Freshdesk / Freshworks turned what should have been a simple account issue into a typically frustrating and terrible customer service experiences I’ve had with a business software company lately.
Until last week, I had used the free version of Freshdesk for roughly 10 years for my small business. Yes, I got my money’s worth… then, with no warning – no emails, no notifications on the website – nothing I could find, the free account was shut off without notice. Freshworks claims they sent an email saying the free plan was ending, but I could not find a message anywhere. Even worse, when I called them, THEY couldn’t locate or re-send the supposed cancellation email either.
Meanwhile, I couldn’t reply to support tickets – the basic service Freshdesk / Freshworks offers. We couldn’t respond to support tickets so the support system was effectively dead. This was not a casual question or a minor inconvenience. This was a live customer support system being cut off, and I was asking for urgent help just to restore temporary access so I could sort it out.
Their response was disgraceful.
After I talked to someone on the phone, I was told the issue would be “prioritized” and “expedited.” Then nothing. Days passed with no responses. I followed up repeatedly because my business was still affected. Still nothing. Three days – more silence. Five days later, they finally replied – but not with a real answer, not with evidence of the supposed warning email, not with a temporary extension, not with any sign that someone had actually read the thread to understand the issue. Instead, I got another canned response about upgrading the account.
That’s the part that makes this so unacceptable. A real customer support team would have looked at the actual issue: a long-time account was shut off, the customer says no warning was received, the company apparently could not produce the warning email on request, and the business was disrupted. Instead, Freshworks responded like a robot with a billing script.
Like I said, I got my money’s worth over the years, so I would have upgraded – but Freshdesk blew it. WHY would I give them money when they couldn’t take care of this simple issue?
For a company that sells customer support software, this was a basic failure of customer support.
If this is how Freshworks treats a long-time small business customer during an urgent account lockout, why trust that they’d care after they have your money? Don’t trust them with customer-facing support operations. Their product may be designed to help companies serve customers, but in my experience, Freshworks couldn’t be bothered to serve one of its own customers – free or not.
The message I received was clear: once they decided to end the free plan, I no longer mattered. Not my account history. Not my business disruption. Not the missing warning email. Not the assurance that someone would help me – just silence, delay, and then a canned response.
Terrible support. Terrible escalation. Terrible handling of a long-time customer account. Freshdesk / Freshworks showed me exactly what kind of company they are when something goes wrong.
Freshdesk, FreshService, FreshCaller, FreshSales, Beware