Dear HCL:
Business 101: Let customers pay you.
Just tried to accept the quotes you sent and got this.
I get that we’re not your target market and that we purchase an insignificant amount of licenses but that being said…
If you want to have ANY hope at all that you’ll still have A Business once you actually implement your newfangled FlexNet-monthly-billing (a.k.a a Price Increase with dramatically reduced licensing options with the added bonus of decreased security) you should probably consider our experience…
We started getting notified about our renewals mid-July and finally committed to renewing early in September.
Between those times I had to clarify what was actually being renewed because the invoice language was conspicuously sparse and misleading coupled with the fact that there were no actual product descriptions to go with the HCL nomenclature. When you’re spending money with a new vendor, people want to make sure they are getting what they think they’re getting and that goes double when there are entirely new licensing terms.
Also during those times I was badgered by the sales people for weeks…sometimes daily. D. A. I. L. Y.
OH! You don’t accept credit cards for payments? Wait! What? The BUSINESS World runs on AMEX. At first we were told to issue an international wire transfer but, hey, we are not paying our bank money so we can pay you money. Then after some asking we finally got the answer that we could pay by check in the U.S. Fine, we’ll do that but…
Come! On! You want us to start paying you monthly/annually automatically and allow you to live monitor our license usage but you can’t figure out how take a credit card?
Along the way your system did not actually show what our entitlements are/what we already own…it took the sales person 3 days to tell me where I could actually download current patches and software…
For your sake, please, please fix The Boring Business Stuff so you can be successful with your new shiny toy.
Another satisfied customer, I see.
It really has been challenging. When all I did was develop and advise I never really concerned myself with the business cost side of things for Domino/Notes but the fact is if you make that part harder all that does is raise the real cost of the product and when you raise the cost people at least consider other options and when you consider other options you never retain 100%.
The last time I wrote a comment, the whole blogpost disappeared a day later. So I will just write that I hope that it will become better for customers over time.
Interesting to read that AMEX is THE Business Card. Being from Europe I always wandered who is using this card.
I once had a single user Express license for Notes, Domino, Sametime and, I think, IBM Workplace. IBM handled it quite well.
I hope that you get this resolved asap.
Not my problem to resolve. We’ll send an actual physical check.
The point is if you can’t accept payments from your customers when you’re embarking on a price increase after purchasing a business from someone else you are not going to be successful in the way you may think.
Domino/Notes is well on its way to becoming the next FileMaker Pro but I’d like it to be there and be well supported for the immediate future so I have a bit of a stake in this although not as much as when I was supporting/training people on using the products.
AMEX is THE business card in the U.S. for sure and we transact using it with our own suppliers and our customers in amounts in the five and six figures regularly. So…you want to do business in the U.S. with actual businesses? Accept credit card payments, hell, of any kind, but probably a good idea to accept AMEX.
When I go to EU I for sure get strange looks when I try to use my AMEX. That’s what Visa is for at that point!
Wandered, lol. Should read “wondered” but hey, it is too early for me (and Friday).
From my perspective it’s a total farce. Couldn’t even log in to their e-commerce portal. Raised a service desk ticket – no response for 2 months. Raised another one and now can get to that portal
Keep getting emails telling us that we have quotes outstanding – g to the portal and they’re not there. Email back the person that sends out the emails – if you’re lucky they’ll respond in about 5 days.
Completely rubbish organisation and to think they had 12 months to get their systems and processes set up.
Pretty certain that what few Notes customers we have left will pull the pin during the next 12 months if we can’t even arrange their licence renewals.
That sounds terrible. We engaged with a consulting firm here in Chicagoland and mentioned HCL bought Domino and the response was “…wow you don’t want be involved with those guys.”
I dunno’. The product has some legs and Volt looks interesting but, as I said before, FileMaker Pro. Still a product. Still used. Just not very much relatively.
Pretty sure Spring is our Next Stop.
2021 and HCL still can’t accept payment by credit card (any credit card) or even paypal. Makes me nuts. I mean, for real? Like, really? So yet again I’ll be sending a cheque and crossing my fingers that they don’t email me two months from now saying that once again they lost it, can I pay my bank 50 bucks for a stop payment on the cheque and send another one… Holy Moly.