XMRadio Customer Service FAIL

by kevin on July 16, 2010

I have lost my login informatio to my XMRadio account online.   No big deal.   I will go to the site and have it sent to me.    I go to their site and click “Forgot Password”.   The next page is a form asking for your username and they will send a new password to the email address on the account.   Simple enough – except I have forgotten my username too.   Oh, but there is hope!!  There is a link to find out your username.  Perfect!!!   I click on that and it asks me for one of the Radio IDs on the account and it will email me the username to my email address.  Done.

I get the email and it lists my username.  Great.  I go back to their site and click “Forgot Password” again.   This time I use the username from the email and hit the button.   Oh.  Error.   That username is not valid.   uh???  How is it not valid if you just sent it to me when I asked you for it.    Fire off an email to customer service.

Dear Mr. Meyer,

Thank you for contacting XM. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate your account using the information that you provided in your email.  If you could please email us again including any of the following: your XM account number, your Radio ID (found on Channel 0), or your address and phone number, we would be happy to assist you.

We are committed to providing you with the best in customer care.  You can always manage your account 24/7 by visiting our website at www.xmradio.com.

If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to send an additional email or you may contact a Listener Care Representative directly at 1-800-XM RADIO (800-967-2346).

Thank you,

Gwen
XM Email Listener Care Team

Um, OK.   I gave you the info your website gave me when I gave it the RadioID.   But I will send that to you and maybe you can help.  I replied to the email so the entire email thread is available.   The next (and only other response I get):

Dear Mr. Meyer, Thank you for contacting XM. In response to your inquiry, our records indicate that your eCare account is active. Please visit listenercare.xmradio.com or ecare.xmradio.com and enter your username and your password. If you do not remember your password or username, click on the “Forgot your password” Or “Forgot your username” links on the website. Please let us know if you need further assistance. We hope you are enjoying XM’s 100% commercial-free music and entertainment programming. We are committed to providing you with the best in customer care. You can always manage your account 24/7 by visiting our website at www.xmradio.com. If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to send an additional email or you may contact a Listener Care Representative directly at 1-800-XM RADIO (800-967-2346). Thank you, Harvey XM Email Listener Care Team

Are you kidding me Harvey?   The whole point in my contacting customer service was that the website could not help me and I just wanted to change my email address.      XMRadio Customer Service: FAIL

Thanks for not being so helpful.

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Duke Energy: Email Address Policy FAIL

by kevin on July 16, 2010

I am in the middle of changing email addresses due to an ISP change.  No big deal, I will just go around to my online accounts and change my address, right?   WRONG!!!

I am changing my address from a .com to a less common .me gTLD.  It is a vanity domain I have which I will always have no matter what ISP I use in the future.   Like a GMail account, only my own domain.

Locally, I have Duke Energy as my electrical utility.  I have had an online account with them for years.  Online invoicing and online billing.   It is great not having to watch the mail for another out-of-band bill to pay.  I went into the online account system and clicked on my profile to change my email address to my new one.   I hit save and the site generated an error.  I tried a couple more times and it kept generating errors.   So, I broke down and fired an email off to customer service.  Here there response:

Dear Mr. Meyer:

Thank you for your e-mail to Duke Energy regarding your e-mail address.

Duke Energy’s online services will only recognize addresses such as .com, .net or .org, .me would not be an acceptable e-mail address which is the reason you are receiving the error message.

I apologize for any inconvenience.

Please reply to this e-mail or contact the Customer Service Department at 1-800-521-2232 for further assistance. Representatives are available Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Sincerely
Nicole, Web Support Specialist

I read this and could not believe it.  Duke’s system will only allow three gTLDs for email addresses and if you aren’t using one of those – too bad?   Really??    Why?   I have changed my account everywhere else without a problem:

Bank – Check.
Gas Company – Check
Phone/ISP – Check
TV Service – Check
Retirement Accounts – Check

I emailed back asking if Nicole could change the account for me (is it just the website isn’t configured right).   She said she could not change it either.  FAIL!

If anyone knows why Duke Energy would be the only company (out of about 30 that I changed successfully) that requires .com, .net, or .org addresses, please let me know.  It just makes no sense to me.

I guess I will go back to paper billings until Duke can get their head out of their *$$ and actually understand how the internet works (and these are the people bringing us the smart power grid????)

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Save Indiana Summers – seriously?

February 3, 2010

The Indiana “Save Our Summers” initiative passed the Senate today.  Our only hope is that our House of Representatives is not as stupid.  The Senate Bill (SB150) mandates that local school boards may not set a school start date before Labor day nor end after June 10 of the following year.  Basically, guaranteeing an extended [...]

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Indianapolis Public Schools – SuperBowl Delay

February 3, 2010

So, IPS has decided to have a two-hour delay for school on the Monday after the SuperBowl.  Now, I am all for cheering on your favorite team when they are up for a championship, but come on – sacrificing a child’s education for it?  This just makes no sense to me.  IPS states the problem [...]

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