SmoothWall Change of Notice Period to 90 days - Be Aware!

[tom_newton]

Hi folks - just had this through from our CEO, Georg:

 

Thank you to everyone for your feedback over the past 24 hours. You’ve been clear and we have heard you!

 

With immediate effect, we will honour the 30-day notice period on renewals for all existing customers who signed contracts prior to May 23rd. Customers who sign contracts with us after this change have 90-day terms – which is consistent with other vendors – but if anyone has a strong concern about this at the time, please discuss with your account manager.

 

We do see instances where customers wait until the last minute to begin a renewal review, and continue to believe it’s a best practice to start early. We would never want a renewal to be a surprise or anything other than a constructive partnership discussion.

 

We are always listening. We have invested in ensuring every customer has a dedicated account manager and customer portal with their direct contact details. Your account manager will proactively reach out to every customer several times a year at a minimum, to check how things are going and to hear your feedback. It’s their aim to be there for any questions, concerns, help or advice.

 

Above all it’s our aim to be technology partner you trust and with whom you enjoy working. We thank you for sharing your views.

[tom_newton]

Many companies do frequently make unilateral changes to their T&Cs mid-contract - they can get away with that because they give you the option of leaving the contract immediately without penalty if you don't like the change. Obviously this can be good if you wanted to get out of the contract anyway, but for everyone else it basically means you need to accept the T&Cs or switch to another vendor very quickly.

 

This one sounds like a very odd change to unilaterally push onto everyone instead of just bringing the new terms into effect when each contract is renewed... I wonder if SW have been losing a lot of customers recently and are trying to stem the flow (which I guess this change will do temporarily, but in the long run it seems counter productive to p*ss off your customers like this...)

 

Thanks for your concern Steve, our renewal numbers are higher than ever this year

[FishCustard]

We do see instances where customers wait until the last minute to begin a renewal review, and continue to believe it’s a best practice to start early. We would never want a renewal to be a surprise or anything other than a constructive partnership discussion.

I agree that it is best practice to start reviewing products early, but how exactly does a 90-day-notice period help customers?

[TDupont992]

I agree that it is best practice to start reviewing products early, but how exactly does a 90-day-notice period help customers?

 

It's corporate doublespeak. Kind of telling that they only cut back on this when they realised it was bad PR, not because it was the right thing to do

[Edu-IT]

I’m not even sure it’s feedback they’ve been given; it’s called the law. Honour suggests Smoothwall are doing customers a favour. Glad they’ve back pedalled though for all concerned. Success. [emoji106] Edited June 6, 2019 by Edu-IT

[Cache]

Hi folks - just had this through from our CEO, Georg:

 

Thank you to everyone for your feedback over the past 24 hours. You’ve been clear and we have heard you!

 

With immediate effect, we will honour the 30-day notice period on renewals for all existing customers who signed contracts prior to May 23rd. Customers who sign contracts with us after this change have 90-day terms – which is consistent with other vendors – but if anyone has a strong concern about this at the time, please discuss with your account manager.

 

We do see instances where customers wait until the last minute to begin a renewal review, and continue to believe it’s a best practice to start early. We would never want a renewal to be a surprise or anything other than a constructive partnership discussion.

 

We are always listening. We have invested in ensuring every customer has a dedicated account manager and customer portal with their direct contact details. Your account manager will proactively reach out to every customer several times a year at a minimum, to check how things are going and to hear your feedback. It’s their aim to be there for any questions, concerns, help or advice.

 

Above all it’s our aim to be technology partner you trust and with whom you enjoy working. We thank you for sharing your views.

 

@tom_newton - is there anyway we can get this in writing via email?

[tom_newton]

Sure. Anyone who emails me I'll cc back through Georg

[Cache]

Thanks, will drop an email in the morning

[PrimaryNetMan]

I’m not even sure it’s feedback they’ve been given; it’s called the law. Honour suggests Smoothwall are doing customers a favour. Glad they’ve back pedalled though for all concerned. Success. [emoji106]

No success would be reverting back to 30 days notice.

[DrCheese]

We would never want a renewal to be a surprise or anything other than a constructive partnership discussion.

 

So stop changing your terms to lock people in? I'm sorry but trying to argue that this helps anyone but yourselves is folly. You are absolutely hoping to catch schools out with this change and there's really no other justification for it. Those of us prepared will just hand notices in early even if we are considering staying with yourselves just be safe but not everyone will be.

Edited June 6, 2019 by DrCheese

[TechMonkey]

So I don't agree with terms changing mid contract and was not happy to be sent a new contract with no indication of what has changed.

 

BUT why would you wait until 90 days or less to start looking at something as major as your filtering and firewall? Surely you would know when the contract is up for renewal and start tenatatively looking almost a year in advance, maybe 9 months, and then the decision will have been made at the latest just before that 90 days. 3 months is the minimum time frame I would want to start planning and implementing a new piece of infrastructure like a firewall.

 

Am I missing something or do I excessively plan?

[CHiLL]

Does the same process apply when say home broadband providers do this and you can terminate your contract penalty free if you're unhappy with it?

[localzuk]

Does the same process apply when say home broadband providers do this and you can terminate your contract penalty free if you're unhappy with it?

Depends on the contract and what they change. Most now include a "we can increase prices by X measure of inflation" to cover price increases (which is usually fine). A lot of these contract changes have never been tested in court to be honest, as most companies back down or settle before getting there.

[FishCustard]

So I don't agree with terms changing mid contract and was not happy to be sent a new contract with no indication of what has changed.

 

BUT why would you wait until 90 days or less to start looking at something as major as your filtering and firewall? Surely you would know when the contract is up for renewal and start tenatatively looking almost a year in advance, maybe 9 months, and then the decision will have been made at the latest just before that 90 days. 3 months is the minimum time frame I would want to start planning and implementing a new piece of infrastructure like a firewall.

 

Am I missing something or do I excessively plan?

 

I completely agree. I would review it at least 6 months ahead if I was thinking of changing (which I'd probably have known long before then). However, it's the fact that they claim their extended notice period "helps customers plan ahead" that gets me.

[TDupont992]

I completely agree. I would review it at least 6 months ahead if I was thinking of changing (which I'd probably have known long before then). However, it's the fact that they claim their extended notice period "helps customers plan ahead" that gets me.

 

Completely agree with both of you, it is something that I'd review 6+ Months in advance, but that should be MY choice to review MY products. Not having the company mandate me / make the decision 'For my own good' when it's very clearly because they want to lock customers in longer and have them hopefully not realise.

[synaesthesia]

Well I understand that companies may need to change their terms in this way, 90 days is perfectly acceptable for something like this however the sticking point has been communicating that change and also communicating to the clients when that notice period starts. When we nearly got stung they had apparently tried to contact the school several times and failed, although there's been no record of that actually being the case. In their defence though, the school involved were particularly lackadaisical regarding getting it all sorted out when moving to another ISP which didn't help!

[Edu-IT]

So stop changing your terms to lock people in? I'm sorry but trying to argue that this helps anyone but yourselves is folly. You are absolutely hoping to catch schools out with this change and there's really no other justification for it. Those of us prepared will just hand notices in early even if we are considering staying with yourselves just be safe but not everyone will be.

Stand by for the incoming 'your cancellation notice must be received no sooner than 120 days prior to renewal but not less than 90 days prior to renewal' to stop that happening.

 

I have suppliers who do this and think it's crafty.

[FishCustard]

Stand by for the incoming 'your cancellation notice must be received no sooner than 120 days prior to renewal but not less than 90 days prior to renewal' to stop that happening.

 

I have suppliers who do this and think it's crafty.

 

At which point I'd probably schedule an email with a script once I knew I wanted to cancel. Which I probably would if the contracts are this customer-hostile.

[caffrey]

Google lets you schedule emails now without scripting, failing that just put intent of cancellation in as soon as you sign the contract

[DrCheese]

So I don't agree with terms changing mid contract and was not happy to be sent a new contract with no indication of what has changed.

 

BUT why would you wait until 90 days or less to start looking at something as major as your filtering and firewall? Surely you would know when the contract is up for renewal and start tenatatively looking almost a year in advance, maybe 9 months, and then the decision will have been made at the latest just before that 90 days. 3 months is the minimum time frame I would want to start planning and implementing a new piece of infrastructure like a firewall.

 

Am I missing something or do I excessively plan?

 

I think most people look more than 3 months in advance, but they don't expect the existing supplier to have such regressive terms in place that prevent them from switching if they've not given notice so far in advance.

 

I'm of the opinion that contracts should just expire & this auto renew stuff should be banned (Government was looking at it for domestic contracts..) If that means a product is deactivated and the customer loses out then that's on them really - If a customer hasn't planned to switch to something else they're hardly going to not re-sign are they?

[PrimaryNetMan]

I'm of the opinion that contracts should just expire

100% this!