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So, this is the service I decided to try out. It lets you listen to a lot of popular music on streaming audio; you can use pre-set "radio stations" or pre-set playlists, or you can select songs you like and create your own playlists. You can hit fast forward in any of these, including the "radio stations", which is a nice feature. For 99 cents a track, you can burn legal copies of the music (some of the music; some of it you can only listen to, and some they don't have, depending on what they were able to license; each is clearly labelled).
Unfortunately, we've pretty well gotten to the end of the positive statements there. I had horrible technical troubles with their system. When I tried to sign up for my 7-day free trial of the full thing, instead it signed me up on a limited thing that only allowed me to hear 30 seconds of any track, and when I tried to add the other service to my free trial, it said my credit card had already been used for a free trial and I couldn't sign up again.
Considering the only time I'd used it was about 5 minutes previous when I'd tried to sign up for the same thing, I was seeing red. And that's when their customer support fell on their face for the first time: instead of fixing it, they signed me up for a month of normal service and billed my credit card without asking first (I would have said no). They did specify that I could cancel within the first week, so I didn't complain then. I should have.
Basically, the whole signup foretold the rest of the experience. Technically very glitch-prone, service-wise not really on the ball.
On the technical side, I also experienced problems burning CDs. It turns out that you need Windows Media Player 9 in order to burn CD's, but their FAQ about what you needed didn't list that. I don't use Windows Media Player on that machine, so I hadn't updated it. If it had been listed in the FAQ (specifically titled as telling you what you needed to burn a CD), I would have made sure to upgrade it first.
As it is, my first CD burn failed midway through the first track, and the company failed to respond to my request for technical assistance on that before my week was up (despite the fact that the problem occurred on my first day using the system and the complaint was also filed then).
So I sent in that I wanted it cancelled and my money refunded, as promised, and that I also wanted my money back for the bad CD burn. Now, to be fair, this one was handled better...sort of. I sent it in on a Thursday, and got the response the following Wednesday. The response was that I would get all my money back and I could still use the service, for free, to the end of the month that the original Customer Disservice representative had signed me up for, and included the information about WMP that should have been in the FAQ all along.
Of course, if I hadn't gotten a response by Friday, I was planning to send a complaint off to my credit card, contesting the charges, and to the Better Business Bureau and anyone else I could, since they had basically stolen about $25 from me by their incompetence. As they returned it, I didn't, but you can see where I was a bit put out by then.
Ah, but they'd made good on it. Since they'd told me what the problem was, I decided to try another CD - just two tracks, since I didn't trust them - after upgrading that dumb program. And it worked. Aha. So, now I think I have a service I can use. And the streaming audio part never had any problems and is very cool, so this is happy.
I burn a 15-track CD, and it fails midway through. Yes, despite having upgraded all the software they told me to. I complained, and got a refund for the tracks that didn't burn, but that's the last CD I tried. They said there was some problem they were working on that might cause that, but I saw no sign that it was fixed by the end of my month, and there's no way I'm paying for that service.
Technical problems can be a bitch. They don't get fixed just because you wish they would; I work as a programmer, so I know that. However, a service that was primarily of value to me because it would let me get the music I wanted in the order I wanted, for about the same price-per-track as a commercial CD, or slightly better, is not of much value at all if I can't burn the CD.
Here are some things that would have made me judge Listen.com more kindly, had they been present:
1. Up-to-date and accurate FAQs. The last problem I encountered apparently is still being sought. But the Windows Media Player version issue was a known issue that was handed to me right in the request. At the time I received that email, that information was still not in the FAQ about what you needed. (I neither know, nor care if it is now. That's their problem.)
2. Customer-oriented service. I'm sorry, but the first person I dealt with there charged my credit card without asking my permission. That is not okay; the fact that the company employs someone who would charge a CC number that I gave in good faith that it wouldn't be charged unless I authorized it, is a bad sign. I don't know if it's illegal, but I suspect it is, and if it isn't it should be. That person needs retraining or fired.
3. Faster customer service. When you've got a "free week trial" policy, letting someone's complaints sit for a week before you get to them is not acceptable. In fact, it's not acceptable even if you don't. If they're paying $10 for a month, that's $2.50 out of their pocket just waiting on you to get things done. I was beginning to doubt if they would ever respond to me, or if they even cared.
4. A customer support system that lets you view your complaints. Once you fill out the complaint form, they email you a copy of what you said, with the tracking number. That's good, but it's rather stupid on the whole - you can't use the tracking number to go view it whenever. It would be nice to be able to see it in context.
5. A customer support system that actually tells you what it's doing. After you file your complaint, you can use the email you are sent to append information to the report. However, if you do so, you receive nothing back telling you that it was received and appended. It just vanishes into nothing. (The exception is if the report you're responding to has been closed, in which case you receive a message that a new one has been opened, with the new number.)
6. Customer support reps/system with brains and the ability to mark issues not to be closed for a certain amount of time. Remember when I complained and was told that I could cancel within a week to get my money back? I responded back to the original complaint for that - and it opened a new one. The original had been closed, even though it was waiting for a reply that by definition could be as much as a week in coming. It made me feel that they had dismissed the issue, and considering they'd already charged my credit card, that just made me see red even more.
I used the streaming audio - which is quite high-quality - to the end of the month. But there's no way on Earth or any other planet that I am going to pay for their service. I have no reason to expect anything but technical snafus (in everything from signup to CD burning) and incompetent and uncaring customer service. If customers mattered to them, they would be more responsive to complaints.
Net recommendation: don't bother.
Unfortunately, we've pretty well gotten to the end of the positive statements there. I had horrible technical troubles with their system. When I tried to sign up for my 7-day free trial of the full thing, instead it signed me up on a limited thing that only allowed me to hear 30 seconds of any track, and when I tried to add the other service to my free trial, it said my credit card had already been used for a free trial and I couldn't sign up again.
Considering the only time I'd used it was about 5 minutes previous when I'd tried to sign up for the same thing, I was seeing red. And that's when their customer support fell on their face for the first time: instead of fixing it, they signed me up for a month of normal service and billed my credit card without asking first (I would have said no). They did specify that I could cancel within the first week, so I didn't complain then. I should have.
Basically, the whole signup foretold the rest of the experience. Technically very glitch-prone, service-wise not really on the ball.
On the technical side, I also experienced problems burning CDs. It turns out that you need Windows Media Player 9 in order to burn CD's, but their FAQ about what you needed didn't list that. I don't use Windows Media Player on that machine, so I hadn't updated it. If it had been listed in the FAQ (specifically titled as telling you what you needed to burn a CD), I would have made sure to upgrade it first.
As it is, my first CD burn failed midway through the first track, and the company failed to respond to my request for technical assistance on that before my week was up (despite the fact that the problem occurred on my first day using the system and the complaint was also filed then).
So I sent in that I wanted it cancelled and my money refunded, as promised, and that I also wanted my money back for the bad CD burn. Now, to be fair, this one was handled better...sort of. I sent it in on a Thursday, and got the response the following Wednesday. The response was that I would get all my money back and I could still use the service, for free, to the end of the month that the original Customer Disservice representative had signed me up for, and included the information about WMP that should have been in the FAQ all along.
Of course, if I hadn't gotten a response by Friday, I was planning to send a complaint off to my credit card, contesting the charges, and to the Better Business Bureau and anyone else I could, since they had basically stolen about $25 from me by their incompetence. As they returned it, I didn't, but you can see where I was a bit put out by then.
Ah, but they'd made good on it. Since they'd told me what the problem was, I decided to try another CD - just two tracks, since I didn't trust them - after upgrading that dumb program. And it worked. Aha. So, now I think I have a service I can use. And the streaming audio part never had any problems and is very cool, so this is happy.
I burn a 15-track CD, and it fails midway through. Yes, despite having upgraded all the software they told me to. I complained, and got a refund for the tracks that didn't burn, but that's the last CD I tried. They said there was some problem they were working on that might cause that, but I saw no sign that it was fixed by the end of my month, and there's no way I'm paying for that service.
Technical problems can be a bitch. They don't get fixed just because you wish they would; I work as a programmer, so I know that. However, a service that was primarily of value to me because it would let me get the music I wanted in the order I wanted, for about the same price-per-track as a commercial CD, or slightly better, is not of much value at all if I can't burn the CD.
Here are some things that would have made me judge Listen.com more kindly, had they been present:
1. Up-to-date and accurate FAQs. The last problem I encountered apparently is still being sought. But the Windows Media Player version issue was a known issue that was handed to me right in the request. At the time I received that email, that information was still not in the FAQ about what you needed. (I neither know, nor care if it is now. That's their problem.)
2. Customer-oriented service. I'm sorry, but the first person I dealt with there charged my credit card without asking my permission. That is not okay; the fact that the company employs someone who would charge a CC number that I gave in good faith that it wouldn't be charged unless I authorized it, is a bad sign. I don't know if it's illegal, but I suspect it is, and if it isn't it should be. That person needs retraining or fired.
3. Faster customer service. When you've got a "free week trial" policy, letting someone's complaints sit for a week before you get to them is not acceptable. In fact, it's not acceptable even if you don't. If they're paying $10 for a month, that's $2.50 out of their pocket just waiting on you to get things done. I was beginning to doubt if they would ever respond to me, or if they even cared.
4. A customer support system that lets you view your complaints. Once you fill out the complaint form, they email you a copy of what you said, with the tracking number. That's good, but it's rather stupid on the whole - you can't use the tracking number to go view it whenever. It would be nice to be able to see it in context.
5. A customer support system that actually tells you what it's doing. After you file your complaint, you can use the email you are sent to append information to the report. However, if you do so, you receive nothing back telling you that it was received and appended. It just vanishes into nothing. (The exception is if the report you're responding to has been closed, in which case you receive a message that a new one has been opened, with the new number.)
6. Customer support reps/system with brains and the ability to mark issues not to be closed for a certain amount of time. Remember when I complained and was told that I could cancel within a week to get my money back? I responded back to the original complaint for that - and it opened a new one. The original had been closed, even though it was waiting for a reply that by definition could be as much as a week in coming. It made me feel that they had dismissed the issue, and considering they'd already charged my credit card, that just made me see red even more.
I used the streaming audio - which is quite high-quality - to the end of the month. But there's no way on Earth or any other planet that I am going to pay for their service. I have no reason to expect anything but technical snafus (in everything from signup to CD burning) and incompetent and uncaring customer service. If customers mattered to them, they would be more responsive to complaints.
Net recommendation: don't bother.
no subject
The movie industry launched a site called MovieLink.com, which lets you download ("rent") movies. Unfortunately, new movies cost $5 to "rent," and you can only view them for 24 hours. No thanks.
no subject
Of course, I will happily do without because their current sales methods suck bigtime. Most CDs have more tracks I don't like than do, which means it becomes very expensive to get the songs I want. The Listen.com model is reasonable in both action and price. Alas, the tech and customer support are not remotely up to par. :( It could have been very good. But it's not.
So, I'm back to radio, what I already own, and free music (filk groups, etc.), which is not such a bad selection, really. What's stupid is, if they'd done it right, this service could have been a good way to get lots more money out of me, and others like me.
no subject
A newsletter in my email about the features at the site and a sale that makes track-burning only 49 cents per to the end of the month.
Apparently, unsubscribing and submitting an angry "request" telling them how bad their system is doesn't merit removal from the newsletter I signed up for when I added the account. Then again, it didn't merit a response to the request complaining about the service, either, so big shock.
no subject
Jenn just read me the riot act for not saying hello and telling her that I'm now on LJ, especially after I added her as a friend. *eeps!* So, consider this your warning--uh, I mean, hello note--and notification that you are now on my "friends" list. :-)
Later!
Becky
no subject