Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fastmail breaks UI in production

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 53 posts

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#41

Post by bjtitus »

jasonvorhe wrote: post #19
sidcool wrote: post #9

I don't understand the urge to do public shaming instead of first reaching out to support. And the OP is so rude.

I don't know. I'm always confused when social media accounts ask to report issues over different channels when it's so much easier to just reply to customer and ask for additional (non PII) information there. In this case it's unlikely that this was the only or even first report about this issue. So why place the initial burden on a paying customer? If your social media is just a marketing channel, at least make that…

> If your social media is just a marketing channel, at least make that clear so i don't even bother reporting issues that route

Is this snippet from their Twitter bio clear?

"If you need assistance, please submit a ticket: http://fastmail.com/support"

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#42

Post by adityaathalye »

bjtitus wrote: post #40
licyeus wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am the OP. I admit my second message was terse, but the correct social media response for a critical outage is "we're looking into it". Not "if you want support, go here". Like I said, I do not have time to hunt for whatever support channels exist and file a ticket. I pay $50 a year so they can deliver a working product, including triaging their own issues.

There are many reasons why reaching out to support will be more effective. Logging may be tied to accounts, support systems may upload client side logs where appropriate, an event may be tracked to determine a point in time when you had the problem so relevant logs can be checked. Their messaging probably could have been better here to say "we're looking into this. If you have time, please file a support request". On…

This. I am a paying customer. Fastmail's support is stellar. My first port of call is their official customer support channel. Why should I roll the dice on social media, when I have a direct line of support???

This time, I was on the support ticket window, but the penny dropped and I realised it was a service outage / degradation. So I decided to hold back for a bit before filing a ticket.

Based on experience with their service, I trust that their people know what they are doing, and are already on the job.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#43

Post by RandomBacon »

jdbernard wrote: post #36
csomar wrote: post #8

It didn't break anything for me. However, I am failing to understand the point of this design "refreshment". There is nothing new out there, just minor UI changes with no purpose?

Same. I don't hate it, but I do hate that things changed out from underneath me without any notice, opt-in period, or ability to go back.

In a few days, when the frenzy dies down, I will make a feature request ticket asking them to do this next time. Please do the same.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#44

Post by yesfitz »

SomeoneOnTheWeb wrote: post #12

What the hell is that with OP being so rude? And following FastMail's reply > Hello Andrew! Can you please contact our support team so we can look into this for you? fastmail.com/support They say: > Don't have time. Consider my tweet the bug report. Sorry but this asshole behavior. Bugs happen. No need to do public shaming and being rude to the company for that.

This comment section's been illuminating to see who has probably never worked public-facing support or service industry.

There's no amount of money you can pay to make this behavior not shitty. Shitty behavior is never a good look, but sometimes it's understandable. If you refrain from being shitty, you won't have to worry about whether or not it's understandable.

Also, the only reason that someone can be shitty and get results is because other people aren't. (In this case, "submitting" a bug report via Twitter and still getting a resolution is possible because other people reported it through the proper channels.)

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#45

Post by csomar »

garciansmith wrote: post #37
csomar wrote: post #8

It didn't break anything for me. However, I am failing to understand the point of this design "refreshment". There is nothing new out there, just minor UI changes with no purpose?

It makes access to the calendar, contacts, etc., one less click, which I think is nice. Would have preferred all that was set to buttons at the top instead of a thin side bar though.

I think that's how it was before? They just added the icons on the left side but you always had the menu on top?

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#46

Post by bjtitus »

jdbernard wrote: post #31
sidcool wrote: post #9

I don't understand the urge to do public shaming instead of first reaching out to support. And the OP is so rude.

I think it is a result of the impersonal "contact us" intake forms companies have all moved to. You have no indication that you aren't just screaming into the wind. There is no personal touch. So you take to social media where your are sure at least someone hears you. It also scratches the justice itch: if the company doesn't pay attention it looks bad in public and you get some vindication for being ignored. I'm not…

> It also scratches the justice itch: it the company doesn't pay attention or looks bad in public and you get some vindication for being ignored.

This is an interesting point. There is some satisfaction from the likes, the comments, and the assurance that _someone_ is seeing your frustration even if the company does nothing.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#47

Post by jasonvorhe »

bjtitus wrote: post #41
jasonvorhe wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. I'm always confused when social media accounts ask to report issues over different channels when it's so much easier to just reply to customer and ask for additional (non PII) information there. In this case it's unlikely that this was the only or even first report about this issue. So why place the initial burden on a paying customer? If your social media is just a marketing channel, at least make that…

> If your social media is just a marketing channel, at least make that clear so i don't even bother reporting issues that route Is this snippet from their Twitter bio clear? "If you need assistance, please submit a ticket: http://fastmail.com/support "

Actually, yes. This is exactly what I would've asked for. I didn't see that.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#48

Post by cosmotic »

Ancapistani wrote: post #39
licyeus wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am the OP. I admit my second message was terse, but the correct social media response for a critical outage is "we're looking into it". Not "if you want support, go here". Like I said, I do not have time to hunt for whatever support channels exist and file a ticket. I pay $50 a year so they can deliver a working product, including triaging their own issues.

> the correct social media response for a critical outage is "we're looking into it". Not "if you want support, go here". I strongly disagree. For those reading who may not be on X, here's Fastmail's response: > Hello Andrew! Can you please contact our support team so we can look into this for you? http://fastmail.com/support That seems entirely appropriate to me, for several reasons: - it's extremely unlikely that t…

It doesnt take a technical expert to create a ticket and attach a screenshot, nor is it unexpected that automation do all that.

Re: Fastmail breaks UI in production

#49

Post by bichiliad »

TheNewsIsHere wrote: post #35
bichiliad wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do they deserve punishment for iterating on their product?

They don’t. But as a Fastmail customer, I am _really_ tiring of how much they iterate on their UI/UX without notice and seemingly decreasingly solid testing. They push stuff to prod that doesn’t hit beta (at least the public beta environment) regularly. I just stopped using the beta environment because they only test “big” stuff there, it seems. But for the past year they’ve been nitpicking their GUIs and UX and it’s…

I’ve been a Fastmail user for years, but I don’t know that I’ve had the same experience. I think I’ve noticed a few UI polishes, but nothing that broke my workflow. What sorts of things have you ran into specifically?
Post reply on HN