Here’s something you may or may not have known about: you can go to Twitter for customer service. The thought occurred to me last night when we were watching Hulu and we tried to switch television shows – and for some reason it’s been doing this for the last two weeks since we started our one-week trial – the interface begins to load a lot more slowly, some of the artwork doesn’t show up, and sometimes we even get a blank gray screen. I was really beginning to get fed up with that, and then it occurred to me that I heard of people using Twitter to get customer service before. I decided to give it a shot.
Using my tablet, I shot a Tweet to @hulu_plus. It was a shot in the dark, but the tablet app started to list as I typed. That was easy. I said to them that their PS3 client was the biggest software disappointment since Windows ME. Much to my surprise, they responded quickly, saying that they would be happy to help me troubleshoot my problem. Honestly, I’m not sure what there is to be done. I just installed the software, and it’s not as though it’s due to some setting that I have that needs to be tweaked or something like that. It’s an app; it’s just supposed to work.
But I’m going to give them the chance to make this right. I’ve been engaging in conversation with them since then and so far they seem to be leaning towards having me uninstall and reinstall the software, even though like I said, I just installed it. I’ll try it when I get home tonight. We’ll see what happens. If the issue continues, I will continue to be unhappy.
The point here is, I’m using Twitter for customer service! It’s a new thing for me, I’m used to calling a phone number but I guess that’s a more expensive option now? I verified this on the web; there are articles on using Twitter for customer service out there, and they they explain the rationale as it’s cheaper and it’s quicker and it builds better customer relations. I like the sound of that, and I hope it works out. Plus, who wants to sit on the phone waiting for help anymore?
If you have any experience with using Twitter for customer service, or if you have any other comments please feel free to leave them below.
Rob's Surf Report 
And who wants to actually talk to someone over the phone about customer service issues? I love the 24/7 chat feature through the company I have my domains and Web hosting through. You can better phrase your concerns and they their replies (even though a lot of it is scripted anyways). In a text and email-centric world it makes sense.
I find that chat works great for companies that have to have support staff on 24/7. Verizon has great chat support, as I’m sure you know. Whereas with Twitter it seems the support can be on a little more casual basis. Like they could answer a tweet from just about anywhere… And I’m sure that while some will say “why would they do that off the clock?” I think that the human desire to solve problems extends beyond the boundaries of a traditional work day. Anybody who did computers in the 90’s and early 00’s knows exactly what I mean.
just signed up for hulu+ 5 days ago…ive been having the same problem…i thought it was on my end…glad to see maybe theres a fix.
thanks kiddo
Hey, you bet! I’m going to post an update when the problem is resolved or when I have given up, so stay tuned.
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