Meanderings

Monday, June 15, 2009

Failure in Customer Service/Social Media (Instyle Décor)



@instyledecor [update: account is currently "protected."]

If you don't use twitter this post won't make much sense. To put it in a nutshell though, Instyle Décor sent out a slew of @replies on twitter. @jackassletters was included on one of these. So I checked out the person sending it. I do this for everyone that mentions me or follows me. What I saw was screen after screen of this:

Page after page of twitter usernames without other content

If you follow me you know how much I hate spammers, so I fired off an email to the Customer Service link at the bottom of their site, using my personal email address [.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)], to let them know either someone was impersonating them, or they were engaging in despicable behavior. The replies I got back were....

Stupefying is a great word, and one I don't get to use nearly enough, but this email exchange is stupefying. To be clear, this is the exchange in its entirety. Nothing has been edited or added. It was not intended as a jackass letter. I do not use email for this. All correspondence intended for the main part of this site occurs through the postal service.

I do not consider the reproduction of email to be ethical without permission. Yeah, it might be hypocritical, but I consider regular mail to be an extension of a company's branding. Email is a different animal. Regardless, I did warn that further communication would result in this exchange appearing here, so permission was granted as far as I am concerned.


From: Christopher Jorgensen
Subject: twitter
Date: June 15, 2009 03:14:07 PM CDT
To: customerservice@instyle-decor.com

I have reported the account: http://twitter.com/instyledecor

to twitter admin. It makes your company look bad. This is unethical use of the twitter service, and if is sanctioned is evil.


From: Instyle Decor
Subject: Re: twitter
Date: June 15, 2009 03:18:50 PM CDT
To: Christopher Jorgensen

please explain this strange email>

Ashley



Really? It was unclear? The proper response should have been, "Thanks for letting us know about this! We're looking into it and will let you know when it's corrected." But admittedly, I was a bit sparse on the details, so I wrote back.

From: Christopher Jorgensen
Subject: Re: twitter
Date: June 15, 2009 03:23:07 PM CDT
To: ashley@instyle-decor.com

Go to the url on twitter. @replying people with no content is considered unethical. Either someone is falsely using your account, or this is an intentional tactic. It is considered spam. I am guessing the account will be suspended. It makes your company look bad, and if someone there is doing this on purpose they should be reprimanded or fired.

From: Instyle Decor
Subject: Re: twitter
Date: June 15, 2009 03:27:22 PM CDT
To: Christopher Jorgensen
I have just checked our twitter account and it appears there is a system error with over 7,000 follow me sent from our account over the fast few hours. If you are alleging we have sat at one of our computers a done this we take serious offence, and frankly 7,000 follow mes would take weeks. Before you issue nasty evil emails and threat people, you would be wise to learn more about IT

Ashley
From: Instyle Decor
Subject: Re: twitter
Date: June 15, 2009 03:40:37 PM CDT
To: Christopher Jorgensen
something strange has happened obviously but it has been report

[editor's note: the above was the entirety of this email]


First off, what the fuck is a "follow me"? Seriously, I've been using twitter for a lot longer than this person, and this is the first I've heard of such a thing. Ashley, you're doing it wrong. And who in the fuck is Ashley? I wrote Customer Service. Without identifying herself in her reply I have no idea who I am talking to. I still don't. Is this a customer service rep, the owner, or someone who works in custodial? I included the email I sent. Please point out where I "threat" anyone.

8,000 twitter users were subjected to this. 8,000! And when one of these people, namely me, contacts them I'm insulted? Insufferable is also another good word I don't get to use enough. I am pretty sure I can pit my IT skills against Ashley's and not come out behind. At least I can construct a coherent sentence, but hey, rather than addressing the issue of you looking like an idiot on a social media site you'd rather get your digs in, great.

From: Christopher Jorgensen
Subject: Re: twitter
Date: June 15, 2009 03:47:20 PM CDT
To: ashley@instyle-decor.com

So rather than apologizing for the error, and saying you'll correct it, this is your defense? I think you need to check out what email address I sent my original email to. You need to read up on what "Customer Service" means.

Take all the offense you want, Ashley. I never threatened anyone. I stated facts: I reported the account to twitter. Behavior like this is considered unethical. It makes your company look bad. It's my opinion that the person responsible should be reprimanded or fired.

I don't even think my email was nasty, but hey, if you think so feel free to be offended.

I don't care how these messages were posted, why they were posted, or what your company was hoping to accomplish by doing so in this manner. Either it is malice or gross incompetence, either way you lose. Your customer service sucks.

Christopher

p.s. replying to this message constitutes permission to reproduce this entire email chain on my blog.

From: Instyle Decor
Subject: Re: twitter
Date: June 15, 2009 03:55:28 PM CDT
To: Christopher Jorgensen

no it just appeared to be a freaky email and we get a few being NY Girls

So sorry for being off, I thought you may have been one of those crazy people

Ash


Thank you for replying. And thanks for trusting me with your brand. My email was freaky? Really? After all this, that's what I get for an apology, that by letting you know that you're a clueless twit I might be crazy? What about the other 7,999 people? As of yet there has been no apology on twitter.

Dear Ashley's last two tweets:
thats 8,000 messages when it should not have we tried to report it but how do we contact twitter support can anyone help thanks x Hello, just wanted to let you know we had a glitch on our account and it sent out 8,000 in the past few hours we think its fixed now XX

thats 8,000 messages when it should not have we tried to report it but how do we contact twitter support can anyone help thanks x
about 1 hour ago from web

Hello, just wanted to let you know we had a glitch on our account and it sent out 8,000 in the past few hours we think its fixed now XX
about 1 hour ago from web

Now, reading between the lines I am sure this company is using trying to use some kind of auto-following, auto-posting, spammy software that they don't know how to use. I could be wrong, I'm no IT expert, but this would be my guess as to what is going on. It's also of no concern of twitter's. Why should the fact that you don't know how to properly use their service be anything they should care about? This aside, I find it funny that Ashley has no idea how to contact support. She's clueless. This is apparent.

And not to call her a liar or anything, but her tweet to me was 17 hours ago, so think this constitutes a bit more than "the past few hours."



[update: I went back through their timeline and this behavior goes back clear until the 10th! So I feel comfortable calling her a liar at this point.]

I really hope twitter does suspend the account. They should. I'll be sure to update people if/when they do.

My last vocabulary word is egregious. Look it up, Ashley.

christopher....



p.s. the shit on their site is overpriced and ugly in my opinion, but I'm also no interior designer.


Posted by cjorgensen on 06/15 at 07:02 PM
Meanderings •
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