Why you should talk to companies on Twitter

I think Twitter was born because we all just needed a place to vent about things.

I regularly complain about anything and everything on Twitter. Waiting in line, traffic, service at restaurants, my internet connection crapping out, my baby not sleeping -- you name it, I've probably complained about it at least once in 7,000 tweets.

Lately I've been making a point to search for a company's Twitter handle before I tweet about them. In my opinion, Tweeting directly at them gives me a better chance of being heard than not adding their handle at all, and if nothing else happens, I've drawn attention to it.

Case in point: You're all up-to-date on my cell phone drama. And yes, I've tweeted about that NUMEROUS times, going back months. At the beginning of the most recent meltdown, I tweeted the following:

Samsung responded right away by asking me some details about the phone and where I'd gotten my replacement phone. The manager of the account offered to take a look at the phone for me and send the service request link. Unfortunately, I couldn't go without a phone because we don't have a home phone, but the fact they offered was pretty darn cool.

Fast forward a few weeks to the Loaner Phone debacle. I tweeted this:

Of course, Sprint didn't respond because they sort of suck at customer service (both online and through the stores).

But that single Tweet was re-tweeted by someone with over 1000 followers and re-tweeted again by some of her followers. By the time that tweet trickled out of the Twitter stream, it had the potential to be read by thousands of current Sprint customers and future Sprint customers -- who might not become customers because of what they read.

Ok, that's a long-shot. I'm not Heather Armstrong and neither are any of you. None of us are getting any free washers out of a Twitter rant.  What I'm saying is that if a company is on Twitter, they have opened themselves up to these types of messages and it's in their best interest to respond.

Many times I'm not even asking for them to do anything. I just want them to listen. I want them to be  accountable for the products they sell.

Here is an example of a company who does it right.

I had three Restaurant.com certificates worth $10 each for a restaurant that closed. I was able to trade them in for credit on the Restaurant.com website but it would only allow me to trade in $10 at a time instead of using all $30. There weren't any restaurants I was interested in that offered $10 certificates, so I tweeted:

Within minutes, someone from Restaurant.com had Direct Messaged me in an attempt to solve this problem. They were able to  And you know what? They did. 

And because they listened to little old me, I'm much more likely to be a return customer.

Do you complain to companies on Twitter? Have they ever responded to you?

Loaner Phone Part 2: Text message bonanza

I'm used to having lots of apps to play with on my smart phone, including Twitter, Facebook and TMZ. Now that we have a baby in tow, there are times when Hub will run in to a store and leave us in the car, especially if the baby is sleeping. I missed my Samsung Moment the most when we were running errands.

I was sitting in the car at Lowes getting bored while Hub shopped and the baby slept. What to do, what to do? I decided to take a virtual tour around my Loaner Phone and see what I could get into. They weren't able to download my contact list to this phone, so the only numbers I had were those of the people who had already texted me. I scrolled further and realized that not only were the contacts still in the phone, all the text messages were, too.

Hot diggity dog!

This guy's whole world was opened in front of me. Not a word was spelled right, unless it had something to do with drugs. More wuz, ur, bros, brahs, kno, wat, wassups, dams than you can shake a stick at. There were pleads for more weed, lots of text flirting and this little number:

White Girl T: Gas is $4 a gallon I'll take u but u gotta put $15 in my gas
PG (Phone Guy): I am good man dam like

Then there is this one, which I'm still trying to figure out:

Back Door: Im at rondia house now bruh come threw ima buy what i can frm ya when i get in.

(Buy what, pray tell? Probably selling some Tupperware or something.. Yeah, that must be it.)

And this one:

PG: Dis me way u at?!

But nothing is quite as spectacular as the text fights between PG and what appears to be his number one lady love, in the contacts as "My Bay". From the look of these text messages, I think they have the same kind of relationship me and my Samsung Moment have.

My Bay: So i guess i'm suppose to be dumb all of a sudden your phone has no service you couldn't talk to me while in the house your phone hung up you don't call back one thing about it mama didnt raise no fool it hasn't been the same its cool though i pick up on stuff very quickly just kno i kno

The next day....

My Bay: Luv u hope you have a good day today
PG: Thank you bay and u too
My Bay: Missin you bae

The next day.....

My Bay: You can keep your attitude you get mad for stupid reasons i swear damn but you say i like to argue besides my baby still runnin a fever ask questions first

And it goes on and on and on. It was fascinating. In fact, when Hub got back into the car that night he was all, what are you looking at? And I'm like, THE MOST AMAZING SERIES OF TEXT MESSAGES EVER. I mean, I couldn't make this stuff up.

I can't say I was too incredibly sad to see Loaner Phone go yesterday, but I can say that I erased all my OWN texts before I sent it in.

Loaner Phone Part 1: Contact list

Last June I jumped feet first into the world of smart phones with my Samsung Moment. It was love at first touch. Over the next few months, my Samsung Moment failed me again and again while I became increasingly dependent on it. I feel like my Samsung Moment and I need to go to couples therapy.

The first problem was last summer when the plug port became bent because I dropped it too many times when it was plugged in for no obvious reason. Sprint replaced it with a refurbished phone.

The second time was a right after I got back from maternity leave. The phone was often unresponsive and wouldn't hold a charge for more than an hour. I took it in and Sprint replaced it with a refurbished phone.

Three or so weeks ago, my Samsung Moment was unresponsive again and would power down for no reason and then take hours to restart (even plugged in). Once at work I waited two hours for it to restart. A few nights later I plugged it in while it was restarting, woke up with Baby Blogworthy at 3 am and it still wasn't charged after four hours and had pretty much set my pillow on fire with the overheated battery. I pulled out the battery and it finally started.

The next night it crashed for real. After my phone tried to load for almost 12 straight hours, the battery died and it sort of gave up on life.

Although I'm only 18 days from an upgrade, Sprint wouldn't let me go ahead and give them my cash monies for a new phone. Instead, they sent my Samsung Moment away YET AGAIN. I get it back today, but for the weekend I was stuck with a loaner phone.

Oh, people, this loaner phone. It wasn't so much the phone as the condition of the phone. It's as if the Sprint people were like, "crap, this woman's phone is DONE and we need to get her something fast. Quick, check the back. Nothing? Seriously? Ok, think. Think. Wait, didn't someone just turn in a phone? Yeah, yeah, yeah, get that one! where is it? Oh here it is, in the trash, right under this banana peel. Brush the coffee grinds off it and I'll get it set up for her."

My sister has this phone because she has an iPad for awesomeness and doesn't need a smart phone.

However, I'm sure her's doesn't include the following:

- A hole in the casing
- A crack in the camera lens
- Half the keypad missing
- A contact list that contains the following names: Jit;  Kevin White Boy; Mikey Crip Walk; Moneek; No Hands; Nu Nu Nu; Toy Shipmate Sis and; Unc Bucket; B Smooth; Back Door; Cuz Boo; Black Ass; Fatboy; Rolemodel Lil Chris; Roo Block; and Spank. (All typed directly from the contact list on my Loaner Phone)


By the way, I guess I didn't mention they had forgotten to erase all the other person's information from the phone? Yeah. That happened. Creepy, huh? 


There was a work number in it and I called it. It was a KFC. Take from that what you will.


The Loaner Phone took on a new life at work Friday. My work friend, who was one work day away from a vacation and was stressed became instantly obsessed with Loaner Phone and we collectively spent the rest of the day inputting the contacts them into the Royal Name Generator. 

Marchioness White Girl Lulu Tcott of Alachuashire.

 

Marchioness Toy Shipmate Ticky Sis Andberton of Gainesvilleshire.

 

Prince Back Fearnsley Doorskitt of Gainesvilleford.

Now, tell me, how can a person be sad about their non-smart Loaner Phone when it provides that kind of entertainment? But I didn't know exactly how entertaining that phone was until I discovered the text messages....


Dun, dun DUUNNNN!! Come back tomorrow for the conclusion to my Loaner Phone saga.

Meanwhile, what do you think the text messages said, based on the contacts list?