Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're forgetting about the AUP, especially this part: Customer Communication Please remember that the staff at this* are, like you, only human. We expect to be treated with the same level of respect as you'd expect us to treat you, so please bear this in mind when communicating with us, and more importantly before clicking the "Send" button. We reserve the right to ignore and discontinue any correspondance we consid…
Why does everyone always quote AUPs? The law counts above an AUP.
Moving On...
101–110 of 117 posts
Re: Moving On...
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're taking a bus between two cities, can they decide in the middle of the trip that they don't want your business anymore, refund half your money, and leave you at the side of the road? Of course not. That's called breach of contract. And unless This* has a carefully-written escape clause in their service contract, they would be just as liable for canceling service in the middle of a contract period as well.
Yea, why don't you just try? Step on a bus and start being a total dick and harass other travelers, chances are high you'll be kicked off the bus before you arrive at your destination. IMO that's exactly the same thing.
Re: Moving On...
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're taking a bus between two cities, can they decide in the middle of the trip that they don't want your business anymore, refund half your money, and leave you at the side of the road? Of course not. That's called breach of contract. And unless This* has a carefully-written escape clause in their service contract, they would be just as liable for canceling service in the middle of a contract period as well.
Really? I've seen plenty of people kicked off buses for unsociable behaviour.
Re: Moving On...
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't agree here. Nobody owes the world comments, and most particularly they do not owe the Reddit hivemind the opportunity for a good one-minute hate.
I agree that nobody owes the world comments but the point of a conciliatory blog post is to make people stop hating you. If they're still hating you to the point where you've had to turn off comments then your post isn't doing its job properly. (I also agree with your earlier post that if you're selling web hosting for $3/month you'll have to deal with quite a few difficult customers. Often the people who pay the lea…
Re: Moving On...
#105Again: enough. These people do not matter. We can stop wasting time talking about them. The travails of people who run into payment problems over $5 web hosting accounts do not constitute "Hacker News". This is a fake controversy. We do not need to evaluate what either side says; neither side matters. Flagged.
It's a phenomenal case study in how not to do customer service and social media at a small tech company. I think there are a lot of people in the HN community who could learn a thing or two from this discussion.
Re: Moving On...
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems to be one of those stories which has mutated. In the original account, the poster says they inquired about a problem, had their account terminated, and then flipped out. Almost every commenter on HN seems to assume that the account termination happened after the flip-out, but from what I can tell that isn't correct?
The fully paid and not in dispute account was suspended (disabled) because of the account owner's twitter comments. The account owner then swore on twitter and so his account was further deleted and all backups destroyed. The story hasn't mutated but the details are subtle.
* OP has paypal payment issue with This.
* Friend asks them via twitter "That's not cool. Suspending a friends account because of a minor PayPal dispute? When did you get into doing that?"
* They respond saying "Please mind your own business."[2]
* OP and This* get into a dispute about whether such a response was professional or not.
* Both accounts are then suspended. (This part is unclear from the original account. OP says that is at this point his account was suspended, while friend's twitter implies it had been suspended earlier. My guess would be it was originally supposed to be a temporary suspension until payment was worked out?)
* OP flips out a bit and swears on twitter.
* Backups deleted.
-------------------------------
Friend's twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/boriskourt
OP's twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/berfarah
[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/jk195/stay_the_f...
Re: Moving On...
#107From experience, if you screw up and the other guy responds badly, saying "I screwed up, but the other guy responded poorly" is not going to be received as well as just saying "I screwed up." Only very rarely have I seen more benefit actively defending myself from a customer's accusation rather than apologizing and taking responsibility, even if it was only partly my fault.
Well, yes, but they felt they need to restore some reputation. (Or would my post be received better if I just said "Well, yes"? :))
I mean, the second is usually the case; but as a business, you are expected to be 'the bigger person' and, you know, not delete people's personal data because they are being dicks to you.
Defending your actions, in some minds, makes it sound more likely that you'd do it again in the same situation.
Re: Moving On...
#108So they're standing by their decision to kill an account because their feelings got hurt, which is already enough to make me doubt their professionalism. But the part that makes me choke is the phrase "the language used by yourself". While it's true that the subjunctive mood can help defuse an emotional situation by deemphasizing the agency of the action, you're doing it wrong . For God's sake, learn English.
That's not the subjunctive. You're doing it wrong. For God's sake, learn English.
Re: Moving On...
#109Get over the issue will you! What's done is done, "sh#t happens".. I think the company has taken appropriate steps and I for one would like them NOT to fire (but give him a strike on top of what they already have done) the poor nerd why got so frustrated that he used a totally inappropriate tone with clients.
And then canceled the accounts of paying clients, who had done nothing wrong, and deleted all of their information.
Re: Moving On...
#110As the Co-founder of a statup that has dealt directly with situations like this in the past, I don't see much wrong with how the situation was handled. You wouldn't expect a restaurant owner to put up with a rude and insulting customer being a dick to restaurant staff, so why should any other service have to put up with it? Some customers just aren't worth the hassle they put out PERIOD. I don't give a shit if you're…
If I saw a service I use unreasonably lock someone's account I'd be concerned for my own. The customer was totally justified in asking their questions, ironically merely seeking assurance for their site.
Instead of telling the customer what they could they imply that it's the customer's fault for even asking because it could involve secret data, and they ridicule the customer for caring - as if they should have just known to shut up and hurry away.
> You wouldn't expect a restaurant owner to put up with a rude and insulting customer being a dick to restaurant staff, so why should any other service have to put up with it?
At a minimum I would expect them to provide the food to-go, and at a discount reflecting the changed nature of the service provided, or to refund the purchase price. That the customer's site and backups got irrevocably nuked doesn't fit into the restaurant analogy at all but just goes how "careless" they are with what could be your data.
However, I would like to call attention to this needless concern trolling. A "dirty word" is not a knife, and is actually a reasonable response to PR shit and corporate excuses.
> Some customers just aren't worth the hassle they put out PERIOD. I don't give a shit if you're willing to pay me $9.99 a month, if you purposely go out of your way to insult myself or a member of my team, you don't gain the benefit of using our product, end of story.
This is a service you provide, if you can't be bothered to do it well don't hide behind your fear of rudeness to dodge complaints.
> "Purposefully go out of your way"
Yes, as if the customer scheduled "Go bug a legit company for no reason".