March 28, 2006

A Cry For Help: Google Customer Service Does Not Exist for Blogger / Blogspot

Someone, somewhere, A-List, B-List, C-List, must know SOMEONE at Blogger/Google who can be shamed into helping a user who had the first team blog on blogspot in 2001 (gonzo engaged), the largest women's team blog on blogspot (blog sisters), and who has been blogging (here) on, and supporting, Google's blogging platform since LONG before Google gave a rat's ass about blogging and Doc uttered the "Holy Shit" heard round the net at Google's Blogger/Blogspot purchase.

Blogger ignored users, don't feel like you're being singled out because your blog doesn't have a big enough readership to matter. Apparently there IS no important customer. My blog isn't A-Listed, but I do have the 6,000th-something most popular blog according to Technorati, which Kevin Marks tells me puts it in the 90-something percentile.

Forget popularity--how about the fact that I've heard from a dozen readers this week who want to know what's wrong with my blog and whether or not Blogger has responded. Fellow bloggers like Ken Camp and Susan Kitchens have posted. Still nothing.

Since 2001, folks. That's a LONG TIME.

Have I emailed Blogger Support? Oh yes I have. I have reported the problem -- that after an hour of so of not posting, my blog disappears, replaced by a blank white screen. It's been going on for a week now. Readers can't get here. Folks can't comment. HELP.

This is the one and only response I've gotten (to my first cry for help):

-----Original Message-----
From: Blogger Support [mailto:support@blogger.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 11:05 PM
To: {U 360869 B 3199544}
Subject: Re: [#435218] my blog keeps NOT SHOWING UP

Hi there,

Thanks for contacting Blogger Support. Since we cannot always respond personally to every message we get, we encourage you to check Blogger Help, where you can find answers to many common questions. Here are some of the top articles which could help you out:

CHANGES ARE NOT APPEARING ON YOUR BLOG
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=639

A BLOG IS MISSING FROM YOUR DASHBOARD
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=656

HOW TO DELETE A BLOG
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=70

THIRD-PARTY ADD-ONS
http://help.blogger.com/bin/topic.py?topic=40

HELP WITH HTML OR CSS CODE
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=1116

If you don't see what you need in these articles, you can use the search form in the upper right corner of any Blogger Help page. Be sure also to check our Status page and our Known Issues page. These cover many known bugs and current operational problems.

BLOGGER STATUS
http://status.blogger.com/

KNOWN ISSUES
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=791

You can also check out our Blogger Help Group, to talk to other users, ask questions, or see if anyone else has had the same issue as you.

BLOGGER HELP GROUP

http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help

If your question or problem is not addressed anywhere in our documentation, please simply reply to this message and let us know. We will help you out as soon as we can. Thanks for your patience.

Sincerely,
Blogger Support

------

That's not Support--That's a diversion!

Nonetheless, I have followed instructions and replied to this message three times asking for help, telling them that the problem is still occuring--AND HAVE NOT HEARD ONE WORD BACK.

I've tried republishing all 3,000-plus posts, I've tried republishing single posts. Not working. It seems that every time the blog stays dormant for more than an hour, it disappears.

And maybe that's just what Google wants. Because long-time users with thousands of posts serve no purpose except to eat up server space, right? Is that what's going on? Does it matter that I paid more for Blogspot to host my blog during the year+ when they DID charge more then most people pay for hosting today?

No, it doesn't matter. And that's why I'm being summarily dismissed.

Of all the big mouths in the world to dismiss, I'm probably one of the worst ones to dismiss. So with my big mouth I'll ask one more time: DOES ANYONE KNOW ANYONE AT BLOGGER/GOOGLE WHO CAN HELP FIND OUT WHAT IS WRONG AND FIX IT?

The only other idea I have is that anyone who reads this blog email blogger support at support@blogger.com. Since regular CONVERSATION isn't working, maybe spammng them will.

The end,
jeneane sessum
678-294-0900
ewriter AT bellsouth DOT net
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