LiveJournal, a class act…not

So, I contact LiveJournal directly to cancel the special syndication account I setup (because they have no option to do so in your preferences).  They inform me that they CANNOT cancel syndicated accounts (apparently check boxes are beyond the internet’s fourth rated blog, oops, fifth, oops, sixth and dropping).  But they reassured me that syndicated accounts are free and I’m not being charged for it.  Oh really, I say as I quote the recurring charge to my bank account labeled LiveJournal.  When I inquire further, they explained that charge is because they made me a paid member in order to get the “free” syndicated account.  Got it, apparently some heretofor unknown definition of “free” is at work here.  They also took the liberty of closing the case immediately (it was open during this ongoing dialogue) when I pointed this out.  I guess that’s one way to increase your “resolved” statistics on the help desk.

Yeah, yeah, I know I should be honored to have such a fine service as LiveJournal at a reasonable price, but frankly, the only reason I’m here is because so many friends use LJ.  And honestly, that’s precisely how LJ works… they allow free accounts, because it creates a larger user base which in turn increases the number of potential paying members.  That’s reality, stuff costs stuff, but I don’t appreciate deceptive billing practices and door-slamming in the case of billing inquiries. Perhaps they’ve taken a page from Blizzard’s billing department?

And this is yet another reason why I blog on my own domain and syndicate to LiveJournal.  I won’t have my posts, however trivial, at the whim of the likes of LiveJournal.

Incidentally, for about x2.5 the cost of a LiveJournal account you can have yourself a VERY nice hosted domain with all the goodies to your heart’s content and none of the headaches of running it yourself.  🙂

Btw, the hike was incredible, more on that later, as I parse the GPS data and review the photos.