The Conference Coach™

Carolyn Bradfield

A while ago, I shared my “mystery shopping” experience in the conferencing industry.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, a mystery shopper is someone who uses a service, shops in a store or eats at a restaurant and gives feedback for improvement to the owners.

InterCall was the focus of my mystery shopping adventure when my husband (who has a different last name than mine) attempted to set up a new InterCall account which took weeks and a lot of steps to get simple reservationless conferencing service.  After the blog, I think InterCall figured out who my husband was and never delivered the account information or an invoice in the mail.

Had they done that, he would have incurred a $25 invoice fee to get a mailed invoice and a conference minimum fee that would have kicked off when he dialed in to see if his number worked.  That would have cost $15.  There would have also been a number of other fees and charges and in reality he could have been hit with around $40 in fees and taxes without even conducting one conference call.

We didn’t confine our mystery shopping to InterCall.   We also tested Premiere Global (PGi) and had a similarly negative experience.  My husband signed up for an account online and purchased a “Ready Conference Plus 100 Pack” for 1 year.  What is a Ready Conference Plus 100 Pack, you ask?  This bundled price includes 100 minutes a month for $10.95 and you get charged whether you use them or not.  Do the math and you’ll realize this service is selling for $.11 a minute for a no-reservation, automated conference call.

We got an invoice this time,  opened it, only to be socked with a $20.90 bill without ever dialing in to try the service.  Like InterCall, there was an invoice fee to mail the bill, but unlike them there was this fixed monthly charge.  There was no customer service number on the invoice and after a lot of searching the web site, we found a “sales number” and were eventually transferred to customer service.

After a 10 minute hold time, we spoke with a customer service person who informed us that this was the service that was signed up for on the website and we were obligated to keep it even though it didn’t suit our purpose.  After 5 minutes of attempting to make our point and getting nowhere, we asked to close the account.  The agent refused unless we faxed in a request along with a good enough reason to shut it down.  (How about – you’re overcharging me and I didn’t use it!)  After reasoning with the agent, he agreed to accept an email request to close the account.  He never offered an optional service, a better rate, or seemed to care if we used Premiere or not.

Months ago, Copper Conferencing introduced the “Conferencing Bill of Right.s”  If you use Premiere or InterCall – the two big guys, you should take this seriously.  Unlike the “Goliaths” of the industry, Copper Conferencing will never do the following:
•    Charge you to receive an invoice in the mail so you can pay your bill.
•    Hide our customer service or billing inquiries number so you can’t find us.
•    Not help you find the service that matches your needs.
•    Charge minimums or miscellaneous fees not required by the federal government
•    Implement crazy pricing packages to disguise high rates

There are a lot of things, however, that we will do:
•    Constantly look for ways for you to manage cost
•    Make ourselves available if you want to talk to us
•    Give you on-line access to your invoices and accounts so you can control your access to information
•    Find new ways to connect to us or use our services that make it easier and more efficient for you to conference.

Some conferencing companies have joined the likes of industries like the airline industry that are holding the line on revenue by charging fees instead of finding customers that want to use those services.  Remember baggage fees, exit row fees, food fees and other surcharges?  Look at your Premiere and InterCall bill and maybe you’ll see some similarities.

Copper Conferencing is not one of the big guys, but we’re definitely one of the good guys!

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a leading provider or audio and web conferencing and wrap-around services to enhance customer experience. You can try Copper’s great web and audio conferencing services — FREE.  Just sign up now.