August 9, 2009

Plaxo Plaints Part II - Backwards Chronological

CathleenRitt Jul 31, 02:34 PMRead @emoltzen great, positive analysis of me vs Plaxohttp://bit.ly/izSzX

CathleenRittCathleenRitt Jul 31, 02:09 AM@johnmccrea Finally those guys may well be in my address book but I don’t know them and when I search on name or email, I can’t find them
rachelkmrrachelkmr Jul 31, 01:54 AM@CathleenRitt Yes, I work at Plaxo; I know @johnmccrea has tried answering some of your issues but this may be easer by email (rachel@plaxo)
johnmccreajohnmccrea Jul 31, 01:52 AM@CathleenRitt That is not true. Do you need me to prove bia log files that they are in your Plaxo address book?
johnmccreajohnmccrea Jul 31, 01:49 AM@CathleenRitt You really are a comic!replyretweetfavorite(more)johnmccreajohnmccrea Jul 31, 01:47 AM@CathleenRitt Lol. I’ll get right on that!
CathleenRittCathleenRitt Jul 31, 01:41 AMTo Plaxo @johnmccrea So if you first find me another service and port all my contacts over, then deleting my account would work
johnmccreajohnmccrea Jul 31, 01:39 AM@CathleenRitt Zzzzzzz. Er. um. Again, happy to help, but who is making the “big show of responding publicly” now?CathleenRittCathleenRitt Jul 31, 01:37 AMTo Plaxo marketing @johnmccrea Furthermore I explained in Tumblr post/email I politely labored over why I didn’t want to delete my account
CathleenRittCathleenRitt Jul 31, 01:35 AMRT to @johnmccrea Thx Plaxo Marketing Guy. You asked 6/4. List of unresolved/no response complaints:http://tumblr.com/xnf1ycv7cCathleenRitt - Plaxo Plaints [cathleenritt.tumblr.com]johnmccreajohnmccrea Jul 31, 01:21 AM@CathleenRitt Wow. You’re an interesting challenge! “Not doing anything”, please be specific about what you’d like me to do. Delete acount?
CathleenRittCathleenRitt Jul 31, 01:12 AMWell @johnmccrea Stop making a big show of responding publicly in friendly Plaxo social media guy mode and then not doing anythingjohnmccreajohnmccrea Jul 31, 12:53 AM@CathleenRitt Thanks for the response. Sorry you’re not a happy camper. Let me know if I can help in any way.
CathleenRittCathleenRitt Jul 31, 12:45 AMRT @johnmccrea to me: I head up marketing at Plaxo. I’d love to hear more of your thoughts and feelings. How have we evoked such a response?r
CathleenRittCathleenRitt Jul 31, 12:43 AMTo @johnmccrea Plaxo Email to tell me “Wicklander Ray” a stranger, had joined Plaxo, was in my address book. I search my addresses, no Rayr
CathleenRittCathleenRitt Jul 31, 12:28 AMThanks @johnmccrea Plaxo Marketing Guy. You asked on June 4th too. Here are my unresolved complaints againhttp://tumblr.com/xnf1ycv7cCathleenRitt - Plaxo Plaints [cathleenritt.tumblr.com]

Plaxo Plaints

These are my complaints to the Plaxo guy, edited for privacy and public consumption.

1. This link: To accept this connection request, go to: www.xosishga

I think you should organize it the way Twitter does and have one link that says “to find out more about Mr. X click here:  Mr.XLInk”  and then another that says “to accept this request go here….”  

I frequently get requests from strangers - names I don’t recognize- and it makes me nervous the way that statement is phrased because I think I’m going to be automatically connected.

2. Auto Connection Request

When I went to the link for “Group With Dumb Name” it only had one person connected to it.  When I clicked on that guy’s picture, up popped “Name Deleted” who I never heard of.  There was a message that said “We have sent a connection request to Name Deleted” when I did nothing of the sort.  That is what I tweeted about and you said it can’t happen.  I just found Name Deleted in a search, here’s what it says:

Name Deleted
Retired
Location
***Connection pending*** (Asterisks mine)

Meanwhile, I tried to find a way to rescind this connection request and couldn’t find it.

3. Blocking Strangers:

This guy, “Scum Ball”  has sent me a request to connect several times.  I kept ignoring the request but he sends it again.  I looked for a way to block him and then finally reported him as an abuser which I really didn’t want to do.  If that’s how you want me to handle it, let me know.

4. Stranger has just joined Plaxo Spam:

I got a special request to complain about this from another Twitter follower that followed our discussion on Twitter.  Here’s an example:

“We wanted to let you know that Random Contact just joined Plaxo.”

Apparently he’s in my address book, but I have no idea who he is and I don’t care.  And there’s my big problem…

5. Thus, Why I disparage Plaxo on Twitter:

a. Folders: The reason he’s in my address book is that the whole Plaxo set up with
folders is so unintuitive and confusing that I ended up sucking all
kinds of contacts into it from my former company over the course of a
year.

b. Sync Time Suck: Then I spent a day resyncing and resyncing because your definition of syncing was apparently different than my experience of it elsewhere. I
ended up paying $50 for the service because that was the only way I
had even the remotest probability of solving the problem.  

c. No Spam for Fee

Then of course, the $50 was automatically billed to me on the anniversary.  I
don’t remember getting the spam email reminding me about the upcoming bill.

6. Conclusion

a. Provide Utility: If I didn’t think Plaxo had the potential to be a good product and I hadn’t already loaded tons of contacts and sunk so much time into it, I wouldn’t be sending you this email.  I think Plaxo thinks it’s a social network, but I think Plaxo should be a useful utility.  It would be more useful to me as a mini CRM but it can’t do any of that kind of stuff easily as far as I can tell (create email lists etc.).

 And it’s too much of a Pain in the Ass.

Thank you for your concern and making the effort.

Cathleen Rittereiser (@CathleenRitt)

johnmccrea Jul 31, 12:19 AM@CathleenRitt Hi. I head up marketing at Plaxo. I’d love to hear more of your thoughts and feelings. How have we evoked such a response?

CathleenRittCathleenRitt Jul 31, 12:15 AMI hate Plaxo with such a hot throbbing passion. It makes me long for the yellow pages and rolodexes and whiteout.

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