Taunton Press Customer Service Complaint
Has anyone else found that this takeover of the administrative/billing side of Green Building Advisor, Fine Homebuilding, etc. has been a mess?
I just cancelled my paying membership to Fine Homebuilding after sitting on hold for 20 minutes, and then getting some twit reading from a script who knew virtually nothing.
I have worked through the pain of new passwords for this membership (several times, because they aren’t capable of programming their web pages to drop off after I’ve completed the required PITA steps). We’ll see what next year brings.
The poor telephone support, online billing portal, and lack of technical skills confirms that I certainly would never use Taunton if it was my company.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
Yeah, I've been asked to update my password multiple times. All along they use my real name not my screen name that I entered on the Profile page, and heard complaints about that one from others too. Also I dropped my FHB subscription but they decide to keep billing me anyway. They must be the same people who run Hotel California. ;-)
So I wasn't the only one who had to reset my password every month or so.....
A few thoughts on customer service in general.
TLDR: I don’t know about your specific complaint, but I sympathize with you and have concerns about what the decline of customer service portends for other areas of business.
Good customer service does appear to be increasingly rare. When I encounter knowledgeable, competent, and empowered customer service people, I try to make sure that I compliment them for it. Regarding “empowered”, it’s often the case that service employees are not permitted to do the right, logical thing, even if they know what needs to be done. That is on the employers.
Be thankful you only had to wait 20 minutes. Long wait times are common, so much so that now you are offered the choice of having them call you back when they find time, and not at your convenience. Of course, being on hold with crummy music and repeated announcements and advertisements isn’t convenient either.
Cost-cutters have outsourced customer service to call centers with the lowest cost, often in countries with low labor costs, which means they have accents that are different than mine and can be hard to understand (and vice versa, of course). And they often have no experience with the product that you’re inquiring about. This is not a recipe for success, and in many cases the real costs are higher, but most companies have poorly chosen metrics, while up-front labor costs easy to tabulate.
More broadly, outsourcing seems to save money up front, and is easy to justify with a simple number, but the costs of safety, quality, delivery, environmental impact, customer loyalty, etc are harder to incorporate into cost estimates, so they aren’t.
Another factor in customer service (and almost every other aspect of business) is the fact that employee turnover is WAY higher than it used to be. People used to get a job with a company and stay with the company for a long time, only changing companies a few times in a career. Now people seem to change jobs like underwear. One of the main results of this is that employees have no depth of knowledge of their companies’ products, processes, capabilities, etc. This goes double for the low-cost person they stuck in customer service to man the phonelines. Aside: my company used to have a customer that would routinely ignore anyone that hadn’t been with our company for at least ten years, because they thought that it would be impossible for short timers to be experts or to have a thorough grasp of the product/industry. You could argue with the number ten, but it’s a valid rule of thumb.
Yes I’ve had to reset my password MANY times since the change. 3 times alone just to post this comment. Glad I’m not the only one…
Same here, many password resets.
Hi all,
I know how infuriating that kind of experience is; I'm sure we've all had it, at some point. And it is a shame to lose readers over it. While I don't work on that side of the business, I can and will share this feedback with the team that does, so they hear it from readers. I wish I could do more. I am available to field questions directly, if you want, at [email protected].
Thanks Kiley.
It's not just the multiple password requests (even if you clear your browser history). It's the policies and employees at Taunton as well. They literally have no idea what they're doing. And some dim wit in marketing is making foolish decisions, passing them off to bottom-of-the-barrel programmers, and then pissing off loyal customers. And if you HAVE to call in, they're only available Monday-Friday for relatively minimal hours. But nights and weekends might be the time I get a chance to read articles on these sites, and all of a sudden I don't have access for several days to a site I've paid for membership. It's terrible, one of the worst I've ever seen frankly.
Kiley et al,
I think perhaps there is a major misunderstanding being created by the still wonky sign in page. When the sign in page first appeared with the "pardon our construction" type of notice I thought I needed to create a new password to make a comment.
Then, paranoid that I am, I suspected a phishing page and delayed clicking the new password link until I contacted someone at Taunton to inquire about the odd page. I was assured it was legit.
So, I went ahead and clicked the new password link and altered my password. Came back to post.
I was puzzled by the same page appearing with the same request, but I ignored it and just signed in with the new password I created. I was able to post and have been able to post at least a dozen times since with the same password.
The sign in page has remained with the same, with the same request to create a new password for several months. Maybe the other posters here are seeing something different or perhaps they are putting themselves into a loop by being dutiful and creating a new password each time the screen appears. It is not clear if that is the case, as they have been able to post now.
Just the same I find it odd that such a sketchy looking page would remain up for so long.
Maybe Kiley, you could have a friend on an outside computer show you what appears when clicking on the log in button just to ensure the inside and outside of network views are matching.
I don't think it's just the warning message, I've been unable to log in without creating a new password. I've even had to create a new account.
onslow,
Same with me. I get the prompt every time I come to the site, but just ignore it and use my existing password without a problem.
My latest theory is that they merged accounts on GBA and Fine Homebuilding, and whereas those sites previously had separate passwords, they're now expecting the same one. This leads to a confusion that if you change your password on one, the other claims it's wrong. If you use different passwords per site (as you should), it's a never ending thing because you keep changing your password in response to this condition.
I've had this same frustration, and posted about it.
The other infuriating thing is that I can't really tell what my current FHB subscription is. I know I get the magazine in the mail, but I'm not sure the status of my online subscription. Ideally, I'd just like the "FHB All Access", but I'm not sure how to upgrade my print subscription and separate online subscription into that.
Add to that the fact that GBA membership is separate. There should be one bundle for all these things. I'd gladly pay for it, there's just no way to do so.
When you have customers saying "Please, take my money!" and there is no easy way to do it--you have an existential problem.
Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes. And don't accidentally let your credit card "expire" when renewal is due ...
Like I said, bottom-of-the-barrel tech. and marketing people now managing what are (were?) great sites hosted by experts in their field. There's no way to sugar coat it.
I've found that it depends on where I clicked from whether the login asks me to change my password or not. It's very frustrating.
This thread belongs in a dumpster.
Every time I use GBA on my phone it asks me if I want to download the app.
Just ... no.
I am wondering what is happening to GBA given the sale of Taunton Press. I never get GBA articles in my email inbox. I have to log on to the website and seek them out. All I get is promotions for other publications or workshops that Taunton is offering. Trying to get customer support through Taunton is impossible as their website seems to be dysfunctional. Is GBA going to find another partner? Or disappear? I hope not - its a valuable resource! For now I am unsubscribing. This makes me sad as one of the "founding members" of EBN back in the day.