Ah, the joys of LiveJournals (non)Support.

[anysia]

A friend of mine, amunaten, wants to finally update his bio. Turns out that his old bio contains a character that the new-ish UTF-8 encoding doesn't recoginise, so he has to convert. Since the UTF doesn't recognise it, it won't convert, and he keeps getting error that his bio contains unrecognisable character, go convert it.

Talk about chasing ones own tail!

So he emails LJ for support. Hears nothing back, emails them again, and they tell him to not submit more than one request and shunt his request to another area.

All he is asked them to do is blank his bio, remove the offending 'character' so he can fill it out properly. Funny, LJ admin has no problem suspending accounts for images of moms breastfeeding their babies, when when it comes to real support, they are mysteriously unhelpful.

Comments

[amunaten.livejournal.com]

Can we get an AMEN up in here!?

WOOHOO!

[anysia.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you are going to delete/undelete. Since you just paid for the year, I would really hate to see you lose your $$ because they are too lazy and indifferent be bothered.

[myrrhdusa.livejournal.com]

I know I've alwasy had good response with opening a support request, have you done that already?

http://www.livejournal.com/support/submit.bml

[anysia.livejournal.com]

He has been trying.. for weeks. They have been most uncooperative.

[myrrhdusa.livejournal.com]

That's odd. I've always had prompt response with the support request thing. Did they close it or is it still open?

[amunaten.livejournal.com]

tried that, not much help so far. they told me to clear my browser cache. other than that, nothing.

[myrrhdusa.livejournal.com]

I'm really puzzled as to why it won't let you change it. Does it allow you to open the edit menu? This is just my mad curiousity and need to figure things out, just tell me to shut up if I'm being annoying.

[myrrhdusa.livejournal.com]

When you try to update your bio, are you typing your text in another application and then pasting it into the LJ window? Or are you unable to even get to the editing window?

One more time

[anysia.livejournal.com]

When he goes to the EDIT Profile page, there is this glaring BOLD red-lettered message that there is a character in his bio that is erroneous, "please convert to UTF- 8 encoding." Click on button, go to conversion page. jump though conversion hoops. When he does, it doesn't work because the character is unreconisable, therefore can't convert it, therefore can't edit bio because it can't convert.

Hence my comment about chasing ones' tail.

Re: One more time

[myrrhdusa.livejournal.com]

I'm not trying to make you repeat yourself, and I did say you could tell me to shut up at any time. :-)


I'm poking through the old requests to see if I can find anything, but all there seems to be is browser issues or incompatibility with the formatting in text programs. Has he tried using a different browser to see if that might work? Or even a different machine?

Re: One more time

[anysia.livejournal.com]

He had me do it. I converted it to every option, and still got the bold red error message.

There is a symbol/character in his bio, a double ended arrow. that is unrecognizable. It won't convert, because UTF-8 doesn't recognise it so can't convert it, and brings the red error message up again.

He has tried it on his machine, mine halfway around the world, his dads, different OS different browser on each machine. Same error.

What he needs is for LJ admin to purge is bio without purging his account.

Re: One more time

[myrrhdusa.livejournal.com]

My next step would be to write to feedback@livejournal.com, make it clear that you've been going through the support request for however long it has been, supply the request number, and outline exactly what is going on and mention that he has paid for a year of LJ time.

The people in support are volunteers, and can't access his account anyway, so you are going to have to get to a staff member.

Ahem

[anysia.livejournal.com]

So he emails LJ for support. Hears nothing back, emails them again, and they tell him to not submit more than one request and shunt his request to another area.

He did that, and that and everything else. Days ago.

He has been working on this problem for quite a while, with no help from LJ Support.

Re: Ahem

[myrrhdusa.livejournal.com]

I wrote an email, linking to this thread anyway. Can't hurt.

Re: Ahem

[amunaten.livejournal.com]

thanks!

Re: Ahem

[anysia.livejournal.com]

I just hope that maybe the request coming from a few sources will garner a bit more attention, and a quick solution.

Re: Ahem

[myrrhdusa.livejournal.com]

jennifer wrote me back this morning. First of all, it hasn't been weeks since he put in a support request. It's been five days, and his second request, the one that is being handled by the tech staff now was only put in yesterday. She has asked for patience, apparently they are trying to figure it out.

Still, I think there should be more communication than there has been, and I would like to see something happen soon! If the character has made it impossible for even them to access it, then they should offer a refund and some perk for his inconvenience.

Re: Ahem

[amunaten.livejournal.com]

To clarify, I have been trying to find a way around it for weeks, but to no avail. I put in the first request.. yeah five days sounds about right... and frankly I find that unacceptable.

I have worked in service-oriented jobs before, and I am sorry but if you ask me, a five day+ turn-around on a support issue is unacceptable.

Re: Ahem

[anysia.livejournal.com]

I didn't say he put the request in weeks ago. I said he has been working on this problem for weeks. So he did try every available option to fix it. :)

Re: Ahem

[amunaten.livejournal.com]

YAY! My bio is fixeded! (and updated!)

YAY!

[anysia.livejournal.com]

<|<|<| and there was great rejoicing! |>|>|>