I am here to report an unpleasant experience I have just had with the extremely effective online service from Citrix, GoToMeeting, which allows anyone on a PC to easily share a PC screen with anyone else on the Internet.
Rather I have fallen prey of one those marketing and sales strategies that I despise and criticize the most.
Citrix GoToMeeting, is one of those services, that while offering an online free trial requires you to submit your credit card number in the hope of having an easier way of upgrading you to a real customer once the try-out expires, while trying to keep at bay all of those free-wheelers that come around just to test, with no intention to ever buy the product.
But things evidently don't work always as we expect to.
Well, I am sorry to say this, but this strategy, not only is very disputable, but it may actually produce the opposite results than what expected.
Here is my personal story:
In the express effort of testing out GoToMeeting with my team at Kolabora.com, I had created a free try-out account at GoToMeeting, and had provided personal information about myself and my credit card number.
click the above image to enlarge it
As my trial-period expired, I received a notification about my entering into a paid zone area if I wanted to continue using my GoToMeeting account. The email offered also a link to refuse or cancel the GoToMeeting subscription.
I headed for it in a split second and set all options to "No, I don't want to continue with this trial", and saved my new settings.
Shortly thereafter I received an email notification confirming my service cancellation and wishing me the best for the remaining 30 days of paid service that I had still left available for me.
Excuse me?
Who did ever request this charge and 30-day paid subscription?
This is the worst breach into the trust and confidence a user can put into a company and needs to be clearly pointed out as something to steer clear from.
Citrix can choose to continue to implement this "smart" marketing solution, but only to its own detriment. The experience I have just had only paints the profile of a company who wants only to take advantage of its potential customers.
Unfortunately Citrix is not alone in this space, and other web conferencing companies sadly require the posting of a credit card number to provide access to their "free" service.
What all of these companies keep missing is the fact that try-outs are a phenomenal marketing vehicle and, if well orchestrated, a great opportunity to truly provide a free service while creating some loyal future customers.
If you can't be as smart as Groove, Skype, Convoq or InstaColl in understanding that the road to wide market adoption is through a free entry, then you may as well say it upfront: You are just after our money and not after providing us with a good service.
Not so?
Let the market say it.
(And if you know of other web conferencing, online collaboration and live presentation companies that employ the same nasty approach to get you to become their customers, please place their name and URL in the Comments area here below.)
***Update***
As I was taking the screenshots for this short article I have simulated the process for signing up for a new account just like I had done when I originally signed up. But this time I didn't provide my personal data and credit card info.
After one minute or two passed by without any interaction of that screen, GoToMeeting gently popped up for me a new window offering a free trial with no credit card. Adding insult to injury?
****Further update****
GoToMeeting has been trying to contact me in all kinds of ways to understand better what went on and how they could further improve the user experience on this front.
While I haven't been able yet to talk to them, I have just received an email notification from them informing me of a full reimbursement for the unrequested credit card charge I had previously received.
This is good news. The company is listening and is promptly reacting to my complaint. I am happy to see Citrix looking into this issue a bit deeper.
It is also this week news that the new issue of PC Magazine (dated March 25th 2005) contains an interesting section about instant online meetings. PC Magazine awards Citrix GoToMeeting with a well deserved Editor's Choice. GoToMeeting is compared against Glance, eBLVD, Linktivity WebDemo, Convoq ASAP Pro, Blive and Netviewer.
