Let me explain the problems I’ve had with Twitter.
I originally filed a support ticket in December. I am currently using @newmediaemily as my handle. I wanted to use @thesocialanimal because I operate a business under this name and have a pending Trademark with the US Patent Office. I contacted the person who uses @thesocialanimal, who no longer uses Twitter, and she allowed me to take the name.
She deleted her Twitter account, and we both thought I could just claim the user name.
This did not work, so I initially filed a support ticket with Twitter asking how to go about getting the handle. I got a response saying that the original user needed to change her user name to something different, such as @thesocialanimal1, and then I could claim @thesocialanimal.
Well, this was not possible, because she deleted her account. She could not log in and change her name. I replied back to the support ticket, but it had already been closed. I opened a new one and did not get a response.
I opened another ticket, and it too was closed, without any response.
I opened another ticket, this time under the trademark infringement category. This was ticket #815850. I got a response from @coati on 1/29/10 instructing me to respond with a whole bunch of information about myself, my use of this name and my Trademark. I responded back with all the requested information that very same day.
I responded to the email I was sent. I waited about 4 days and checked; it appeared that my ticket had been switched to “closed” status, but I never received any word, nor was my user name reassigned. The message from @coati said that even though there was not a clear indication of trademark violation, since this Twitter user account had not been active in more than 6 months, you would be able to transfer the account to me. This was not done.
Now the issue is that I cannot access the Twitter help page to file a ticket. I have tried to access this on a Mac intel laptop, a Mac G5 power PC, and a Windows laptop. I have tried Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox. I have cleared my cache entirely, I have rebooted the computers, logged in, logged out, nothing works.
Here is what happens.
I go to the twitter home page. I log out. I am redirected to the home page/login page. I enter my user name (@newmediaemily) and password . I am now logged in and I go to my home page where I see my feed.
I click on “help” and am directed to the standard Twitter help page: http://twitter.com/help/start.
I click on “check existing tickets” and here is where it gets weird.
I am redirected to my home page (twitter feed) again, and this is what appears in the URL address bar:
I don’t know what this means, but maybe it means something to you.
No matter what I do, I cannot access my old tickets to check status, and I can’t file a new support ticket either. It always redirects me to my home page with that error message in the address bar.
I am just at a loss and need to know what I can do. If I could just file a support ticket, I’d be glad to do that. I have spent so much time trying to resolve this issue. I know you Twitter support people face many, many requests each day, but I am asking you to please stick with me and help me figure this out.
Thank you so much!
Emily Garman
405-290-8723
emily@thesocialanimal.com