Is this the normal Bitcoin attitude?

[CIYAM]

In recent dealings with some newer Bitcoin exchanges I have found email correspondence to be IMHO rather unprofessional.

Although I am not going to name names I am specifically talking about receiving emails that (a) didn't include any company information or any person's name, (b) did not have hi/hello or any sort of greeting (I am referring to the an initial email/reply rather than any follow ups) and (c) contained one or more facetious remarks (as seemingly these companies doesn't like having any criticism being made about their services).

Having worked as a software engineer for over 20 years I know how professional support should work (and have even done my share when the company I worked for didn't have enough personal for specific support staff). Anyone who sent emails like the ones I have recently received would have been quickly "let go" from every company that I have worked for.

Have I missed something in the past few years - is this "attitude" towards customers is the new norm or is this just a Bitcoin thing?


Regards,

Ian Knowles.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Vague post is vague.

Also, I'd say it's a safe bet to presume half of bitcoin businesses involve individuals who have never actually done business before. That's changing though thank christ.

[CIYAM]

Vague post is vague.

So I guess that (a), (b) and (c) are just too vague for you...

...sigh...

[nelisky]

Have I missed something in the past few years - is this "attitude" towards customers is the new norm or is this just a Bitcoin thing?

Neither. I've had nothing but really polite and helpful replies to all my queries and, yes, complaints on the services I use.

You mention a single email thread from a single company, if I understand correctly. That being the case then in fact you have fully understood what the real moto of bitcoin talks around here are: be quick to complain and criticize, generalize as much as possible and hide all helpful specifics. It's a shame, but that's the trend with people pasting full articles without mentioning where they come from, speaking of 'that individual' or 'that company' as if everyone that would match that description were to blame for everything.

Anyway, just restating my point, the bitcoin commercial community has shown nothing but great skill at professionally handling all the requests I've put forward thus far, sorry you didn't have the same experience.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Vague post is vague.

So I guess that (a), (b) and (c) are just too vague for you...

...sigh...

I guess my vague post calling your vague post was too vague to understand that the vagueness was regarding the offender vaguely in question. Vague.

[JA37]

Average age of bitcoin community is about 20 I think. Young people these days have no manners.  

[CIYAM]

To be more specific then (as it seems if I don't name names I am being too vague):

Thank you for your USER ID Ian, we try to reply to our users in a timely manner, your reply email to me was not a observation or feedback you called my business unprofessional here is what you said "In my opinion this was not a very professional" i don't take comments like these lightly and i will reply accordingly, please if are not satisfied with the services we are providing, please take your business else where. you are the only user to complain at this level.


We will verify your account and in 30 days suspend your account and not allow you to trade on World Bitcoin Exchange again.

This is because I said "In my opinion this was not a very professional reply (one line lower case, no hello, no name, no company signature)".

I think this is perhaps a slight overreaction - or not?

[Matthew N. Wright]

Average age of bitcoin community is about 20 I think. Young people these days have no manners.  

It's not even that, it's just that the internet revolves around brevity.

I was arguing with Vicente the other day on how to write customer service emails and hecsaid uou shouldn't say "Dear xxxx" or any greeting at all. I sign my support cases "Sincerely, blahblah" as well. I understand many situations call for brevity but maybe living in Korea has got me on the confusciast overly polite wagon or something.

[theymos]

Lacking "polite fluff" is the least of the problems with that email...

I was arguing with Vicente the other day on how to write customer service emails and hecsaid uou shouldn't say "Dear xxxx" or any greeting at all. I sign my support cases "Sincerely, blahblah" as well. I understand many situations call for brevity but maybe living in Korea has got me on the confusciast overly polite wagon or something.

"Dear" and "sincerely" sound much too formal to me. Some sort of "hello" is polite if you're the one opening the conversation. I almost never include a formal valediction, and usually not even an informal one.

[repentance]

LOL

Their "new security measures" statement reads suspiciously like it was cut and pasted from MtGox.

Please be aware that due to the sudden increase in identification requests, processing of submitted documentation has become slightly delayed. We thank our users for their continued patience and support as we adjust to the requirements which have been obligated upon WBX.

To be honest, a response like that is begging for a customer to complain to the Office of Fair Trading.  It's a stupid thing to do when you acknowledge on your website that you're operating unlicensed.

[Andre Jensen (World Bitcoin Exchange)]

LOL

Their "new security measures" statement reads suspiciously like it was cut and pasted from MtGox.

Please be aware that due to the sudden increase in identification requests, processing of submitted documentation has become slightly delayed. We thank our users for their continued patience and support as we adjust to the requirements which have been obligated upon WBX.

To be honest, a response like that is begging for a customer to complain to the Office of Fair Trading.  It's a stupid thing to do when you acknowledge on your website that you're operating unlicensed.

Yes we are operating unlicenced and we are open about that, we have nothing to hide, unfortunately it looks like i have made a huge mistake by responding to IAN with a one liner Reply with in 1 hour of receiving his email and i apologise for that.

I have however told Ian i don't want his business on WBX and this is why i find myself here.

Andre  

[Therilith]

While I don't have any opinion on this particular instance of alleged unprofessional behavior, I'd rather do business with a company that's honest and forthright than one that gives me nothing but vague marketspeak and empty politeness.

[CIYAM]

Just confirming that Andre has let me know he won't freeze my account.

I gather they are under a lot of stress and don't wish to create a flame war (was just a little upset).


Regards,

Ian Knowles.

[Litt]

Well, I received a one word response from Btc-e when I contacted them about my missing deposit without any resolution. I'm still waiting for a response that contains more than just one word saying "check". That was the most ridiculous response I received from an exchange. Completely unprofessional. Still, I wouldn't say it's normal considering MtGox has been very good so far with communication, but it isn't out of the ordinary when dealing with no name exchanges seeing another exchange being even worse than btc-e.

When an exchange responds with such little professionalism, it is best to just avoid them completely because that is not a normal attitude of a bitcoin exchange that will be around for a while.

[Andre Jensen (World Bitcoin Exchange)]

Well, I received a one word response from Btc-e when I contacted them about my missing deposit without any resolution. I'm still waiting for a response that contains more than just one word saying "check". That was the most ridiculous response I received from an exchange. Completely unprofessional. Still, I wouldn't say it's normal considering MtGox has been very good so far with communication, but it isn't out of the ordinary when dealing with no name exchanges seeing another exchange being even worse than btc-e.

When an exchange responds with such little professionalism, it is best to just avoid them completely because that is not a normal attitude of a bitcoin exchange that will be around for a while.

Yes i would have to agree with you on every level, At WBX we like to learn from our mistakes, let me tell you this has taught us a good lesson, we have made the necessary steps to not substitute simplicity for professionalism in the way we conduct business, we will do the best we can to not let this happen again to our customers in the future.

Thanks Ian for understanding.

Andre

[sadpandatech]

Lacking "polite fluff" is the least of the problems with that email...

"Dear" and "sincerely" sound much too formal to me. Some sort of "hello" is polite if you're the one opening the conversation. I almost never include a formal valediction, and usually not even an informal one.

  I have to agree on this level of formalness being unnecessary for most business correspondence. Speaking of businesses outside of bitcoin, I tend to get a little suspicious if the person is being too 'nice'. It makes me wonder things like, "Do they really need my business that bad, or, are they up to something". The closing sentiment should not be much more than 'Thanks', 'Regards', and at most, as I get from a lot of Asian correspondence, 'Kind Regards'. The later would probably be creepy if coming from a US business and would bring back my suspicions.

  That said, the body should never carry tones of defensiveness but this is not a Bitcoin product. I had a response just the other day from a sales manager at a very large distributor that had a lot of defensive undertones in it. It was in reply to my directing a question of his repsonse time on a quote back to him AND his boss. ;p Hey, I was told 24-48 hours for a quote and six days later had not recieved one. On that same note, I made sure my reply did not 'feed' into that and was straight forward with my intentions.

  TL;DR All people are subject to unprofessionalism, not just Bitcoiners. And, it takes two to conduct business profesionally

[freequant]

Average age of bitcoin community is about 20 I think. Young people these days have no manners.  

It's not even that, it's just that the internet revolves around brevity.

Coming from someone who tends to write endless posts, this is a rather interesting opinion.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Average age of bitcoin community is about 20 I think. Young people these days have no manners.  

It's not even that, it's just that the internet revolves around brevity.

Coming from someone who tends to write endless posts, this is a rather interesting opinion.

This googley eyed hamburger is just my hyper energy outlet. Blah blah blah. I don't act like this in real life. Ask anyone here who has met me (including Vicente who I invited to live with me here in Korea while we work on some projects together).

[cbeast]

Average age of bitcoin community is about 20 I think. Young people these days have no manners.  

It's not even that, it's just that the internet revolves around brevity.

Coming from someone who tends to write endless posts, this is a rather interesting opinion.

It just goes to show ya. You can't please all of the people all of the time. heh

[Dan The Man]

In recent dealings with some newer Bitcoin exchanges I have found email correspondence to be IMHO rather unprofessional.

Although I am not going to name names I am specifically talking about receiving emails that (a) didn't include any company information or any person's name, (b) did not have hi/hello or any sort of greeting (I am referring to the an initial email/reply rather than any follow ups) and (c) contained one or more facetious remarks (as seemingly these companies doesn't like having any criticism being made about their services).

Having worked as a software engineer for over 20 years I know how professional support should work (and have even done my share when the company I worked for didn't have enough personal for specific support staff). Anyone who sent emails like the ones I have recently received would have been quickly "let go" from every company that I have worked for.

Have I missed something in the past few years - is this "attitude" towards customers is the new norm or is this just a Bitcoin thing?


Regards,

Ian Knowles.

This forum post (a) didn't include any company information (b) did not have hi/hello or any sort of greeting (I am referring to the an initial posting rather than any follow up replies (c) contained one or more facetious remarks (as seemingly this poster doesn't like having getting "attitude").