CodeGuard, you muckup!
Companies that waste your time are a waste of consideration.
According to an old CBS News article from early 2005, $22 billion was the loss in productivity due to spam. Now that’s a figure from over ten years ago. One which you can only imagine as having reached astronomical numbers by today’s standards. Did I say standards? That’s a joke! We live in a society that says it’s okay for politicians and related wannabees to inundate you with unsolicited emails; thanks that is, to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 for not reigning in such practices. Now, I may be a slight bit off with my interpretation of the act itself, but there’s no mistaking the multitudes of unsolicited emails I’ve wasted my time on in the past years.
As if the above wasn’t enough, there are as well the all too many corporations, merchants and even hospitals that keep us busy following wrongful/mis-billing paper trails. All responsible for countless wasted hours spent correcting these organizations’ supposed mistakes. I say ‘supposed’ since I wouldn’t put it past some of them to be conveniently putting through bills and charges as if it they were the norm. Lord knows our world’s dealt with its share of fraud; at times on epic levels.
In past rants I’ve gone on about the likes of Adobe and Amazon and how their mistakes have cost me time. Well, enter CodeGuard into the picture. An online presence which provides a website backup service. I’d taken them up on their 14 day free trial offer, yet I hadn’t the time to invest in the proper evaluation of their services. Out of consideration I told them and they instructed me on how to cancel out my account before those two weeks were up; thus, avoiding any charges to my credit card. As some of you might know, often times a company will require a credit card on file for a trial run. Thus was the case with them.
I’d even received an email from someone on their crew stating the following:
“”My name is Doug with CodeGuard’s engineering team. I saw that you canceled your account because you were too busy to make the most of your free trial period and didn’t want to get charged when the trial was over.
I wanted to reach out to you to see if there was anything I could do to assist you. I’d be happy to provide you with an extended trial period if you would like to sign back up. If you aren’t ready just yet, I understand. Please let me know when you are ready, and I’ll be happy to set that up for you.
If you have any questions about our services before signing up, please let me know! We are absolutely here to assist you. We want you to get the most out of your CodeGuard account.””
So now, days later, I receive notice of a bill for the advance charges of one year of service. I check my online credit card account and sure enough, there it is!
Congratulations CodeGuard; welcome to my shit-list. Of course after having complained I received an apology and notice that the charge would be reversed. Yet who has time for this nonsense? Certainly not I. The funniest and I guess saddest irony is how a company which expects you trust them with as high a priority as backing up your site can screw up with the technical end of their billing service.
The following was their response:
“”There is a bug in our system where the billing account is not being canceled when the CodeGuard account is closed. Our director of engineering is currently investigating this issue as top priority.””
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m not the most important person in this world. I neither expect greetings begun with “Sir” nor do I expect folks bowing in my presence. What I do expect and desire is that my time not be wasted. These seconds and minutes add up and it’s companies like this and their screw-ups that’ve contributed to the mess this world is in. There’s only one person allowed to waste my time; and that is me. I do it efficiently and as I see fit. I make time for my own screwing around; just as I make time for productivity. CodeGuard, you are not allowed to waste my time!