It seems to be a reoccurring theme. Sites have live, online support options, but they don’t work.
Today, I found out that FBM Software’s website incorrectly lists my NetBrute software as a Trojan. Though, they may actually think that NetBrute is a Trojan, what’s more likely is that they don’t have a category for “Useful programs that hackers might use”, so they simply listed it as a Trojan, which is completely false.
So, anyway, I went to their website to look for an email address. When I saw a “Live Support” link, I thought, wow, I’ll get to chat with a live person and get this matter taken care of today, rather than trying to have a conversation through email.
Well, here’s what happened when I clicked on the link:
I waited for over an hour as I continued other work. Nobody ever came online. The screen didn’t change. I’m still waiting…
Maybe I would have gotten help if I clicked that I owned their software instead of the “General Information” link. I don’t know. In my eyes, the customer that I don’t have is at least as important as the one I do have.
If you’re going to offer online support options, make it clear before the user even clicks the button whether there is anyone available.
On the live support options on the yProxy website, if I’m not available, the buttons are grayed out or they provide a message saying that they’re offline. Not simply, please wait… infinitely.
I do a lot of online shopping, and its quite common that I find vendors that have no contact method at all on their web site, and those “live help” links listed 24/7 even though live help is unavailable 24/7. I’m sure that it’s all about deceiving the customer into thinking that there would actually be help if they needed it. I doubt they even have a working live help system.