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by felipe_csl 5116 days ago
So let's assume it is not a bug in HN, as other users are stating that it works for them. How do you expect them to help you with your problem? I ask because you said their attitude was wrong, but just curious to know how you think they should have addressed it. Also, the title is very presumptive, as already stated.
2 comments

Well, they could say "We checked our logs, we see the request, and we definitely sent an e-mail".

or they could have said "I just tried with a test account myself and see that the e-mail is being sent"

The freaky thing is that the YC rep appears, from these transactions, to have no idea how to communicate with the HN production database. (Perhaps the costs are so high that they simply refuse to do so.) They appear to have made no effort to check.

So for example they say "we can't authenticate you." That could mean one of two different things: it may mean "we can't verify that you are who you say you are," or else, "we can't change the system to reflect the fact that we have confirmed who you say you are."

In the former case, it's pretty straightforward to see that username `delan` has an `about` section which contains just one link, and has three times submitted posts of content on that domain name. Clearly they identify with the owner of that domain. And hey, the owner of that domain appears to now be contacting you, wanting access! So in this case, with less than five minutes' inquiry you can see that this is probably a legit request.

Since they say things like "well, maybe we don't have an email for your account?" rather than, "I checked and you forgot to set an email for your account," it seems rather like the latter -- they just don't have database or admin access, period. That sounds crazy, though.

Ok but, from the user's perspective, you still didnt solve his problem...
It doesn't, but you are verifying that a) a bug actually doesn't exist b) showing the "customer" you have actually done something/investigated and not just replied with a standard email template.
I think it would be better if some semblance of effort was made to investigate the cause of the issue instead of repeatedly restating that nothing could be done.