I recently signed by to pingdom.com to keep track of the uptime of my website.
The site offered a 30 day free trial to test out the service. However I was astounded to find that the actual set up process consumed the free checks on offer with the free trial and I was asked to upgrade and pay.
I wrote to the company as follows:
“Very unimpressed that my “free pings” were all used up in the set up.
You are thrashing your business and your reputation by doing this to
potential customers.
I will certainly not be subscribing.
Please cancel my membership.”
The company responded as follows:
“Thank you for getting back to us.
Are you referring to the message shown on the “Home” page in the control panel ” You have reached the maximum number of checks allowed on the Free account. To add more, please upgrade your account. “? That message is shown because we only allow one site or service to be checked/monitored with a free account.
Each check (one in your case), performs many tests/checks at an interval decided by you with the “Check resolution” setting. The maximum amount of tests is 1*60*24*7 = 10080 tests performed every week (that is when the check resolution is set to 1 minute).
If you still would like to cancel your account you can do so by logging in to our control panel and then click “Account subscriptions” in the left hand menu. On this page you have a “Cancel account” link to the right of your selected plan. This will cancel your account.
Please always feel free to contact us if you have any questions, and of course you’re always welcome back if you would like to start using Pingdom again in the future.”
Absolutely hopeless. I even have to waste more time doing my own cancellation.
Please make free offerings generous and worthwhile to build a positive customer client relationship right from the start.
