Thomas Kobelsky's Blog

June 26, 2010

During the last month or so, I have inadvertently discovered that LinkedIn's Customer Support area is really just a structured gong-show.

For anyone who doesn't know about LinkedIn, it's one of the best Professional Social Networking websites. Essentially Facebook, but for professional adults.

The problems that I requested help for had to do with my Profile not showing my Summary or Work Experience in the detailed area.
The following are the emails sent and recieved between myself and the Customer Support agents at LinkedIn (also note the dates and times):

	Member (Thomas Kobelsky) - 06/11/2010 02:52 AM I was moving some profile sections around to try and rearrange to my liking when all of a sudden I noticed my Experience and Summary sections had disappeared. Where did they go and how do I go about getting them back? I've tried adding another position in hopes that the Experience block would come back because of an update to it, but alas it did not return.
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	Response (LinkedIn - Zach) - 06/21/2010 10:16 AM Hi Thomas, I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing problems on the LinkedIn site and I truly apologize for the delay in my response. Here are a few options to try initially. After completing an item below, please check to see if the issue has been resolved before attempting the next solution. Solution 1: Click on "Sign Out" at the top of your LinkedIn home page then sign back into your account to see if this corrects the issue. Solution 2: Clear cookies from your current browser using the link included below then sign back into your account to see if the issue has been resolved. Instructions for Clearing Cache and Cookies: http://linkedin.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/linkedin.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1285 Solution 3: LinkedIn works best with the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox (excluding beta versions). If you do not have the latest Internet browser version, try downloading the most current and then sign in to your account to see if the issue has been resolved. Solution 4: Use a different Internet browser to access LinkedIn. Some issues are browser specific. Trying a different browser could be a quick resolution to your problem and help isolate the issue down to that browser. If the issue persists, please reply to this message and attach a document with a screenshot that shows the page and the problem you are experiencing. This will help me further investigate the issue for you. The link below will provide instructions for creating a screen shot if you need them. Creating a Screen Shot: http://linkedin.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/linkedin.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=223 Thank you for your patience as you and I work through this problem together. Regards, Zach LinkedIn Customer Support
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	Member (Thomas Kobelsky) - 06/21/2010 12:03 PM The first things I tried before I even considered sending off an email to your support team were all the options you suggested to me, so I'm just a little insulted that your immediate response was such a generic "solution" to my problem. I've attached an image showing four different pages in my profile. The first is my full Edit My Profile page. As you can see, my Current and Past experiences are in the top part (the blue box), but they are missing in my details area. I also noticed that my Summary and Specialties sections are missing from there as well. The top right of the image shows that all the boxes are checked off for my Public Profile to show Full View, but the part below it shows my Public Profile and my Experience+Summary+Specialties sections are missing from there as well. The bottom right part of the image shows the blue box on my Full Profile with the Past Experiences expanded to show duplicated positions that I am unable to edit or remove. My current positions are editable, but not my past positions? I would really appreciate it if you could help me figure out how to get the remainder of my profile back. Thomas Kobelsky. ==================== image File Attachment ==================== LinkedIn.png, 468718 bytes, added to ticket
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	Response (LinkedIn - Zach) - 06/21/2010 12:27 PM Hi Thomas, I apologize if my response insulted you. That was not my intention. We require certain pieces of information before we can resolve the issue. I want to resolve your issue as quickly as possible and in order to do this, I'll need some additional information. Please supply the two items listed below. This will help our engineers better understand the conditions in which the issue occurs for testing the problem and identify our next steps. 1. The current operating system of your computer. If possible, please include any installed service packs (e.g. Windows XP SP2, Vista SP1, Leopard, etc.). 2. The browser you use to access the Internet (e.g., Internet Explorer 7.0, Firefox 3.0.1, etc.). I look forward to your response with the information requested above. Thanks in advance for your patience while we work together to address this issue. I look forward to hearing your response in order to further assist you. Zach LinkedIn Customer Support
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	I was then sent a LinkedIn Customer Support Survey, to which I filled out mostly negative.
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	Member (Thomas Kobelsky) - 06/22/2010 8:54 PM The operating system I am using is Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Service Pack 2. The browser I am using is Firefox 3.6.4. I have also tried Internet Explorers 7 and 8, along with Opera 10.54 and Google Chrome all on XP Pro x32 SP2 with the same results.
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	Response (LinkedIn - Francois) - 06/25/2010 01:42 PM Hi Thomas, I truly apologize for the delay in my response. I want to apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. I believe the links below from our Customer Service Center might best answer your question regarding the profile completeness. Actually you need 3 recommendations to get the 100%, each recommendation is worth 5%. Answer Title: Requesting a Recommendation Answer Link: http://linkedin.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/linkedin.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=96 For the editing error you might want to try the following: Answer Title: Log In Issues and Other Site Errors Answer Link: http://linkedin.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/linkedin.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1516 Answer Title: Adding or Removing a Position from Work Experience Section Answer Link: http://linkedin.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/linkedin.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1646 LinkedIn provides two areas on the site that are available 24/7 which allow you to access the information you need when you need it. You may want to explore our LinkedIn Learning Center at http://learn.linkedin.com (found under 'More...' at the top of your LinkedIn home page). It offers self-paced video training resources created to maximize your LinkedIn experience. Our Customer Service Center ( http://linkedin.custhelp.com ) found at the bottom of your home page also has hundreds of other Frequently Asked Questions and searchable topics. It is truly my intention to provide you with the best information possible. If this does not address your specific issue or you need additional information on this topic, please do not hesitate to reply to this message and I will be happy to assist you further. Thank you for being a valued member of our LinkedIn community! Regards, Francois LinkedIn Customer Support
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	Member (Thomas Kobelsky) - 06/25/2010 2:12 PM Have you even read anything I've sent you, or are you simply running my messages through a script that highlights key words so you don't even have to do your job? I am not asking how to get a 100% profile. I am not having log-in/redirect issues. I am not asking how to remove a previous position from my Work Experience Section. What I am asking is why my Work Experience (both Current and Previous) and Summary (including Specialties) Sections are not even showing up on my profile. I sent you an image showing all my settings, and it appears to me that you have ignored it. You seem to think this is an issue that my web-browser is having, so you told me to do the generic "clear all cookies and try logging in again" solution. Then you asked for my operating system, which I am entirely confused about; my operating system shouldn't have anything to do with what's being displayed on a mostly text-based website. I have said that I tried viewing my profile on several other computers using different operating systems and they all produce the exact same result. This is not a cache/cookies issue. This is not an issue that is limited to only my computer. This is not something that can be solved by editing the preferences of my web-browser. This problem that I am having is server-side: Information is not being sent from your database to my profile, which is then viewed by possible employers. If you actually go to my profile (http://ca.linkedin.com/in/thomaskobelsky) you will see that the first Section below my Overview Section (Yes, it's called the Overview section because I found the div id="overview" tag) jumps straight to my Education Section, even though I have every box checked in my Public Profile Settings. It's missing the following: - Summary -- Specialties - Current Positions -- Show Details - Past Positions -- Show Details Those areas/sections are not being fetched from the database. If it was a problem with my web-browser or operating system, the source code of the page should still be showing it. My other connections have (div class="section" id="profile-summary") in their source code, but my page does not. I would like somebody to investigate that (possibly Dev Support?) as this is approaching a week of discussion and nothing has been fixed. I have noticed that I was previously talking to Zach, and now I am talking to Francois. I understand if you think that my abrasive response is wrongly directed towards you, and I apologize. However, you are in the Customer Support area and it seems like everything I say is being ignored and simply passed off as "he doesn't know how to use his computer very well, so we'll point him towards our FAQs section and give him generic help that every elementary student should know by now." I'm a bit disappointed, as I was expecting a bit more professional replies from the leading Professional Social Networking service. Thomas.

I'm still waiting on a reply from either Francois or Zach about anything I've said. As you can imagine, I'm one step away from bashing my head against the wall.

-tk

PS, I've added a Twitter Feed to my side panel. I've also removed my comments, as they seem to have stopped functioning. I'll be looking into a new provider for those...

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