Marsello: Omnichannel Loyalty

Aug. 3, 2019

3 Aug: We do offer gift cards on our store and it was only last week we realised the purchase of gift cards would automatically be rewarded with points, which customers use the same gift cards to purchase items on our store and get rewarded with points again. That's duplication of points. We raised this to the customer support team, and Abby responded in exact words. "This wouldn't be considered a duplicate by the system." Abby also said. "We appreciate the feedback as we haven't had any similar opinions on gift card purchases being awarded points". By principle, gift cards should be seen as currencies, not a SKU in your inventory. When someone purchase a gift card worth $1000, who use it to purchase $1,000 worth of goods, merchants are now obliged to give $2000 worth of points which they could have just given $1,000 worth of points. If this is not duplication, what is it? Points should not be given to gift cards by default. If merchants decide to do so, they may have the option to opt in. Reward points are currencies and we ought to be careful with how it's being managed. Marcello's decision to make the opt-in as a default feature is a careless and inconsiderate one. We have made quite a significant loss due to the duplication of points. I'm sharing here so merchants are informed and can do the necessary to opt-out reward points from gift card purchases. ----- 28 May: Issue was rectified on 24 May. Matt did his best to rectify the problem and offered compensation for the loss and technical glitch which I appreciate. Although the glitch is taking a toll on our customer service's time (and we have no idea when the queries would end), we're pleased that Matt asked for thorough feedback so that preventive measures could be implemented. We had a constructive discussion and I believe the Marsello team would do their best to work on the enhancements. ----- 24 May: All loyalty points were erroneously deposited / duplicated twice on 10 May and to our dismay, we only found out 2 days ago. 38 hours have passed - the problem hasn't been rectified and our questions not addressed yet. We're crossing over the weekend (we're in SGT) and another 48 hours will be lost. We're going into a full blown crisis mode now and are forced to switch off the program. We have customers rushing to claim the vouchers and many of them have already used the vouchers from 10 May to 22 May. A huge loss is incurred and we're still waiting for the Marsello team to rectify and issue an official response. The matter has been escalated to Shopify and has expressed their full support towards our demand of compensation from Marsello. But first, the problem needs to be rectified and we're still waiting.

Sept. 2, 2019

I have cancelled this app but I still need to pay the monthly fee? can you pls tell me why???? This shouldn't be happened. pls don't charge me for anything as I don't use your app anymore. I put it on inactive by 30 July and wasn't available on my website since that time. This is illegal!!!

Dec. 1, 2018

These guys keep chopping and changing their plans and prices. Only a couple of months ago when they revamped their offerings their basic plan included all features even the premium features (loyalty tiers etc). Pricing was based on number of members/customers from memory and then you paid as your database grew. They have now gone and copied Smile.io since they recently updated their offerings and pricing structure which, in my opinion, is a far more robust and professional looking loyalty program. For these reasons I am staying with Smile.

April 16, 2018

I had a horrible experience!! Where do all these 5 star reviews come from?! First off, there's utter lack of support. Their "support" is a bunch of know-nothings who keep deferring to their “team in New Zealand” and then nothing else happens. Placing support into a time zone out-of-synch with the rest of the world is NOT a good idea. If they want to charge $199/month they must do better than that. The app had 3 major bugs when we tried it out: (1) An existing customer was able to get a referral discount, even though only new customers should get a reward (2) Points for referral actions weren’t tracked properly (3) The system sent out emails to advocates with faulty point balances These errors go to the core of a loyalty system. If you can’t track points and redemptions properly, you might as well shut down. Moreover, they failed to tell me the Shopify file names and code sections where they added code. So I can't ascertain whether the uninstall is done properly. I fear they leave code behind, given how poorly and sloppily they have performed so far. A terrible experience and big waste of time.

Jan. 13, 2021

Also revised 5 star review to 1 star. I've had the exact same experience as the person below - Mountain Madness Soap Co. Marsello is clearly being run by new owners. Also on a grandfather plan, my fees went up without warning. Even worse is they paused my loyalty app without telling me! I had to wait until a customer contacted me asking when our loyalty app will be back online! In contacting support they were unapologetic, didn't care why I was on the old plan and pretty much said this is the new plan, pay up if you want your loyalty app to go back online. In the process of changing apps now