I had a $100 patron who is not very tech savvy and has consistently had problems logging into Patreon, among other things. They love my content but have been very disappointed with their experience on Patreon, saying things like “why do they make it so hard to access your stuff” and “why do I have to pick out the fire hydrants and the crosswalks every time I log in?” and more recently, “Is there another way to support you? We love your stuff but we are just fed up with Patreon. We must not be smart enough to use it.” When I have tried to get support for them, I am told to ask them to make a support ticket. (which is SUPER awkward and frankly pretty awful customer service!) When they try to make a support ticket, it has only led to further frustration, with more failed attempts at logging in, boilerplate responses (e.g “check your spam filter” - which they already have, multiple times) and a general inability to help them to more consistently and easily access the content that they are paying for.
Last night this patron was jumping through all the hoops to try to access my latest post, and somehow their pledge got downgraded from $100 to $10. When I reached out to them, they explicitly told me that this was NOT due to any action on their part, at least not that they were aware of. They were horrified to see the message “thanks for pledging $10” when they have been a $100 patron for a long time. However, since they are thoroughly frustrated with the Patreon experience in general and really only use the benefits of the $10 tier anyway, they decided to keep their pledge at $10 and support me via other methods to make up the difference. I would ask them to try and make another support ticket as I have before, but past experience tells me that this would be a waste of time and, at this point, would probably be taken as an insult.
I have complained a few times in these forums about the problematic login and signup processes, wondering aloud how much revenue these issues were costing both me and Patreon (more than a few people have told me directly that they simply gave up trying to pledge to me on Patreon, because the signup process was too difficult or simply did not work). I wanted to let Patreon know that now I have a tangible instance of Patreon’s UX costing me (and Patreon) a noticeable amount of money. (this patron was pledged at $100 per creation, with no monthly cap!) @reyna if you could please pass these concerns to the relevant people, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you for taking the time to consider the thoughts of a frustrated creator.
I feel you. I’ve had so many complaints from my patrons about how difficult it is to find what they are paying for access to. I have had to create whole pages on my website linking back to Patreon just to make it easier to navigate. It really is a shame. I have lost several patron saying they just couldn’t stand it anymore. I’m now looking into off sites and planning on probably moving away from Patreon next year. It saddens me that they have not made basic improvements that have been requested for so many years.
Yes. I have a Patron who I know in real life who upped their pledge to $20 but didn’t up their tier (this after an ‘adventure’ in updating their credit card on Patreon).
When we were talking on the phone, they mentioned something I’d posted on Patreon. We talked about it for a bit, and I mentioned that if they wanted access to my livestream, they needed to delete and pledge at the $20 level.
Their response was ‘oh, but it’s so much trouble. I think I’ll just leave it as it is, I don’t want to mess with it. I’m mostly doing this to support you, so it’s no trouble for me.’
No UI should provoke the response of ‘I don’t want to mess with it because I don’t want to break it.’
I’ve had to do the same. Most everyone I follow uses other websites too. I use Google Docs to organize most of my rewards. A third party is probably the best route to take for now, as if Patreon ever does address this, it’s not going to be any time soon.
Hi @lutzbone - thanks for bringing this to our attention. I’m so sorry your patron has had such a tough experience! We realize accessing content isn’t the always the easiest process and it’s top of mind for us to improve on.
I reached out to the support team and shared your patrons experience with them. The team confirmed that a pledge cannot be edited without the patron doing so. It’s possible this patron saw a locked $10 tier post and wanted access, then user error occurred. It’s tough to say on behalf of the patron without knowing more info.
I understand you don’t want to ask your patrons to create another support ticket, though I suggest creating a ticket yourself to chat with the support team and they can confirm this theory. I’m so sorry again for the experience. I will absolutely share this experience with the wider organization.
Thank you for responding, and for passing along my concerns. My guess is that a support ticket from me would result in the same response as usual, which is essentially “we can’t help you, you’ll have to ask your patron to make a ticket and we’ll talk to them directly.”
This does not seem to be an isolated instance of user error, but rather a systemic issue (or issues) where the patron onboarding process, authentication protocols, and overall user experience is not meeting the needs of me and my patrons.
I thank you again for passing this along and hope it will help.
Hi @reyna,
One of my patrons ran into issues with Patreon too and I contacted you, thinking I could get enough info to help her. The support team told me she should create a ticket and she did. After a couple of weeks, I understood she got an automated response. When I raised the issue, the support team told me that had happened because you were so busy then that the first reply always was an automated email and she should get back to them. But she gave up. And started supporting me outside of Patreon.
All this to say that no, support team isn’t very helpful when our patrons run into issues. I’m lucky that I don’t have many subscribers, so I can do customer service myself. But then, what do I give you money for?
Again, I didn’t lose this patron. You lost your share. And it wasn’t my decision, they pushed for it. I have to handle her case separately. Not a big deal, so I agreed. But it wasn’t my choice.
I know fixing existing issues isn’t as much fun as creating new features can be (and I’m a sw engineer, so I have personal experience with this), but you should fix your priorities.
Anyway…
I’m staying here for now because I don’t want to stop supporting other creators and my support is being paid for by my patrons.
All the best,
Thomas
This right here! Some of the “upgrades” we have seen seem to be solutions in search of problems. And for many, they have made things worse. (looking at you, creator landing page - have you seen the feedback on the current design???)
Meanwhile, it feels like the support team is stretched too thin to be of much help, and one big driver of that overload seems to be systemic jankiness like this. There are serious problems that have been repeatedly brought to Patreon’s attention, and then repeatedly ignored. So yes, fixing the user experience needs to be the first priority, and I hope that it really is.
Just as Thomas shared, my patron (whom I know in real life) will be supporting me outside of Patreon, so I am probably not actually losing much. Patreon is losing their cut, because they have not earned it. It is easier for my patrons to support me directly than to use Patreon. Like Thomas, I am sticking around for now - but I am actively seeking other patronage options.
Patreon needs to be a facilitator of connection and sharing (the way they advertise) if they want to earn a cut of my patrons’ support. Right now, Patreon is often an obstacle - not only for many of my patrons, but worse, an obstacle for even more patrons that could have been.