The tl;dr is: Samcart is 100% ok with breaking it's promises. No honor, no principals.
Once upon a time,Scott Moran and Brian Moran started a business venture. They called it Samcart. They very sucessfully did some advertising and filled some webinars.
In these webinars, they talked about a shopping cart system they were going to build out. It would take some time, but it was going to be awesome.
Their pitch was: If you become our customer now, and stick with us over time on a platform that has low functionality while we slowly over time make it better and better, we will NEVER raise your pricing, and you will ALWAYs get any new features we roll out.
Again, the agreement was:
1. You pay us now, and over time.
2. You understand that we are building the platform from the ground up with these funds, and it's going to take a while (years).
3. The tradeoff for putting up with years and years of low functionality is, your pricing never goes up, and you will get all new features and updates and developments we roll up.
I was on the third round of early funding. The third set of webinars. I didn't get in as cheap as the earlier early adopters.
But I joined and I paid my money. Bare bones functionality.
YEARS PASSED
The bare bones functionality slowly got better. Over time.
More features, more function.
Eventually the rolled out Courses functionality. Simple, basic, good enough.
ALL THE UPDATES!
It wasn't first thing I had to ask for. I'd usually have to contact customer support. And say 'hey, I see the new update, why don't I have access to it?'
And we'd go back and forth a few rounds of them wanting me to upgrade my pricing plan and telling me they couldn't just give me the update, then they'd eventually cave and give me the update like they were doing me a favor.
Yeah, sure, sucked, but hey it's a business. Play the game.
But then in November 2023, I received an email stating that the old legacy plan would no longer be available and I could upgrade (double the price) or keep paying the same and get shifted to a lower subscription level.
SURE WE MADE PROMISES, BUT TOO BAD FOR YOU!
It was official. Without saying they were breaking their promise and screwing all their early adopters, they officially broke their promise and screwed all their early adopters.
Instead of honoring their agreements and keeping their promises to the very people that made SAMCART possible in the first place, the Moran brothers and Samcart have decided that making a little more money is more important.
It costs Samcart nothing to honor their agreements with their early adopters, first customers, their trusting supporters.
Turns out, the Morans and Samcart aren't interested in honoring their agreements or keeping their promises. They certainly don't care about keeping trust with the oldest customers.
But hey, the customer service peeps were polite as can be. The Morans have a business to run. They're big busisness now. Who cares about those little guys that have been loyal customers, partners, since early 2014.
I can't do business with people and businesses that prove themselves to be untrustworthy. What other trusts will they break?
Are my customers safe with them? The answer is, no.
Sucks. I'm leaving Samcart. Luckily I only have three months left on the annual, so I have enough time to move my business.
Shame on Scott Moran. Shame on Brian Moran. Shame on Samcart.
Why do business with a company that breaks it's most foundational of promises?
Protip: don't.
There's my Samcart review. Decent to good platform, but untrustworty at it's very core.
Joshua Tucker
Former Loyal Samcart Customer