WebMink

TripIt Destroyed My Account - but fixed it!

I have been a fan of TripIt right from the beginning when I was in their alpha program. Their ability to read travel booking confirmation e-mails and build me a great itinerary from them is legendary, their iCal feed is the backbone of my calendar and their growing social networking features keep finding chance overlaps with friends.

But today I had an experience that has shaken my faith in them. I sent an itinerary to them from the wrong account and found it must have happened before because I had an account with that ID on TripIt. I went to the profile page to delete the account and just at the final step was offered the opportunity to merge the account into another account. Seemed smart, so I agreed.

What they then did was disastrous. Instead of taking the account I was deleting and merging it into my master account, they did it the other way - deleted my master account and "merged" it into the unwanted one. In the process, they lost all my social network contacts, lost my iCal feed and lost all of my shared arrangements with my various itinerary partners.

I instantly wrote to them about it, but still have no reply. I hope they will be able to reinstate my account (I have heard from people on Twitter who have had the same experience). When they do, they need to immediately disable this dangerous and badly conceived "feature" that keeps harming their most loyal users.

Update Fri Apr 10: TripIt turned out to be marvelous and have now restored both my account and my faith - see my analysis.
Labels: travel

posted at 1:42 AM (UK) | |

Comments:

This sucks for you Simon, but I'm looking at the account merge page on tripit right now, and it's pretty clear (if you read it):

You are currently logged in as xxxx@xxx.com. Tell us which other TripIt account you would like merged INTO this one.

(my capitalization).

Also, a little bit further:

"After completing the merge process, xxxx@xxx.com will remain your active account. All trips, unfiled items, and alternate email addresses from your other account will be transferred to your xxxx@xxx.com account. Account settings, preferences, and Connections you had in your other account will NOT be transferred in the account merge process. Those settings will be lost permanently."

Dunno if it gets much clearer than that?

It also goes on to add:

"To make your other TripIt account the "survivor" of the merge process, you should log out now, then log back in to that other TripIt account. You must initiate the account merge process from the account you wish to remain your active TripIt account."

Disclosure: I'm a tripit fan, just like you.

# posted by

Jon Werter : 2:19 AM

I'm sure that's what it says. It's still broken, though, that's not the behaviour one would expect as the last step of "delete account", which is where it happened.

# posted by

webmink : 2:23 AM

I had the same problem, and emailed support. They do keep your trips, but not your contacts etc. I suggested (strongly) that they make it *really obvious* what would happen (e.g., a dialog box), and rename it from "merge" to something more appropriate. If your trips aren't showing up in the "merged" account, give it a little to let them trickle through the system.

# posted by

Lauren : 3:13 AM

Hi Simon,

I'm TripIt's VP of Product. I wanted to apologize for the confusion that our UI caused for you. From what Kristin (our support lead) tells me, it seems that your account has been fixed but please let us know if you're still experiencing issues.

We've definitely taken your feedback—and the feedback of others who've been through our merge account flow—to heart and will be making improvements soon.

Thanks for using TripIt!

Best,

Will Aldrich

# posted by

Will : 12:49 AM

All working fine again now - huge thanks, Will and everyone at TripIt. Great customer engagement, see my analysis.

# posted by

webmink : 11:47 PM

Nice that they fixed it for you. I asked for the same treatment for my lost account and was told it was too resource-intensive so they won't.

# posted by

Lauren : 4:17 PM

WebMink
Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Wednesday, April 8

Comments:

Links to this post:

Sites I Read:

Subscriptions

Stuff for Bored People

WebMink Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Wednesday, April 8

Comments:

Links to this post:

Sites I Read:

Subscriptions

Stuff for Bored People

WebMink
Simon Phipps's personal commentary