Ning's customer service department is in need of major change and transparency. They also need to make their fees clear to the potential member by clearly stating the fees and options of signing up for a Ning membership account. I recently upgraded to a Ning Plus account from a Ning Mini account because despite Ning recommending the Mini plan for educators, it is not enough. However, to my dismay, when I clicked on upgrade to see what the options were to upgrade and I clicked on Plus, advertised at $19.95/month. To my dismay and surprise, my bank account was charged immediately the amount of $199.95. I emailed in to cancel. They will not give me a refund stating that the price is clearly stated and she will downgrade my membership back to mini but I will not receive a refund of any monies taken from my account. Too bad I placed so much faith in Ning that I was pitching it as the next best thing for education and social networking. Ning is not teacher friendly. Teachers cannot afford to be tricked out of their money with false advertising and bad customer service. Shame on you Ning. I will turn to SocialGo, KickApps, or Wall.fm instead, and they are free! Ning was really good when they didn't charge a fee. With the increased fee and downgrade in service you would think at least they could provide good customer service....what a shame.
Here is a link to the refund policy she was sure to put in her email telling me that I was out of luck:
http://about.ning.com/refundpolicy.php
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After emailing back letting her know that I had already mentioned my experience in my blog and that I thought I deserved a refund....she sent me an email stating that the networks have been canceled and I will receive a refund of all monies owed. Too bad it took so long for whoever was making the decision to change their minds. A small bit of faith has been restored in Ning, and a huge amount goes to the power of blogging!
ReplyDeleteI received my refund from Ning. It is now back in my bank account and I am now a happy camper as far as getting my refund back on something that was cancelled because I was charged an amount I was not expecting to be charged. Ning needs to provide more transparency of price/plan/and what is going to be taken out of customer's bank accounts when they click to sign up for a Ning network, or when current members click on "upgrade" to a better membership. I was expecting to be charged $19.95 per month but was instead charged $199.95.
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