My hunches.
- The company is public.
- Barbie is not her/his real name.
- We will move our mailing list software soon if we get round to it.
The only thing keeping a company like this alive is momentum. I can’t face the hassle of moving our email list software providers. The problem isn’t Barbie’s – the company that Barbie works for doesn’t respect or care about customers so employs customer support instead of making a product that people want.
You are now chatting with ‘Barbie’
Mark: Hi, I just copied a list into a another existing list and the number of people in the list has actually decreased again. This has happened before and I was told that it didn’t happen instantly but this has been more than an hour.
Barbie: Hello, and thank you for contacting iContact Technical Support. My name is Barbie, and I will be assisting you with your inquiry today. How can I be of assistance?
Barbie: Welcome back! Mark: Business of Software (You are going to ask what is the name of the list)
Barbie: Let me check.
Mark: We got cut off.
Barbie: I understand.
Barbie: Can you check the list again?
Barbie: It’s just a cache issue.
Barbie: What I did is just reset the cache.
Barbie:
Barbie: I hope I have helped you resolve this.
Mark: Can I reset the cache?
Barbie: No.
Barbie: You would need to contact us whenever this happens.
Mark: Why not? This keeps happening with iContact. It causes unnecessary stress and hassle for your users and I am always told that it is a very unusual thing to happen.
Mark: “You would need to contact us whenever this happens.”
Mark: It happens almost every time?!
Barbie: This is caused when our system encounters a cache problem.
Barbie: It doesn’t happen all the time.
Mark: It happens whenever we move more than a handful of contacts from one list to another.
Barbie: I understand. I will submit a feedback so our support engineers can trace this further.
Mark: Is there any point in doing that. That is what we are always told.
Barbie: This is very crucial as our support engineers need a basis.
Mark: Sorry, in English?
Barbie: We process investigation based on feedback given so that is why I am sending your account as an example.
Mark: OK. So it is 1.50 am in the morning here. I am trying to set up a note to some people and should have been in bed by 11.00pm (latest). I have an early start tomorrow and I have just been trying to work out what happened with the mailing list we pay you to host. I have no idea what your last two statements mean and how they solve my problem and get me to bed for some sleep.
Barbie: Your list is okay now.
Barbie: I have reset the counts.
Barbie: This is actually beyond my technical knowledge. Our support engineers are the ones who can sort this out on how to fix this issue so the least thing I can do is submit a feedback to them.
Mark: Are you saying that we should contact support every time we do anything so that you can press a button or something so that the cache can be reset so we can see the counts? Why not automate that process.
Barbie: Our support engineers will surely work on regulating this to make sure that this won’t be hard for our customers.
Barbie: Mark, are we still connected?
Mark: I understand that this might be beyond your technical knowledge. It is certainly beyond mine but I wonder if you could tell me how I should use the system so that it doesn’t make me think I have lost my contacts whenever I use it?
Barbie: This happens when you copy the contacts from one list to another.
Barbie: What you can do instead is add them manually to the list.
Mark: What happens when you move the contacts?
Mark: How do I add them manually to the list? Do you mean one by one?
Barbie: Moving contacts will take them out from one list and move them to a different list.
Barbie: Copying them creates a duplicate.
Barbie: What do you really want to achieve?
Mark: Great question! I want to add the contacts from one list so that they appear in another list. In the past, when I have moved them from one list to another, they have have been deleted (see previous support history). Fortunately, this was only a very small list (20 people) but they never appeared again. I would not want to either move, or delete contacts from one list. These contacts should also remain on the original list so moving them out of one to another in any case isn’t what I want to achieve.
Mark: I wil ltry to explain in plain text.List A
Barbie: What you can do is you can export them from one list and then re-import them on a different list.
Mark: List A = 10,000 people. List B = 50 people. I want the new List A to have 10,050 people on it and List B to have 50 people on it. I can achieve this by ‘copying’ List B to List A. Is that correct?
Mark: (assuming each record is unique)
Barbie: Yes but you want to avoid the issue to happen again, right?
Barbie: That is why I am giving you a different option.
Mark: Are you saying that the option that you give to copy is basically useless? Why have a move option when actually what I should do is manually export the list and then import it?
Mark: I am very confused.
Barbie: Okay, let us go back to the main issue.
Barbie: You contacted us because you copied contacts and then it decreased one of your lists, right?
Mark: Correct.
Barbie: Then, I fixed it by clicking “reset counts” which is only done by technical support.
Barbie: If you check your list now, it’s increased.
Mark: After over an hour of waiting, worrying and trying to work out what I have done wrong.
Barbie: No, you are complaining because you don’t want to call us whenever you encounter this issue. Barbie: That is why I am giving you a work-around.
Barbie: It doesn’t happen all the time but the only way to fix this for now is to contact us to reset the counts.
Barbie: That is why I will be sending a feedback so our support engineers can look resolve this issue on their end. Barbie: You are not the only one who is experiencing this.
Mark: So if I want to do the thing that I want to do – copy the contacts from one list to another so the new list has more contacts and the old list still has the same number of contacts, you are suggesting that I don’t do what I am told to do on the web site that I pay to use, I should use this different workaround. Barbie: I do suggest it Mark but if ever you encounter the same issue, please contact us to reset the counts.
Mark: I know I am not the only one who is experiencing this. It also happens to me all the time when I move contacts. Do you have any idea whether this situation will change before I find a company that can offer me a service that actually works properly? Barbie: I can’t give a timeframe for that.
Barbie: It is beyond my control.
Mark: OK. Thank you. I do appreciate your help but it isn’t giving me a great degree of confidence that we are working with the right company to manage our mailing lists.
Barbie: Is there any other way I can be of assistance?
Mark: Thanks Barbie. I think that is just about all. Are you a real person and is Barbie your real name?
Barbie: I am a real person. That’s my real name.
Barbie: Thank you for contacting us. If you need further assistance, feel free to contact us again via chat, email: support@thiscompanydoesnthaveacluehowtokeepcustomers.com. We also have useful information available in our Help System. Have a great day!
Mark: Cool. Where are you based?
Barbie: That information is confidential. I sincerely apologize.
Barbie: Thank you and have a great morning! Mark: How about give me a clue – US, Asia or Europe?
Barbie: Asia Barbie: Anything else Mark? Mark: Thanks for your help Barbie. Don’t apologise, I wasn’t trying to track you down, just curious. You are doing a tough job and you have sorted my issue out. I am just sorry that iContact hasn’t given you a better system to work with. Have a great day.
Mark: Thanks Barbie. Have a great day.
Barbie: Thank you for contacting us. If you need further assistance, feel free to contact us again via chat, email: support@thiscompanydoesnthaveacluehowtokeepcustomers.com. We also have useful information available in our Help System. Have a great day!
[subscribe2]