Yesterday, I received an email stating that “Your System Mechanic (SM) license will expire on April 08, 2015, and is set to automatically renew so you don't have any interruptions with your service.” That would be great except I don’t have that computer anymore, nor the software. I must have had a four-year license (the email stated that my original order date was in 2011), so I had totally forgotten about it.

The email provided a link to “change your auto-renew settings,” as well as a link to support@avangate.com, the company that sells/manages System Mechanic, which is a product from Iolo. I tried the link to change my settings, ending up on the following landing page.

The email I received didn’t have the order number, so I tried using my email address, rmarshak@customers.com. And, alas, I got this message: “The email address couldn't be found! You need to be an Avangate customer in order to use myAccount!”

So I tried my personal account. Same result.

Maybe I already have an account, I thought, so I clicked on that link.

So I entered my email and guessed at my four-year-old password (a bunch of times, and with both email addresses). No luck. So I clicked the forgot your password link, but I never got a reply!

Okay, now I’m frustrated, so I reply to the original email (which was from customer@avangate.com), and received an automated reply that said at the top: THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS MAILBOX IS NOT MONITORED SO YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE. (What a waste of the customer@ email address.)

The message went on to offer remedies to common problems, including mine:

2. [RENEWAL] Upcoming subscription renewal

You received an email notification stating that you have an upcoming renewal subscription payment for a Product / Service purchased from Avangate.

Recommendation is for you to access your Avangate MyAccount and manage your subscription renewal settings in the My Products tab:

https://secure.avangate.com/myaccount/

This, however, is the same link that wasn’t useful before. So I sent an email to support@avangate.com, but did not receive a response.

Desperate, I went to the Iolo website looking for a telephone number, but the only one available was for tech support. What the heck, let me try it, and maybe someone there can give me a number for account support.

Imagine my surprise and delight when Reymond, a tech support rep for Iolo, listened patiently to my problem, and then told me he could help me! Wow! That’s almost unheard of that tech support can help with customer relationship problems.

He went looking for my account, but had trouble finding it. But he was diligent, trying three different ways to find me. And, at last, he was successful. He cancelled the auto-renew and assured me that my account would be closed on April 8, the renewal date.

Reymond was polite, sympathetic, helpful, and thorough, sending me the following email confirmation:

Dear Ronni Marshak,

We successfully disabled the automatic renewal for your System Mechanic. This software will expire on 04/08/2015.

Best regards,

Reymond D.
iolo Customer Care
http://www.iolo.com/customercare

Avangate messed up. But Iolo understands providing customer service has to span departments. Bravo to Iolo and to Reymond!

The Experience of Unsubscribing

This week’s article is another customer experience adventure as I decided to purge my email of all unwanted messages. Along the way, I learned a lot about the different ways customers have your unsubscribe from their lists. Enjoy my journey.

Unsubscribe Me!
How Easily Do You Let Customers Go, and How Well Do You Entice Them to Come Back?
By Ronni T. Marshak, EVP and Senior Consultant, April 2, 2015

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