To Wish Impossible Things

Can I tweet your supervisor?

For the third or fourth time in recent memory, Twitter has put me on the inside track for good customer service - far beyond what I was experiencing through normal channels.

It seems that more and more smart companies are putting their best support people on the Twitter detail, have given them permission to speak honestly and like real people, and have armed them with tools and connections to solve problems and make a difference. I’ve had similar experiences with Comcast, PG&E and other companies.

I’m really happy to have received such great service, but the difference between these experiences and those with call-center and live-chat representatives are stark. They make me wonder whether this is some new sort of “digital divide”. If you are savvy enough to tweet, it seems, you get good service. Otherwise, screw you.

In any case, thanks to the great people at @SkypeSupport and @AskPayPal for their prompt, respectful support. 

For the record, here’s a summary of the most recent event…

On Friday, my Skype account was taken over and used to make over a hundred calls to numbers in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia, Indonesia, and *Taiwan. My PayPal account was charged over $100.

Scary, huh? Yes, I changed my passwords, and yes, I reported the incident to US-CERT, including the logs with all the phone numbers.

So then I was left with the problem of getting my $100 back. I spent some very frustrating time with Skype’s “first responders”. Both of them were very cordial, but seemed unskilled and lacking in any authority. They said no way was Skype going to refund my money, and that I should take it up with PayPal. They quoted what to me seemed an inapplicable provision in Skype’s Terms of Use, and basically left me to my own devices. I was furious.

On the PayPal side, I was confused as to how to dispute the charges. I didn’t want my account to be frozen, given that it hadn’t been compromised. 

At first I tried tweeting @Skype, and got no response. Eventually I realized there was @SkypeSupport. I tweeted them, referring to my earlier tweet-rants.

These fine folks got back to me within minutes, by which time they’d referred my case to a team of specialists. They told me what to do with PayPal. The AskPayPal folks told me how to get on the phone with the right group of people, who initiated the “chargeback” procedure for me.

Once that happened, I started getting automated emails from Skype, telling me that refunds would start happening soon. 48 hours later, I feel that the incident is behind me.

Meanwhile, US-CERT, please catch the bad guys!

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* One of these things is not like the other

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Congratulations to the White House and the House Democratic leadership! Anthony Weiner will resign.