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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.'"
No mail for you!!
I would demand a full refund for this free service.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
>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 link for the exchange has already been /.ed, anyone got a mirror?
Sounds like the Lycos servers wolfed them down.
If you get an email address from them, you agree to their policy, which is to delete email accounts that haven't been accessed in a while. The grace period is longer at other providers, but it is still a very common type of rule, simply because users never bother to remove old accounts. They would just pile up if there was no rule in place to delete accounts after some inactivity. In fact, I find it comforting that Lycos actually deletes email and doesn't keep it around forever. If I were offered the choice of two types of accounts, one which can not ever be deleted and one which expires after a month, I'd take the latter.
Before too many people begin criticizing this woman for using a free email service and not following the terms of the account, let me just say that this is as much about them deleting her email as it is the responses she received from management. Go read the replies she got from the head of Customer Service. That kind of answer is totally unprofessional. There are words used to describe people who exhibit that kind of behavior, words akin to "douche bag" and "asshole". Personally, I was unaware that those were job titles used at Lycos...
There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.
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
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.
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.
Deleted
... 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
Customer Service Operator from Hell!!!
:)
Sweet! Give him a website!
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.
Well, from what I understand of what happened, that was Lycos' policy. She didn't log in for two weeks, and her email got "deleted." I put that in quotes, because it sounds like it really got put into hiding, or escrow, or something. (Basically, a logical delete but without a physical delete, or something like it.) Then they offered to give it back to her, IF she upgraded to the $19.95 "Premium" service.
The customer got pissed, because to her, this looked like extortion (although, it's probably legit), and apparently said as such to the Customer Service Asshole.
The Asshole, rather than just toeing the company line and saying "well, I'm sorry, but that's our policy -- now cough up the $20 if you want your email back, peasant" decided to go on a power trip, and said that her email was now permanently, irrevocably deleted, and that nothing -- even upgrading -- would ever bring it back.
So they did make her the offer to restore it at one point, for a fee, but then something happened (whether it was the Asshole actually deleting it, or something else, like a deadline to re-up) and the offer went away.
It's the taking-back of the offer to recover the emails that's so suspicious. Requiring you to pay a fee to get your expired emails back is sleazy, but not that unexpected. As you point out, a lot of places do it. But what's far sketchier, is when they say they can recover it for a fee, but then abruptly change their story and claim that it's physically deleted.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Lycos still existed?
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."
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.
While I agree with regularly logging in to and confirming the state of email accounts, I can't help but notice a slight flaw.
All account users will not always have access to their accounts within 30 days. Accidents, illnesses, vacations, jail time, power outages, disasters, and missed bill payments. While it is nice to have a free mail account it's bridging on fantasy to work with a short account login turnaround. Forgetfulness is the fault of the user, but completely deleting all files and parading around the fact they can't be recovered (even for a free account) is just nasty.
Though in the end the true lesson is: back your mails up if they mean something to you.
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?
I think that what you think doesn't really matter. Poor, little, picked-on Whitney was the only one of the two parties which didn't hold up her end of the agreement. She can whine/complain/state/whatever all day long, but she is still the one in the wrong, and it's just too bad that the world won't bend over backwards just to accomodate her free-loading ways.
The only thing that changes behavior is accountability. Facing the consequences of your decisions is always painful. Some people learn from the mistake, some people try to weasel out of it. It's fairly obvious which type of person she is, and I wouldn't be surprised if you, too, fell into the same category.
It always amazes me just how much people will whine when *free* services don't meet their expectations...
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
Well, apparently, at least their e-mail service doesn't exist anymore...
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
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.
Yes, but if that were the case it would be hard to assume that the positive response would out-weigh the negative. The one thing I know for sure is, that I something like this happened in the small, little known start-up that I work for, the perpetrator would not touch the ground on the way out.
According to their support people, their system thought I hadn't logged in for 30 days because opening it via msn doesn't count. Here's the exact quote: Oddly, I only ever check my hotmail via msn and this only happened once over a period of many years. Personally, I think they just delete random accounts occasionally for a laugh. Fortunately I never really trusted them to start off with so I didn't use it for anything serious. It was still annoying though.
Of course, the best bit of the response was where they suggested I subscribe to Hotmail Plus and said they looked forward to providing me with a 'consistent and effective service'...
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'm not aware of any company where the Manager of Customer Support is equivalent to CEO/Chairman...
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"
1-800-DEV-NULL
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
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.
It's still free to her. It's just being subsidized by paying customers. Either way, she wants someone else to cover the bill to recover her data, even though it was her fault in the first place.
Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the idea of trying to get what you can... but there's a point where you're just being a free-loading parasite, and if *I* had acted the way she admits to acting, I'd feel like I had crossed that line.
I also suspect that she wasn't entirely forthcoming with *her* side of the story... I wouldn't be surprised to find that she was even more obnoxious than she admitted to, but we'll probably never have a complete transcript of both sides, so I can only go on what she says.
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
I found this snippet, posted by the very same MJJ a few days ago on moviesnobs.net:
"Not sure what happened, but earlier this week, our server had a major hiccup, which caused the site (and our other sites) to dissappear for a day and a half. We also lost e-mail for that time, which was a royal pain."
Poetic justice?
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
I call shenanigans.
From her own writeup (google cache) she admits that she'd been using the service less and less. From the sounds of it, she hadn't been using it at all. But she was dumb enough not to forward her uberimportant emails to another account.
And then, looking at the way her email quotes are cut, I think there was a lot more there that she chose not to share with us.
Having been in the managers position before, I think he was harsh, but she's spinning this to make him look like a dick. She probably demanded to talk to the highest ranking C*O in the state. He didn't say "I'm the highest", he said "I'm the highest that you will be talking to", and I've said the same thing (in different words).
I have the feeling that Lycos tried to explain to her, patiently, that her account had been deleted in line with the terms of service (and the disclaimer on their homepage), and that restorations were only offered to people who were Plus (or Premium or whatever the fudge it was), and she went off the handle, accused them of "holding her emails hostage", used bad language, and got all snotty with them. At that point, they probably didn't want her business, I wouldn't either.
The bottom line, is she did not log in within 30 days, as the homepage clearly says you have to do if you want to keep your account. Lycos told her what she had to do if she wanted her email back, she decided she didn't want to do it, said some bad things to them, and so they decided to tell her to go fuck herself. I say, good on ya, Lycos. Yes, customers deserve to be treated with respect, but it's gone too far in some cases, where privileged little fuckwads think they deserve everything they want, and anyone who says otherwise is mean, mean, mean. I think it's crappy that she's calling this guy out, selectively editing the conversation to make them seem like dicks, and especially crappy if it's true that people are starting to harass him.
Were I him, I'd post the ENTIRE email chain online, not just her edited version... and lets see how sweet and innocent she really is.
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
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.
Not sure if this can really be true, but it does appear that the guy genuinely is the head of customer services. Regardless of whether it's a free service or not I think a company that intentionally behaves with that attitude deserves all it gets. It's free because they're getting advertising revenue, so they're being paid indirectly.
Hotmail did similar stuff to me which was very annoying and lost me a few years of email. I've just moved to using Gmail instead. My hotmail account is still used a lot but not much important stuff happens there - it's just for stuff where I expect to be spammed.
umm, that's not really a serious post. You just got *wooshed*.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
There went the joke, flying by just inches over your head
...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.
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 also doesn't know how to get things her way.
Never let your first point of contact with customer service escalate the call if the problem is actually your fault. Keep trying different avenues of approach until you hit the soft spot. Push for empathy, and don't blame anyone or anything. Use phrases like "I've really found myself in a bind here, and I'm not sure who can help me out." Note the important implications of "found myself"="could happen to anyone", "in a bind"="not quite life-or-death", "I'm not sure who"=easy handoff for the stonewallers, and "who can help me out"="obviously someone can help me". There will always be some eager trainee that doesn't know or a jaded short-timer that doesn't care about corporate policy. Let them be your hero. If possible, target the opposite sex.
If you still can't find a way in, then politely escalate the issue. Never mention how many times you contacted them or what the other contacts told you. That's the difference between desperation and nagging.
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
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.