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Comment by josefresco | Hacker News Reader

I recently bitched on Twitter about my bad HD service from Comcast, within minutes I had a reply from a Comcast rep on Twitter offering to fix my problem. Within hours I had a phone call from another rep who left me her direct line and told me to call anytime the symptoms appeared.

If Twitter can make Comcast connect with their customers better, anything is possible.

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Point is, how much did Twitter make on that deal? Would Comcast pay for the service if the other option was for it not to exist?

That is actually a very good idea. A truly independent open channel for business to consumer. Public image matters more than ever, specially in this turbulent times where people are reconsidering paid services.

But I still don't see how Twitter can cash in without impacting the freedom and openness of its service. Why would Comcast start paying them something they get for free?

It's an idea that an acquaintance of mine already had. It strikes me as a good one too: http://www.niggle.co.uk/

I never tried Twitter, and I have a hard time figuring out how that could happen. Does Comcast receive a notification whenever "Comcast" gets entered in a Twitter post?

Yes. It's trivial. I use an RSS feed to scan for tweets on specific topics of interest. (qv: tweetscan.com) Various other approaches are available.

there is a twitter dude named comcastcares (maybe above that is you).

Regarding this post - HA. Unless all entrepreneurs band together and force consumers to start paying for our wares then the Twitter's and Seesmic's will continue. Maybe not during and somewhat after this economic shake up, but in time things will go back to how they were. Consumers have been weened on free; expect it!

The same happened to me with VMWare Fusion. I posted some problem I had and within some minutes I had a response from the VMWare guys offering me help on the problem.

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