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Lycos Deletes Emails and Says 'Too Bad!'

Posted by Zonk on from the now-that's-customer-service dept.

Billosaur writes "The Consumerist brings us a tale of woe which is apparently generating outrage in some quarters, along with death threats. Lycos email customer Whitney did not access her account for 30 days. This resulted in Lycos deleting over two years worth of email. It isn't so much Lycos' policy that's the problem (though that requires some scrutiny), but the response of the 'manager of all of Customer Service,' Mike Jandreau. Apparently he's not too service oriented, as his exchange with Whitney shows. And since this story was posted to The Consumerist, apparently Mr. Jandreau has become the focus of some unwanted attention. Of course, his final response to her might have something to with it: 'I'm sorry, no one here has any intentions of helping you with anything. I am the manager of all of Customer Service. There is no one higher than me that you will speak with. You violated our policy, which is, despite what you say, completely clear. No one is holding anything hostage. Your e-mails have been completely deleted, and no amount of money can now restore them.'"

12 of 513 comments (clear)

  1. The Mail Nazi! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    No mail for you!!

  2. Outrageous by Intron · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would demand a full refund for this free service.

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    Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
  3. corporatespeak by udderly · · Score: 4, Funny

    Of course, his final response to her might have something to with it: 'I'm sorry, no one here has any intentions of helping you with anything. I am the manager of all of Customer Service. There is no one higher than me that you will speak with. You violated our policy, which is, despite what you say, completely clear. No one is holding anything hostage. Your e-mails have been completely deleted, and no amount of money can now restore them.'" Sounds like someone needs to brush up on their corporatespeak.
  4. What do you expect? by RandoX · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sounds like the Lycos servers wolfed them down.

  5. Re:Only Losers Use Free Webmail by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 3, Funny

    Of course, no company like Lycos ever makes money on said free email accounts. They don't get any revenue from advertisements or anything, so driving customers aways like they're bubonic rats won't have any effect on corporate revenue. Aggressive reduction of your customer base is always a good business model.

    That said, Lycos is pretty currently pretty out front about the need to check mail every 30 days. I don't know if that was true when the subject of this signed up.

    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
  6. What? by Colin+Smith · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean this isn't how customer support is supposed to act?

    p.s. The customer isn't always right, all too often the customer is wrong, stupid and loud with it.

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    Deleted
  7. He is the CSOH! by C_Kode · · Score: 3, Funny

    Customer Service Operator from Hell!!!

    Sweet! Give him a website! :)

  8. What surprised me most by snitmo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Lycos still existed?

  9. Re:Free service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm wondering what advise those people have when someone considers using a free operating system?

    RTFM, n00b!

    </jk>

  10. How high is he? by curtlewis · · Score: 5, Funny

    There is no one higher than me that you will speak with. No one higher, eh? I guess he must be referring to drug usage because I'm sure he reports to someone.

    I'm not aware of any company where the Manager of Customer Support is equivalent to CEO/Chairman...

  11. Re:The real Mail Nazi! by computational+super · · Score: 4, Funny

    You think Lycos' customer service is bad? I just got an e-mail from Bank of America about how they need me to click through this link and verify my client information, and I don't even have an account there! I messed them up, though - I clicked through and input my account details with my actual bank account with Washington Mutual. That ought to confuse somebody in processing!

    --
    Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
  12. Re:The real Mail Nazi! by Firehed · · Score: 4, Funny

    umm, that's not really a serious post. You just got *wooshed*.

    --
    How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?