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I think the bigger news is they’re offering “priority customer support” for a monthly fee. Imagine if this became a trend among other big tech companies.

by nojs 4y ago

StrLght 4y ago
I believe it's already a thing with a lot of companies. I worked at a company that had restaurant delivery app, very similar to Uber Eats / DoorDash (but not in the US). ~10% of top spenders there got priority support.
pleb_nz 4y ago
I think it might already be. A few times in the last month I've stumbled across sites with this offering when joining/subscribing (the names escape me now) and everytime I thought who would pay for that? Now you mention it clicked maybe it's a new thing?
logicalmonster 4y ago
This is an interesting sneaky way of making social media a subscription service for many, but I'd think the benefits for any business seriously using social media are probably good enough to justify the fee. That said, why offer 2 different payments for web and mobile? This just introduces too much confusion for an entirely new concept like this. Anything that gives people some possibility of human contact in the event of a problem is a welcome baby step forward, but this isn't really good enough. If Meta screws up something with blocking/banning your account and you're not subscribed, are you still completely unable to get in touch with anybody, for any price? These are the people slipping through the gaps that I worry about.
- ShrimpHawk 4y ago
  >That said, why offer 2 different payments for web and mobile? Mobile (Google Play, Apple App Store) takes a cut from transactions made through them. Companies don't want to lose money. Companies have been doing this for as long they could. It is not anything new. https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/112622?hl=en https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...
barbazoo 4y ago
Imagine that. No wait, lots of tech companies that have customers (i.e. one way or another directly paying for stuff) offer "priority support" (i.e. 1 on 1 with an actual human). It's expensive and eats i to your profits but it's necessary.
anonymousab 4y ago
In an ideal world that could be nice. In practice the allure of ignoring support problems under the guise of "the automation says there's nothing we can do" is far too high, and eventually pervades all manner of tech company user accounts unless legislatively punished. As we see with paid Google customers, business and otherwise.
kevinventullo 4y ago
I don’t really care about my Facebook account but I would absolutely pay $100+/yr to ensure I have some recourse should I ever be locked out of my gmail account.
- amf12 4y ago
  This already exists btw. Have you checked out Google Workspace Individual subscription?
  - 0cf8612b2e1e 4y ago
    I have heard about many gotchas that appear if an account is “upgraded” to Workspace. No longer on the happy path, so a variety of services and features no longer work the same as a free account.
- devnullbrain 4y ago
  Why not use another email provider for <$100/yr?
  - kevinventullo 4y ago
    Honestly, momentum.
valdiorn 4y ago
tbh, I'd prefer the option of paying for support over literally no support at all, ala. Google. If my Gmail account is compromised, I'd be pretty fucked, despite doing my best to make backup arrangements - it's still the skeleton key to the rest of my digital life and my primary point of contact for everyone who interacts with me. I'd happily pay some small fee to have an actual human help me resolve the issue. But right now, that's not even an option.

I think the bigger news is they’re offering “priority customer support” for a monthly fee. Imagine if this became a trend among other big tech companies.

by nojs 4y ago

I think the bigger news is they’re offering “priority customer support” for a monthly fee. Imagine if this became a trend among other big tech companies.

StrLght 4y ago

I believe it's already a thing with a lot of companies. I worked at a company that had restaurant delivery app, very similar to Uber Eats / DoorDash (but not in the US). ~10% of top spenders there got priority support.

pleb_nz 4y ago

I think it might already be. A few times in the last month I've stumbled across sites with this offering when joining/subscribing (the names escape me now) and everytime I thought who would pay for that? Now you mention it clicked maybe it's a new thing?

logicalmonster 4y ago

This is an interesting sneaky way of making social media a subscription service for many, but I'd think the benefits for any business seriously using social media are probably good enough to justify the fee. That said, why offer 2 different payments for web and mobile? This just introduces too much confusion for an entirely new concept like this. Anything that gives people some possibility of human contact in the event of a problem is a welcome baby step forward, but this isn't really good enough. If Meta screws up something with blocking/banning your account and you're not subscribed, are you still completely unable to get in touch with anybody, for any price? These are the people slipping through the gaps that I worry about.

ShrimpHawk 4y ago
>That said, why offer 2 different payments for web and mobile? Mobile (Google Play, Apple App Store) takes a cut from transactions made through them. Companies don't want to lose money. Companies have been doing this for as long they could. It is not anything new. https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/112622?hl=en https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...

barbazoo 4y ago

Imagine that. No wait, lots of tech companies that have customers (i.e. one way or another directly paying for stuff) offer "priority support" (i.e. 1 on 1 with an actual human). It's expensive and eats i to your profits but it's necessary.

anonymousab 4y ago

In an ideal world that could be nice. In practice the allure of ignoring support problems under the guise of "the automation says there's nothing we can do" is far too high, and eventually pervades all manner of tech company user accounts unless legislatively punished. As we see with paid Google customers, business and otherwise.

kevinventullo 4y ago

I don’t really care about my Facebook account but I would absolutely pay $100+/yr to ensure I have some recourse should I ever be locked out of my gmail account.

amf12 4y ago
This already exists btw. Have you checked out Google Workspace Individual subscription?
- 0cf8612b2e1e 4y ago
  I have heard about many gotchas that appear if an account is “upgraded” to Workspace. No longer on the happy path, so a variety of services and features no longer work the same as a free account.
devnullbrain 4y ago
Why not use another email provider for <$100/yr?
- kevinventullo 4y ago
  Honestly, momentum.

valdiorn 4y ago

tbh, I'd prefer the option of paying for support over literally no support at all, ala. Google. If my Gmail account is compromised, I'd be pretty fucked, despite doing my best to make backup arrangements - it's still the skeleton key to the rest of my digital life and my primary point of contact for everyone who interacts with me. I'd happily pay some small fee to have an actual human help me resolve the issue. But right now, that's not even an option.