On March 9th I tried to purchase a “lifetime” license for StrongSync ($150), the new tool for Google Drive which works on M1 Macs (and which allegedly will work with Dropbox “soon”).
Upon completion of the sale, the receipt page showed that I had only been charged for a one-year license ($50), even though I was sure that I had selected the “lifetime” license.
I contacted support and reported this issue to them.
They asked me to place a second order for the “lifetime” license, and then they would refund the first.
I went through the exact same steps again and had the exact same result.
Now I had two incorrect licenses and two incorrect charges for $50/each (or so I thought).
I reported this as well.
Then the developer got in touch (via what I assume is an automated system that asked how my experience with “ExpanDrive” was going). I replied to him telling him about the problem. He replied with words to the effect of “Our system isn’t generating receipts properly, but you did get a lifetime license (twice). I’ll send you a new receipt and refund the incorrect charge.”
To be clear: Instead of $100 worth of charges, I had $300 worth of charges on my debit card because a) their system was broken and b) they told me to go through the process a second time.
Someone from the support staff replied and said the same thing: they would issue a refund and would get me an updated receipt.
I explained that this was a business expense and that getting it resolved was a high priority for me.
Two weeks have passed and I have heard nothing more.
I have sent several requests for updates. No response whatsoever.
In the meantime, I had to write a letter explaining this whole fiasco to the church treasurer (the whole reason that I wanted this in the first place was to use Google Drive, which the church is starting to use and Google doesn’t yet support M1 Macs for Google drive). It’s entirely possible now that the refund, assuming it comes, will be on a different billing cycle than the original charges, which is going to make more work for the treasurer to track this down and make sure that it is resolved.
Anyone can make a mistake. Obviously, the incorrect receipt problem was a mistake. I can accept that.
That mistake was compounded by a support person who told me to repeat the process. Had they just tried to fix the order immediately or even just checked their system to see that the order had gone through for $150 instead of $50, all of this could have been avoided.
Anyone can make a mistake. But when you make a mistake that involves someone else’s money, you fix that mistake as quickly as possible, and you respond to their follow-up emails as quickly as possible.
What you don’t do is turn into a black hole where follow-up emails are ignored.
Let the buyer beware.
