Podbean Customer Service

[QuadShot]

Wow...I truly cannot believe this. Recently, my Premium subscription to my podbean account expired and I had no intention of paying another year at $90, especially when the subscription level I had was no longer offering the same services (no grandfathering in, no hey, you've been with us for awhile now, etc.). In fact, I got a little less. So, I was all set to let the subscription lapse back into the free account...then Joyce (wife) asked me about the $90 charge to our PayPal account from Podbean! See, they went ahead and submitted the charge without my permission. Now, I know what you're thinking...you set it to auto-renew..nope.  Neither in podbean nor PayPal. Podbean just used the information I had in their system. So, I tried contacting podbean, but they wouldn't reply to my email. So, I contacted PayPal and disputed the charge. What does podbean do? They locked down my account so I can't get in and do anything...I've sent them no less than 5 emails over the last 2 weeks and they refuse to reply. I have had so many issued with podbean's customer service. From pretty much day one. They typically take several days to a week to reply to site issues, and usually by then the issue has been resolved and their answer is "we don't see what the problem is...your site is just perfect". BAH! So, I just want to warn you all about podbean. I know a lot of you out there use it for your podcasts and have no issue. That's cool. But beware should you have any issues! I for one am moving ALL of our podcasts to our DreamHost account (building the sites with iWeb). DreamHost is awesome. They typically reply to emails within the day! Great customer support as well. So, sorry if I've offended any faithful podbeaners here, but I just felt I needed to vent. And by the way: PayPal has had the same difficulties in getting podbean to reply. In fact, PayPal told me by the end of the business day today, they'd be replacing the money into my account because Podbean wouldn't cooperate and reply~!~  Ok, that's my  :2cents

[billybob476]

Sucks when stuff like that happens. I'm usually a very patient person, but when I feel like I'm being jerked around or taken advantage of I can go off.

Just a word of warning about iWeb, in his last keynote address Mr. Jobs put the writing on the wall: With MobileMe rolling over into iCloud, iWeb will be going away. Your sites won't stop working or anything, but the tools you're using to manage them will either:

a) go away completely

or b) no longer be maintained

Here's an article: http://www.ibtimes.com/blog/apple-byte/iweb-mobileme-gone-website_115.htm

You've got a year (June 2012) before that happens. Don't want to scare anyone!

[QuadShot]

Wow. That sucks. I like iWeb, very easy to use, and publishing my podcast is like...almost idiot proof through GarageBand and iWeb. Bummer. So I'll need to find another WYSIWYG web builder. Poop.

[Rico]

www.radvisions.com 

I hear they do awesome work!  ;)

[QuadShot]

:)

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Yeah, I liked the idea of iWeb, but with Apple dropping support of it for whatever reason I've been staying away from it.  Which is a dang pity.

Note to self, do not publish any podcasts through Podbean, sounds like it is more trouble than it is worth.

King

[jedijeff]

The nice this with a lot of Webhosts, is they have install scripts for a lot of popular web applications, which can be installed with literally a few clicks of the mouse. I am sure on Dreamhost, you should find something that will suit your needs.

[Geekyfanboy]

I'm still a faithful Podbean customer. I have very little issues with them, but like Al said their customer service needs a little work. But I think for the money I pay a year it's well worth the ease of just uploading my file to podbean and everything is taken care of.

[QuadShot]

The nice this with a lot of Webhosts, is they have install scripts for a lot of popular web applications, which can be installed with literally a few clicks of the mouse. I am sure on Dreamhost, you should find something that will suit your needs.

Hi Jeff, yeah, they have a lot of web apps there I'm going to look into. I'm also looking at Rapidweaver and Sandvox, just got to try to rationalize the $70+ price tag on each. I mean, it's not like, a ton of money, but in the pursuit of a hobby (let's face it, since we don't get paid to do podcasts...they're a hobby), it's kind of difficult to justify yet another expense...Thanks for your help brother.

[QuadShot]

I'm still a faithful Podbean customer. I have very little issues with them, but like Al said their customer service needs a little work. But I think for the money I pay a year it's well worth the ease of just uploading my file to podbean and everything is taken care of.

And I'm very happy you have no issues, but man, try to dispute something or try to move something a wham. Different story. What irks me is the incredible storage limitations. I barely got one full season of our FastForward podcast up without having to shell even more money. And, their free sites are ok, unless your podcast is more than 30 mb. Then you have to pay to get an FTP. I just think that podbean is not for me. I like to have video podcasts for Tales too, can't do that with podbean. Unless of course I want to become a super-platinum-golden-calf-high-roller subscriber for $10,000 per year! :)

[Dangelus]

I'm glad I didn't go with podbean and I hosted my podcast within my Dreamhost hosting.

I've found Wordpress sites pretty straight forward to build and the are very flexible and great for podcast sites.

[Meds]

I've had one issue with podbean when the iPhone would not upload any podbean podcast. In the end I submitted a detailed email which was quickly accepted.
Like Kenny I have had no problems but i can't be doing with creating my own web page etc lol.
If though I have the problems Al has had then I would jump ship.

[Dangelus]

I've had one issue with podbean when the iPhone would not upload any podbean podcast. In the end I submitted a detailed email which was quickly accepted.
Like Kenny I have had no problems but i can't be doing with creating my own web page etc lol.
If though I have the problems Al has had then I would jump ship.

It's strange, I suppose like any company's customer service it depends "who was on" although it shouldn't. Either that or they 2 different policies, one for happy customers and 1 way to treat those that obviously want to leave.... Naughty.