Let's Calendar

"Misleading Free Trial, Won't Refund"

Overall: Let's Calendar has a simple promise: They'll send out bulk calendar events, and can integrate with any system to do so. Until it can't, that is. I signed up for the free trial and did a 'demo send' in the platform. The demo send worked as advertised! As a result, I signed up to the paid product, at which point it became clear that one would need to do custom configuration to send SMTP from one's own system. This is where the problems started. While the site claimed, "We currently provide integration with any and all SMTP services that follow SMTP protocol and standard Authentication method" this doesn't mean the service WORKS with all SMTP services. My provider, Campaign Monitor, apparently doesn't support attachments via SMTP. Because Let's Calendar won't send from their own domain, this means one needs more custom configuration, IT setup and help to actually get the value from the service. As a result, I requested to cancel for a refund, given the 'free trial' experience is fundamentally different from the paid, and the paid experience was broken for me. After much back and forth, the Let's Calendar team was clear: They would not issue a refund. Even though no actual campaigns outside a 3 person test was ever 'sent' (unsuccessfully). It's clear Let's Calendar will just take your money, even if the product can't deliver as advertised.

Pros: Straightforward user interface Solves real problem

Cons: Free trial experience doesn't reflect actual product experience Won't issue refund, even if cannot use with your ESP