I have an account with First Premier. Today when I was trying to make a payment on one of my accounts I started getting horrible error exception messages.

Here is an example.

System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a receive. —> System.IO.IOException: Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host. —> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

   at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.Receive(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size, SocketFlags socketFlags)

   at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)

   — End of inner exception stack trace —

   at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)

   at System.Net.PooledStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)

   at System.Net.Connection.SyncRead(HttpWebRequest request, Boolean userRetrievedStream, Boolean probeRead)

   — End of inner exception stack trace —

   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.WebClientProtocol.GetWebResponse(WebRequest request)

   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.HttpWebClientProtocol.GetWebResponse(WebRequest request)

   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)

   at _app.cardinfoservicesProxy.GetNextPostingDateWithDate(BaseInputPacket oInputPacket) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\FirstPremierOnlineServiceFactory\BridgeAndProxyCode.VB:line 582

   at _app.cardinfoservicesBridge.GetNextPostingDateWithDate(BaseInputPacket oInputPacket) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\FirstPremierOnlineServiceFactory\BridgeAndProxyCode.VB:line 1379

Since I currently manage and have worked in web application security in the past, i know this is not good. LOL I now know their directory structure. I know they are calling a webservice when I click to make a payment and when I try to access additional functionality that I got a similar message with. I know since they have not set their machine.config attribute to retail=true there is at least one exploit their server is vulnerable to. That with the fact I have a direct path for their directory structure….

Now I wanted to send an email to First Premier, but guess what? They only have phone numbers in their help section. I know that is a 20 minute wait. I just wanted to send a quick note saying I was attempting to do “y” and I got these errors, something is not right here. I am assuming I am one of a few hundred customers today with this issue. This issue puts their company at risk, my identity at risk and they may not know they have this exposure?

Yes if you make it easy for me to connect with you, which means your customer WILL connect with you.

Why would you not want that? Why would you not want to leverage me as someone that will say, hey you are having an issue. Thanks I love your service, help I am having this problem.

If you do not make it easy to interact with me, then that means I will ONLY interact with you when my patience has hit a boiling point. It also means I will probably as in the place of First Premier, just move on down the road. You then have lost a customer, you don’t know why. You can keep on churnings as you always have, yet wonder why your customer is growing while you are receding. maybe they have an email address on their website, listen to tweets, and engage in social media to interact with their customers.

Maybe they have a clue. Content is no longer king in a Web 2.0 world. Interaction is king. Engage me where I am at, and may it easy for me to engage you anyway I choose. This will allow you to leverage customers as assets beyond paying their bills, but making them a part of your organization looking out for you in the mean streets of the internet. LOL