Why MediaPiston Should Automate Less and Care More

I was emailed a while back about a cool sounding service from Joe Heitzeberg. I looked him up and saw that he had done some good stuff in the past. His Twitter profile says "MediaPiston chief, mentor for TechStars & 500 Startups, new father". So, it seemed legit.

UPDATE: Some of this is simply me venting about a bad experience I had with MediaPiston, so take it with a grain of salt. There is also information based on feedback from Joe Heitzeberg, so don't miss that below.

Here are the comments I left on oDesk when ending my miserable contract with them.

Keep in mind. I gave them many chances to make it right with me. I felt completely ignored. If your name is Joe, or you have a company, please use this as an anti pattern for customer service.

They have a way to go before I'll consider using them again. I did a few jobs with them, and the work was ok, but I didn't get anything that would have been useful without more work on my end.

The thing that really pissed me off is that I did an ebook job with them.

It took forever to even get a draft. There were about 5 writers who were assigned and then stopped.

Once I got a draft, there was a date I was shown as a deadline for my review period. WELL BEFORE the review period was over, they marked it as accepted and TOOK THE PAYMENT.

They give two revisions and say you WILL NEVER PAY FOR WORK YOU DON"T WANT, but when I asked about that after they took my payment, they said I needed to ask the author for revisions. WTF, that's the process they are supposed to be handling.

Total lame experience with this service. I'm sure they have their challenges they are trying to overcome, but you'd think they'd overcome that by a great customer service experience. Nope!

All along, I get spam emails from the owner asking me how it's going, and to submit more orders, etc. But, when I email him with feedback or questions, they are ignored.

They may improve at some point tech wise. I get it's complicated, but they have complete control over the customer service they provide.

Here is an overview of the emails between me and good 'ole AUTO JOE, and their useless customer service:

There's a point where automating your customer engagement just makes your company look stupid. I'm addressing a serious issue with them that, apparently, it's now my problem, not theirs. Meanwhile, the founder is sending me smiley face emails about more orders and referals . . . ignoring the issues I am raising in my responses.

Joe Heitzeberg is not listed on the 500 Startups Mentors Page anymore. I probably should not comment on why that might be. UPDATE: He said he is taking a break from mentoring right now to focus on MediaPiston, which is requiring all his attention at the moment.

Joe, this part really makes me laugh:

"Thank you for placing multiple orders and for being one of our best new customers!"

If this was true, I should have had a better experience, don't you think?


UPDATE:

Joe Heitzeberg contacted me about this.  He was very candid in his response.  He admits that they have been focusing mostly on the technology that runs MediaPiston, and not enough on customer service.  Obviously, making any decision about where to deploy your resources has consequences.  If he had chosen to focus on customer service, this post might be about how the tech needs a lotof work.  My opinion is that you can never go wrong when you focus on making customers happy.  It's a lot easier to understand that features simply haven't been implemented than to deal with slipping though the cracks in customer service.

This is good to know:

We have additional support staff being brought in now and redoubling efforts to improving the product in those specific cases where customers run into trouble (vs. just throwing people at it)

I wish them the best. I hope I have helped in some way.