I thought that I would share this with you ... mainly so you don't end up in the same predicament and because I am still floored that this has happened.
Recently, I went to add our church to GodTube. After I created the group, and had a conversation with another person, I felt it would be best if our church was not associated with my account. If I were to ever be replaced as webmaster, the new webmaster would need to be able to take over the account. So, I wrote GodTube and asked them if I could delete the account and start over or move the group to another account. This was their response:
Hello,
Your account has been removed so that you can start over. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please let us know if you have any further questions. We appreciate your support of GodTube!
GodTube Community Care
So, I wrote them back and asked ...
Which account? http://www.godtube.com/therogueangel is my account. http://www.godtube.com/*************** is the church that I need deleted so I can remake it under the webmaster account. You didn't specify which one you deleted and they both appear to still be online.
They responded:
Hello,
Your ************* account has been removed per your request. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you. We appreciate your support of GodTube!
GodTube Community Care
I wrote:
Do you know when the webname "*************" will come available again? I tried to redo the account and it says it is unavailable now.
Thanks!
They responded:
Most of the time 24-48 hours are needed for changes to fully take place. Thanks for your patience and for your support of GodTube!
- GodTube Community Care
Okay, so I am thinking things are going well at this point. I wait a week and try to set the account back up and it says it is not available. I check the link for the old group that they say they deleted and it is still there stating it is pending approval. So, I write them back ...
Hi. Sorry to bother you again, but I am still not able to use the webname "**********" and when I go to godtube.com/**************** I get the message that the group has not been approved it and it is set to friends only. It doesn't appear it was ever totally deleted. You could you check on it please?
Thanks!
And, this is the response I get ...
Hello and thank you for using GodTube!
Unfortunately we do not currently support this feature, we have tested the ability to delete groups. It does not work, we apologize for the inconvenience; however we are always updating our site to make it the best possible user experience. If you have a suggestion or concern, please email us and let us know, as we are always eager to hear our member's questions and concerns.
GodTube Community Care
Hello? Did I just read that right? So, I responded:
Oh no! Then why would you remove it so I can start over if it is impossible to do so? Is there anyway you can put it back on my account?
- Angel
So, I get the same response back ...
Hello and thank you for using GodTube,
We do not currently have the ability to delete groups. We hope to have this feature available soon. We do not have the ability to attach a group to an account. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns!
GodTube Community Care
So, I write them back and say ...
Could you please look at the beginning of this email and then answer me as to why then someone in Customer Care said, and I quote ...
Hello,
Your account has been removed so that you can start over. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please let us know if you have any further questions. We appreciate your support of GodTube!
GodTube Community Care
Why would you just do that to my account? Why not just say what you said in the first place instead of messing up my whole account now? All our church asked was how we could delete the group or put our church group on the webmaster account and you send back an email telling me that you have removed our church and now we can't get it back.
I don't understand why someone would do that.
Something is not right here. I don't know why I have been told one thing all this time and now I am being told something totally different. I also don't know why they can't delete an account or make whatever changes they wanted to. If they had somebody on there posting porn ... I am guessing they would be able to remove their account and any groups they have made.
Anywho .... beware. I have always loved their service, but this takes the cake.
Update 9:43 AM: Yay! GodTube wrote me back and further explained what happened and what they did to fix the problem. So, if you ever have this problem ... you will know what they can actually do to fix it.
Hello and thank you for using GodTube,
There was a time frame where we thought we had the ability to delete groups. There were a few groups we tried deleting during this time, yours was one of them. Unfortunately, the delete groups did not work. I sincerely apologize for this inconvenience. I have TRIED editing the URL for the group in existence. Please try creating your group using your desired URL. Hopefully it will work and you can create your group. I know in your original email you expressed concern about having the group attached to your account. If you have a webmaster email address through the church, you can create your church account using the webmaster email as the individual account. You must have an individual account attached to your church account. I hope this helps! And I hope this works! Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns.
GodTube Community Care
I was able to recreate the church group and keep the original url that I needed. Awesome!
Very funny indeed.. I dont think they were trying to harm you, they just got a little bit confused.
I don't think they were trying to harm me, but they sure have made a mess of things. Now, I have to explain to Pastor why our church does not have an account with them and why.
Also, as someone who has worked in Customer Service and Tech Support ... someone working for them is obviously not well trained in their job.
As a developer, I have a slightly different perspective on this. My question is, "Why was the "delete group" feature rolled out for general use before it was sufficiently tested and debugged?"
This actually seems to be a huge issue with a lot of community-oriented websites anymore. They seem to be so hot to roll out new features that they don't take the time for alpha (let alone beta) testing and debugging. The end result is that we users begin to see lots of things break on a somewhat regular basis.
Apparently, most of these sites' developers went to the Microsoft School of (Poor) Development.
By the way, Angel, when I try to log into typekey to leave an authenticated comment on your blog, I get redirected to a "403 error" page on your site. Not sure what's up with that.
I see a lot of that, Jarred. It is a pain in the butt.
I checked out that error and I don't know what to do. It started doing the same thing with OpenID a few months back as well. I took to the MT forums, but have had no response. I don't know if it is MT4 or if it is something on my side. I am going to report this too and see if I get anything.
Also, I wonder if it is because they changed the TypeKey interface when they conjoined it to TypePad?