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Holy crap Dropbox's moderators make me want to terminate my account with them.

by xer0x 14y ago

tlogan 14y ago
I call this "Google effect". Some companies started to think they can have crappy customer support because Google's support is crappy and Google is doing great. Actually Google is doing great despite their crappy support.
- robinh 14y ago
  While it's an interesting idea, you're basically just basing that on a load of unfounded assumptions about the people who manage these companies.
- TillE 14y ago
  Google's support tends to be nonexistent rather than outright hostile. There's quite a difference.
  - tjoff 14y ago
    I don't know what is more infuriating. Having some incompetent fool that I can argue with or not even being able to initiate contact. At least the former inspires hope that it could potentially lead somewhere.
- paulhauggis 14y ago
  Amazon is even worse, especially for their sellers. They really don't care about their sellers at all and use bots/autoresponders for virtually all support.
  - codesuela 14y ago
    Is that actually the case? I'm a Amazon Prime user (I mention that because I buy almost everything from Amazon :) and I whenever I got in touch with Amazon (Germany) the support was top notch and my issue was resolved very quickly. I am just a buyer though.
    - viveutvivas 14y ago
      Amazon customer service for their buyers is pretty great, in my experience. I broke my Kindle (stepped on it) and they sent me a brand new one, no questions asked. I've heard stories that their customer service for seller is terrible, however.
EvanAnderson 14y ago
Reading that thread was painful. I always use custom one-off email addresses for services I sign-up for and. When I've attempted to report disclosure of my email address I'm almost always met with major skepticism. It's maddening. I used to enjoy the reactions I'd get from store clerks and telephone reps when I give them my email address. "Oh, how you have an email address with our company name in it?" In recent years the reactions have turned kinda hostile, "What is your connection with our company?" and once "You can't have our company name in your email address." I gave up fighting and now I just use random strings.
- nwh 14y ago
  I recently had to sit through a customer rep read a 32 character long alphanumspecial email address out to me for "security reasons". Bet she was glad I didn't use usicode.
  - saraid216 14y ago
    You might consider just picking one or two random words from the dictionary.
    - signed0 14y ago
      That sounds like a fun idea for an app/service. You provide it with your base email address or custom domain and it generates a couple random words and keeps track of what service you used it to sign up for.
      - GhotiFish 14y ago
        I spent a little time thinking about this concept and how it relates to just having dummy account you control, for giving to services you don't fully trust. As long as you use a secure password, and you don't use the same one. I don't see alot of difference, but the ability to sandbox each service to a list of email accounts, so that the attacker never knows the master account, would be an extra layer of security. Utility exists here. I just don't think there's enough utility to justify the work.
DanBC 14y ago
Nathan C was doing okay. It's hard when there's a bunch of mods leaping in with irrelevant stuff.
res0nat0r 14y ago
Those mods don't work for Dropbox, they are community volunteers who've just been given mod permissions.
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  IOW, they work for Dropbox, they just don't get paid for it.
  - res0nat0r 14y ago
    That's why they are volunteers.
    - rhizome 14y ago
      That didn't work out so perfectly for AOL. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_Community_Leader_Program http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_Community_Leader_Program
    - scarmig 14y ago
      Wait, what? Volunteering in general or even open source or community software projects makes plenty of sense, but why the hell would anyone volunteer for a private for-profit like Dropbox? Is it some kind of internship scam?
      - res0nat0r 14y ago
        Some customers really like the product and don't mind helping out other users on forums for free. Happens all over the place on forums of all types.
- mnicole 14y ago
  Yikes. What a terrible idea to place your brand's reputation in the hands of people that don't hesitate to make assumptions about your customers' intelligence. Adobe allows certain users to speak as "Pros" on their help boards based on their past helpfulness, which has gotten out of hand before, but they certainly make the distinction between staff and user in the nameplate so people know not to associate them with the company itself. Is the point of volunteering to put it on your résumé for future employment opportunities in customer service?

Holy crap Dropbox's moderators make me want to terminate my account with them.

by xer0x 14y ago

Holy crap Dropbox's moderators make me want to terminate my account with them.

I call this "Google effect". Some companies started to think they can have crappy customer support because Google's support is crappy and Google is doing great. Actually Google is doing great despite their crappy support.

robinh 14y ago
While it's an interesting idea, you're basically just basing that on a load of unfounded assumptions about the people who manage these companies.
TillE 14y ago
Google's support tends to be nonexistent rather than outright hostile. There's quite a difference.
- tjoff 14y ago
  I don't know what is more infuriating. Having some incompetent fool that I can argue with or not even being able to initiate contact. At least the former inspires hope that it could potentially lead somewhere.
paulhauggis 14y ago
Amazon is even worse, especially for their sellers. They really don't care about their sellers at all and use bots/autoresponders for virtually all support.
- codesuela 14y ago
  Is that actually the case? I'm a Amazon Prime user (I mention that because I buy almost everything from Amazon :) and I whenever I got in touch with Amazon (Germany) the support was top notch and my issue was resolved very quickly. I am just a buyer though.
  - viveutvivas 14y ago
    Amazon customer service for their buyers is pretty great, in my experience. I broke my Kindle (stepped on it) and they sent me a brand new one, no questions asked. I've heard stories that their customer service for seller is terrible, however.

EvanAnderson 14y ago

Reading that thread was painful. I always use custom one-off email addresses for services I sign-up for and. When I've attempted to report disclosure of my email address I'm almost always met with major skepticism. It's maddening. I used to enjoy the reactions I'd get from store clerks and telephone reps when I give them my email address. "Oh, how you have an email address with our company name in it?" In recent years the reactions have turned kinda hostile, "What is your connection with our company?" and once "You can't have our company name in your email address." I gave up fighting and now I just use random strings.

nwh 14y ago
I recently had to sit through a customer rep read a 32 character long alphanumspecial email address out to me for "security reasons". Bet she was glad I didn't use usicode.
- saraid216 14y ago
  You might consider just picking one or two random words from the dictionary.
  - signed0 14y ago
    That sounds like a fun idea for an app/service. You provide it with your base email address or custom domain and it generates a couple random words and keeps track of what service you used it to sign up for.
    - GhotiFish 14y ago
      I spent a little time thinking about this concept and how it relates to just having dummy account you control, for giving to services you don't fully trust. As long as you use a secure password, and you don't use the same one. I don't see alot of difference, but the ability to sandbox each service to a list of email accounts, so that the attacker never knows the master account, would be an extra layer of security. Utility exists here. I just don't think there's enough utility to justify the work.

DanBC 14y ago

Nathan C was doing okay. It's hard when there's a bunch of mods leaping in with irrelevant stuff.

res0nat0r 14y ago

Those mods don't work for Dropbox, they are community volunteers who've just been given mod permissions.

georgemcbay 14y ago
IOW, they work for Dropbox, they just don't get paid for it.
- res0nat0r 14y ago
  That's why they are volunteers.
  - rhizome 14y ago
    That didn't work out so perfectly for AOL. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_Community_Leader_Program http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_Community_Leader_Program
  - scarmig 14y ago
    Wait, what? Volunteering in general or even open source or community software projects makes plenty of sense, but why the hell would anyone volunteer for a private for-profit like Dropbox? Is it some kind of internship scam?
    - res0nat0r 14y ago
      Some customers really like the product and don't mind helping out other users on forums for free. Happens all over the place on forums of all types.
mnicole 14y ago
Yikes. What a terrible idea to place your brand's reputation in the hands of people that don't hesitate to make assumptions about your customers' intelligence. Adobe allows certain users to speak as "Pros" on their help boards based on their past helpfulness, which has gotten out of hand before, but they certainly make the distinction between staff and user in the nameplate so people know not to associate them with the company itself. Is the point of volunteering to put it on your résumé for future employment opportunities in customer service?