Yesterday, Mark Fletcher (CEO of Bloglines.com) wrote:

Thanks for the comments about Bloglines. We believe the issue of feeds not updating has been fixed and we are continuing to monitor the situation. On behalf of everyone at Bloglines, I apologize for the problem. We are working hard to create the best user experience possible. We know that you have a choice in newsreaders, and I hope that we’ll be able to win you back.

Well, when the founder of OneList (aka YahooGroups) and Bloglines has taken the time to read and comment upon my humble blog, I think it deserves a response.

Dear Mark,

Thank you for responding to my review of Bloglines. (Pardon my cynicism, but I guess it’s more important to address public complaints than it is to answer private emails, eh?) Nevertheless, I appreciate the apology, truly I do. And I’m glad you believe the issue of feeds not updating is fixed. I’d like to believe it, too.

But Mark! You don’t address the second fundamental problem. I find this ironic and indicative of the whole issue – I complain that customer support is virtually non-existent, and you seem to pretend I never mentioned it. So let me ask you – do you believe that the issue of tech support not responding is fixed? Are you monitoring that situation as well? Mark, you are the leader of Bloglines – your employees take their cue FROM YOU about company priorities. If you don’t emphasize the importance of responding to customer concerns, who will?

Here are some questions I’d like you to think about. Why doesn’t anyone from support read the discussion forum? Why isn’t there a bulletin board detailing known issues (and estimated time until they’re fixed)? Why did customer support ignore 4 out of 6 attempts to contact them? (I was polite. I even said “pretty please.”) Why couldn’t anyone tell me, over two weeks of emails, that there was nothing wrong with my feed, and that the problem was on the Bloglines end?

I will be the first to admit that Bloglines – when it works - is an excellent feed reader. However, when something goes wrong, the technical support is very, very disappointing. As I have said to you before in private email (dated March 17, 2005), I know this is a free service and all that, but it also seems to me that lack of user support will, in the long run, prevent Bloglines from being a truly heavy hitter on the internet.

Sincerely,
June