It is with a heavy heart that I write this. I have been a devout follower of Franklin Covey planning systems for well over a decade, but alas, we must go our separate ways. What could possible tear me away? Is it that lousy iPhone app that just wasn't up to snuff? Or a fabulous new planning system I just love? Sadly, no. It's neither. Franklin Covey isn't the company I fell in love with all those years ago, and I don't want to stay with the company they've become.
Last fall I ordered my usual supply of paper planners for the family for the upcoming new year. For some reason, FC shipped it in pieces, and only billed me for the first piece. Being a good person, I emailed them a few weeks later and offered to pay the balance. I got no reply, so a week later I called. I was told it was their fault for shipping late, and "not to worry about (the balance)". Classic good customer service, right? After the call, I finally got an email, which confirmed my balance was considered "paid in full". This was in December of 2009.
Last month I was searching in an old email account for a lost contact when I stumbled over an email from FC. Attached was an invoice for the balance I had tried to pay 6 months earlier. Now, it was sheer luck that I ever saw that email, as it was an old, obsolete address I never use. The email was obsolete, the attachment was hard to open, and the invoice numbers were internally assigned at FC, i.e., they didn't match an order number or anything I had on record. In fact, FC decided not too long ago to wipe out all customers' accounts and start their website from scratch. My 10+ year history of orders was gone. But somehow they managed to save an old email address and a "past due" balance. Interesting.
I emailed the finance department back and forth a number of times. The woman I spoke with (via email) never did explain the new invoice numbers or account number they attached to my "past due" bill. I did make her show me what they were supposedly for, so at least I could check if I'd every used the supposed products. I sent her my entire paper trail from my attempts to proactively pay the balance in the past, but she said that all of the customer service reps I spoke to, online and on the phone, were ALL new and incompetent. You know, I learned to keep paper trails like the one I had from FC. One would think they would be anything but incompetent. And just for the record, the finance woman had a poor English skills. Enough said.
I paid the bill. It was for $ 38.57. I'm an honest person, and I think that maybe, perhaps, this might have been the money I owed last fall.
However, if you tried to pay a bill, repeatedly, and you were told you didn't have to, and then had all traces of your account and history wiped out, and then received a bill in a suspicious manner with all the tracking numbers changed and no paper trail, would you pay it? Would you trust a company that told you their own people were often and consistently wrong?
This isn't the Franklin Covey of the past. I don't know who or what is in charge there now, but their company has gone down the toilet and fast. They should be ashamed of how this was handled. If nothing else, the way they handled this $38 bill cost them the hundreds of dollars a year I usually spend there, as well as all the good press I've given them, which I am formally rescinding with this post. When I find a suitable replacement source for my planning needs, I'll gladly share it with you all. In the meantime, please keep my tale in mind and do not patronize the new Franklin Covey.
