The Official 'Chat Support does not check my password but helps me anyways' thread Options

[jamieyg3]

How many times does the chat support actually check the passwords before doing work to our servers? anyone can talk to chat as long as they have my username and get them to do anything to my server without my password because they don't check it. Yes they ask for it, but that's it, I gave them the wrong password about 95% of the time I talk to them and they don't check it ever, not even once, and i've talked to them about 30 times or so.

Here's what happened 5 mins ago since I will start keeping track now:

Please wait while we find an agent to assist you...
You have been connected to Marco M.
Marco M: Thank you for contacting The Planet Customer ServiceTeam! How may I assist you today?
Customer: hi i was *my reason for needing support*
Marco M: To better assist you can I please have your account login and last four characters of your password?
Customer: *my userid and INCORRECT password*
Marco M: Your name please?
Customer: Jamie
Marco M: Is there anything further I can assist you with before the transfer to tech support?
Customer: nope that's it
Marco M: Thank you for contacting The Planet. Please hold while I transfer you to our Support Team. They will be able to point you in the right direction for a solution. One moment please.
Marco M: Thank you for choosing The Planet! Have a great day!
Marco M has left the session.
Please wait while we find an agent from the Technical Support department to assist you.

and then tech support goes on as if I've been confirmed as the owner of this server... which is completely ridiculous.

anyone else have experiences like this? It does not make me feel comfortable about having a server with theplanet that's for sure.

[Kevin Hazard]

anyone else have experiences like this? It does not make me feel comfortable about having a server with theplanet that's for sure.

Chats and phone calls are monitored by support management regularly (a glimpse of one of those being here), and accepting the wrong password is an AUTO FAIL in the grading of that representative's response... Please send me any details you can about chat representatives accepting the incorrect password, as security is a very important aspect of our support.

[jamieyg3]

Here is another one from today... I hope posting these here will get the chat agents to do their job better.

Please wait while we find an agent to assist you...
You have been connected to Stephanie C.
Stephanie C: Thank you for contacting The Planet Customer ServiceTeam! How may I assist you today?
Customer: hi, I have an open ticket and it won't let me edit the ticket
Stephanie C: May I have the username and the last four characters of the password?
Customer: *my username and INCORRECT password*
Stephanie C: Which ticket?
Customer: *my ticket number*
Stephanie C: Try now
Customer: yup works now thanks
Stephanie C: You're welcome
Stephanie C: Is there anything else I can assist you with?
Customer: nope that's it thanks for the help
Stephanie C: Are you interested in seeing the weekly promotions that we are having?
Customer: no thanks
Stephanie C: Thank you for choosing The Planet! Have a great day!
Customer: ok thanks bye

not like any major change was done to my server THIS time, but like I said it has been done in the past.

[Macao]

Couldn't the identity be confirmed automatically when the user clicks on Live Chat after logging in to Orbit? I would assume that would greatly improve the customer experience, and save time in critical situations... also how about 3 buttons in Orbit "Tech Live Chat", "Support Live Chat", "Sales Live Chat", so no need for redirecting customers to right department either.

[RoundCorners]

I was concerned to read this thread so decided to test the system.

You have been connected to John R.
Customer: hi, can i speak to tech support please
<waited 2 mins>
Customer: hello??
John R: Thank you for contacting The Planet Customer ServiceTeam! How may I assist you today?
John R: What is your account # and the last four #'s or characters of your password please?
John R: but before you go
John R: Would you be intrested in seing the New Promotional Offers were running this week?
Customer: ES-******* (correct login)
Customer: **** (INCORRECT PASSWORD)
John R: Would you be intrested in seing the New Promotional Offers were running this week?
Customer: no thanks
John R: one moment
John R has left the session.
Please wait while we find an agent from the Technical Support department to assist you.
You have been connected to Alejandro M.


Hes too busy trying to sell me stuff to notice i give him the wrong password.

Off to perform another test

[RoundCorners]

You have been connected to Christina S.
Christina S: Hello. Thank you for contacting The Planet. My name is Christina. Can I have your Account login and the last four digits of your password?
Customer: ES-******
Customer: **** (INCORRECT PASSWORD)
Christina S: thank you and your name please?
Customer: * **** (CORRECT NAME)
Christina S: Hi ******, how can i assist you?
Customer: can you p[lease transfer me to tech support
Christina S: okay, but *******, that password information you provided is coming back invalid. Would you please re-check that information?



That makes me feel a bit better. I wont do anymore tests now as everyone is prob calling eachother lol

[Kevin Hazard]

Couldn't the identity be confirmed automatically when the user clicks on Live Chat after logging in to Orbit? I would assume that would greatly improve the customer experience, and save time in critical situations... also how about 3 buttons in Orbit "Tech Live Chat", "Support Live Chat", "Sales Live Chat", so no need for redirecting customers to right department either.

I immediately sent this thread to managers in our Billing Care, Technical Support, and Sales. The first instance noted was working with a Billing Care representative, and the only way of accessing a billing care representative is by accessing the chat function in Orbit... Because the customer's identity is already verified by accessing the portal, the primary function of the internal chat verification is to ensure we are looking at the correct account. That is no excuse for letting a password with two transposed letters into technical support, but as a peace of mind, the security was already identified by the customer logging into the control panel (which requires the entire password).

Because the chat representative could immediately verify that a customer accessed chat via Orbit, a verified password like "hositng" may have been let through if the password was actually "hosting" (a seven-letter example is being used to ensure that no one's sensitive information is shared here), but we are cracking down on that lax verification immediately -- even in the case of accessing the chat through the portal.

[RoundCorners]

Kevin,

Your explanation was appreciated and I hope that the lax security is fixed asap.

I personally will do random testing to keep ontop of this because 3 FAILS out of 4 is absolutely disgusting.

[Martyn Dale]

A lot of the time i honestly dont see the need for the passwords too be honest

Your calling up, you have the account number, and a ticket which is active on that account. What are the odds you made that up? You overhead a previous call perhaps? Well then you would have heard the password.

Other times i have called up just for an outage check, again, if i gave them the wrong password, i wouldnt expect them to notice, as im not asking them to access my account

I IMAGINE what the case is here, is what the system lets them see without auth. Probably a lot of the time, if given a direct ticket number, it can be done without the auth, whereas if they have to look it up on your account, they need to check *shrugs*