I got some $&%*#@& help from Twitter support
If you are a regular reader of Social Enchilada, then you’re probably familiar with my troubles with Twitter support.
I’m happy to announce that my troubles are over! MindComet has officially regained control of the Twitter handle @mindcomet. It was a long hard road, with more than a few bumps, but through a persistent and unwavering effort, I did it.
I began our mission in mid-November, 2008 by submitting a ticket into their support queue. By mid-December, I still had not received a response from their team. I even tried mailing them a letter (yes via the USPS), in case the online support queue wasn’t the best way of contacting the support team. I even reached out directly to Evan Williams and he assured me he’d get it taken care of. No dice.
In mid-January (still no response), tragedy stuck in the form of a Twitter hack, which was attributed to their support queue. They scrapped the old queue, along with my two month old outstanding support request. To make things worse, their post-hack strategy for handling support was a complete mess. Fast-forward to March 23rd through a variety of tactics on my part to attract their attention…Twitter support finally got around to handling and completing my request.
That’s over 4 months that passed for a request that took them, in my estimation, a total of 1 hour to accomplish.
You’re probably getting a sense that I’m completely unhappy with the Twitter support staff, well I’m not. My gripe is with the Twitter leadership team. By all appearances, they see support as an after-thought and have as a result, kept that department inadequately staffed.
How do I know this? I spent a few years in a technical support capacity, including managing my own team. Taking 4 months to complete a 1 hour ticket is a clear sign of a grossly over-burdened support staff. The fact that there was a ticket open for over a month shows a complete lack of attention from upper-management.
I wholeheartedly believe that by offering support, Twitter entered into an implied contract with it’s users and is obligated to provide them with a reasonable and timely level of support. This notion of support SLA’s (Service Level Agreements) is even more important when Twitter is on the verge of trying to monetize their platform.
Twitter, it’s time to grow up, and start acting like a $250 million dollar company. Providing top-notch service would be a good start.
Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Mar. 26, 2009
Comments
Agreed. The people from Twitter support were awesome!
Thanks to @keerthi for helping me out.
Posted by Jeremy Hilton on 03/26/2009 03:30 PM
agreed. their support sucks. rather their response time sucks. the ppl are awesome where they can get to you. i know several big companies with 3 month old tickers trying to get their brand name.
Posted by jakrose on 03/26/2009 02:19 PM