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Business Profile

Digital Media

Zencastr, Inc.

This business is NOT BBB Accredited.

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Complaints

Customer Complaints Summary

  • 1 complaint in the last 3 years.
  • 0 complaints closed in the last 12 months.

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The 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.

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Complaint status

Complaint type

  • Initial Complaint

    Date:10/25/2023

    Type:Service or Repair Issues
    Status:
    Answered
    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.
    Zencastre sent an email on Oct 17 to ***** subscribers to download their existing podcasts. The date says until Nov 16; however, I can't download my last podcast (by the way it took my a long time to get this interview) to produce. Today is Oct 24. The chat takes hours to get a message or assistance. I would like to be able to produce this last episode in audio and download it. I want to be sure I have all of my podcasts (my creative work - not there) this week.

    Business Response

    Date: 10/25/2023

    Thank you for letting us know about this complaint. We understand the frustration that this customer is having, she has been a long-time free plan user since 2019. Please check below for more information about this issue. 


    Changes to Zencastr free plans
    The customer was right, on October 16, 2023, ****************** sent out emails to its Hobbyist (free) users about the changes to the free plans. This email stated that on November 16, 2023, the Hobbyist plan is transitioning to a hosting-only plan. This means as of the date, our users will no longer be able to record, create new rooms, or invite guests to a recording session while on the Hobbyist plan. This announcement is not related to what the customer is complaining about. 


    31-day storage limit for recording masters
    On March 18, 2023, previously published recording storage limits on free plans went into effect. This means Zencastrs Free Hobbyist plan (the plan this user is on) stores recording files for up to 31 days after a recording is done. When a Hobbyist plan user tries to access their recording files recorded over 31 days ago, they will be prompted to sign up for any of our paid plans. You may read more about our recording masters storage here - ****************************************************************************************************


    Users issue and complaint
    Yesterday, October 24, 2023, after getting the email Zencastr originally sent out last week about the changes to the free plans (losing access to our recording feature by November 16, 2023), the user logged in to her ****************** account to recover the recordings before she loses access to the recording feature. The files she was trying to recover were recorded on September 18, 2023, 36 days prior to her trying to access them. Because of the policy we had for the free plan users, which we announced on March 18, 2023, the user was unable to download the recording masters for recordings done within 31 days.


    To gain access to recordings older than 31 days, the customer needs to switch to any of our paid plans here: *********************************************;

    Hope this helps bring clarify the issue that this customer is complaining about. 

    Customer Answer

    Date: 10/25/2023

     
    Complaint: 20775768

    I am rejecting this response because:

    these are my files and I signed up for the account. They changed the terms of the agreement - they had better give me MY FILES. It took me a long time to get this interview. It doesn't cost them anything to make this right. GIVE ME MY FILES NOW.


    Sincerely,

    *************************

    Customer Answer

    Date: 10/26/2023

    No, I signed up for the free account in 2018. If they did a change, they hide it in the fine print. I went back and found out there is a free trial without a credit card so I upgraded - got my files anyway - and now I'm deleting and canceling the whole account. I have paid them for processing. It's mostly worked. The services for recording have many bugs. At this point, I got the files anyway. They should learn a business ****** here. To withhold my files on their service and then force me to pay them for it is fraud. 

     

    I didn't get the above email until 8 days too late. So they need to allow more grace ****** and much better customer service. They need to inform people if they are going to withhold files. 

     

    Thanks, 

Zencastr, Inc. is NOT a BBB Accredited Business.

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