Why customer service is important; a lesson that SpyFu desperately needs to learn.

What is it about some companies that make them think that they can post up an inferior product, charge a monthly subscription fee, and then sit back and offer no assistance? At what business school did they learn that letting their customers attempt to navigate through a maze of glitches and unfulfilled product expectations would lead to a successful company?

When we purchased a monthly subscription to the competitive research tool SpyFu, we expected to get access to a range of quality tools that allowed us to understand our competitors paid search campaigns. The website promised us an internet marketer’s dream, an easy way to download competitors’ keywords and AdWords data.

Unfortunately what we found instead was a hodgepodge of programming errors, halfway implemented features, and a complete lack of customer support.

We first emailed SpyFu when we were unable to download one of the essential keyword reports the company offers. At this point we weren’t too worried, even the best software has a few glitches, and we just assumed that they would respond in a timely manner.

As we proceeded to use the program, we continued to find glitches, bugs that prevented us from getting what we wanted, and also a poorly implemented reporting program that left us unable to download the information promised by the software.

Once again we tried to contact SpyFu, this time by phone as well as by email. Unfortunately, the phone number lead us right to a full mailbox and there was still no reply to either of the emails we had sent.

Finally, at a point of complete frustration, we decided to cancel our service and use the money back guarantee that SpyFu offers. After some difficulty getting the system to cancel the account, we were left with no way to request the refund except for another email!

Needless to say, we still have not heard back from SpyFu or its parent company Velocityscape.

We’ll keep you updated.

6/5/09 Update: We’re glad to see the President of SpyFu respond to our requests for help. We’ll keep you posted concerning the outcomes. Stay tuned.

6/8/09 Update: SpyFu President, Michael Roberts, has been incredibly helpful in addressing our concerns and making things right. We’ve received a full refund and a complimentary month of services. Stay tuned for an in-depth review of Spyfu in the coming months.