intaipei:

I want this to spread like wildfire. I want people to know that Flickr, their customer service and overall infrastructure is incredibly disappointing and it needs to be fixed ASAP.

Reblog at LEAST the picture so people are aware.

Days ago my Flickr account was hacked and then terminated leaving me with tons of questions without any answers.

I received three e-mails in my inbox the morning I woke up:

1. [redacted]@hotmail.com has been added to your account!
2. Your password has been changed!
3. Your account has been terminated!

All of which were done without verification e-mails sent to me. What kind of service is Flickr to allow these crucial changes to my account without allowing the original e-mail that registered the account verify that the information is correct? And who the fuck still uses Hotmail?

I thought to myself, “Okay, Flickr is owned by Yahoo! they have servers, they probably have my photos backed up for such occassions as this.” I didn’t sweat it at all. I sent an e-mail to Flickr customer support and waited 24 hours for a response as the automated robot told me to.

24 hours roll along by and I’m fretting a little bit. I send 2 e-mails but to two different departments. One in customer service and another in “Abused User Accounts”. Another 24 hours roll by and I’m still without a response.

I decide to find Yahoo!’s customer service phone number online and give them a call. I am connected to the “Paid Service” section and I tell the rep my problem.

“I’m sorry Sir, but you need to talk with Flickr, as Yahoo! cannot help you with your problem with their service.”

“Okay, but Flickr is owned by Yahoo! Can you please just connect me by the phone?”

“No sir. There are no phones in the flickr offices, there’s no way connect to them by phone, only by e-mail via their website.”

The following exhanges were just us getting mad at each other, but I remember seeing pictures of the Flickr offices via their blog. After searching Flickr for just a couple of minutes, I obtained a photo of their offices and guess what I spotted? A phone. Imagine, a Web 2.0 company having company phones! (Here’s a video named: Too many phones at Flickr HQ)

So not only was I being lied to, I was obviously not being heard thus feeling that my 4 years of patronage of the FlickrPro account was meaningless to them and I might as well screw off. But there’s more…

Chia Yi’s cousin works for Yahoo! I sent him a Facebook message and within minutes he sends a response asking for my username and that he will forward me to the Senior Customer Service rep at Flickr. Within 20 minutes I get an e-mail:

“I’m sorry but after an account has been deleted it isn’t
possible to restore the content of the account. If you can
write in from a contact email address for the account or
from the Yahoo! ID we can reactivate it. This will let you
use the screen name and URL again but unfortunately the
images, comments and other content isn’t recoverable.”

then 5 hours I get another e-mail from the SAME rep:

“I’m sorry for the frustration that you’re experiencing. As
your query is not an abuse issue, I’m transferring your case
to Flickr Customer Care.”

Thanks [redacted] for going the extra mile and responding to both my e-mail sent 3 days prior and then the e-mail sent from my girlfriend’s cousin…and then saying that you’re transferring my case to Flickr Customer Care when apparently YOU ARE Flickr Customer Care! I feel like such a valued customer.

There were 3,000+ photos on my Flickr photostream from 2004-present. Thousands and thousands of dollars spent on film and developing were pumped into that account and it vanishes within minutes and it’s been days and still I’ve found no resolution with my case.

I asked for the IP address of the person who logged-in and made these changes. I doubt that they will release that information to me or it “vanished” with the termination as well. I hope that people will spread this story around to make it aware of their horrible practices as a company in hopes of improving their services.

-Morgan Tepsic

posted on Thursday, 08/06/2009, 19:24 -