The biggest drain on any service-based company is customer service and support. However, there are times when support can be highly amusing. While I really don't want to make a habit out of poking fun at people, this customer support request today was simply too much. Plus, I don't really feel that badly about it, this person isn't a BitWise user despite asking for a password reset.
One of the services that we provide our BitWise users (a very rare service among IM providers, I would add) is manual password resets in the event that you need a reset and you don't have access to the email that you used to register. This feature isn't used very much, usually the automated system works fine. However, this morning I got a request to reset the password for a certain user, and it included properly both an "old" and "new" email address (to verify the account owner, and also to know where to send the new password).
The problem was that the user didn't exist in our system. Now, this does happen rarely when a user signed up but didn't activate the account within two weeks. This is an understandable issue, so usually I respond that the name is not currently registered and that they can register it using our sign up page. I quickly composed this email and sent it off to the email address listed as the "current email."
The next time I checked my email, I have a bounce notice from hotmail.com ... "user unknown." I laughed out loud at this. First, the user didn't even have an account, and on top of that, didn't even provide a valid email at which to receive the new password (since I'm sure this person thought they had an account).
I really don't get it. There are definitely some confused people in this world.