November last year, I was convinced and signed up for Smugmug online photo service. When I paid that 1-year subscription using my credit card, I am sure that I’ve put in the coupon code to get that sign-up discount. I also remembered that I’ve verified the amount. They sent me the confirmation immediately after I paid. I didn’t read that email. This year, I checked my credit card statement and noticed that the subscription amount didn’t seem right. I tried various USD-SGD exchange rates possible between 1.4 and 1.55, but none went close to the amount charged to my credit card. I checked my email, searched for that confirmation email. To my surprise, they have not applied the coupon code correctly, thus genuinely charged more. I immediately emailed Smugmug support telling them their mistake.
As I’ve read in forums around the Internet before I decided to sign up, Smugmug support is simply superb. They are very responsive. I repeat, very. I sent them email at 11.20PM, and I got their reply at 11.27PM. An amazing 7 minutes for them to read my email, checked my account, credited my credit card back the differences, and sent the email reply to me. If that’s not impressive for faceless companies on the net, I don’t know what is. You can’t help but feel that you are treated like you are their only customer. Nothing but praise from me. A couple of days later, my credit card was credited with the right amount (albeit a little bit lower as USD depreciates against SGD since November 07 till January 08) right before my credit card statement was sent.
Footnote, if you happen to like to sign up for a Smugmug account yourself, you can use my referral code and enter it, when you sign up, into Smugmug voucher coupon code: C26cqbAfqMjWs. I’ll earn $10 for my next year’s subscription, and you’ll earn $5 yourself, paying $35 instead of $40. Definitely not much, but with this latest impressive support from them, I would whole-heartedly recommend Smugmug for online photo sharing and backup service.
