sucks having to do a manual payment every month.

cheers,
Luke

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chilihost

Since we are venting about TooMuchMedia - please guys get a merchant account and start doing rebills on a credit card, this paypal shit sucks having to do a manual payment every month.

cheers,
Luke

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TOTALLY agreed with that!

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Originally Posted by gaybucks_chip

BTW, I assume people have been reading the thread on GWW from "Nathan, formerly of TMM/NATS" and his new software. I was of the impression that Nathan is Fabian, who is the person who wrote just about all of NATS. Has anyone else confirmed that Fabian is, as the GFY thread says, no longer with TMM/NATS?

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Chip,

Fabian is Nathan. Never understood the two names, myself. Nontheless, Fabian is definitely not at NATS anymore.

I hear what you're saying about the appreciative factor. Although, to be fair, Tech Geeks very rarely have people skills. So its pretty par for the course. If I ever have a personel issue with their staff, I go straight to John. Though I don't usually mind people being curt or short as long as its informative.

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Originally Posted by djdez

Chip,

Fabian is Nathan. Never understood the two names, myself. Nontheless, Fabian is definitely not at NATS anymore.

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Yikes, that's more than a little scary, as from everything I know, Fabian is the brain and brilliance behind NATS, and was always represented as the primary, if not the only, coder for NATS. He is still listed on TMM's site as one of the owners. Very surprising that John hasn't made any sort of announcement.

And yes, the best geek types are rarely people with the best people skills, which is why I put up with it as well. Just wish we could have both :)