Tell HN: Zoominfo Renewal Clause

5 points

3 years ago

"Through the Freedom of Information Act, The Bear Cave has obtained hundreds of pages of consumer complaints from small-businesses desperate to cancel ZoomInfo contracts. ZoomInfo often renews contracts against the wishes of its customers, threatens litigation to enforce renewals, and has admitted to the Washington State Attorney General of sometimes doing renewals 'in error.'"

"Freedom of Information Act requests have turned up numerous complaints about the practice, The Bear Cave says, and 'upcoming legislation and ongoing litigation may add to the company's headwinds.'"

https://thebearcave.substack.com/p/problems-at-zoominfo-technologies

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3841003-zoominfo-slips-12-as-short-report-digs-into-contract-terms

Article is from From May 19, 2022.

Yet this problem of forced renewals and hostile business practices continues to be an issue as seen from ongoing complaints across various sites including Better Business Bureau, G2, Reddit, Glassdoor, Zoominfo, Twitter, etc...

If you are a customer of Zoominfo, and you don't provide notice that you wish to cancel at least 60 days before the end of the term, you will be forced to renew for another year.

The crux of the matter appears to be that Zoominfo does everything possible to minimize the client's knowledge of this by not clearly disclosing it, burying it in their terms, and not providing any reminders notifications.

So many clients are surprised to hear from Zoominfo sales reps only after the 60 day window has elapsed, telling them they are forced into another yearly contract with no option to cancel. And Zoominfo can be tens of thousands of dollars.

This commment from a former employee suggests that they are even trained to purposely not remind customers of their upcoming renewal dates which is aligned with many of the complaints online:

"The training is horrible and they expect you to know the entire job within 2 weeks. Zoominfo teaches shady practices where they tell us to not remind clients of upcoming contract renewals so that they will auto-renew and locked into the agreement for another year. If you have an morals you would not work for this company." https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-ZoomInfo-RVW44920769.htm

Personally, I am surprised that Zoominfo continues with these same practices which has generated so many complaints online. It appears to be an effort to boost short term sales by forcing renewals, at the expense of long term customer retention and satisfaction and the practice is harmful to their brand.

DYOR.