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Small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline

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Re: Small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline

#161

I helped several friends and acquaintances get their accounts back when I worked for Meta. Befriending an employee is still the best way to get traction. [I no longer work there and do not speak for the company.] Not a single one of those friends or acquaintances used two-factor authentication or other safety features, nor did they follow basic best-practices for keeping any online account secure. A user != a custome…

"Meta gives them tools"

I think you meant:

"Meta used its market power to ensure they are the only option to (etc)."

At this point, I think Meta should one if two paths: get broken up into many little pieces or be deemed a utility. And if they go for option 2, then you need to support your users, ROI be damned

Re: Small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline

#162
post #23

Small claims court does get a company's attention. They either have to show up or lose. Not that showing up means a win. I'm surprised that someone had trouble serving a subpoena on Facebook. Looking up "Meta" in California Corporation Search brings up everything with "Metal" in it, which is a hassle. Their actual company name is "Meta Platforms, Incorporated". Search for "Meta Platforms" here.[1] California company…

To me this appears as a way to outsource customer service to an external entity funded by a cash flow to which Meta does not need to contribute. The courts are always going to exist, Meta is always paying its lawyers, so why bother hiring extra people to staff a support line? And by making support have to go through the legal system you've already cut out 90% of the support calls you would normally take. Financially,…

Wtf? No. This is just the legal system in operation, if it were by facebook they would not offer this type of users, they have to be ordered to by the judicial system.

There is no deliberate decision to do this at the judicial level, there is only a decision not to willingly do it at all.

Re: Small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me this appears as a way to outsource customer service to an external entity funded by a cash flow to which Meta does not need to contribute. The courts are always going to exist, Meta is always paying its lawyers, so why bother hiring extra people to staff a support line? And by making support have to go through the legal system you've already cut out 90% of the support calls you would normally take. Financially,…

You're saying that spending thousands of dollars in court settlements and man-hours for each of these cases is somehow advantageous to Meta?? That they want to be sued? If they bothered to appeal, I expect Meta would win most of these cases. As long as there are very few of them, it's not worth the cost. Trying to twist the situation to seem like this is somehow a good thing for Meta is well... twisted. Also, as some…

Meta Lawyers have to do something. Dealing with account recovery cases, is a much better position than many other types of liabilities

Re: Small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline

#164
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. AWS support will literally log into your ubuntu server (not even an official AWS AMI) and debug your problem for you if you ask for it, that's how dedicated their support is. No idea how google cloud platform support operates, but I have my doubts they're as reliable.

This is highly unexpected. I use other Amazon services and their support is crap. Why is aws different? Is it earning them so much money they find the support to be worth doing?

Yes. AWS enterprise support costs a minimum of USD 15k/month. You receive a dedicated TAM and account SA for more strategic projects or problems, as well as faster live-help response through the ticket system.

Re: Small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline

#165
post #139
post #23

Small claims court does get a company's attention. They either have to show up or lose. Not that showing up means a win. I'm surprised that someone had trouble serving a subpoena on Facebook. Looking up "Meta" in California Corporation Search brings up everything with "Metal" in it, which is a hassle. Their actual company name is "Meta Platforms, Incorporated". Search for "Meta Platforms" here.[1] California company…

> Small claims court does get a company's attention. Different topic, but I find not enough people are aware of the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) complaint process. If some financial-related company wrongs you and you can't get through to support, file a complaint. Suddenly they listen and contact you back. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

+1 to CFPB

My account at Venmo was banned with zero explanation and no support would talk to me on the phone. I submitted a complaint to the CFPB, got a phone response within 2 weeks, and was promptly unbanned.

Re: Small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me this appears as a way to outsource customer service to an external entity funded by a cash flow to which Meta does not need to contribute. The courts are always going to exist, Meta is always paying its lawyers, so why bother hiring extra people to staff a support line? And by making support have to go through the legal system you've already cut out 90% of the support calls you would normally take. Financially,…

You're saying that spending thousands of dollars in court settlements and man-hours for each of these cases is somehow advantageous to Meta?? That they want to be sued? If they bothered to appeal, I expect Meta would win most of these cases. As long as there are very few of them, it's not worth the cost. Trying to twist the situation to seem like this is somehow a good thing for Meta is well... twisted. Also, as some…

If they wanted to handle this using minimal automation, they could.

> That they want to be sued?

Q.E.D. It has been demonstrated by their system design.

Re: Small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me this appears as a way to outsource customer service to an external entity funded by a cash flow to which Meta does not need to contribute. The courts are always going to exist, Meta is always paying its lawyers, so why bother hiring extra people to staff a support line? And by making support have to go through the legal system you've already cut out 90% of the support calls you would normally take. Financially,…

At some point the courts might start complaining to the legislatures and the congress. Or they might start adding punitive damages to their rulings.

Generally speaking, I don't think small claims courts can add punitive damages.

Re: Small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're saying that spending thousands of dollars in court settlements and man-hours for each of these cases is somehow advantageous to Meta?? That they want to be sued? If they bothered to appeal, I expect Meta would win most of these cases. As long as there are very few of them, it's not worth the cost. Trying to twist the situation to seem like this is somehow a good thing for Meta is well... twisted. Also, as some…

Meta Lawyers have to do something. Dealing with account recovery cases, is a much better position than many other types of liabilities

They would contract this work and pay a few hundred an hour. Internal counsel would not be cheaper since they staff based on the demand. None of this is free, it’s just less costly than customer service.

Re: Small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline

#170

The idea that customer service can be 'automated away' is dangerous, and has been proven wrong again and again. And soon, LLMs will be used to attempt to solve this problem again, and they will fail again. It is easy to look at the historical information in a ticketing system and make the conclusion that the vast majority of the issues can be solved by pointing the user to frequently-encountered solutions. However, t…

At least 4 different Saas companies that I use (Substack, Circle, Thinkific, Stripe) have implemented customer service chatbots with varying degrees of success. The most useful of them make it more like an easy way to search the docs, as opposed to a way to get actual help. (The good ones, if they don't have an answer, quickly move you to a human agent.)
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