Stupid Automated Responses.

[littleboy6326]

So, I've been waiting 3 weeks for a response to help get my little brothers account sorted on Neopets - I was truthful about his age, and said that he was five almost six. So they lock him from being most of the things he wants to do on Neopets - We don't have a fax machine, but we do have a scanner, so we decided to ask them whether they'd accept a scanned letter via email. This was the response.

Hi there,

In accordance with the U.S. federal law, Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act, every user aged 12 and under must have their parents' permission to have full access to the site. If you are 12 or younger and have not sent us your parental permission form, you will be protected from certain areas such as NeoBoards, NeoMail, editing shop descriptions, and trading post wishlists.

To print out the form, please go to http://www.neopets.com/coppa/consentform.phtml. Then your parent or guardian needs to fill it out, sign it and send it back to us. The fax and mailing details are on the bottom of the consent form.

You can find out more details about the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act at the FTC homepage (http://www.ftc.gov). You may also view our Privacy Policy here: http://www.neopets.com/privacy.phtml.

If you have any further questions regarding this matter, please contact http://www.neopets.com/autoform_other.p ... er=consent and we will get back to you ASAP.

If you have any other questions, don't forget to include the entire text of this e-mail with your username clearly at the top. This will help me better address your situation.

Heidi M.
heidi@support.neopets.com

-----Original Message-----
From:****************************
To: support@support.neopets.com
Subject: Other Submission - other: consent - (username **********)
Sent: Nov 28 2008 10:53:10

Username: *********
E-mail: christopher_lodge@tiscali.co.uk
Language: en
IP: *******************
Date: 11/28/2008
Time: 10:53:10

Message:
Your contact address appears to be in the US - and postage will cost a fortune from the UK to the US!

Would you accept a SCANNED letter (complete with signature) via email? Failing that, how else would I get the form to you? I do not have a fax machine.

Thank you.

I really do hate Neopets support. They've got less and less useful over the years.

[Siniri]

There are websites where you can fax in a scanned letter for free -- then the recipient won't know it was scanned instead of run through the sender's fax machine. I've never used one personally, but I'm sure you could find one via a quick google search. My dad actually receives all his faxes on his computer, via a free fax number he got on-line. (I'm not sure how the companies make money, but I'm guessing there's some kind of advertisement or something.) I hope this was more helpful than TNT.

[metalmario]

Haha. I hate them too. A couple weeks ago I sent a bug report saying that the sponsor game Free Fall wouldn't load. I asked on the boards and it was the same for like 4 other people so I know it wasn't just me. I also left the window up overnight and nothing ever came up. My reply came almost a week later, after the game had been fixed, and it told me (paraphrased) that "sometimes we need to be patient to let the games load" and basically was worded the way you would talk to a 5 year old having a tantrum. I was insulted.

[littleboy6326]

Yeah, I had never used support since Viacom took Neopets over - it's now a heap of garbage. You don't get a real response, it's all automated by bots. It's a rotten shame, I remember the days of neomailing support, back when I was a newbie, asking where to get a codestone - and actually getting a response!

[Pudding]

When my friend was sending in the form for her son, she did send in a scanned form. They wouldn't accept it. The fax services are probably your best bet--I hear snail mail forms take months to be processed.

I remember emailing an idea in, and not only getting a personal response, but Donna and I got into a thing about our favorite kinds of soy milk.

You kids get off my lawn! *shakes cane*

[anjuna]

If snail mail would take forever and online/programs might be questionable, couldn't you find an office services place near your area such as Kinkos to fax from or a similar place in your local town?

[Shoyru_Lover]

There are many different kinds of soy milk?

[Pink]

garg! It's so true how automated everything has become on Neopets. I only hope that things don't go that direction with Twin Skies...

[Blue]

There are many different kinds of soy milk?

Yup: Plain, Vanilla, Chocolate, Very Vanilla, Mocha, Chai. Soy Plus for Bone Health, Soy Plus Fiber and Soy Plus Omega-3 DHA. Watching your weight? How about Lite Plain, Lite Vanilla, and Lite Chocolate! And of course there's a French Vanilla Creamer, Original Creamer and Hazelnut Creamer.

*This has been an automated response* <--That's to stay on topic

[Pudding]

There are many different kinds of soy milk?

Yup: Plain, Vanilla, Chocolate, Very Vanilla, Mocha, Chai. Soy Plus for Bone Health, Soy Plus Fiber and Soy Plus Omega-3 DHA. Watching your weight? How about Lite Plain, Lite Vanilla, and Lite Chocolate! And of course there's a French Vanilla Creamer, Original Creamer and Hazelnut Creamer.

*This has been an automated response* <--That's to stay on topic

Many of these did not exist in 1999, when the non-automated conversation took place. Truly, there have been many innovations in soy milk production in the past 9 years, but at what cost? Are the soy milk producers automating their support queues? Did Donna have to get out of answering support questions because of the increase in Neopets's workload, or was she spending too much time contemplating her options at the supermarket? These are the questions we have to ask ourselves.

[Rubywinged]

back to the fax issue. Go check out a local library they will usually fax things very cheap for you sometimes even free Just make sure you get the confirmation paper that says they got the fax!

[Blue]

There are also several free services that will allow you to send a fax from an email or via a webpage. You can upload your (scanned) document and fax it. You should be able to find a free service by doing a google search for "free internet fax"

Once you send it, sit back with a nice warm mug of Soy Cocoa.