9 ms·

I've been in that position before, where people would find my e-mail address as a supposed tech support for something I have no relationship with whatsoever. Us

by zapu 10y ago

I've been in that position before, where people would find my e-mail address as a supposed tech support for something I have no relationship with whatsoever. Usually when you tell them they have a wrong e-mail, they get really angry ("I want to talk to your manager!" kind of angry). So it's better to just not respond at all.

AimHere 10y ago
What about quietly forwarding the email to the legit tech support mailbox for Toyota, if such a thing exists? Are there problems with that approach (other than the tech support people replying to you instead of their customer).
- toyg 10y ago
  As he said in the comments, if they couldn't find a support email, why would he be able to? The issue is not Toyota-specific, there are tons of different cars shipping curl; is he supposed to become some sort of customer-support switchboard?
- laumars 10y ago
  It's a lot of effort and one which you wouldn't expect businesses to do this so I don't really see why open source projects should be any different.
  - Chris2048 10y ago
    If there's a limited amount of car companies, why not just compile one email with a big list of contact numbers, and use that reply template whenever you get such an email. I suppose you could even send it out automatically based on filter conditions?
    - toyg 10y ago
      And then those numbers change, and how are you gonna know? Do you periodically call them all? Do you wait for people to get mad at you because the number has changed, before you spend more time figuring out what the number is supposed to be today? And what if you don't even know all manufacturers from Asia or Brazil? And what if people complain that they want the number for their own language or country? That list gets very long very quickly. But above all, why should he care? He's a developer, doesn't get a dime from such carmakers, why should it be his problem?
      - Chris2048 10y ago
        > Do you wait for people to get mad at you Who cares? If they get mad, they get mad.
        deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
    - intopieces 10y ago
      Former email support manager here. People seeking technical support often resist redirection once they've been assured, through direct contact, that they have the attention of someone knowledgeable. To put it plainly: your solution doesn't work. Our team was responsible for the tech support for a very generically named Usenet service. Very often, people looking for the .com version of our .net service would email us continually looking for a resolution to something or other. No amount of explanations deterred them and we often had to stop responding.
Kiro 10y ago
That sounds extremely funny. I would pay good money to get to be on the receiving end of "I want to talk to your manager!" when you can act however you want.
- GFischer 10y ago
  It gets old very quickly. I used to have a phone number that was one easily mistaken digit away from the largest pizzeria in town, and people angrily complaining about wrong or delayed orders was not funny. One of my siblings sometimes took orders he had no intention of fulfilling :P Edit: see also legal (or other) threats, from the same author (mentioned elsewhere in the comments) https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2016/01/19/subject-urgent-warning/ https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2016/01/19/subject-urgent-warnin...
  - kbart 10y ago
    "Also, I have yet to figure out how to unhack the hackers" Couldn't read any further due to tears in my eyes from laugh.
  - chriswarbo 10y ago
    It can't help matters that the domain is "haxx" ;)
  - photogrammetry 10y ago
    "Also, Spotify is a major partner of Spotify" Wow, really?
- TallGuyShort 10y ago
  If they came across and were familiarized with your name and email address in multiple locations, I wouldn't want to make them angrier for the 1% who are going to go manage to find my address somewhere and come find me. Best to just not touch the situation at all.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

by zapu 10y ago

AimHere 10y ago

What about quietly forwarding the email to the legit tech support mailbox for Toyota, if such a thing exists? Are there problems with that approach (other than the tech support people replying to you instead of their customer).

toyg 10y ago
As he said in the comments, if they couldn't find a support email, why would he be able to? The issue is not Toyota-specific, there are tons of different cars shipping curl; is he supposed to become some sort of customer-support switchboard?
laumars 10y ago
It's a lot of effort and one which you wouldn't expect businesses to do this so I don't really see why open source projects should be any different.
- Chris2048 10y ago
  If there's a limited amount of car companies, why not just compile one email with a big list of contact numbers, and use that reply template whenever you get such an email. I suppose you could even send it out automatically based on filter conditions?
  - toyg 10y ago
    And then those numbers change, and how are you gonna know? Do you periodically call them all? Do you wait for people to get mad at you because the number has changed, before you spend more time figuring out what the number is supposed to be today? And what if you don't even know all manufacturers from Asia or Brazil? And what if people complain that they want the number for their own language or country? That list gets very long very quickly. But above all, why should he care? He's a developer, doesn't get a dime from such carmakers, why should it be his problem?
    - Chris2048 10y ago
      > Do you wait for people to get mad at you Who cares? If they get mad, they get mad.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
  - intopieces 10y ago
    Former email support manager here. People seeking technical support often resist redirection once they've been assured, through direct contact, that they have the attention of someone knowledgeable. To put it plainly: your solution doesn't work. Our team was responsible for the tech support for a very generically named Usenet service. Very often, people looking for the .com version of our .net service would email us continually looking for a resolution to something or other. No amount of explanations deterred them and we often had to stop responding.

Kiro 10y ago

That sounds extremely funny. I would pay good money to get to be on the receiving end of "I want to talk to your manager!" when you can act however you want.

GFischer 10y ago
It gets old very quickly. I used to have a phone number that was one easily mistaken digit away from the largest pizzeria in town, and people angrily complaining about wrong or delayed orders was not funny. One of my siblings sometimes took orders he had no intention of fulfilling :P Edit: see also legal (or other) threats, from the same author (mentioned elsewhere in the comments) https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2016/01/19/subject-urgent-warning/ https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2016/01/19/subject-urgent-warnin...
- kbart 10y ago
  "Also, I have yet to figure out how to unhack the hackers" Couldn't read any further due to tears in my eyes from laugh.
- chriswarbo 10y ago
  It can't help matters that the domain is "haxx" ;)
- photogrammetry 10y ago
  "Also, Spotify is a major partner of Spotify" Wow, really?
TallGuyShort 10y ago
If they came across and were familiarized with your name and email address in multiple locations, I wouldn't want to make them angrier for the 1% who are going to go manage to find my address somewhere and come find me. Best to just not touch the situation at all.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]