If you read my recent posts than you know the story. I know I bashed on foursquare something good last year, but they’re app was full of BIG holes, but since then they have made some improvements. Some. And while I was banned from Gowalla (see last post on the issue), I’ve been playing around with foursquare again. Both companies & their apps have some issues that I want to talk about. Let’s jump right in… Shall we?

Foursquare
- Unable to connect to server.
- Really bad venues.
- Impossible system to get venues fixed.
- Can check into venues from anywhere in the world, but only get points/badges when within 300m or so.

Gowalla
- Terrible communication skills.
- Horrible customer service to users.
- Can check into unlimited spots within 1km radius.

I’m not going to discuss the first two issues under Gowalla. You can see my recent posts on that and see how I feel.

I’m pretty sure Gowalla knows this, from my series of recent posts about a certain incident. Not sure if Foursquare is aware of some of these issue, since I haven’t visited or commented on their GetSatisfaction.com support forum. Both companies haven’t replied to several of my emails, which I just think is plain fucking rude.

Foursquare has changed how check-ins work a few times, mostly for the better. I don’t like that you can still check into venues from anywhere in the world. Gowalla HAD it right when they limited check-ins to a radius that was set by default or by the spots creator, but changed that to allow check-ins to spots within that 1km radius.

But with all of the above issues and a few that I really can’t put into words, they’re both putting me off from using their apps (besides no apology from Gowalla). Maybe I need to make my own geolocation company & apps for smartphones. Who wants to help?

                          

I woke up this morning and decided to see if I could log into Gowalla for shits and giggles. Well looky looky here. I was able to log in! It seems they’ve finally unbanned me for NOT CHEATING. I’ve been checking every few days to see if they have or haven’t unbanned me, again for shits and giggles. It’s been over 4 weeks since they banned me for just picking up an exclusive item.

After a few emails back and somewhat forth with Gowalla CEO Josh Williams (and never a response back from their main support email), I didn’t hear back from him for over 2 weeks. Last he said that my account would be reinstated with a group of other accounts & I would be able to start checking in again “soon.” That was over 2 weeks ago. Like I said in my last post on this matter, “soon” is a few days to me, not a week and not 2 weeks.

I have been knocking Gowalla hard on Twitter the past few weeks for their lack of communication skills and their terrible customer support. Gowalla and Josh Williams really need to work on these. Over the past few weeks I’ve heard from other Gowalla users (current and former) that have the same complaints about Gowalla’s customer service. It’s pretty pathetic that such a company in these days, especially one that is involved with social networking, has horrible communication and customer service skills.

I’ve mentioned this news on my Twitter feeed and I’ve been asked by several people if I’ll start using Gowalla again. In my last post I did say “Goodbye & Fuck You Gowalla.” Right now I don’t know what I’ll do. I still haven’t received an email from Gowalla or Josh Williams apologizing for banning me when I never cheated. I still think what they did was wrong and it’s been compounded by their lack of communication, terrible customer support, speed to resolve the issue (see posts 1, 2, 3), and the lack of any form of apology for the entire situation. And I still haven’t heard why they never selected me as a STE (mentioned to Josh Williams in our emails). Great communication skills! I still need to think about using Gowalla again. My anger towards them has not changed yet. Maybe someone at Gowalla will grow some fucking balls!

I would like to thank Lucas and JefCon1 for showing solidarity with me during the past 4 weeks (I think they were the ONLY ones to do so publicly) and anyone else that stopped using Gowalla because of this. Thanks to everyone that retweeted my posts on this. And to anyone else that didn’t feel like showing your support, “Go fuck yourselves, you cunts!”

                          

Well, it’s been over three weeks since I was banned from Gowalla. If you need to catch up on what’s been going on, check out post 1 and post 2.

Here’s the latest. Since last week I have not heard back from CEO Josh Williams or Gowalla support on the matter. Josh said my account would be unbanned “soon” with a bunch of other accounts that were to be unbanned also. Well, “soon” to me means a few days. It’s been a week. Josh could have just had someone unban me right then, but it’s obvious that Gowalla doesn’t want me as a user.

Well, all I have to say to that is…

I don’t care if Gowalla unbans me or not any more. It’s been over 3 weeks and it took them only 3 hours to unban the person that was cheating. They consistently ignored my emails on different instances. And it appears they really don’t care about their once dedicated users.

Normally I can be a patient person. Shit, I waited 7 months to hear back about becoming part of your Street Team Elite so I could help other Gowalla users. Never heard back from them. They had set up other, less dedicated, less knowledge NEW users as STEs the very next day they sent you an email (go look on GetSatisfaction.com). FUCK YOU! Their support email never responded to my emails when I got banned, but the person I know that cheated they had unbanned in 3 hours. I didn’t cheat. Let me repeat that… I DID NOT CHEAT! FUCK YOU!

Josh Williams, you lied to me. That just makes it worse. You should not ignore your users. You really need to fix your communication skills and you need to learn some customer service skills too.

So now I’ll be using their main competition, Foursquare.

Goodbye Gowalla. Maybe you’ll learn from this.

                          

If you follow me on Twitter or read my last post, you’ll have a good idea of what’s going on. Since whoever handles Gowalla’s main email contact doesn’t respond to my emails, I went to the top of the company by emailing Gowalla’s CEO, Josh Williams last week.

Josh seems like a very nice guy, but seems to lack the authority to get things done right away. This is what I’m getting from our correspondence, but I could be wrong. Being the CEO of any company one would think all you would need to do is bark out some orders and your employees do as you say. Doesn’t seem like that at Gowalla. Josh said that last week he’d have someone look into my situation. Nothing happened so a week later I emailed Josh again. Josh’s reply last night said that “We’re going to be reinstating several accounts that were turned off a couple weeks ago do to Terms violations and I’m sure your account will be included in that group. You’ll be able to resume your check-ins soon.” Ummmm… “soon”? Why not just tell someone to reinstate my account now? Why wait? What are you waiting for? What’s the hold up? It should be a very simple process to do.

My email to Josh on Wednesday mentioned in great detail on how they have ignored my emails on requesting to become a Street Team Elite member since January and with being banned for doing something less than cheating, while the person that cheated was unbanned within 3 hours and was sent a pleasant email from their main contact email. Josh said in his reply to me “Thanks for your patience for a reply. I know you’ve been disappointed with our response time on this one.” All I have is patience for lots of things and sometimes, just sitting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting (like waiting to become a STE after 7 months) just erupts like a volcano.

Josh also mentioned that he was saddened with the fact I’ve taken my “frustration public in such a lengthy manner. It seems very unnecessary to me.” So now, it’s obvious that they are watching my Twitter feed (or just looking for mention of “Gowalla”) and maybe reading my blog. I’m not always the one to complain, but after being ignored with my request to help make the user experience better for all Gowalla users for 7 months while others got a 1 day response & acceptance and with no response as to why I was banned & someone that did something worse than me was unbanned very very quickly, just has finally pissed me off enough to scream my frustration to the world. This happens a lot. People need to voice their opinions about how they’ve been wronged by companies that didn’t do the right thing at first or just ignored their customers.

Although I have loved Gowalla since day one and made the entire state of Delaware and everyone else that follows me know this, I fell that I’ve been wronged so I made myself very vocal about the situation.

Companies should never ignore their customers/users. Never! They need to listen, find out what the issue is, and promptly try to fix it while communicating to their customers/users what’s going on. Gowalla got a lot of heat back in March during the item drought and when GowallaTools creator Ben Dodson gave up developing with Gowalla’s API a few months ago. Negative reviews and press are heard 5 to 10 times more than positive press. It’s a fact. Look at the issues with Apple’s iPhone 4. What a cluster-fuck that was. A simple issue that’s in every other smartphone blown out of proportion by the blogsphere, tech sites, and making all the news outlets in the world. Apple’s first few replies about the issue where received with a lot of shock, but they bounced back by trying to make the entire situation right with their customers and letting them know what was going on and what their plans were. And because I know that negative press is heard 5 to 10 times more than positive press, I went very public with the situation.

Josh, please don’t let your users be ignored. Communicate with them. Don’t give them the opportunity to become this frustrated with Gowalla that their only outlet/recourse is to be very outspoken & public about their issue.

Oh yeah, I am still banned from Gowalla. I’ve been playing with foursquare a lot in the past 2 weeks. I’ll have another post soon about all of that.

                          

You might be able to title this post “Why I’ve Been Banned From Gowalla” or even “Why Does Gowalla Ignore Me?”.

I’ve hinted at my recent issue with Gowalla on Twitter. Many have asked what’s up, but I haven’t brought forth any details as to what’s going on since it is a long story. Now, here it is:

About a week and a half ago, the Red Bull user on Gowalla started picking up the new Red Bull can item from locations. I asked them if this item was everywhere and they said “yes”. I mentioned the new item to a friend of mine on Gowalla and we started to try to locate the item locally. Around the same time, my friend noticed another person in our state checking in to Gowalla spots across the country. This is what Gowalla & their users consider cheating. Yes, it is. We watched him for a day or too. My friend inquired with him on how he was doing that and learned how to also. I was also sent the information on how to cheat, but since I was at work, I couldn’t try it out (all blocked by a nice firewall). I contemplated the idea of trying it out, but didn’t know if I really would. I mean, come on, it’s cheating. So, still at work, my friend tells me to check into a local spot and that there’s something for me. I do and what do you know, a Red Bull can sitting there. So I picked it up and placed it in my vault.

After a few hours later, maybe after work, my friend texts me and tells me that he & the other guy can’t get into Gowalla. I try and I can get it, so it wasn’t an issue with their website, our wireless carrier, or the app. Both of them are thinking that they’ve been busted by Gowalla for checking into spots 3000 miles away (i.e. cheating).

So they next day I do my normal thing, go to work, check in at a few places, etc… Later on I try to check into a spot and notice that I’m unable to log into the Gowalla app. Well, it seems I got banned too by association. I won’t mention the rude STE (Street Team Elite) member that started tweeting to me earlier on about the item I recently picked up. By coincidence I made my Gowalla account private around the same time, due to many people trying to friend me on there that I didn’t know at all. Yeah, I’m not a friend-whore online. If I know you in real life, via Twitter or Facebook, fine. It seems this rude STE probably yapped to Gowalla that I picked up the Red Bull can, which seems to be a restricted new item, & my friend’s suspicious check-ins… Funny, the person using Gowalla for Red Bull said that the item was everywhere.

So, I email Gowalla. At the same time my friend emailed them too. After a few hours he received a response back from them saying don’t be a bad boy & cheat and he was able to log back in again. By the next day I still haven’t heard back from Gowalla. Now, I didn’t cheat by checking into a spot 3000 miles away. I just picked up an item at a local spot. A few days pass and still no reply from Gowalla. I emailed them again and still didn’t get a reply. I also don’t get replies back from them on Twitter. Now, I believe, if you don’t respond to someone’s email, return their phone calls, or reply to a text or tweet, that’s just fucking RUDE. So, I thought I’d take this matter up to the head of Gowalla, Josh Williams, and I emailed him the story of what I just described above, after 7 days. He responds back saying that he’s traveling to a wedding and will have someone take care of this. So, I’m thinking that this will be done & over with, but 4 days later I still can’t log into Gowalla nor have I received any other reply besides Josh’s. Maybe that it’s the weekend. Maybe if I just give them a few more days & be patient. Wait, I’ve heard that before.

But this isn’t the first time Gowalla completely ignored me. I emailed them in January of this year to become a STE member. No reply. In April I sent them another email, but all I get is an automated reply. On Gowalla’s GetSatisfaction forum there are a few threads about becoming a STE that people are stating that the day after they emailed Gowalla to become a STE they were made a STE. Yes I was pissed. Damn fucking straight I was pissed! I emailed them again and still no reply. And in between those times, people just said be patient and wait. Now, in July & before I was banned, I gave up the idea of becoming a STE, even though I know a few STEs (via Twitter & met one while in Las Vegas) and had many saying that I would make a great STE since I am so diligent in finding local spots that I travel to with issues & getting them corrected. Even when I was in Las Vegas I posted 4 long lists of spots that needed to be merged, name changed, spot location fixed and more. I’ve probably submitted close to 500+ spots via GetSatisfaction.com to be fixed. But Gowalla thinks for some reason I shouldn’t be a STE. Yeah, what-fucking-ever. I still enjoyed helping out people by answering their questions on GetSatisfaction.com and helping out friends find items that have eluded them that I keep finding. I was a very dedicated Gowalla user since last year. I got many people that follow me on Twitter to use or try out Gowalla and definitely made a name for them in my state. If you look through this site you’ll find many posts showing how much I do love them. Well, let’s say “loved” them. Yes I was a bit hard on them during the item drought in March while SXSW was going on, but many people were too. I wasn’t the only one upset that Gowalla did not communicate to their users what was going on and that they didn’t take the issue seriously at first. That was water under the bridge after it was fixed. I forgave them since I loved them so much.

But after I get banned for just picking up an item at a local spot placed there by another user that cheated to get it and they were unbanned after only a few hours while after 1.5 weeks I’m still banned… “WHAT THE FUCK?” is really all I have to say. Why am I still banned for just picking up an item. I didn’t cheat, checking into a spot 3000 miles away.

So, to curb my geolocation fix, I’ve been using Foursquare (Remember when I was bashing them? They have fixed things since.) and SCVNGR, but also toying around with Loopt (the basic one) again. Brightkite I tried to get back into, but for some reason I’m not digging it as much. stickybits is an interesting app. You use your iPhone’s camera (I think it’s available for Android too) to scan the bar code of an item and it finds it, displays your location, and lets you add comments or pictures to the bar code in their system. Neat idea, but I haven’t used it much.

Now, the only reason that I can think of for having my emails & tweets ignored by Gowalla is that someone there does not like me and has it in for me. Now, I never called anyone names during any contact with Gowalla. I might have hurt their’s or someone’s feelings there back during the item drought, but come on. Get over it. If you run a company that has end users using your product expect not everyone to be in love with you.

I’m hoping Josh Williams is back on Monday and I’ve been debating if I’ll reply to him stating that I’m still banned for just picking up an item at a local spot. And for the record, I DID NOT CHEAT AT GOWALLA. I picked up an item at a LOCAL spot. I DID NOT CHECK INTO A SPOT 3000 MILES AWAY. Now, if you find a rare/location or event exclusive item, are you to leave it there, run to Gowalla and say you found it and get them to remove it from the spot?

I’ve also come to realize, while being banned, that playing Gowalla is fucking dangerous if you’re driving!

So my friends, look me up on Foursquare for now. Show your solidarity and stop using Gowalla until they unban me. But the question is, if they do unban me, will I use them again. I don’t know right now. There is a strong sour taste from all of this.

[UPDATE 07/28/2010 00:35] Well, 2 days after the weekend and no reply from Gowalla at all. Josh Williams said he’d have someone take care of my account while he was traveling, but nothing. Still banned. AWESOME USER SUPPORT. No email replies. No sticking to their word. I think I am done with Gowalla. They’ve mostly treated me like shit by ignoring my emails since January and leaving me banned for almost 2 weeks while a cheater (I’m not bashing you buddy. I know you tried to help me.) is unbanned after a few hours. I’m debating if I should email Josh Williams again. Maybe I’ll just walk away. I don’t like to walk away. I like to fight.

The funny thing is that Red Bull requested to be my friend on Foursquare. HA HA HA HA!!!! FUCKING HYSTERICAL!

[UPDATE 07/29/2010 07:10] Sent the final email I’ll probably ever send to Gowalla’s Josh Williams stating how I’ve been ignored by them since January when I first emailed about becoming a Street Team Elite member. Being ignored by a company is very bad customer service/user support. You should never ignore your customers or users. The email had a tone of sadness (not anger) about how I’ve felt about being ignored by them especially in this situation most of all after all of the support I’ve given them since last year. I’ll see if Josh replies to it. I’ve also submitted this all to Mashable.com and so should you. It would be cool if this story got picked up by them. Please take a minute or two to submit this to Mashable.

If I don’t hear back from Gowalla later today or tomorrow, I’ll be done with them for good. In solidarity, so should you! This situation is just ridiculous and should have never gone this far. You don’t treat your users this way when they didn’t cheat.

                          

UPDATE – I’m willing to do a swap for some needed Gowalla items. We can set up a swap somewhere in the northern Delaware area. Get hold of me on Twitter or leave me a comment here. First come, first serve. If you don’t have anything I need, that’s cool. I can still drop an item for you to pick up.

Designing with Web Standards

Roadrunner

Longhorn Skull

Airbag Industries Pin

And various location-based special items.

                          

Gowalla posted on their blog earlier today about an upcoming feature to their app: Events. Oh yes! You can create event spots for all kinds of different types of events and invite people to it so they can check in & add photos to it. It’s not mentioned if you can drop items at the event spots or not.

The blog post is below:

People and places are at the core of Gowalla. Today, we’re adding something pretty great that is a big part of people and places: Events!

Now you can create a spot in Gowalla for the events in your life. It couldn’t be simpler.

• Grab your friends and Gowalla and head to wherever the fun is happening.
• Create a spot for the occasion.
• Choose the category Events, then the type of event. Pick from Birthday Party, Concert, Meet Up, Watch Party (Lost, anyone?), Wedding, and more!
• Check in, add comments and post photos.

You and your friends will have a stamp in your passport to mark the event and a page that includes all of your comments and photos. Get enough people involved and your event might become a Hot Spot in your area. Plus, the spot will automatically expire 12 hours later. Don’t worry, you’ll still have the stamp and the page, it just won’t show up in Nearby Spots.

Events are one more reason to go out with Gowalla. We’re excited to get this into your hands. Thanks for making Gowalla awesome!

It’s a pretty neat idea, but I still see the possible misuse of the new feature by groups of users. When a legitimate event is created, I can see some users creating their own event spots for the event, instead of using the one that’s already created. A duplicate. You know how much I love duplicate spots, my Gowalla friends. Maybe it doesn’t really matter. I think we’ll know more once the feature is live. Hopefully only invited guests can check into these event spots.

The nice thing, if they do abuse it, the spot will never be seen again in 12 hours after it’s created. You’re list of nearby spots won’t be cluttered with loads of crappy spots from users creating their own private events. In 12 hours, POOF! All gone!

                          

Gowalla & The Icon Factory are teaming up to give Gowalla users a new item to collect. And of course it’s the mascot of The Icon Factory’s Twitterific Twitter app, Ollie. Just check into your closest Apple Store in the U.S. to find your very own Ollie, but be quick! You will only be able to find Ollie until April 6, 2010! And there are only 10,000 of them!!!

I got mine!

Twittelator Pro & Gowalla need to hook up! I love Twittelator Pro!

                          

This is another post about Gowalla. Yes. I love Gowalla if you haven’t been able to tell. I’ve noticed several things with users since I’ve started using Gowalla last year. Here is a list of things that are not cool or cool with Gowalla & Gowalla users.

Not Cool: Foursquare’s user interface.
Cool: Gowalla’s user interface.

Not Cool: Loosing your mayorship in Foursquare.
Cool: Finding a needed bonus item in Gowalla.

Not Cool: Creating a duplicate spot.
Cool: Checking to see if there is a spot already created at your location before creating another spot.

Not Cool: Not editing a spot to fix it’s location or name after a few days.
Cool: Editing a spot after you created it to fix it’s location or name as soon as you can.

Not Cool: Creating fake spots.
Cool: Not creating fake spots.

Not Cool: Creating spots in non-interesting locations.
Cool: Creating spots in interesting locations where many people will check-in at.

Not Cool: Not dropping an item at spots when you check-in for the 1st time.
Cool: Dropping an item at spots when you check-in to them for the 1st time.

Not Cool: Creating a spot for your house. You’re not that clever.
Cool: Not creating a spot for your house. (Don’t you people see posts about this stuff?)

Not Cool: Being flooded by multiple notifications to your smartphone.
Cool: Being about to turn off notifications per user or completely.

If I come up with any more, I’ll be sure to add them. If you have any, let me know and I’ll add them to this post.

                          

The other day Josh Williams, founder of Gowalla, posted Guidelines for Spot Creating & Editing on their blog & on their GetSatisfaction.com support site. Josh says to “consider this an incomplete list of best practices when creating and edits spots on Gowalla”. It’s a good read and gives some good tips from the company themselves, it even includes a few things that can get your account suspended or terminated.

Topics covered include:

• Use Proper Names Where Appropriate
• Double Check for Dupes
• Go for Value
• Your Home on Gowalla?
• Keep Descriptions Relevant, Real and Brief
• Don’t Be a Hater
• Notes on Editing
• Featured Spots

I have a post that has some tips and personal advice on using Gowalla in case you missed it: TIPS FOR USING GOWALLA.