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Lycos Deletes Emails and Says 'Too Bad!'
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.'"
>restore them.
I doubt this is true. There are probably more than a hundred different archives, tarballs, and tape backups from which they could salvage most, if not all, of the poor woman's e-mail.
If his sister/wife/daughter would "lose" her e-mail would he be so dismissive?
His statement is especially suspect when the original tech support answer
was Should you want to restore the previous contents of your account, you
will need to upgrade to the Lycos Mail Plus service...Restoration is not
available to members who do not upgrade, and our policy will be strictly
enforced. To have your account restored, you must upgrade, and pay the
$19.95 upgrade fee I guess the corporate mantra is: If extortion won't work then resort to extermination.
Sounds like my last three
employers.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
The point is that the original tech support response was that her mail could be retrieved for $19.95 and, when the consumer dared (dared, I say) to call the policy into question, the new response was that everything had been summarily, finally, and completely deleted.
Uh-huh. What's Lycos' archive, backup, restoration, and redundancy system like? How much money have they poured into their network stability?
Policy is one thing. Bull5hit is another.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
> them deleting her email
The e-mail isn't really completely deleted.
> Go read the replies
Exactly. This is a perfect example of social bullying.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
... on the one hand, it was a pretty crummy thing for Jandreau to say. "I am the manager of all of Customer Service. There is no one higher than me that you will speak with" is high-handed, arrogant, and sounds like some power-tripping Napoleon wanna-be. It was as tasteless as distilled water, and I coud understand a desire to pound on him.
On the other hand, it is a free service, and Lycos has just proven that you do, indeed, get what you pay for. It is a shame that the old E-mails are gone, and it is unfortunate that nobody thought of a way to archive them off of Lycos' servers so that it no longer cluttered their machines, but it does appear to have been part of their ToS, so my sympathy is limited there, too.
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
I have a hard time with this kind of reaction from Lycos, and other companies. How can they get away with being assholes?
I worked for Lycos as a contractor for two months. In that time, I survived two rounds of layoffs, in which they lost half their workforce. I didn't survive the third.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
I think it's entirely possible that free accounts, of which there could be millions, offer no form of protection. Think logically the amount of storage that that would require for a small company like Lycos, and the likely small staff they have. I just can't imagine them having a massive backup system.
... but only if she upgraded to the $20 premium service.
Except that, if I'm understanding what happened correctly, at one point after her email got deleted, they offered to restore it
That was the beginning of the whole argument. She got mad because she felt that this was extortionate, and Lycos' Customer Service Manager basically revoked the offer and said "haha -- now you can't get it back even if you pay!"
So there was clearly a backup there at some point. Or not even a backup; they could have just logically deleted the data, but not physically deleted it yet. It wouldn't have appeared in her account, but it would have still be there on the servers somewhere. (A lot of web hosting companies do similar stuff; if you don't pay your bill, your site will disappear, but if you cough up it will reappear instantly. It wasn't actually deleted, just deactivated.) So it wouldn't be necessary for them to have much additional storage; they wouldn't need to keep a totally redundant backup system (though they probably would), just some feature in their email system that would let them render messages invisible to the user, but allow an admin or DBA to put them back later if the customer upgraded.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Prediction: Michael Jandreau is out of a job by Monday, and hopefully a tad wiser.
Having clicked through the Consumerist write-up to the aggrieved customer's blog, it looks like the customer in question is being almost deliberately obtuse and the write-up at Consumerist is misleading.
Whitney is complaining because she doesn't want to pay for an upgraded account to get her emails back (apparently, there's a policy on that: inactive accounts can recover mail lost that way by upgrading to a paid account--not that unusual, IIRC, a half-dozen years back, and undoubtedly a valuable revenue stream for Lycos). Reading between the lines a bit, she's probably made herself a PitA by demanding that the CSRs do something they have no ability to do. (Remember that the key to a business isn't keeping every customer: it's keeping the customers that are making you money. Free email accounts probably aren't making Lycos much money, especially ones that nobody is using.)
Yeah, Lycos looks like a bunch of jerks here. I'm not saying otherwise. But I find myself in disagreement with the Consumerist's claim that they owe her a paid service for nothing just because they're jerks. Sorry about your luck, Whitney: in the future, don't store your email with Lycos.
Canthros
While Lycos is certainly not earning any customer service points (I wouldn't do business with them), my sympathy for anyone for losing email stored online is minimal. While many online services are very reliable have been around for years, there are no guarantees. Any data stored exclusively on a remote server is unimportant data, particularly if the service is free. The only way to ensure your data is not lost to you is to have direct control over it.
I think the crux of this matter is how insulting Lycos is to the user community (or at least one user). Perhaps it is a reminder of how spotty support can be for free services. Everything is often great, but occasionally support drops out completely, without the recourse (and support) that paid services usually offer. Enjoy things while you can, but don't expect them to stay the same forever.
I expect several people to come up with the "thats what you get for using a free service" reply. I'm wondering what advise those people have when someone considers using a free operating system?
It's sleazy, sure. But you have the right to refuse service to anyone on any grounds other than those which are prohibited by law, and "I thought she was an idiot and I don't mean mentally retarded" is a valid reason not to do business with someone. Assuming their TOS warns you that they may delete your email if you don't use the service in too long a time, they're really under no obligation to return it unless the TOS itself also says (or more to the point, said at the time this all went down) that you can get that mail back by spending the twenty bucks.
Ultimately, this person is an idiot for not just spending the twenty bucks. If you can't follow the TOS, and they offer to let you have your data, why not just cough up the cash, then archive your mail someplace else, cancel your service, and tell the world your story? Instead, she threw a hissy fit and got smacked down.
Basically this guy sounds to me like he is behaving like a BOFH... If this story had appeared on the BOFH website, it would be posted here as a hilarious example of a stupid user, if it were even considered newsworthy. "Stupid user... I BANISH THEE! Now get thee from my sight. Ni!"
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Yeah, not the best possible response, even if she was being exceptionally difficult. Let me give it a try:
"I am responsible for all decisions regarding Customer Service. At this time, we have followed our normal policy for free accounts. We offered you the opportunity to upgrade your account, which would have paid for one of our staff to restore your e-mails for you. However, since we didn't hear from you in 48 hours, the automated process has run normally and completely deleted your e-mail. It is absolutely unrecoverable. I'm sorry for your inconvenience, but we've provided the service that you signed up for. Please provide comments that will help us improve our service in the future if you wish. However, as the Manager of Customer Service for all of Lycos, I have decided that this particular case is closed and will provide no further reply to your questions and concerns."
Hmmm. Same thing, but not quite as confrontational. It still states the important bits: it was policy, we warned you, you ignored us, I'm the manager and I've decided to close this issue without further correspondence. "10/10 for effort, but minus a few points for style, ya?"
"Please describe the scientific nature of the 'whammy'" - Agent Scully
Overall, $20 to have someone do a restore is cheap. I can't get my mechanic to plug in the EEC code reader for $20. I've dealt with Lycos before -the company I was working with at the time had a branded portal - they're not that bad, but they don't go out of their way to be pricks. I'm betting on the passing of a deadline and a recycling of the freebie acct backups. (face it it's free, they're not going to run daily, weekly, and monthly backups like they would for paying customers)
What the hell has happened to personal responsiblity? Now the Customer service agent may have been gruff,(I haven't been able to read the blog due to it being dotted) but why can't people learn to understand the rules of the field here. They have their rules of deletion. She didn't follow them. They deleted them. They offer a service to retrieve them for a cost. She doesn't want to pay. What is the problem really here.
I think it is time that people in the IT field need to practice more tough love, this doesn't give us the right to be assholes, but computers are everywhere, in every part of life. The average joe needs to do this stuff for himself now. No more hand holding. What is it with the mindset that "oh I can just be clueless about everything, someone will sort it out for me"?
They offered to sort it out for her, for a cost. How were they to know she didn't abandoned the account?
And on the flip side again to my fellow IT grunts. Don't be asses, don't use unneeded technobabble (some is really needed sadly to properly communicate with others about computers though), and f'ing document things. Offer your info and insight to others, let them learn the rules of the field.
We all need to learn to be helpful not hapless.
Ok, Captain Angry Pants is going to rest now.
CaptAngryPants aka Eric
http://rustmedia.tv
Ever heard of a backup? ...guess you haven't. Use a client for e-mail when you can, and the web only for remote access to your mail. I have years of e-mail stored in my local client from several current and former web based free-mail clients. I leave the "delete from server when downloaded" box unchecked so I allways have 2 copies of all my mail. I periodically archive to maintain a reasonable database, launch time, and scan time. I can re-mount any archive at will and have all my old mail at my fingertips. If one of my free-mail systems clears out my inbox, I can run any number of tools to put all the mail back. I archive to DVD periodically as well, just to be sure.
If you don't protect your own data, why are you surprised they didn't either?
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
If it says that they may be deleted, then they may be deleted. Whether other companies offer a grace period is irrelevant, and in spite of the fact that an entire industry has sprung up around rescuing people from their delete key, there really is no reason to think that "delete" doesn't mean "irrevocably".
"May" or "shall", it doesn't matter. Their service and attitude weren't exactly the helpful, perky type that is sometimes offered (and appreciated), it doesn't mean that she has any right to whine when Lycos *doesn't* bend over backwards to help her...
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
Whenever something is free, I try to work out where the catch is. Nobody will spend money giving away a free email service. Lycos is quite clearly hoping to tempt you into their paid subscription service. Fair enough. They're clearly going to do everything poissible to encourage you to do that. I say good luck to them. I find lycos useful for disposable email addresses, so they're not going to get me to convert. I'm most likely a cost to them. If I'm going ot be a freeloader, the last thing I expect is customer service. They'd prefer to get rid of anyone who obviously isn't going to upgrade.
All other issues in the situation aside, the answer to that particular question is, "No."
But then the idea that people assigned to customer service should themselves be in their right mind is a dying concept. We live in an age where the customer is viewed as some sort of work horse; and it is deemed more financially advantageous to work a horse to death in three years than keep him in service for 15, because the horse is a consumer.
Of course in that situation the horse does not have much in the way of options.
Yes, in this case she was getting a free service and might be viewed by some as being a pure drain on the system, but attempts to explain to her that data retention costs money and thus the account deletion policy might well be reasonable and that restoration is a labor intensive process that she might just have to legitimately compensate the company for might have been handled with a bit more delicacy, and efficatiously.
She might not have been right, but she was the one with the twenty bucks they failed to get from her. And now they have a wider PR problem instead of a quiet, little private one.
KFG
If you want something for free, you have to follow by their rules. It's as simple as that. Why should they take extra time and effort (MONEY money money) to have someone do something that is out of the automation. Ads bring profit only if everything else is automated. They also have bills. Don't complain if you are getting it free and aren't using it by the rules.
i agree the parent is +5 funny, however, it seems that some people actually believe that she hasn't a right to complain because the service was free. let's follow that logic for a moment:
i have a computer shop that offers a back up service for free (as an incentive to get people in the store to buy computers, eg). a customer uses it, say 6 months in the past. every 2 months i archive stuff off to a cheap medium, say dvd-r. customer comes back, says, hey, my hdd crashed, could you restore my old info to a new hdd. i tell him, "sure, oh by the way, you'll need to upgrade to a premium service for $19.99."
the customer gets irate, and no one can figure out why. even after i show him the original fine print, he feels cheated. why?
because he was under the impression it was a FREE service with no "catches". he entered the agreement with a trust -- a trust that i will venture to say was exploited. if i saw that he didn't read the agreement when he signed, did i point out to him that it would cost him $20 if he were to ever *use* the service?
of course not. he probably would've just bought a backup drive or something instead. by the same token, i bet the 30day provision was buried in the eula, which lycos bets no one reads (and they figure they don't both people that do as customers).
i think, as a business owner, i should be able to stand my ground, however underhanded it is. he did sign afterall. it's not my fault he had a general trust in people.
however, to respond how lycos did in this case is plain unethical -- i doubt there was language in the EULA that stated, "if user complains about any portion of agreement, lycos reserves the right to delete any and all of user's data."
mr c
"Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it." - R. Feynman
Working in customer service, I can attest there are some customers that you should fire. These are the low to no profit customers who demands time and vastly over estimate their importance in the world. The ones who demand to speak to your VP or assume the media is interested in hearing of how the evil phone company cut their phone service just because they're 6 months behind on their bills.
At some point a customer demands more then their current and future business is worth and you have to set your foot down. I suspect Ms. Whitney is one of these, and the lycos rep put his foot down. It happens fairly often but with more diplomatic language in every company. There is simply a certain class of person who such a hassle to deal with that you want to direct them to yoru compitition.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
I hope not. It's about time people stopped pandering to whiners. People don't learn if they get their way every time they cry and scream about something.
She shouldn't have gotten her way, but the "no" should have sounded a little more like, "sorry, but no" and a little less like "fuck off."
Learn to love Alaska
His response sucked. I'm a supervisor and if I was his boss, I'd have severely reprimanded him. At the same time, I have no idea what their complete exchange was because the sites have been /.ed.
I will say this. If she's posting personal information and people are identifying him and sending death threats, I want this woman prosecuted, persecuted, and hung from her toenails. As a support rep, personally attacking someone and putting their life in danger is immoral and wrong on so many levels.
1) You singled out a peon who works at a big company, even if he is the supervisor. He doesn't make policy, he only enforces it. Blame the company, not a single person.
2) It's email. It's not a kidney transplant. You had a lot of opportunities to get it back, and it's not the end of the world. Okay, if one of the emails contains the formula for nuclear fusion or the location of your small child and you can't find it anywhere else, I'll understand. Otherwise get over it.
3) You want help? Take the high road. This is the low road. To said "he's a jerk and I'm making fun of you for ever and ever." How mature is that?
4) He's getting death threats. OMG I'm going to find YOUR address and YOUR picture and get a bunch of support reps to give you death threats, you stupid bitch, and see how you like it! Death threats are nothing to laugh at, and are completely over the top, no matter what he said about your email.
5) I'm shocked and amazed at people who torment support reps as incompetant, rude, and unsocial. Do you realize how much shit we get thrown at us every day and how hard this job is because people like this? The nicer you are to me, the nicer I am for you. I get people yelling at me every day, and I help them, but I don't wanna, and I can't help that feeling. When I call someone for service, and I never yell at the person on the phone. I know form personal experience that being nice is the way to go. Now you've completely ruined your chance at ever getting your email back because, when an asshole pissed you off, you decided to be an even bigger asshole.
He has every right to sue her, and I hope she gets taken to the cleaners. Yes I'm emotional about this because this is scary to me. You don't take out your petty problems on a support rep. The support rep is just a cog in a wheel. Keep it oiled and it will do the job, but don't take a wrench to it just because it won't do what the machine can't do.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
I don't blame the guy for talking this way. He's honest. Their service deletes email permanently if someone doesn't log in for a time, and when something like that happens they can offer nothing further. He's just being honest about the service. Of course, with a service like that, brutal honesty isn't a good tactic, but whenever honesty becomes bad policy, you need to review your service, not the way you talk.
I run a business which deals with customers. In my 20+ years experience, 99% of customers are decent people. The other 1% are assholes. Unfortunately the good customers will do their business and leave, whereas the assholes seem to hang around. So at least 10% of your time is spent dealing with the assholes.
These assholes will make your employee's life a living hell if you don't allow your employee to protect himself. ( look at customerssuck.com for examples ) No employee will work for your company very long if you tell him that he must take shit from anybody 8 hours a day.
But a good customer service manager - and I mean the real boss, not the arrogant guy who claims to be the head of customer service - will train his people how to tell a customer to go away without getting embroiled in a pissing contest. ( Saying "I'm sorry that this happened..." is a good start. It's possible to empathize with a customer without admitting that the company is at fault. )
Yes, the customer was naive and foolish. Yes, the customer service rep was an asshole. But the real person to blame here is an unnamed manager who put this guy in customer service without proper training.
The customer isn't always right, all too often the customer is wrong, stupid and loud with it.
That is simply because people are all too often wrong, stupid and loud with it.
It is an axiom of customer service that they are. It is their job to deal effectively with that. The saying is not meant to imply that the customer is always correct, but that without customers you have no income; and the customer decides whether or not to give you his custom, on his terms.
It is in this sense that the customer is always right, even when an incorrect, idiotic loudmouth asking something totally ludicrous of you. There is a greater art in coverting one of those people into someone who has just given you money and is happy to have done so than there is in just telling him to fuck off.
KFG
KFG
You're kidding right? Nobody cares that Lycos's ToS spelled it out. Nobody cares that this woman should have known the policy. Nobody cares that she should have backed up her email.
We're only hearing about this situation due to this guy's behavior. And now Lycos has probably lost business and he's going to get broken off first thing Monday morning. And why? Because he's "honest?" No, because he's a pompous ass who used his position to be unnecessarily rude to a prospective customer.
I agree - I actually find Mr. Jandreau's comments refreshingly straightforward. It saves his folks and Whitney from wasting any more of their time. Let's rewrite his comments:
:) ), and I saw the terms of service.
This request is not being worked on. There are no further points of escalation. You think our terms of service aren't clear, but we've looked at them again, and they are, and furthermore, you're in violation of them. We are not playing an angle here to satisfy a hidden agenda; your mail is gone. End of story.
Could he be a little more diplomatic. I suppose so. Is he abusive or lying? No, absolutely not.
Are the Mail Terms of Service clear? I think so, but don't take my word for it - they're at:
http://info.lycos.com/legal/mail_terms.html
In particular, the section on Account Inactivity is Real Clear:
--------- [Begin Excerpt---------]
8. Account Inactivity. Lycos reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to delete any materials (including emails) stored in connection with an unpaid Lycos Mail account if the user's account has been inactive for thirty (30) days.
--------- [End Excerpt---------]
In this case, "and unpaid Lycos Mail account" refers to their basic, free service. There
Additionally, the General Terms of Service (found at http://info.lycos.com/legal/legal.html ) say:
Before you register for a Lycos Mail account, you must read and agree to these Terms of Use and the Lycos Mail Terms of Service, including any future amendments.
--------- [Begin Excerpt---------]
Lycos offers subscription and unpaid versions of its electronic mail services. For users of the unpaid mail services, Lycos reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to limit the amount of storage space available per user or to delete materials stored for an excessive period while the user's account has been inactive. Specifically, Lycos reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to delete any materials (including emails) stored in connection with an unpaid Lycos Mail account or Angelfire Mail account if the user's account has been inactive for thirty (30) days.
--------- [End Excerpt---------]
The user is presented with both of these links as part of the sign-up process. I just signed up for an account (set the 30 day event timer *now*, 'cause I'm sure not putty any mail up there that I give a kentucky about
Admittedly, no-one reads the ToS - so let this be a lesson, when you're signing up for free shit, READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE. Read the Policy Privacy too - this is probably even more important in the long run. Incidentally, the Lycos Privacy Policy seemed pretty well written to me.
So, yeah, tough break Whitney - it is a drag to lose mail. But want Things to Go Your Way, that means reading stuff when you're agreeing to it, and learning and lesson and moving on when you get burned by your own actions.
[17] Leary, T., White, C., Wood, P. R., Bhabha, W. D., and Wirth, N. Lambda calculus considered harmful. In Proceedings
Yeah, only us leftist freaks care about the murder of 2/3 of a million human beings. Whereas you normal folks don't see anything wrong with it.
Let me introduce you to my friend, Mr. Strawman.
Who said anything about the war? We're talking about making up laws about data retention.
Not so sure that applies when dealing with a free email account.
Are they not selling something? Are not the free accounts a pool of qualified (in the sales sense of the word) customers for what they are selling? Lycos execs did not just wake up one day and say, "Hey, let's just give away our shit for free." They saw a profit path. Just as the cheese people did.
She started by firing off what amounts to an accusation of extortion.
No. She did not start out that way. That was a response; to a response. Perhaps the request for money was made without much in the way of art.
And what it have hurt to have told her, "Ok, look, we'll help you out this time, because that's the sort of people we are. But now you know the score and we know that you know the score. Don't take advantage of us in future, 'k? We offer a reasonable service at a reasonable price and we would be delighted if you chose to avail yourself of it."
Instead of a PR problem they would this woman giving the word of mouth that "They be cool and shit."
Customers don't just show up for no reason. They need to be enticed a bit. Performing that enticement takes time, effort and money. That's just the way it is. And anything you do that furthers that cause is part of your marketing. It isn't all just about advertising and mindfucking people.
This woman is thinking, and spreading the idea, that Lycos are assholes who didn't help her when they should have, whereas if handled properly she would be spreading the news that they help when they don't have to. i.e., she would have truer sense of her relationship to Lycos that she does.
And thus far more likely to start giving them money for what they do.
People like that have no intention of giving you money, they just want to suck your time and resources to extract as much as they can from you, in exchange for nothing.
Yes, there are people like that and I have had to suffer some of them as my own customers, but I realize they do not exist in a vacuum. Getting rid of these people often means getting rid of an even greater quantity of good customers. It's a package deal. There is someone out there that abuses the Craftsman tools exchange policy, but because it exists I am a customer; and I do not. Take steps to the get rid of the abusers and you will likely introduce a step that gets rid of me.
Why not just accept it and enjoy the fact that you make a profit. That's the goal, remember?
Maximinzing your profits in theory often means losing all of your profits in practice.
KFG
One does not have to be insulting to be rude and simply stating facts is not always appropriate.
For instance, what if someone walked up to you and your wife and introduced himself as a guy that used to have sex with your wife, and proceeded to tell you the various positions they used and the sounds that she made? It's not an insult and he's just "stating the facts without sugar coating them."
The fact is that if you're in customer service, your job *is* to bend over. If you can't handle that, then look for another career. Unfortunately for this clown, he's going to have that decision made for him. What's more, he deserves it for puffing up ("manager of all customer service"), pointing out that the prospective customer was wrong ("which is, despite what you say, completely clear") and being a snotty little prick.
...Should you want to restore the previous contents of your account, you will need to upgrade to the Lycos Mail Plus service...Restoration is not available to members who do not upgrade, and our policy will be strictly enforced. To have your account restored, you must upgrade, and pay the $19.95 upgrade fee. This is non-negotiable. Here response - So let me get this straight: you're holding my emails hostage until you get $19.95 from me? I checked your policies, and didn't see that listed. This hardly seems like a customer-friendly policy, especially toward someone like me, who has been with Lycos for several years. There were many times when Lycos was not in compliance with its own terms of service, and I didn't try to extort $19.95 from you. This is just the snippets she cut and pasted on her blog. Not the full emails. I'd love to see them. She sounds like she has already gone of on him in the first reply. Nothing about his initial email is rude or unprofessional. She on the other hand is rude and whining about their policies and accusing them of not being in compliance with their own terms of service (which they can arbitrarily change of course) and of extortion... over 20 bucks.Now you might argue that she is a customer that thats hardly justification. A more compelling argument is that its his job to never lose his cool and always be polite. So he'll get fired over this. Which is a shame because in my book he tried to do his job and dealt with an angry customer the right way. People don't like it when your firm and clear with them and want things sugar coated. She wasn't worth it. She hasn't ever paid them a dime herself so her being a customer itself is debatable - user yes. She was eyeballs for advertising. She didn't backup her mail. She didn't feel that two years worth of email was worth logging in to check up on every thirty days. She didn't pay 20 bucks to get it back when she lost it. IMHO her email is rude and accusatory. No sympathy.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
Yes actually... as part of their premium $19.95 service. So aparently the ability to backup her mail isn't worth 20 bucks a year. They also have a 6 buck account preservation thing where your account wont get deleted. Also they've had POP access since 2002 http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is _2002_May_14/ai_85911533 i.e. before she got her account. And if her ISP gave her an email address she could have forwarded all incoming mail. Not easy but you'd have a backup.
so...
1) 2002, Company offers free service with additional features like account protection/backup capability at a price.
2) 2005, New customer signs up for free service without additional features that she sees no value to.
3) Two years on she loses all her mail because of the ToS of her free service.
4) She now sees value of additional features.
5) Emails customer support asks for help.
6) Is told please pay 20 bucks to get your mail back.
7) Despite apparent value of offer, she accuses company of extortion and refuses to pay.
8) She loses all her mail.
9) and gets told to FOAD by customer service rep.
Am I missing something?
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
"Which is a shame because in my book he tried to do his job and dealt with an angry customer the right way."
Actually, he didn't.
Let's assume you're right and that the woman was out of line, and that the guy was 100% right.
Here's his one-time response.
"Dear :
Again, let me apologize that you feel Lycos has let you down. As stated in my previous email, this in accordance with Lyco's policy and your only option at this point is to pay $20 to have your email restored. I understand you may not find this option to your satisfaction, and I apologize but those are company rules"
And then here's the key.... don't respond any more. Even if the woman calls him the worst names possible. Just. Walk. Away.
It's nothing personal. He doesn't get it. And you look at the pictures, it's pretty obvious he's just a kid trying to do an adult's job. He hasn't been adequately trained to deal with the public.
But you cannot seriously think this is the right way to deal with a customer no matter how abusive.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
> I was afraid all the leftist freaks were on vacation simultaneously.
Obviously you're blinded to the recent trend that even CENTRIST freaks are noticing what a disaster this administration has been!
One is only a freak when one is out of the mainstream, which now applys to you. Get used to it freak. You will probably be a freak for a long time since your friends fucked up so bad.
Except, when she first contacted Lycos, her account wasn't deleted. It was simply inaccessible. Restoring access would have cost $19.95.
He's supposed to serve the customer. From her perspective, he's just rubbing the shitty job he did in the first place in her face.
After all, I am strangely colored.
"I'm sorry, but emails are subject to deletion after the account is not accessed for thirty days. While we understand your frustration and apologize for the inconvenience, there is no way to recover the lost emails. I will make a note on this ticket regarding your displeasure about the deletion policy."
Thats how he should have said it. IF the emails are gone, they are gone and he couldn't help even if he wanted to. But there is no need to go asshole on the customer no matter how much the customer would dislike the answer, even if the customer is screaming at you.
Or even a trick I've seen work well:
"Ok, I understand your frustration. The emails have been removed, and backups are designed to cover disaster recovery rather than deletion per policy. If I can put you on hold for a few minutes, I'll check with our server admins to see if there is anything we can do" *Puts customer on hold and plays Nintendo DS for five minutes* "Ok, I checked with our admins, unfortunately they are unable to restore your emails from server backups"
After one of the above, perhaps offer a courtesy credit if it's a pay service, maybe a temporary upgrade to a pay version of your free service, and the customer will be satisfied more often than not. Won't exactly be happy unless you are able to fix the problem, but they will accept the answer and be satisfied with the level of service they got in that call.