There
are times when an out of date website can be a total frustration.
I
recently was looking into getting a new anti-virus program for our
business so basically our own notebooks. I didn’t think it would
be such a challenge until after we decided which package to purchase.
I went onto the company website and selected the product which was
easy enough and then entered our credit card information in and then
this is where the problems started. After entering everything and
getting all the necessary check marks I clicked on the purchase
button. This should have been the final step in the process but it
was the beginning of the frustration that I then had to deal with.
The website informed me that they couldn’t validate my address so I
checked everything and tried again and again, only to have this same
message pop up. So there was this message that said if you are having
problems please contact support. Yes it said support for someone
that is trying to make a purchase.
Now
here is where most of frustration happened because it wasn’t going
to be as easy as making one phone call. I called support and waited
on hold until I was connected to a support person which wasn’t too
long only a minute or two. After explaining the problem that was
having I was having I was informed that I should have called customer
service and not support like the screen told me to do. I was then
put on hold for 2 – 3 minutes while the support person looked up
the phone number for me to call. Yes, I had to hang up and dial a
different number because this person couldn’t transfer to customer
service.
Ok,
I called customer service and figured that would be great and simple
and they would be able to resolve the issue. That wait was once
again another 2 – 3 minutes until a customer service representative
was able to take my call. I once again explained the issue that I
was having about not being able to purchase the product I wanted
online. The rep asked me again which product I was trying to purchase
and I told her again. Now this is the line I get from her “Oh, you
should be talking to sales and not customer service if you want to
purchase that product, you called the wrong person.” Yes, I was
given customer service by support only to be told that I had the
wrong department again. Maybe this is when I should have just hung up
and ran away but I did. At least customer service was able to
transfer me to sales.
I
finally got in contact with a sales person and once again explained
the situation. The first response I got was well you are probably
trying to purchase something from the American site and not the
Canadian site. I did explain that I had selected the Canadian site
and the price did have a C before the dollar sign so that should mean
Canadian dollars. The sales person then asked me what product I was
trying to purchase and I told him for the second time. The response I
got made me extremely mad when I heard, “Oh, that product is no
longer available but if you go to our website you can purchase the
new product that we have.” He provided me with the website and
instead of purchasing a product with 5 licenses I would now have to
purchase individual licenses and each license would cost me $40 or
almost $180 instead of the old product being $79.99 Canadian for 5
licenses. He did offer me a 20% discount if I made the purchase but
you can imagine that I quickly said I needed to talk to my business
partner before making that purchase.
Yes,
so an out of date website meant over half an hour of my time getting
frustrated only to discover that I now need to look at what I want in
the anti-virus software and figure out where I will be purchasing it.
If you are going to discontinue a product make sure that the first
place that it is removed is from the website. If a person can easily
find it on a current webpage you should still be selling it. Also
instead of telling me that my address was invalid I should have
received a message that “This product is no longer available.”
An out of date website can really impact a consumers impression of a
business and my impression of this business is not good right now.
Now
I must go and figure out our new anti-virus program as that is the
next project on my list of things to do.
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