Data horror stories - 2
Typeform, oh well.
Today I learned how to use these two words effectively and wisely as per Medium’s suggestion: oh well. Even though the suggested reading required me to momentarily attain a POV wherein I am a decidedly American parent who just needs to be accepting of unruly children who just would not wear their retainers.
Oh well means I was disappointed.
Oh well means I needed to react to it eventually.
Oh well means I have accepted it finally.
Oh well happened with Typeform twice.
Until fairly recently, Irene and I have relied on their form service to connect with potential customers of our new startup Green Dot. We liked how stylish they made the plain old forms, as well as how easy they made integrating forms into one’s websites.
But something happened. I have been subscribed to one of their yearly premium plans and I did not realize that the plan has come to an end. It is understandable that they restrict access to their premium functions after my plan ends, and I also should have checked the status of my services, alright.
They had a limit to how many forms they can keep at a regular free subscription, but they forgot to tell us how that works. I had over ten active forms that were all closed down without any notice or communications from their side. When I found out after an unexpectedly major (for us, at least) publicity event that our only means to connect with potential clients were cut down abruptly, I was heartbroken.
We lost essential data and opportunities due to the lack of basic communications that are easily expected of modern companies nowadays.
Photo by David Brooke Martin on Unsplash
This reminded me of something that is also about Typeform, oh well.
In August 2018, I received an email from Indiegogo that a service they use to survey their users has been affected by a data breach and my personal information may have been affected by this event. The service they mentioned turned out to be Typeform and apparently that was when I really liked the conversational experiences provided by them.
The fact that I haven’t heard directly from Typeform (ever) about the data breach and its impact that may or may not have involved me stung badly. After the recent non-communication from their side, I do not know if I could trust my personal and business data with them ever again. I probably should not, right?
Now this brings me back to acceptance. I now accept the possibility that someday in the future any of my favorite products and their operator companies could take up questionable behaviors, data policies and non-communications on their end. This is most likely unintentional, even.
So I just say oh well, vent when I can, and carry on using my favorite products, including Typeform, while always reviewing them online.