So I recently had a support experience with VeriSign’s PiP provider that I’ve been talking a lot about. Here’s the story (in all its gory detail):

The Setup

I got the great advise from Steve Gibson in episode 107 of Security Now to register several OpenIDs using different mutations of your name. So I go to the VeriSign PiP website and create another account with the name michaelhall:

I got all the way through creating the new account which brings me to the my new my account’s homepage. I scroll down a little and then see something I didn’t notice before:

Crap. You can add multiple OpenIDs to the same PiP account:

I’m a moron. So I click on the delete link next to my newly created OpenID. The page refreshes, but I get an error saying “Last identity could not be deleted.” Well, that makes sense. Why would you have a VeriSign PiP account, but no OpenID in it? So I go ahead and create a throwaway OpenID, so that I can delete the michaelhall OpenID that I really want. I create the throwaway OpenID and delete the michaelhall OpenID. Ok, everything seems fine. I logout of the new PiP account and log in to my original PiP account… Click on “Create a new OpenID”. Click on “Add an OpenID”. Type in “michaelhall”. Click on “Add OpenID”. Bam!

Ok, now that’s unexpected. What did I do wrong? I deleted the OpenID from the new account and am trying to add it to my new account. hm…

The E-mail

So I click on the “Help and Support” link. It brings me to the FAQ. Reading… reading… no help here. I click on “Contact Us” and get a support email address. Ok, let’s see where this gets me. I type up an email explaining the situation. Clicked send and it’s off.

The Response

Less than 24 hours later (on a Saturday no less) I get a reply. Wow, not too bad. And it’s from the technical director of the PiP program at VeriSign. Not too bad at all! He introduces himself, explains that he can’t fix it until the start of the next work week, and then asks me to confirm the deletion. Now that’s great support:

1. The reply was immediate.

2. I didn’t have to deal with some shmuck in support that didn’t know what they were doing (not referring to VeriSign support here, but to general tech support in the industry).

3. I didn’t have to jump through hoops to get my problem fixed. Two simple emails. Fixed.

I applaud VeriSign for their efforts. They’ve really done a great job with PiP. I may even go buy a spare VeriSign Keychain Token just to support this great program.