Pheedo’s response
A representative of Pheedo contacted me in email after my post the other day. He apologized and took responsibility for Pheedo’s shortcomings - mainly, that the user interface is confusing enough to cause miscommunications and problems like the ones I experienced. He also made a modest gesture which convinced me of his sincerity.
Now, obviously, admitting your company needs improvement does not fix it, but it is the first step, and I thought it deserved to be reported along with the other things I’ve mentioned. I’ll keep an eye on Pheedo in the future and see if they manage to implement changes that would prevent the sort of experience I had.