Twitter suspension

19 July 2009 12 Comments

Mosey along now, nothing to see here. That’s what I saw Friday morning when I tried to log on to my Twitter account. To say it surprised me would be an understatement. And as of this posting my account is still suspended without any hint as to why or for how long…but it’s not like I haven’t tried to find out.

Up to this point Twitter has been nothing but great. I use it daily. Shy of some slow times that we’ve all had to suffer through, Twitter has been a great way to communicate with friends and share links. Hell, at this point I think I discover more news on Twitter than I do on my RSS feeds. I don’t think I use Twitter any different than any of the other millions of Average Joes using it right now…or you.

On the “Owl Page” there is a link that takes you Twitter’s default FAQ page about suspensions. It outlines some of the reasons you may have been suspended, but it tells nothing about your particular case. Up to this point I had not received any warning from Twitter, which I’m sure is well within their right and policy, I’m not really arguing that they CAN just suspend accounts without warning, it’s the fact that they suspended MINE without warning.

Through the FAQ page is a link to submit a support form. So I pleaded my case in a request and sent it off, hoping that this clear misunderstanding could be solved relatively quickly. I was happy to see my ticket was addressed relatively quickly, same day, however the only information that came along with the ticket was the status of “solved.”

Your ticket has been deemed solved.

That’s all it told me. It didn’t tell me what solved meant or anything else. It didn’t include any information suggesting what rule or policy I broke, if any. If I broke some sort of rule or policy then I can accept my suspension. That’s fine. I’m not above the rules, but any good authority will tell you what rule you broke. That’s Customer Support 101, isn’t it?

You’re going to jail.
Why?
You’re going to jail.

The FAQ for suspensions is equally as unhelpful because it lists no less than seven reasons as to why your account might be suspended, of which none does my account or use of Twitter apply…at least if you ask me. But apparently someone else disagrees and I just want to know why.

All you reading this probably follow me on Twitter. I’m at a loss here so if you have ever considered my Twittering abusive or offensive or that my tweets do not include personal thoughts and communications, please let me know. I honestly have no thoughts as to why this happened. Usually when I get nailed for something it’s because I tried to get away with something that I knew was walking the line. I don’t mind getting caught then, that’s the risk of walking the line, but this is just…just…weird.

And the complete lack of information from Twitter is extremely disappointing. I know Twitter is free and they probably have terms of use that state they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, blindly punishing people without telling them why is poor poor poor. I expected more from Twitter, I really did.

Just before I wrote this entry I submitted an e-mail to Twitter, which just opened another support ticket, explaining my situation along with a brief message of disappointment that they are unable to inform me as to why my account has been jailed. Twitter’s customer support deserves a fail whale.

So while I sit and wait for any sort of information about my suspended account, I will be using @caveradio to feed my Twitter addiction. Please follow me there for the time being. Actually, following @caveradio is just a good idea anyway.

Tags: customer service, suspended, twitter

12 Comments »

Renee said:

That sucks, dude! I’m at a total loss as to what you can do :( I hope it gets sorted out soon.

# 19 July 2009 at 8:26 pm

Jen said:

Maybe it is time we find an 800 number for them? :)

# 20 July 2009 at 7:04 am

JuanO said:

That’s messed up. How does an account get flagged for suspension anyway? I hope they resolve it quickly, but something tells me it’s going to be a while. I bet they have tons of cases like yours. Sucks, dude. Good luck.

# 23 July 2009 at 12:03 am

Brian (author) said:

The drama is over…for now.

My Twitter was restored this afternoon, much to my surprise. I accidentally launched Twhirl and it loaded my @morningtoast tweets - in dismay I logged on the site and it was magically unsuspended.

I’ve been told I will be getting a ticket follow-up with details about what happened. We shall see what happens next.

But I’m back, fools - just hit @morningtoast for all the goodness.

# 23 July 2009 at 3:35 pm

Jared Cherup said:

Did you see this? http://status.twitter.com/post/136164828/restoring-accidentally-suspended-accounts not related by date… but seriously I think they are a little to trigger happy on the suspensions.

# 23 July 2009 at 5:58 pm

Roger L. Cauvin said:

Brian, I am having a very similar frustrating experience with Twitter support.

My account was actually hijacked, and whoever hijacked it changed my password and email address associated with the account, and they posted some spam tweets. So Twitter (understandably) suspended the account.

Before they even suspended the account, however, I sent a support e-mail. They responded with a message that had nothing to do with the issue I reported. (Their reply was about limits on the number followers, which is not what I reported.)

So I replied, stating that my account was suspended and that my issue was not with the number of followers. I received no reply for almost a week.

Then, since I wasn’t getting any more email responses, I entered an issue on the web from another Twitter account. They have now marked the issue as “solved” three times without any explanation and without actually fixing the problem!

The kicker is that they finally got back to me in email again yesterday. The email informed me that they were closing the support issue because it was a duplicate, and that to re-open it I’d have to send a brand new email to support!

I would like to find someone on the inside at Twitter so that I can share this frustrating experience with them and hopefully hold their support people accountable for this debacle.

# 25 July 2009 at 2:09 pm

Brian (author) said:

I’m certain that my account got restored because I did contact a support person directly.

When my ticket came back as “solved” without my account actually be fixed, I noted the person that was assigned the ticket. All the Twitter support people are on Twitter, naturally, so I sent that person a tweet asking to restore my account. And not long after it was fixed.

It seems their ticket system is worthless for any number of reasons. I’m not sure that if I hadn’t contact the support person directly if I would have gotten my account back.

So that’s my suggestion, Roger, is to look at the name of the assignee (assuming it’s not just “support”) and tweet them personally. Can’t hurt or do any worse than a “solved” ticket. Good luck!

# 25 July 2009 at 7:33 pm

Roger L. Cauvin said:

Good thinking about sending a tweet directly to the support person. Originally, it did show a specific person as assigned to the issue. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what her Twitter user name was, and now “Support” is shown as being assigned to the issue.

Would you mind sending me the Twitter user name of the person who finally solved your issue? My e-mail address can be found here.

# 25 July 2009 at 7:48 pm

Brian (author) said:

The support person that was assigned my ticket was @delbius and she was the one I also contacted and the shortly got restored. Her profile says shes a spam/abuse support person, so it sounds like Twitter has specialized people per problem area. If your ticket isn’t under the spam heading then she might not be able to do anything, but hey…never hurts to ask.

# 26 July 2009 at 8:57 pm

Roger L. Cauvin said:

Thanks. I recognize that support person as the one who was initially assigned to one of my requests. I sent her a tweet from another one my Twitter accounts. She hasn’t responded yet, but I do see she’s been replying to other people’s tweets.

# 27 July 2009 at 2:15 pm

Roger L. Cauvin said:

FYI, my account has been restored to my control, thanks to the tweet to @delbius. Unfortunately, I lost all of my 500+ followers. It’s a known bug with restored accounts. Twitter engineers are supposedly working on it.

# 31 July 2009 at 1:18 pm

Brian (author) said:

That’s a bummer. So the only good side is you keeping your handle? Saves you the trouble of having to think up a name, I guess, but still.

Well, glad to hear you got some of it resolved. Good luck with the rebuilding of your followers. And I hope @morningtoast and @caveradio make it to your following list. :)

My whole episode made me go - there are like 15+ million Twitter users and this shit happens to me?

# 31 July 2009 at 4:02 pm