@Arne told me the other day that Pixar doesn’t care if potential employees are interesting - what they want is employees who are interested.
We have all received perceivably automated replies by drone-like customer service employees from banks, telco’s etc. But I would assume Yahoo would respond better to customers, and particurarly over an issue as important as content quality on a user-generated content website.
Another user on Yahoo Travel website sent me a message regarding my review of ‘The Green Hut Lodge’. I noticed six new suspicious reviews (most likely written by the user who wrote the message to me) and I alerted Yahoo Travel about the potential fraudulent behavior:
All the six newest reviews are fake. The first three reviews all gave this hostel a 1 star rating while the fake reviews gave it 5 stars. I wrote one of the initial reviews. The new reviews are all created within two days. Please remove them.
Answer #1 from uninterested employee:
Hello, Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Travel. I appreciate your report of potential violations within Yahoo! Travel. I have completed my evaluation and have taken appropriate action, as per the Yahoo! Terms of Service and the Yahoo! Travel Guidelines. Regards, Richie Valley
My response:
This is ridiculous. There was no action taken. Don't you want the Yahoo Travel website to be a trustworthy source of information? This particular hotel has had four reviews over a period of six months, then suddenly six very positive reviews appear within two days. I am sure they all come from the same IP-address. Also note that the language is not very advanced in any of the six reviews which indicates it is the same person who have written them all. Regards, Espen Antonsen
Answer #2 from uninterested employee:
Dear Espen, Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Travel. It appears we have received previous reports from you regarding this particular review. Please be assured we have investigated the review in question and have taken appropriate action per our Terms of Service. If you would like to review our Terms of Service, please visit: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Regards, Richie Valley Yahoo! Customer Care
Don’t to the same mistake as Richie’s boss. Find people who take an interest in their profession. No matter at what level.