About - Vertical Response

Overall Feedback:

I have to say, this system has really let me down as far as being "user friendly." One of the biggest problems is their idea of "segmentation." Newly uploaded email lists aren't automatically added to existing segments, so if it is a segment you plan to use a lot, or even just twice, you are better off just going through and setting it up each time you want to use the segment. On top of that, simple things like a "Select All Lists" button when you are trying to set up a segment would be nice, instead of having to go through and manually select all 150 of the email lists you've uploaded each time you need to make a new segment. When you go to clean up lists, it is yet another glaring example of how inadequate the system is. When you do a search for a specific email- in our example- a person from your own company (who you DON'T want to email seven times when you are sending out a campaign) you will pull up a screen that shows every list they are in. However, you have to choose to edit each email address individually, and your only option is to unsubscribe them, barring you from ever including them in a mailing again. The only other way to remove them is to manually search through each of the lists (which, in our case can be thousands and thousands of people) until you find their email and mark it as "temporarily suppressed." Why this can't be done from the search page, I don't know. What is even more depressing is to call customer support each time, because you know there has to be an easier way than initially thought, only to find that they have no solutions for you. My conversations with them are always 2 minutes: Me: how can you remove emails from lists without marking them as unsubscribed? VR: Search through each individual list and mark them as temporarily suppressed. Me: There is no other way? VR: Nope, that's it. I just can't understand how a system that really has no idea of what "ease of use" is, can be considered the #1 email marketing system. Really, what is the criteria to be #1? We are about to start looking at other systems to use, and I'm just worried that if Vertical Response really is the best of the best, what will the other systems look like? I'm just crossing my fingers and hope that at least a few of my issues will be solved, because every time I sign into Vertical Response, I feel like I'm about to get an Ulcer, and I'm only 23.