I suppose I could go on and on about a company who really has no regard for your business unless you’re a paying customer, but for now I’ll leave you with these final thoughts.

After my last story, WeddingWire – Part Deux, several people contacted me to tell me about their experience with customer service and the WeddingWire website itself.

Nicky V., owner of Jolie Papeterie Boutique in Canada, has had her problems and she shared them with me.  With her permission, I will now share them with you.  We talked about The Knot and how they ripped her off, we talked about WeddingWire and how they’re ripping her off.  And not just Nicky.  Anyone who has a “free” account.  Yes, even if you’re not paying for a listing, you’re being ripped off.  Here’s why;   Nicky told us that after going through four pages of invitations in her area, she could not find her page in the directory.  She did, however, see businesses from her surrounding areas showing up and still nothing for her.  She opted to do a vendor search by name and that’s how she found her page.  If a bride is searching for invitations, odds are she doesn’t know your business name.  If she doesn’t find you in her search, you’ve lost a potential sale.

Nicky also pointed out that she has 20 reviews, so you would think this would make her page more prominent in the search.  It doesn’t.  I asked Nicky if her reviews were the result of her sending out the email WeddingWire provides to ask a former client for a review.  Her response was yes, but most times the brides don’t respond or they forget.

Nicky contacted WeddingWire,  first by live chat, at which time this was the explanation she was given;

Okay, just pulled up your account. This is because all of the Lite accounts (which you currently have) are all in a random rotation among the other lites. So sometimes you may show up in the search on the vendor catalog and sometimes you might not. If they search specifically by your name at the bottom of the page, like you did, then you will definitely show up. Would you like me have your rep reach out to you to further explain this?

The second was by phone, in which Nicky said the girl she spoke to was very pleasant but she couldn’t answer her questions.  And of course, she tried to sell her a paid listing.  I’m guessing the client reps aren’t being trained properly before they’re fed to the wolves.  As a former customer rep myself, if I even considered answering the phone or returning a client’s call before my training was completed and tested, I would have been out of a job.

Nicky posed this question, “as a bride if I’m searching in a certain location why is it I’m getting random crap thrown at me and I have to go through pages to find a vendor in that area?”  The response was “because of the randomization they do.” Randomization?  So basically it’s like shuffling a deck of cards and you have to hope your card is an ace.

What Nicky didn’t realize and I pointed out to her, is that since her page on WeddingWire is “lite” there is an ad for a competitor, directly placed below her logo.  These ads feature paying clients within the WeddingWire community.

“You might also consider”

In searching the internet for stories similar to this one, I stumbled across this article –  WeddingWire What Are Your Thoughts About It?  Had the authors really done their research they might have discovered how having a free or “lite” account on WeddingWire means absolutely nothing.  I will give them credit for pointing out that  a paid ad isn’t the way to go.  However, having more than 10 reviews doesn’t promise anything either.

So while you may think having a listing on WeddingWire will bring in the brides, guess again.  Unless you’re forking over the big bucks, odds are you won’t even be found when a bride does search, unless she’s searching for you by your company name.

Other Related Stories:

WeddingWire – They Just Don’t Learn

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