Important information
- Customer Complaint:BBB with the use of artificial intelligence, analyzed the complaints on 6/26/24
BBB shared the findings and recommendations with Constant Contact.
The findings appeared to show:
Difficulties obtaining refunds or exchanges
Billing discrepancies or unexpected charges
Service quality issues
Unsatisfactory customer service experiences
Constant Contact on 7/21/24 responded to BBB with:
Constant Contact has reviewed the findings, trends and recommendations and appreciates the learnings.
In addition to the above, the company would like to note the below responses that are consistent with our efforts to further enhance and improve the customer experience.
The Company sets forth its terms and conditions for the use of its SaaS platform services in its Terms of Service, which are publicly available on the Company’s website and in each customer’s account. Each customer must agree to the Terms of Service prior to using any Company services. In addition, the Company’s website includes additional disclosures with respect to its services and fees. The Company also provides extensive Knowledge Base resources on its website – a collection of articles, video tutorials and quickstart guides to help customers find answers to their questions. The documents and materials are reviewed regularly for potential changes and improvements. These measures are designed to ensure transparency and provide support in managing service expectations and billing questions. The Company will take into account the Findings and Trends as part of future updates to the Terms of Service, its website disclosures and information included in its knowledge base materials.
Prior to speaking with customers, our support agents must complete a rigorous multi-week training program designed to elevate the customer service experience, and the agent’s technical and communication skills. Agents must also pass a capstone exam and recertify their knowledge regularly. The Company will conduct a review of the training program, taking into account the Findings and Trends to determine whether changes should be made, especially concerning the handling of inquiries relating to billing and refund inquiries, customer satisfaction strategies and escalation procedures.
Over the last 12 months, the Company has taken several actions to improve the overall customer and product experience. The actions include, among many others:
Moving the Company’s Billing team under the Head of Customer Experience Operations to enhance the quality of services.
Hired a new Senior Manager to oversee the Billing Department and its operations.
In the past two months, the Company has hired an additional 18 new customer support agents in an effort to reduce call response and wait times for customers.
The Company continues to review its resourcing needs to ensure it maintains appropriate customer support and call wait times. As a result of these ongoing efforts, since the beginning of 2024, average Billing Department call times have been reduced significantly.
The Company has implemented an updated training curriculum to improve staff knowledge of the product and billing resolution best practices, and it regularly revamps existing curricula as needed to adapt to the ever-changing needs of our customers.
Thank you for these recommendations, and for the opportunity to express our commitment to delivering a
positive, impactful, and memorable experience for our customers. We believe that the recent actions we have taken, along with our ongoing efforts, will continue to result in improved strategies, an overall improvement in the customer experience, and a reduction in the number and severity of any complaints.
Complaints
This profile includes complaints for Constant Contact, Inc.'s headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see
Customer Complaints Summary
- 112 total complaints in the last 3 years.
- 58 complaints closed in the last 12 months.
If you've experienced an issue
Submit a ComplaintThe complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.
Initial Complaint
Date:03/11/2023
Type:Status:AnsweredMore info
Complaint statuses
- Resolved:
- The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
- Unresolved:
- The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
- Answered:
- The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
- Unanswered:
- The business failed to respond to the dispute.
- Unpursuable:
- BBB is unable to locate the business.
I've called this company to cancel my account and they make canceling so difficult. The lady on the phone was so rude and kept acting like she couldn't hear me and repeating the same info over and over. She was seeking to make me angry and just give **. In the end I don't think she canceled my account like I asked. They make canceling so difficult, you should be able to click a button on website and cancel just like you sign up. I'll never do business with them again. All these games and hurdles just to cancel.
Business Response
Date: 03/21/2023
Hello ********,
I am sorry you weren't happy with your interaction with one of our agents. I will be pulling the conversation for a possible coaching opportunity. The account was scheduled for cancelation during your interaction and will no longer be accessible on the 26th of this month. If you need to export your contacts, please do that prior to the 26th.
Best Regards,
*****
Initial Complaint
Date:02/17/2023
Type:Status:AnsweredMore info
Complaint statuses
- Resolved:
- The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
- Unresolved:
- The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
- Answered:
- The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
- Unanswered:
- The business failed to respond to the dispute.
- Unpursuable:
- BBB is unable to locate the business.
Constanct Contact has been over-billing my account since November 2022. I have emailed and called in with no resolution. They admit that I do not owe the monies but claim there is a non-refundable policy.Business Response
Date: 02/22/2023
Hello ****,
I am sorry you feel as though we owe you money. Your account is open and has never been canceled. We do have a no-refund policy however, you account is in arrears. We have recordings of every call coming into the office and I am not finding anything where we ever spoke with you regarding a refund. I apologize for the obvious confusion. Feel free to call into our support department at ************ and ask for billing to get further clarification.
Best,
*********
Customer Answer
Date: 02/22/2023
Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered.
I have emails to your billing department requesting a reduction in billing dated 12/15/22. Additionally, I made several attempts to use your SMS program despite their being no tech support for this program. I have never used it but have been paying for several months. There was no response to my December email indicating that I was still paying for an unused service with no support. ********** law states that you clearly display your no-refund policy so please provide evidence of that disclosure.
Businesses and Customers should be civil, courteous and polite in their responses to complaints. It is important to remain professional and productive when participating in the BBB complaint process.
FAQ
Regards,****
Business Response
Date: 02/28/2023
Hello ****,
I have been working with our Billing Manager this morning to understand what occurred within your account. In going over the details of your account, we can see that you removed ****** contacts from your account on December 14th, after the new billing cycle had begun which is why the amount did not drop the next month, the new cycle had already begin. Our Billing Manager was not able to locate an email from you or they would have made the adjustment since you did not mail to the higher level of contacts. You can also call into our billing team to have that done over the phone. Our Billing Manager has agreed to credit your account $250 for the 2 months where the bill could have been lower. Since your account in currently in arrears by $130.00, you will have a $120.00 credit balance on your account. You can access our payment structure at any time within your account.
You mentioned that we do not provide SMS support. We do provide SMS support and we are here to help you get started but you need to call into our support department at ************ to get that help. If you want to cancel the product, that can also be done by calling into the support department.
You also questioned our No Refund policy. It is clearly stated within our Terms and Conditions in sections 4.1 and section 8 that we do not provide refunds. You did check the box acknowledging receipt of the Terms and Conditions and agreed to them upon opening the account. The link to the Terms and Conditions is here: ***********************
I hope this resolution is satisfactory to you and finds you doing well. Best Regards,
*****
Initial Complaint
Date:01/12/2023
Type:Status:AnsweredMore info
Complaint statuses
- Resolved:
- The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
- Unresolved:
- The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
- Answered:
- The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
- Unanswered:
- The business failed to respond to the dispute.
- Unpursuable:
- BBB is unable to locate the business.
I am a constant contact customer for around 10 years. I use a variety of services on their platform. One of those services are emails for our business through the ****** Workspace platform they use. I have spent over 6 hours this week trying to contact chat support for this issue and every time I get a failed to initiate chat. When I call the support line they tell me I need to go to the chat platform. They promised to send me a support ticket for the problem earlier in the week, never received, they sent me an email from a fraud department saying the issue was resolved and it has not. Why the fraud department I do not now. This email serves my business, I am bringing on a new employee and we are waiting 5 days to get resolution and CC has billed for the the email and charged it to my account. This is negatively impacting my business and causing me to lose revenue. I am a small business.Business Response
Date: 01/17/2023
Hello *****,
I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience in getting the problem resolved. I reached out to the Website Builder/Google Workplace team and they assured me that the issue was resolved and that a member of our Tier 3 team reached out to you today with that resolution.
Best Regards,
*********
Initial Complaint
Date:09/22/2022
Type:Status:AnsweredMore info
Complaint statuses
- Resolved:
- The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
- Unresolved:
- The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
- Answered:
- The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
- Unanswered:
- The business failed to respond to the dispute.
- Unpursuable:
- BBB is unable to locate the business.
After about a month of more "back and forth" the person in the email detail below said they would credit the account and admitted to some of the charges being in error/not accurate. Account was never credited as promised. Constant Contact "quarantined" account after a week, never emailed any of the contacts charged $56 for a service never used and another $145 after they shut down my ability to use the account. Agreed they keep the initial $46 sign up fee which I did agree to and sent a few emails. The $56 was for a marketing advisor session never used I was seriously ill for weeks, the next $145 was never agreed to, charged after the account was inactivated or quarantined, included a second charge for a marketing advisor I never spoke with.Requesting $201 back.The refund below that was promised was never processed as stated.This notification is in regards to your complaint submitted on 7/12/2022 against Constant Contact, Inc.. Complaint # ********.The business has sent BBB a message regarding your complaint. The contents of this message are below or attached.Message from Business:Hello *****,I apologize for the late response. I have been able to attain a refund to your credit card of $96.97 for the Marketing *************** that you did not utilize. You were provided a prorated amount for the first month of $46.67 and the second month was $50.00 putting the refund at $96.67. When this account was created, you were able to take advantage of a promotion we had going on for the first month of service and the second month of service the price was going up the regular cost which was communicated to you during your phone conversation. I can not refund any portion of the email service being it was used more than once and the last campaign sent from the account went to **** of your contacts. The refund to your credit card was submitted on August 1, 2022. Please look for the credit to your card within 5 - 7 business days from Monday, August 1, 2022.Business Response
Date: 09/23/2022
Hello again,
In my first response regarding this matter, there is no admission of charges being in error or not accurate. I did indicate that we would provide two refunds, one for $50 and one for $46.67, however, upon submitting for the refunds there was a dispute already in place from your bank for the $46.67 portion of the refund. Once a dispute has been filed with the bank, the charge is worked out between your bank and our finance department. We did refund the $50 on August 3, 2022. You can contact your bank to discuss the details of the dispute determination for the $46.67. As indicated in my first response, we cannot refund any portion of the email service being it was used more than once and the last campaign sent from the account went to **** of your contacts.
Best,
*********
Initial Complaint
Date:09/13/2022
Type:Status:AnsweredMore info
Complaint statuses
- Resolved:
- The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
- Unresolved:
- The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
- Answered:
- The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
- Unanswered:
- The business failed to respond to the dispute.
- Unpursuable:
- BBB is unable to locate the business.
Inscriptions Books created an account with Constant Contact. It wasn't what we needed and we haven't used it to send emails in a couple of months. We deleted all our information and yet, Constant Contact keeps trying to pull money from our account. We blocked their payments from being successful, but they need to stop trying. They will not let the company cancel the account without paying off the balance, yet, we are being charged for a service we are not using. We only still belong because they keep charging. I want this account cancelled TODAY and all charges DROPPED. we will not pay for services we did not use. It went from $55 to $90 and today it jumped from $90 to $125. We do not owe this bill since we are not using the service and have 0 contacts in our account. We are charged per contact and at 0 contacts and 0 emails, a bill should not be forming. The account number is **********. I tried to cancel in HELP of their website, and I received no response. In the mean time, the bill keeps growing. They are scamming us and I want the owed balance removed and my account cancelled.Business Response
Date: 09/14/2022
Hello ******,
In order to cancel your account, you need to reach out to us to let us know. Simply removing her contacts and changing your name on the account does not let us know that your intention is to cancel. Your last payment to us was $35 on June 13th, yet you did mail out to **** contacts on June 16, **** contacts on July 20th, 611 contacts on June 22, **** contacts on June 27, **** contacts on July 11 and **** contacts on July 20th. A payment should have been made on June 13th but did not go through even though our services were still being utilized. There was a voicemail left at the contact number on the account on August 18th as well as an email sent. Responding the either of those would have assisted in canceling the account. The account is now canceled.
Best,
*********
Initial Complaint
Date:08/29/2022
Type:Status:AnsweredMore info
Complaint statuses
- Resolved:
- The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
- Unresolved:
- The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
- Answered:
- The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
- Unanswered:
- The business failed to respond to the dispute.
- Unpursuable:
- BBB is unable to locate the business.
I called to cancel the services with Constant Contact in January of 2020. I spoke to someone in their billing department who stated they would cancel my account. I stopped receiving billing invoices from them, until I received a billing invoice last week that prompted me to call Constant Contact. After holidng for 1 hour and 10 minutes, I was told that my account had only been disabled since August of 2020 due to a potential security concern/suspicious activity, but they continued to bill and charge my business partner's credit card without interruption because I never cancelled my services with them. When I asked if they had provided me with any services since having my account disabled (send out emails, post on social media, etc.) I was told NO, I had not benefited from any services. So they have billed my company for 2 years $70 per month without providing any services. I immediately demanded that they cancel my account and provide me with a refund. They did cancel my account immediately but only refunded my company 1 month. This company is a scam who takes advantage of small businesses.Business Response
Date: 09/13/2022
Hello ******,
Our Account Review team and Billing team is researching what occurred within your account. I do not have an answer for you yet as to what can be done but should by the end of the week. Thank you for your patience. We will be in touch by Friday, September 16th.
Regards,
*********
Initial Complaint
Date:08/19/2022
Type:Status:AnsweredMore info
Complaint statuses
- Resolved:
- The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
- Unresolved:
- The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
- Answered:
- The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
- Unanswered:
- The business failed to respond to the dispute.
- Unpursuable:
- BBB is unable to locate the business.
We hired them under the impression we would have leads/traffic to build our business and didn't get anything. We asked for a refund multiple times and they wouldn't give it to us. We refuse to give our business to uncooperative and unprofessional people. We need our money back and are tired of arguing with Constant Contact. One of their reps *************************** tried to help us but stated the manager denied the refund. We are very upset and need our money back. Thank you.Business Response
Date: 08/26/2022
*****,
We provided a website to your company based on the specifications that were provided to us. We offered the Search Engine Optimization (***) service that will help your site in ****** searches. We also offered to put all the content on the website. You were not interested in the *** service and said your staff would handle placing the content on the website. Both ******** and ********* signed off on the design and stated they were ready for us to move forward with the domain creation. We did everything that was asked of us. We are charging for the work that was provided and do not guarantee any type of results regarding the traffic going to your website. The website would need to be marketed in order for consumers to know it is available to visit. Because the work was completed, we will not be able to provide a refund.
Best Regards,
*****
Initial Complaint
Date:08/12/2022
Type:Status:AnsweredMore info
Complaint statuses
- Resolved:
- The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
- Unresolved:
- The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
- Answered:
- The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
- Unanswered:
- The business failed to respond to the dispute.
- Unpursuable:
- BBB is unable to locate the business.
I signed for the email marketing service . I was it was $9.99 a month and I could cancel anytime. I was suspicios from the start, that they could send out my emails ( ****** ) so cheap. The salesman asked how many contacts I had. I told ******. He said that's great it will cost you $9.99 a month and you could cancel anytime you wanted.I started this on June 23,2022. I sent out several ******** and had to eliminate over **** emails because the bounced. I trimmed my list and sent out campaigns. The open rate was terrible, I called them 3 times and complained about this. They told me that it sometimes take a few months. Fo $9.99 a month i could try a few months, however on 8-10-2022 I received the credit card bill for July and saw that I was charge $105.00. I immediately called them and asked why my bill was more? I also told that that the salesman told it was $9.99 a month just like when i started. They gave a song and dance about thi, and I immediately ended our agreement.Customer Answer
Date: 08/24/2022
I have not heard from the business in response to my complaint. I don't think that they want to resolve this. I have alerted my credit card company to stop payment on thisBusiness Response
Date: 08/24/2022
Hello ****,
I apologize for the late response. Since all calls into Constant Contact are recorded I was able to pull the 30 minute conversation you had with ****** after signing up for our services on June 22, 2022. When you expressed that you wanted to see how the service worked prior to committing to a larger monthly **** ****** asked you how many contact you had. You indicated maybe 4 or 5 thousand. So ****** suggested you do a trial run with only 500 of your contacts since the cost would only be $9.99 for those 500 contacts, which you agreed to. Both invoices are attached below. Five days later, on June 27th, you uploaded ****** contacts to your account. During the two months you used our service, your account sent a total of ****** emails. We are unable to refund your account - the $9.99 cost was agreed upon for a trial run of 500 contacts.
Best Regards,
*********
Customer Answer
Date: 08/28/2022
Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered.
[You must provide details of why you are not satisfied with this resolution. If you do not enter a reason for your rejection, your complaint will be closed as Answered.]
Businesses and Customers should be civil, courteous and polite in their responses to complaints. It is important to remain professional and productive when participating in the BBB complaint process.
FAQ
Regards,****
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