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I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

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Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#351

Post by sschueller »

tda wrote: post #204
Vegenoid wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. All the time when I worked in IT: Me: Please try these 3 things and let me know how it goes: (list of 3 things with instructions) Them: I tried (thing #1) and it didn’t work. Me: Thank you, please try these 2 things and let me know how it goes Them: I tried (thing #2) and it didn’t work. Me: Thank you, please try this thing and let me know how it goes Them: (no response) Me: Just checking in to see if this is re…

Me: This very specific thing is broken in general for your product when I do a and b. Just like users x,y and z report on . (Siemens) Support: Before I can help you, please find the serial number via , and the exact version of subsystems . Me: Here you go, though I fail to see how my specific setup is relevant as the problem has been reported on forums for years, and it is easily reproducible Support: Please update t…

What do you do if you are incorrect? It has happened many times that a customer calls certain they know what the issue is and even if the customer is well versed in that field he may be wrong.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#352

Post by suzzer99 »

Vegenoid wrote: post #126
duxup wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You need to develop a polite but curt tone of voice for customer support. And very focused responses in terms of action items. You might think of 3 things to say, check, but sadly 90% of the people you respond to with a list will behave like they read just one of them. Sadly this also leads to dragging things out for everyone who can handle more than one thing at a time :(

Yep. All the time when I worked in IT: Me: Please try these 3 things and let me know how it goes: (list of 3 things with instructions) Them: I tried (thing #1) and it didn’t work. Me: Thank you, please try these 2 things and let me know how it goes Them: I tried (thing #2) and it didn’t work. Me: Thank you, please try this thing and let me know how it goes Them: (no response) Me: Just checking in to see if this is re…

We had a Salesforce consultant who was like this. I'd send him a list of five things he needed to do to make his jitterbit connection work with our internal API.

He'd do one thing, report that it still didn't work. I'd ask if he did the other four things. He'd do the next thing, report that it still didn't work, etc.

God only knows how much that department was paying him.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#353

Post by creesch »

hluska wrote: post #259
creesch wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, different person as the one you responded to. Your entire comment was reasonable up until the last line. What is that even based on? Where did they admit to setting up traps? Is that your take on their comment about trying to ask three questions in one message? Because, even without them creating paragraphs, it is abundantly clear they just mean that as something from experience. Not something they do as someth…

This is a good example. They wrote: “When confronted (constructively, much later) they usually get evasive and can’t explain.” Confronted is a big word with a hostile intent. They’re incredibly measured in their language and use precise language. That sounds like a trap to me - it’s: A.) Asking three questions and only get 1/3 answered. B.) Waiting for a suitable period of time to elapse. C.) Confronting them while e…

I feel like you are reading way to much into it. To the point that this is almost appropriate https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/the-violent-role-of-relentle...

Confronted isn't necessarily a hostile word. It is a very apt word to use for the action off asking someone about the other two points. They even made it clear that it was in a constructive manner.

May I ask, do you often feel like you are operating in a hostile environment?

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#354

Post by applied_heat »

tda wrote: post #204
Vegenoid wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. All the time when I worked in IT: Me: Please try these 3 things and let me know how it goes: (list of 3 things with instructions) Them: I tried (thing #1) and it didn’t work. Me: Thank you, please try these 2 things and let me know how it goes Them: I tried (thing #2) and it didn’t work. Me: Thank you, please try this thing and let me know how it goes Them: (no response) Me: Just checking in to see if this is re…

Me: This very specific thing is broken in general for your product when I do a and b. Just like users x,y and z report on . (Siemens) Support: Before I can help you, please find the serial number via , and the exact version of subsystems . Me: Here you go, though I fail to see how my specific setup is relevant as the problem has been reported on forums for years, and it is easily reproducible Support: Please update t…

I have had great experiences with Schneider electric support for their automation platforms, and switchgear

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#355

Post by authorfly »

gizmo wrote: post #119
authorfly wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's better but this is not uniformly true. For one, people use random sites to test cards to see if they can get away with using stolen CC details at every stripe-integrated company I've seen, target audience irrelevant. The proportion of negative/wild interactions with support and chargebacks is always going to be in an uphill battle with positive correspondance unless you are selling multi-seat deals with support…

> people use random sites to test cards to see if they can get away with using stolen CC details I already addressed this. By forcing people to use the product before allowing them to purchase you make drive-by fraud impossible. We use stripe and we have 0 fraud to deal with.

You didn't read my comment for what it meant, I think.

This isn't automated, it's people in 3rd world countries signing up to random sites that have CC as a method of payment and seeing if payment goes through.

You probably pay for Stripe Radar and don't see these payments but are also silently missing out on legitimate payments, or you run KYC or have too few or only western access to your site otherwise. Have you spoken to the people who manage your Stripe about the disputes and how many are fraud and the Fraudulent payment detection numbers you have? It won't be 0 for any substantial business.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#356

Post by mavamaarten »

This is extremely relatable. I have a similar experience with a free (!) watchface and a paid watch app I made a good few years back when WearOS was all the hype.

There's very friendly and thankful customers, there's unfortunately also a lot of needy and annoying ones. How do they not understand that I work for free, they always ask for more.

Add to that Google that is behaving like a toxic god, changing the rules of their walled garden every few months. I kid you not, one day they rejected my watchface because _it needed a splash screen_. And because my description mentioned "WearOS" and it should have been "Wear OS".

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#357

Post by ahmed_ds »

fragmede wrote: post #346
ahmed_ds wrote: post #345

I will try my best to not make this sound like a veiled promotion. Short answer is you need a VA. What I do mostly act as a filter. I have seen this happen with my clients. People often think that it is just too much hassle to running a small sideproject and not worth the time. But geez man, do you have to do everything?? Why bother with the grunt work. You have caught the lightening in the bottle, but for the rest d…

which is to say, the best thing about running a business is that you can just pay someone else to deal with the problems you don't want to. hate invoicing? there's a service for that. hate doing the books? get a bookkeeper.

I think the difference between a VA and conventional employee is the idea of specialization and frequency. Doing VA work I have to do all things ranging from graphics design to support to crm stuff. Now, I am not the best guy out there to be great at one thing but I will try to be adaquete. The lack of specialization is made up by the fact that VAs are cheap, and you do not have to have that commitment to keep paying for them. If it is a 5 hour work week that will do.

These days, I just have my clients on whatsapp. They give me a random task, I give a deliverable time.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#358

Post by ahmed_ds »

lofenfew wrote: post #347
ahmed_ds wrote: post #345

I will try my best to not make this sound like a veiled promotion. Short answer is you need a VA. What I do mostly act as a filter. I have seen this happen with my clients. People often think that it is just too much hassle to running a small sideproject and not worth the time. But geez man, do you have to do everything?? Why bother with the grunt work. You have caught the lightening in the bottle, but for the rest d…

VA in this context meaning?

It is "virtual assistant". Essentially, I as a VA do office work, data entry, design, social media, support, sales stuff etc.

You assign a task to me, and you pay hourly for that task. Or you can just get a weekly contract.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#359

Post by arrowsmith »

crazygringo wrote: post #54
_se wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one wants to talk to an AI for customer support.

Actually, I do. There's no wait in line. There's no waiting 2 min for each response in chat, or waiting 5 min on hold while the rep figures out what to do. And I've, shockingly, gotten issues resolved faster and better. Using one semi-popular consumer app -- once it pointed me to docs on their site that Google wasn't finding because I didn't know what keywords to use. And twice it escalated me to send a message to th…

I would if the AI chatbot could ever actually answer my question, but the conversation ALWAYS goes like this:

Bot: Welcome! Please tell me what you'd like help with.

Me: how do I X?

Bot: Please choose an option: [list of irrelevant things].

Me: None, I need to do X.

Bot: Okay, please try [instructions copy-pasted from the docs].

Me: I already read the documentation and it didn't answer my question, that's why I'm here.

Bot: I'm sorry, I don't know how to help.

Me: Can I speak to a human?

Bot: Welcome! Please tell me what you'd like help with.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#360

Post by xyproto »

Aachen wrote: post #153
xyproto wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for reaching out. The issue you’ve described seems to be on your end. Please check your settings or consult our docs for further guidance. If the problem persists, feel free to get in touch.

I'd 100% expect that to be a template from someone who either has no clue and can't investigate, or has 200 other tickets to get to and couldn't be bothered to look into a case that isn't in the FAQ. It also does not say what makes you have this assumption and so it works only as a brick wall to alienate any customer goodwill you may have built up. Please never write this unless it's self evident why it's on the cust…

I hate this type of communication too, including templates and chatbots.

It was just an example, though.

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