TalkShoe Apologizes for "Jay and Jack" problems
Recent complaints about TalkShoe have gained some attention in the form of a copy/pasted message addressed to Colleen (of the Jay and Jack forums). Not very personal, but a step in the right direction. TalkShoe’s VP of Product Management left this comment on my two posts about the problem, as well as a comment in Colleen’s essay post about it over on her blog.:
Hello Colleen. I want to assure you that by no means did TalkShoe single out this call or do anything intentional to derail it. We have seen a very heavy demand for TalkShoe in the last weeks and this may unfortunately have impacted the call. We think that the call for Autism is a great cause and will do everything we can to help make the most of the event. Having the call up for 24 hours is no easy task but we understand that is no excuses for the failures.
I personally apologize for any inconvenience this may has caused, as we strive to provide not only a service that people can use for free but one that is reliable.
If you have any further issues please continue to email support or call our support telephone number.
Aaron Brauser
VP Product Management
www.talkshoe.com
It should be noted that this type of response in blogger comments is typical of TalkShoe. It’s great that they are apologizing but I am curious as to how they will address all of the problems that Colleen and I laid down on them. I would also like to see them step up and donate more money to Autism Speaks.
The only logical explanation I can have for Aaron calling me “Colleen” is that he thought all the posts came from the same blog (since Colleen and I seem to be sharing blogger templates.)
All things being equal I will continue to use TalkShoe as so many podcasts I follow use the service. Thanks to Aaron for taking the time to apologize and it would be great to see some of the problems that were addressed dealt with in future releases of the service.
Talk Shoe Shows Pity: $100 for Autism, Still No Apology
Colleen, of the Jay and Jack podcast forums, informed me that Talk Shoe has given $100 (not exactly an amazing number) to Autism Speaks. By doing this they have essentially acknowledged that they screwed up. It would still be nice of them to address the problems and tell people what they are doing to fix them since it could potentially effect them being a venue for future podcasts of this nature.
Read what Colleen had to say about the fiasco here on her blog. (which at the moment is using the same template as mine =O … I need to do something more original it seems.)
Buzz Kill: Talk Shoe screws up Jay and Jack’s marathon podcast
This weekend I tuned in, along with hundreds of others, to Jay and Jack’s marathon podcast recorded live for charity. What I did not know is that apparently Daniel Dae Kim (Jin on Lost) was scheduled to appear during the podcast and could not due to Talk Shoe’s lack of cooperation. This sort of pissed me off and I will now highlight where I think Talk Shoe failed during the course of their podcast.
- Jay ended a show for his first segment and due to Talk Shoe’s ass-backwards policies they were not allowed to start another podcast for 30 minutes, confusing the hosts and delaying celebrity Jorge Garcia from joining the show for at least an hour or so.
- There were so many people in the chat room at times that it began to lag because Talk Shoe’s cache would not clear itself, forcing the hosts to start a new show. This problem also made it near-impossible for the hosts to un-mute callers and for people in the chat (using Talk Shoe Pro) to talk to one another.
- Daniel Dae Kim, for some reason or another, was forced to cancel his appearance on the show because of Talk Shoe’s issues. Thanks a lot.
- Talk Shoe, several times, had this bug where no one could hear the hosts or call in to hear.
- Because of these problems Jay and Jack lost valuable time and momentum raising money for Autism Speaks.
- The chat room was full of “Guests” in addition to registered users. The room’s number of allowed chatters got maxed out and people with Talk Shoe accounts were getting auto-muted, while many “Guests” did not. Once you were muted the only way to get back in and chat was by either logging on as a “Guest” or creating another account. I wrote to Talk Shoe about this and they replied blaming Jay and Jack for the problem.
How about this Talk Shoe: Cut Jay and Jack a check for Autism Speaks to make up for all the time they lost and get rid of the stupid guy talking about “Shoe Phone” at the beginning and end of each podcast. Do all that and I’ll call it even.
