Should you log a defect on a website you visit or join?

The past 3 days have been nightmarish and I need to put this in the ‘Rant’ section I think, as I am now in two minds about helping businesses with defects.

5 days prior I decided to join a well know organisation which would charge me $39 each month for the privilege, which I was happy to do. While joining, I noticed a bug when trying to use your username ie email address the first time. I figured out how to get around it and it only displays on very first log in so it wasn’t an on-going issue for me.

I thought about it and decided to log a defect with the support team following standard defect procedure:

  • Actual issue - title name

  • How to replicate

  • Current behavior

  • Expect behavior - only my perception which could be different to the business’s goal

  • Web URL/ OS/device details/date/time

  • Screenshot of error message

I also explained how I could not replicate this as it happened only on my first login after signing up/purchasing.

It became a number of emails sent requesting all my details prior to them being able to solve my issue. You can see where this is going right?

Background on myself, I have been a level 1 support provider for a very large insurance company and worked on production defect triage prior to a developer being involved. I then moved on to level 1 - 2 tech support for my next contract with lots of close stakeholder contact, this was part of my testing role.

In the end, they kept saying if I needed help with the application I need to now phone them. So I called but to cancel my membership as I feel if tech support cant read an email (just basic stuff really) then how secure are all my personal details which included credit card etc?

Has anyone else had this kind of experience or am I just lucky?

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I usually do report defects, though sometimes it depends on how easy the company makes it (or not) as to how soon I report them or how hard I try.

The company’s reaction tells me a lot about the way it treats its customers generally. Sadly, a lot of companies come up lacking.

If there is no easy or obvious route to report bugs, I usually try to find out the CEO’s private office address and write to them direct.

I know what you mean, Kim. It does irritate when you see something wrong with a site that you would have been roasted for (if even unjustly) if you’d been involved in the testing, existing out there in the wild. The last time I did this, I submitted my analysis of the issue and pointed out that my usual invoice for that level of analysis would be £250. And if they leave it unchecked, it might end up costing them a lot more than that to fix.

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Wise insight, thank you, Robert and I agree I would have been roasted for missing something like this. Having said that I am very grateful to some of our users in the past who gave me insightful feedback that only assisted me in my professional growth.

Thank you again its great to be able to chat or RANT smile: with people that get it.

Cheers K

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Twitter is a good place to report bugs because:
a) it goes to the social media marketing people and they will almost always read it and reply
b) the bug will come from internally, which means it’s more likely to be actioned
c) if it’s a simple bug you can squeeze it into an actual tweet, rather than DM, so everyone will see it making it even more likely to be actioned
(this also could have the advantage of getting you to write concise, efficient bug reports)

But generally reporting bugs on other peoples’ websites depends on one main thing:
a) how much I can be arsed at that given moment in time

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Nicely said Ben :smile:

Hi Kimberley,

I understand your frustration!

You might be interested in this post I wrote a while ago about the subject: http://www.cassandrahl.com/blog/why-i-dont-report-bugs/

Thanks,

Cassandra

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Good blog Cassandra your right about being the bearer of bad news :wink:

I guess I prefer not to be so helpful now but simple let my $$$ do the talking and go elsewhere.

Cheers K

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