When a Business Relationship Breaks Trust: My Experience with SimplyNoted.com

As a small business, we rely on vendors who share our commitment to honesty, transparency, and customer care. Recently, I had an experience with a company called SimplyNoted.com that serves as a reminder of how important those values really are.

We opened an account with SimplyNoted and deposited $1,400 to fund handwritten notes we planned to send to our clients. The arrangement was simple: each time we sent a card, the cost would be deducted from our prepaid balance.

Unfortunately, we ran into several technical issues with their system shortly after opening the account, and it became clear the service wasn’t a good fit for us. I decided to cancel and requested a refund for the unused balance.

That’s where the trouble started. The company responded that they had a “30-day refund policy.” However, the invoice provided by SimplyNoted — which, notably, was the only document serving as our purchase agreement — includes no mention of any refund or return policy, nor any contract terms of any kind.

To be clear, I wasn’t returning a product or disputing completed work — I was asking for the return of unspent funds held on deposit. Despite multiple polite attempts to resolve the issue, including copying the company’s owner on our correspondence, the company declined to refund the balance.

While their product itself was adequate, the handling of this matter fell short of basic business fairness. A vendor’s policies should be clear, reasonable, and disclosed upfront, especially when customers are prepaying for services.

I’m sharing this experience not out of frustration, but as a reminder to other business owners:

• Always review refund and cancellation terms carefully before placing funds on deposit.
• Keep copies of all agreements and invoices.
• And when something doesn’t feel right, speak up — politely but firmly.

At Page Insurance, we’ve built our reputation on trust and transparency. Whether you’re insuring a home, car, or business, you deserve to know exactly what you’re paying for and how you’ll be treated if things change. That’s how business should be done.