Gear Diary Adventures in Customer Service FAIL ... Jott Edition photo

A few months ago I canceled my subscription to Jott. Between Reqall’s powerful voice-to-text memory system and Dragon Dictation I found that I wasn’t using it all that much. After a time however, I found that I missed being able to Jott new appointments to my Google Calendar and new tasks to Toodledo so I signed back up. This time I opted for the plan that lets you record just 15 seconds. It is much cheaper and would work fine since I only planned to use Jott for quick tasks and appointments only. But there was a problem… Jott stopped working on my iPhone as soon as I updated to iOS 4.0.

I inquired as to what was going on and a few days later Jott sent out this email…

Gear Diary Adventures in Customer Service FAIL ... Jott Edition photo

That was almost a month ago and it is still not working. While others, such a CoPilot Live, have updated their apps within days, Jott continues to not work on the iPhone. So I emailed their customer service the following…

Weeks later and the Jott for iPhone app still does not work. I would appreciate a refund on my annual account or an extension of the service by a day for each day the service remains broken on an iPhone running iOS 4.0. This is crazy and others have already updated their apps long ago.

Thank you.

It was a simple request… either refund me my annual subscription or tack on one extra day to my contract for each day the app has not worked. After all, I subscribed to Jott again in order to use their iPhone app.

To their credit they replied quickly. But that is as far as the credit goes since this is the message I got back…

Hi Daniel Cohen,

Update: iOS 4 compatible Jott for iPhone app available soon!

We’ve submitted a new version of the Jott for iPhone app to Apple that is iOS 4 compatible. We’ll send out another update as soon as it goes live on the App Store. Thank you all for your patience while we worked on this, we’ll be in touch again soon!

Until the new app is available, remember that you can use:
–jott.com/mobile (to view your Jotts on your mobile phone)
–866-JOTT-123 (to call in to send Jotts with your voice from anywhere)

Regards
Julien

Translation:

1. We’ll fix it and will let you know when that finally happens. (Remember it has been almost a month!)

2. Until the iPhone app works just call into Jott. (But that’s NOT why I subscribed! Moreover that is the same answer they gave A MONTH AGO!)

3. They didn’t even bother to acknowledge my request. Seriously, customer service reps… at a minimum would you please at least acknowledge the actual question or request being made???

I feel like making this call to Jott…

Jott- “Who would you like to Jott?”

Me- “Jott to Jott… please cancel my subscription and give me a prorated refund for the year.”

And I will … if the iPhone app ever starts working again!

Tags:



Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him.
  • http://twitter.com/gadgetfreaks/status/18136371020 Gadget Freaks

    Adventures in Customer Service FAIL ? Jott Edition #gadgets http://bit.ly/a7fl3z

  • http://twitter.com/giantgizmonews/status/18136905703 Giant Gizmo

    Adventures in Customer Service FAIL … Jott Edition http://bit.ly/aOVl2M

  • markntravis

    You sure give up easy.

  • Travis Ehrlich

    I think there is a little bit of hyperbole being used here. Just a little overstating to make a point is my guess. Not sure it is giving up easy if your hard earned money is involved. How many chances should a company get before it is not deemed giving up?

  • Dan Cohen

    Exactly Coach… Just a little emphASIS at the end. The main point… CS… Address the actual issue raised. Oh, and Jott, fix your app.

  • markntravis

    In the article it appears that Dan just quits/gives up rather easily.
    I would have gotten on the phone and demanded my money back and/or disputed the charge to my CC.

  • Travis Ehrlich

    More than one way to skin a cat. Actually, I’m sure we don’t know everything Dan did to resolve.

  • markntravis

    Other than pointing out that Jott=FAIL, if he solved the problem other Jott/iOS4 users might benefit from knowing the solution.

  • AlaninMontreal

    Just today, I emailed Jott customer service about this issue and received an apology along with a promise that my subscription would be extended for one additional month.

    Then, just a few moments ago, I received an email from Jott that a new version, compatible with iOS4, was now available for download on iTunes.

    I recommend complaining to them again and requesting the extension to your subscription.



My Roku 3 Remote Saves the Day!

Gadgets have become packed with more and more features, many of which we end up forgetting about or just never [...]

Google Announces Game Center Clone ‘Google Play Game Services’

Google Games Center

At Google I/O last week we got to see a number of new things, including the music service we already [...]

Dale Carnegie Training Offers Eight Smartphone Apps for Free!

“Industrialist” Dale Carnegie started a training course to help people learn to success in a capitalist system, and he did [...]

Toast Real Wood Cover for iPad mini Review Redux

I reviewed Toast’s wood back for the iPad mini back in March. (Read the review.) It went on easily and [...]

Summer Handheld Console Video Game Guide

Handheld game systems are great on long summer car trips or on the beach, so grab a quality arsenal before [...]

LifeProof frē and Arm Band for iPhone 5 Review

When I began doing Couch to 5K again (something I need to do yet again tomorrow because I let too [...]