3 Ways Vimeo Fails Its Users
The reviews are in: Vimeo is letting its users down, but there’s hope in other platforms!
Founded back in November 2004 by Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein, Vimeo started off as a promising video-streaming alternative to YouTube. Fast forward to 2021, Vimeo shares are down over 27% and customer satisfaction is at an all-time low across sites like Trustpilot, sitejabber and the Better Business Bureau.
Today, we’re going over the drawbacks and pain points of Vimeo as well as touching on competitive alternatives like MediaZilla!
Dishonest Billing & Cancellation
One of the most common complaints across Vimeo review portals and social media is the platform’s unclear, and sometimes sketchy, billing practices. Reviewers often accuse Vimeo of erroneously charging their cards following a free trial. What’s more, these users claim the billing receipts get buried in junk mail so they have no idea until their bank statements roll in, or their cards get declined. Other services like YouTube or MediaZilla do not require a card to use the platform freely.
For Vimeo users that do sign up for a membership, the policies only get foggier. For something as simple as invoices and billing statements, users complain that the account page leads to membership options while the billing page simply shows upload reports, both of which limit the user’s view of what they’ve paid so far.
For other paying users, the usage billing can be unforgiving. One reviewer writes, “the problem is once your usage grows, the cost of using them can suddenly jump up by a factor of 4! They have this threshold hidden in the terms of service - which means their unlimited data isn't really unlimited.”
Even downgrading has proven to be a headache on Vimeo, with users complaining about original content being deleted when stepping down plan tiers. When it comes to cancellation, Vimeo’s biggest weakness rears its ugly head: customer support.
Non-Existent Customer Support
“Support staff just keeps issuing me more tickets saying Tech Support will update me--for over a week, now!?! I have posted my problems on their FB, Twitter & LinkedIn pages, over and over, and still nothing,” writes one reviewer.
Proper customer service is the cornerstone of any service, especially as it pertains to a SaaS like Vimeo or MediaZilla. Technical troubleshooting and billing inquiries are particularly time-sensitive when it comes to delivering/hosting video because multiple users are often involved.
At Vimeo, live phone support is a thing of the past. Instead, automated chat support is the best Vimeo users can hope for. If you run into a technical issue with Vimeo’s video player or see an unauthorized charge on your account, you’re in for an uphill battle.
Whether it’s a gimmick to keep users subscribed longer and capture more payments, or simply a result of limited staffing, Vimeo’s response times are incredibly frustrating for its users looking for real-time clarity and cancellation. This is one of the reasons we at MediaZilla emphasize our partnership-style approach to support. We’re not simply giving our robust video tools to businesses, we’re also extending our expertise and hands-on support to tackle all the nuances of video use and provide the best experience possible.
Unprofessional, Inconvenient & Poor Viewer Experience
For Vimeo users that can look past the billing and support woes, the end-user experience is far from exceptional. From difficult-to-use UIs to excessive promotional emails, using Vimeo for your business needs can seriously jeopardize your credibility.
Here is one of many reviews recapping their far-from-professional Vimeo experience, “our screener isn’t working because of some technical error after sending it to our client. This situation makes me look very unprofessional—the support team - useless. No info was given - just vague responses. Lately, they just started to ignore my messages altogether. EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL!”
One of the main drawbacks of Vimeo's video workflow is subpar ingestion and presentation. Reviewers report aspect ratios being stretched during upload, botching their content's resolution and eventual presentation. Another user recalls buttons not functioning at all with one in particular revealing pages of code instead of the video itself.
The most important variable in professional video is the viewer experience. At Vimeo, something as simple as your viewers navigating the platform can be tricky. For example, video links will send you to Vimeo's homepage instead of the video itself if the link is somehow compromised. To be fair, this type of issue goes beyond Vimeo's platform. Relying on share links is tantamount to relying on a floppy disk: outdated.
Instead, MediaZilla allows you to digitally deliver projects and even transfer possession of a project directly to clients as needed. MediaZilla also offers simple downloading to your viewers in highly compatible .mp4 formats as opposed to Vimeo's default .flv output which isn't as cross-device friendly.
Another inconvenience on Vimeo is their erroneous approach to copyright violations. One user complained that a 42 second clip with original video and audio was flagged the same day for copyright resulting in their account being disabled. A different user was given the same treatment for a Spanish translation of educational footage they claim falls under fair use. The end result was account termination sans refund. Copyright infringement is never a concern for MediaZilla users or their completely private storage libraries.
The Conclusion
Ultimately, Vimeo is falling short on a lot of its promises while platforms like MediaZilla exist to compete on the same promises with better features and support. With all the nuances that arise with professional video, it can be difficult to find a platform that works for you. You may be tempted to go based on name recognition, but take a second to look into platforms that appreciate your business and provide better solutions like MediaZilla.
And the best way to learn is to try it out for free here.