I currently have a rant sitting in my drafts regarding the debacle that has been my morning. Not much of a debacle, just a phone company getting my hopes up and then dashing them against the jagged rocks of reality.

I tweeted about it earlier, and quite quickly received a reply from @carphoneware, who has offered to listen to my story and see what they can do about it. So, the draft is sitting firmly in my drafts until I’m finally ready either to publish or delete, depending on the outcome.

Having someone listening out for complaints online is all very well and good – in fact, I would more than encourage it, except that I don’t think it’s particularly scaleable. Yes, @carphoneware might solve a few customers’ problems, or @comcastcares or whoever. But that really only works when a vocal minority are using services like Twitter. If the audience rose dramatically, surely these company reps would be unable to engage in the kind of personal customer service they are currently doing (very well, by all accounts)?

As soon as the complaints rise to a volume loud enough to rival that of those reaching their call centres (proportionately – the same number of complaints directed to the person behind the @ as are coming through to the 0800 number), I would expect that the quality of the service will reduce to the same, basic impersonal level.

I am more than willing to be proven wrong. Consider this a challenge.