Gotchas — customer-pulse

Gotcha: PayPal rate limits on dispute queries

**Why it matters:** PayPal's disputes API throttles aggressively on date windows with many disputes. Silent retries burn the user's time with no feedback.

✗ Bad

Retry 3× automatically with no feedback. User sees a spinner for 30+ seconds before an error.

✓ Good

On the first rate-limit error, skip PayPal, add `PayPal: rate-limited — not included` to the Sources section, and continue with the remaining connectors. Mention that the user can try again with a narrower date window.

---

Gotcha: Verbatim quotes paraphrased or summarized

**Why it matters:** The owner needs to see the actual customer words — not Claude's interpretation. Paraphrase destroys the credibility of the report.

✗ Bad

**Theme: Slow shipping** (8 signals)

Customers reported that deliveries arrived later than expected.

✓ Good

**Theme: Slow shipping** (8 signals)

"Ordered 2 weeks ago and still nothing — this is unacceptable." — [Gmail] "Package was 10 days late and support never responded." — [Intercom]

---

Gotcha: HubSpot returning 0 tickets treated as an error

**Why it matters:** Test portals and new accounts legitimately have 0 tickets. Surfacing a warning creates noise and erodes trust.

✗ Bad

⚠️ HubSpot returned 0 tickets. Check your connection or permissions.

✓ Good

Record `HubSpot tickets: 0` in the Sources section and continue. Only flag a connector issue if authentication itself fails.

---

Gotcha: Gmail keyword list too narrow

**Why it matters:** Customers don't use standard complaint keywords. A 1-star experience often surfaces as "took forever" or "never again," not "disappointed."

✗ Bad

Search only for: `refund cancel unhappy`

✓ Good

Use the full seed list from Workflow step 4: `refund cancel unhappy issue problem disappointed frustrated broken late slow wrong missing`. Let theme-extraction filter signal from noise — over-inclusion is cheaper than missed themes.