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Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

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Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#161
post #132
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe contact support first, figure out what happened and why before writing the blog post? Maybe it's a cloudflare issue, maybe it's an honest mistake, maybe they are bad at customer service... either way, it's not great to shame a company before you even open a support ticket or talk to someone to find out.

I think it is a bit harsh to say that the OP was trying to shame anyone. He did post a support ticket. When your domain is "off-line" it is literally a shit hit the fan moment, and no one likes to be given the run-around. To combat, hey my issue is always a Sev1 ticket, one can probably institute something like, here is a red button and if you click it, we will charge 100$. If it is indeed an issue that caused you to…

Microsoft used to have this policy (maybe still does) for some support options. It cost $100 to open a case, and if the case was the result of a bug in the product, you got your money back.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've put this idea forward a number of times here on HN in regards to other big tech companies. Technology companies need an "ombudsman" - a contact that customers can go to when the normal tech support processes have failed. The Ombudsman must not be part of the technology companies ordinary support processes, it must be entirely separate, and have highest level authority to demand action within the company. To avoi…

> Technology companies need an "ombudsman" - a contact that customers can go to when the normal tech support processes have failed. All companies should have that!

In Amazon's case, Bezos' email is just that. For AWS, Andy Jassy's (CEO) or Charlie Bell's (SVP) might do just as fine.

Source: Someone who emails them from time to time to get impasses resolved.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#163
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can tell. Cloudflare has been a delight to use up to now and I'm grateful I'm getting this kind of support when I've only used your loss-leader services.

This is probably obvious but you're getting this kind of support because they're getting terrible PR by virtue of your post being at the top of HN. Not because he's such a great guy that cares so much about the customers. Not saying he isn't a great guy, or that anyone at cloudflare actually wanted this to be your experience.

If he’d emailed me directly I would have done the same thing I did. I emailed the head of engineering and support and asked for an explanation. I then jumped into the relevant chat room.

I do this sort of thing all the time. Sure, it’s unfortunate this is #1 on HN, but shrug. Fixing the problem and figured out what happened is important.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#166
post #134

This is being looked into internally and I am involved. Likely won’t post an update here as it pertains to a customer account (unless customer agrees). BTW If you, dear reader, ever find yourself so frustrated with Cloudflare that you feel like your only recourse is a blog post... my email is jgc@cloudflare.com and I’m happy to hear from people.

> BTW If you, dear reader, ever find yourself so frustrated with Cloudflare that you feel like your only recourse is a blog post... my email is jgc@cloudflare.com and I’m happy to hear from people. I know that people will think it's great that you are doing this and I also know that you think it's good (for you) to have a feel for the issues that frustrate every day users. But I think it's not a great use of a compan…

I disagree with you. It matters enormously that people like me are available. Sure there are time wasters who’ll send me email. But I don’t care. Dealing with a small number of real customers doesn’t take a lot of my time and matters.

Everyone optimizes for the worst case. They think “if I give out my email I’ll get tons of useless email”. I can assure you I get 10x the crap sent to me on LinkedIn than via direct emails from customers or others.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#167

This is being looked into internally and I am involved. Likely won’t post an update here as it pertains to a customer account (unless customer agrees). BTW If you, dear reader, ever find yourself so frustrated with Cloudflare that you feel like your only recourse is a blog post... my email is jgc@cloudflare.com and I’m happy to hear from people.

I've put this idea forward a number of times here on HN in regards to other big tech companies. Technology companies need an "ombudsman" - a contact that customers can go to when the normal tech support processes have failed. The Ombudsman must not be part of the technology companies ordinary support processes, it must be entirely separate, and have highest level authority to demand action within the company. To avoi…

That's actually a really good idea. Bit like a Credit Card Chargeback, except it's charged to the customer and is refundable.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#168
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Technology companies need an "ombudsman" - a contact that customers can go to when the normal tech support processes have failed. All companies should have that!

This sounds nice in theory, but you know that tons of people would just go straight to the ombudsman, thinking they can jump the support queue or bypass established process. The "shit filtering" workload would be tremendous..

The way this works everywhere is you go through the normal support process until you reach top level support if the situation isn't resolve you go to the ombudmen. If you go before you tried support they will direct you to support first.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#169
post #134

This is being looked into internally and I am involved. Likely won’t post an update here as it pertains to a customer account (unless customer agrees). BTW If you, dear reader, ever find yourself so frustrated with Cloudflare that you feel like your only recourse is a blog post... my email is jgc@cloudflare.com and I’m happy to hear from people.

> BTW If you, dear reader, ever find yourself so frustrated with Cloudflare that you feel like your only recourse is a blog post... my email is jgc@cloudflare.com and I’m happy to hear from people. I know that people will think it's great that you are doing this and I also know that you think it's good (for you) to have a feel for the issues that frustrate every day users. But I think it's not a great use of a compan…

> I know that people will think it's great that you are doing this and I also know that you think it's good (for you) to have a feel for the issues that frustrate every day users. But I think it's not a great use of a company execs time and I am not even sure it's a good way to deploy resources at Cloudflare.

As a counter example, Jeff Bezos (whose time may be worth more than anybody else's) famously audits his email for customer complaints and occasionally derails an organization for a day or two in order to figure out what happened. He stands behind this practice and has said that he often picks out cases where the anecdotal complaint is counter to data that he's been presented, and that more often than not the anecdotes are correct and find a shortcoming in the data. IMO it also demonstrates a culture of caring and following up about anecdotes to others whose time is worth less than his own.

Re: Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I don't, but I do think it increases its chances of happening - and there is historical precedent for it. For that reason, I sit somewhere between Popper's paradox of tolerance on these matters (and I go further than him), Sartre's notes on anti-semitism, and Marcuse's criticism of simple plurality as a substitute for educated and rational thought. To be clear, I don't advocate for censorship of ideas that I simp…

To get this straight, you are stating that you believe it is in your interest for certain other people who live in the same society as you to be prohibited from attempting to further their own interests by freely and meaningfully participating in the public political debate to the same degree that you and others in your society are able. Do you think that's going to end well? How do you expect those people to feel ab…

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