10 points for Typepad's customer service

So I had my domain name registered at Domain Direct and now that I started my blog on Typepad, I wanted to "domain map", as Typepad calls it, my blog. That is, I wanted to have my registered domain point to my new blog.

Typepad offers instructions online on how to change one's domain name settings with the registrar for this purpose. With those instructions I logged into Domain Direct's admin page and pointed my domain name, www.josschuurmans.com, at sweet_home_mju.typepad.com, the (former) address of my blog at Typepad.

Funny thing, Domain Direct didn't accept my new settings, returning an error message instead: "CNAME records must be set to be a valid hostname". Interesting, I thought, so I sent Typepad a help ticket, asking if "typepad.com" would do. No, they answered, you really have to point your domain to the full path of the blog.

So I sent a help ticket to Domain Direct, asking if they'd help me make the change. Response: "Our DNS will not accept underscores. They are generally accepted as a "no no" in a hostname. sweet_home_mju.typepad.com by accepted standards is not a valid hostname. Can you have typepad.com change them to hyphens or remove the spaces?"

Me back to Typepad, explaining the problem. A Melissa answered my ticket, and would you believe how nice she was? "Subdomains are not something we normally change after account creation, however, we can make an exception due to the underscores, because they can be problematic. If you'd like to confirm the change to: josschuurmans.typepad.com ...we can begin the process of moving your site over."

Now THAT's what I call customer service!

Right...

...having said that,

this experience does of course beg two questions:

1. Are undscores in hostnames indeed a generaly accepted "no no", as Domain Direct claims?
2. If so, then shouldn't Typepad warn its customers when choosing blog names in the first place?

Previous related posts on www.josschuurmans.com:

• Meg Hourihan: "We want to regurgitate!" (June 7, 2005)
• 10 answers to "Why blog?" (June 5, 2005)
• Testing TypePad's Mobile Settings #1 (May 30, 2005)

Comments

[Outsource Call Center]

Nice post! I am sure with that good news many will get interested with it. I believe that treating the customer so politely makes them so comfortable with your services. Thanks for sharing.

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