Brevo, Chatbots, and the Fine Art of Business Disruption

Those of you who are on my mailing list will have noticed that this week’s mailing was completely screwed up.

Both the English and the German links did not lead to my New Additions; instead, you ended up on a 404 error page that looked like this:

I am using Brevo, a Berlin-based start-up, to send out my newsletter. What happened was a classic server mistake: When they attempted to place THEIR tracking link over my information, they REPLACED it instead and routed everybody to a broken error page on their own website.

Brevo is a perfect example of what is wrong with the world in general, and so-called startups in particular. Once I noticed the mistake, I tried to limit the damage. Their website actually features a ‘repair link’ function, so I tried that first. Unfortunately, this is a Premium function, which means for me, it was hidden behind a paywall. No chance.

Next, I turned to their support: Max the Chatbot replied and explained to me what I had done wrong.

On the next day, I sent an email to the actual Brevo support: Minah, the human chatbot, replied and explained to me what I had done wrong. I will spare you the details, but she kept sending me stupid text blocks, asking things like “is it just you or everybody?”, “have you tried a different computer?”, and “what operating system do you use?”.

She was also unable or unwilling to open the links to the Brevo error page I had sent her and demanded to see screenshots. To add insult to injury, I had to copy the campaign name for her.

I REPEATEDLY explained to her that the cause was 100% on Brevo’s side, but she couldn’t care less and refused to even forward the problem unless I jumped through her hoops and answered her ridiculous questions.

To cut a long story short: At the end of the day, they refunded the cost of the mailing. They gave NO explanation as to what had actually happened (and it is fairly obvious they couldn’t care less). They also refused to take any responsibility or offer ANY kind of indemnification.

When I finally informed them that I would cancel my account, Minha thanked me for my cooperation.