Thread by @steffoz

Over a year ago we signed a @Salesforce Enterprise contract for @Heroku. Since then we're experiencing a real nightmare.

🧵 A distressing thread

I think this story may well describe why we're keen to remain independent with @DatoCMS and fear VCs and the possibility of forced acquisitions in the future.

A year and a half ago we were contacted by a Salesforce Account Executive asking if we were interested in switching to an Enterprise plan to save some money.

As DatoCMS grew in size, we went through the same process for other core services.

The experience has always been easy, so we figured "why not?"

After some quick back and forth via email we sign the new contract, and enjoy the idea of saving a few bucks.

For a short while.

After only a week, the first disturbing email arrives.

"Our most recent attempt to process payment on Contract XXXX has been declined by the credit card processor. In the event of a second decline, we will suspend the account pending receipt of payment."

Wait. What?

I immediately log into the Heroku dashboard to check it out. No invoice to pay, no information of any kind.

I send a mail to our Salesforce contact: "What's happening here?"

"Stefano this seems like an administrative error by our billing team.

Mark when you get a chance would you mind raising a case with billing to notify them of this? So that Stefano does not receive these emails."

My God.

A month passes, a new email arrives:

"Your account with Salesforce has an outstanding balance of
USD XXXX. If this balance is not settled by YYYY (ten days), your account will be placed with a third party collection agency."

"In addition, Salesforce will have no obligation to maintain or provide Your Data after the time specified in your Master Subscription Agreement, and will thereafter delete or destroy all copies of Your Data in Our systems."

No. Please no, not again.

Billing replies: "I would advise you to pay the invoices by wire transfer using the bank details attached."

We immediately proceed. Will ever the payment arrive in 10 days?

Yes. Jesus Christ, that was close.

The following month we don't want to be caught unprepared, so we send an email ourselves:

"Are there any unpaid invoices? We did not see any charge, so I think that there might be a problem like the past month. Could you please check with your billing team please?"

"Upon checking the attached invoice is not yet paid. It seems the integration with the tax authority is still pending. We will charge your card once this is accepted."

Integration with what? Are we in danger again?

We send another bunch of emails. "Thank you for contacting Salesforce. Please be advised that the invoice is already paid."

Thank you for making us lose sleep for another week!

Some months pass by. Still no access to any dashboard, but at least we receive every month a "Do Not Send Payment: Salesforce Invoice XXXX, DATO SRL" email.

We assume everything is finally working.

In the meantime we get contacted to renew the contract for 12 months. We sign. Two days later another executive tells us we must upgrade our contract since usage increased in the meantime. This is all ridiculous. We sign again.

6 months pass by.

Fast forward to one week ago. This time we get a different email.

"We would like to thank you for being a Salesforce customer. Our systems indicate that the Heroku Enterprise contract for datocms has expired."

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

"If Heroku is unable to successfully charge a credit car, the account will be suspended approximately 30 days after the first failed payment. Account deletion will occur approximately 25 days after account suspension. Once an account is deleted, it cannot be restored."

Our response:

"We received this email yesterday and we think it's a mistake. We signed a 12 months contract last November. Can you please check?"

"Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Sara is the Account Executive assigned to DatoCMS this year. Sara can you look into this for Stefano?"

That's just great. Let's add another couple of folks in the loop, I'm sure it will help us solve the issue faster.

I hear the new Account Executive on the phone. She tells me that a number of invoices are unpaid:

Jan 2021 -> 4,011.36USD
Feb 2021 -> 4,011.36USD
Mar 2021 -> 4,011.36USD
Apr 2021 -> 4,011.36USD
----
Total: 40,113.60USD

Go back to the previous tweet. I'll wait. See anything wrong? Because I do.

Call me nitpicky, but it seems to me the total is wrong by 24,000USD.

I call her back on the phone. She tells me she has no idea why the wrong total comes up.

"Maybe it's because of the third party collection agency that has since taken over your file," she tells me, but she can't verify it.

Five days have passed, and I still haven't received a response. The Account Executive has stopped answering my phone calls.

After 4 unanswered calls yesterday, she replies via email

"Sorry I didn't return your call, I'm in a meeting until 7:30 pm today."

"We're working to resolve the situation, all day. With Mark, Paul, the billing department and contacting collections to figure out how to resolve with them."

So you're in a meeting all day or you're solving my issue all day? At least save me from these BS please.

Companies use Heroku to have the security of a service that doesn't go down. And it does a wonderful job indeed. Then Heroku gets acquired, and everything goes to hell.

I simply want to pay, be safe that our customers won't suffer any downtime and move on with my life. Please.

Is this what Enterprise mean?