Buondì.
An email exchange this week:
“Your learning facilities look really good… I’m disappointed I can’t use them. I have tried on my two different iPads and my iPhone to join but no luck. I haven’t received an email to verify so it seems I can’t join up either. (The email is not in spam either).”
That’s likely to be a problem with the woman’s email account, not her iPhone or iPad. She’s using an old one, from way back in the dark ages of the Internet, and old email providers don’t make money, so don’t invest in modern spam filters.
To people moaning that they don’t get emails (for the Club, for EasyItalianNews.com) I usually suggest getting a new, modern email account, so from Gmail, Microsoft, or Apple, and trying again with that. Unless the person mistypes their email address, that almost always solves the problem. But then there was this, from the same woman:
“I have just completed the test to determine my level of Italian but I cannot seem to find where my results are. I received a pop up saying I had completed the test but no results. The counter at the bottom did not move so please could you help me so I can proceed to learning.”
This is the second one of those I’ve had in the last few weeks, so of course, I rushed over to our level test and, well, tested it. It’s a very primitive piece of technology, and not as easy to use as it should be. But it has been working for years with no major issues, so I double checked. And then I checked again, on my son’s iPhone. Each time the test worked as it should, both on my computer and his infernal device.
“If you can think of anything else I can do please let me know but if not I think I’m going to have to give up and assume your website is not compatible with Apple products. I’ll go to another website to find out my level.”
To which I replied that the test is of limited use anyway and she’d be much better off using the CEFR self assessment checklist to decide her level (I sent the link to this article.)
But no good:
“I think I had better just accept that Italian club is not meant to be for me and move on.”
Man that’s frustrating.
But OK, the email verification system doesn’t work, the level test doesn’t work, so maybe the problem is, how shall I put this…
HER.
A venerdì!
P.S.
Don’t forget this week’s half-price ‘Ebook of the Week’, Caravaggio nei vicoli di Roma.
Caravaggio’s in jail again, drunk as a lord and facing charges for throwing a plate of artichokes at a waiter…
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“Ancora lui? Ma come…?!”, il comandante delle guardie non crede alle sue orecchie.
La giovane guardia cerca di giustificarsi: “Comandante, noi abbiamo cercato di…”
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Il comandante si passa una mano sugli occhi, sospira: “Questo mese sarà già la quinta volta…”
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P.P.S.
Tuesday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news is, as always, complete FREE to read/listen to.
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OnlineItalianClub.com | EasyItalianNews.com | EasyReaders.org (ebooks) | NativeSpeakerTeachers.com (1-1 lessons)
Christine Barnes says
I have replied to this article by email but Daniel told me “ Put your moan in a comment in the article, rather than wasting more of my time.
And/or unsubscribe.”. So here goes….
Dear Daniel, I can’t tell you how upset and humiliated I am to receive this email (below) this morning. I reached out to you for help … and, as I said clearly in my emails, I was not moaning as you seem to suggest… and I thanked you for the trouble you took to try and help. As I wasn’t getting anywhere with your suggestions (and I never blamed you for that) I decided maybe your website wasn’t for me. I even said I was disappointed because I thought your website was wonderful. How was any of that so offensive to you that you felt the need to use my difficulties to tell your entire mailing list what an idiot you think I am by quoting me and then slagging me off? I know my name did not appear but I felt it very personally and I am horrified to know that is what you think of me and, no doubt, the other unfortunate person who is also having problems.
I did my best and responded accordingly. You condemned my internet and email practices and yet I manage perfectly well with my set up. My email provider does a fine job of filtering out spam from my emails judging by the amount that builds up in the spam folder every day and I have never been hacked, unlike my unfortunate friends, several of which have had problems with hacking with other ). I merely mentioned that your email was not there but you then assumed that my spam was not being filtered or collected. I have no problems whatsoever with any other website I need to interact with. Your defensive attitude to the point of publicly humiliating one of your users…. And with such spitting venom (that last shouting sentence) quite frankly horrifies me and has left me shaken to the core.
How can you slate someone else’s system as being old and say I need to upgrade when you admit that your own test is primitive… and why if it is ‘of limited use’ have you got it in there anyway? May be you need to up grade too!
As it happens, the joining email finally landed in my inbox the following day and I was about to write to you to let you know… and thank you again… but after feeling the full force of your hatred of me I cannot possibly use your website again…. Nor would I recommend it.
I wonder if your users will read this latest missive from you and cringe at how you think of anyone who has a problem and how you are happy to use her email (which I assumed would be treated with respect and privacy) to shout out to others. (What was your point anyway? I didn’t see one). Maybe they will back off and find a friendlier way of learning.
Anyway, it is done, and you have done a fine job of ruining my day. I really hope you will read my email through and perhaps you will think twice about using correspondence entrusted to you like this. This is not what I expected when I reached out to you but I also hope that holding me up as an example to everyone has served a purpose for you in some way.
Sorry, just one more thing. Next time you use correspondence that your users send you, you should perhaps used the quotes in context rather than picking out odd phrases without the background paragraph to show the meaning. I realise that cherrypicking sentences out of context does make for high drama which would appear to justify your outburst somehow but such a one sided argument does not show a sense of fairness or sport does it? I’m sure your followers are intelligent enough to see through this though.
Regards
Christine
Daniel says
Ah, so you didn’t actually have the problem that you wrote to me about seeking help? Given that you received today’s article? Good to know.
Maybe check back and see if the level test is now working for you?
But “I cannot possibly use your website again”
Goodbye then, Christine, and good luck with your Italian.
N.b. If you think today’s article unfairly portrayed you, you have my permission to post your multiple emails in full, in the order you sent them, along with all my helpful, courteous, replies.
Christine says
I think I mentioned that I received the joining email in question the following day and was going to write to tell you. Maybe you didn’t read that bit. I’m so sorry this has become so bitter but since you threatened to block me if I contact you again I will return your goodbye with courtesy. By the way, the test still doesn’t work for me unfortunately, but as I said before, I do not blame you for this. Thank you for your good wishes.
Daniel says
OK, how about we ask club members to check the test and see if any of them have a similar problem? I can’t fix an issue that I can’t replicate, Christine.
Why don’t you try the test on a different device? If it’s still not working for you, then I’d suggest that you’re doing something obvious wrong. It happens, as I said, it’s a very primitive bit of technology.
Daniel says
A club member emailed to say that a possible cause of the test ‘not working’ is if the user is, instead of just clicking on the grey A, B, C, D buttons to the left of the answer options, typing the answer in the box below…
Which would certainly explain why the score and no. of attempts counters remain at zero.
PRESS THE GREY BUTTON TO SELECT YOUR ANSWER: CHECK THE SCORE BELOW. IF WRONG, TRY AGAIN. WHEN CORRECT, PRESS ‘NEXT QUESTION’.
Christine says
I know you can’t Daniel and, again, I repeat that I have not blamed you. But good news… I have read the suggestion you said a club member had emailed you with and it has all become clear at last! I was tapping the answer options rather than the grey buttons. When I tapped them they became highlighted so I assumed that it should have reacted. Prompted by your kind club member I went back in and tried with the grey buttons and it works. A simple operator error and not technology after all. Please would you kindly pass on my thanks to your member for taking the trouble for helping me out here. I really appreciate it.. and thank you for passing it on to me. We got there in the end. I’m surprised at myself for not seeing this myself, but sometimes we miss something staring us in the face. So glad it is resolved.
Daniel says
Good to hear that Valerie’s suggestion was on the mark, Christine. I’ll make a note to improve the instructions on the test page, in case others had or are having the same issue.
Christine Barnes says
Thank you 🙂
Patricia says
Daniel, I have to say I agree with Christine that you can become testy quickly and move on to curmudgeonhood. Many of your followers are older adults who can have trouble or get confused by internet technology — for example I’ve never been able to download one of your e-books. But that shouldn’t call for insults, impatience or even bad manners like humiliating someone publicly. I hope some others who see the rudeness of your response to Christine also chide you for unfairness.
Now I have to get ready to meet with my excellent teacher who represents your program so well and use the resources you make available to look up grammar points I want to work on, parts of this program I really appreciate, along with Easy Italian News thrice weekly.
Regards,
Daniel says
I become testy very SLOWLY actually, and with people like the person in question today, I reply promptly, in detail, multiple times, and (bear in mind) about a FREE SERVICE, Patricia.
Yet 80% of people who ask for help and receive it never bother to reply with a ‘thanks’.
I receive regular abuse from people who object to this or that published by our team at EasyItalianNews.com, usually very political, upsetting to our staff.
And I ALWAYS, BUT ALWAYS make sure people get ebooks that they paid for. If you didn’t, I can easily send it to you manually. But if you asked for help then ignored the instructions (as in today’s article), or asked for help with something that’s outside of my control – your device, and how you are using it – there’s little I can do.
For instance, people have problems with download links, so I send ebooks manually as attachments to an email, and explain exactly what I’ve done and where to look. And do they? The ones that do, rarely thank me for fixing their problem. The ones that don’t get the meaning of ‘scroll down and click on the attachment’, keep bugging me until one or the other of us gets upset.
Customer service sucks and many organisations simply refuse to interact with users at all.
They certainly don’t publish critical comments and respond to them.
Patricia says
Hi Daniel, I already admitted I’m a techno-idiot and never blame anyone but myself when I fail but my rudeness isn’t the point nor is what others do or don’t do. It’s calling someone out publicly and expecting to be the hero of that interaction. Of course you don’t receive the gratitude you’re entitled to; who actually does? Like many of your subscribers, I’m grateful for the services you provide: the native speaker, intelligent and kind teacher you provide who works with me once a week, the resources available to me free through Onlineitalianclub, Easy Italian News and the wonderfully interesting summer history reading and listening series. Thank you.
Christine says
Thank you so much Patricia for this… I really appreciate your comment and support…. (and I love your word curmudgeonhood! ) I am 64 so, yes, I suppose I could be classed as older lol! I am pretty computer literate though for my purposes and have used computers extensively in my work (now retired) but as I said above (see my reply to Daniel in the first thread) I sometime miss what should be perfectly clear… don’t we all sometimes? And there is an awful lot I don’t know about technology, which it turned out had nothing to do with the problem. I try to keep up but I learn on a need to know basis. But you are right. My upset was caused by the feeling of being marched up to the front of the class and made an example of and it was quite a shock to see it when I opened my ipad this morning. Sometimes I think emails can cause misunderstanding and I think maybe this is what happened here but I would never share any private conversation like this. Oh, and I love Easy Italian News too. 🙂
Christine Barnes says
Patricia, I hope Daniel will post this for me. I replied earlier but it has not been published and nor has another where I replied to Daniel’s reply to you and where I tried to offer him an olive branch. I think he is fed up with me. I didn’t want you to think I was being rude and ignoring you. But I just wanted to thank you for commenting on my post and for your support. I truly appreciate it. x Daniel… if you decide not to publish this, then please could you at least pass on my message to Patricia… so she knows I have acknowledged her kind gesture. Thank you.
Christine Barnes says
Thank you Daniel for posting. I should have given it more time.
Christine says
You do indeed reply very promptly Daniel for which I made a point of thanking you. I also agree with you that there are some very rude people out there. I’m sure you wouldn’t put me amongst them as I thanked you for your help several times during our conversations and I did follow the instructions you suggested. I just didn’t get a result at the time…. and I acknowledged that it was not your fault. I’m not sure why the joining email took 24 hours or so to get to me but I have informed you of this now. It seems it was out of either of our control. And now I am pleased that you passed on the helpful and successful advice that your club member sent for which I have thanked both you and him/her. I also thank you for publishing my comments and for responding to them and allowing others to respond.
I do hope I have now shown enough gratitude. Please don’t be cross with me any more. I’d like to draw a line and maybe we can start again 🙂
Valerie says
It’s been several years since I tried this test, but prompted by Daniel’s email today, decided to try it on my iPad. The first time I tried it, I thought I needed to type the answers into the box above ‘next question’… and I encountered exactly the same issue as mentioned in the email – the counter didn’t change, and although I got the pop up saying I’d finished, I didn’t get any results.
I tried again, but this time I tapped the corresponding letter next to my chosen answer, and this time it worked.
I emailed Daniel to let him know, and he suggested that I post here – I see he has already mentioned my email, and the solution, but I’m posting anyway, in case it helps someone else.
Christine says
It certainly helped me Valerie… Thank you!