4 ms·

I don’t know if it is still the case, but at one time you had to pay something like $50 to talk to a 3rd party customer service agent for the government agency

I don’t know if it is still the case, but at one time you had to pay something like $50 to talk to a 3rd party customer service agent for the government agency that issues US Passports. The reason was because they hadn’t had a funding increase (and couldn’t legally raise prices) in 30 years and had to choose between making passports and answering questions about when the passports will be made. So they decided to make passports and contracted a 3rd party who would provide and charge the customer for customer service. To me this seems like a reasonable option for massive free services as well. I did see people have had mixed results with the $15 service. Maybe there should be a one off account recovery fee that is priced at a rate that makes this more attractive to Meta so that they can adequately staff it.

floren 2y ago
But if you offer a service where you pay $20 to get your account back, well, nobody's going to want to pay that unless it actually works, so their incentive is to make it work. Which makes it start to feel more like a "pay $20 to get somebody's account, if you lie well" service
- jeremyjh 2y ago
  I think it may need to cost more than $100. They would need a notary to validate your identity or something like that.
  - fragmede 2y ago
    It doesn't cost $100 to go to a notary and validate your identity.
    - jeremyjh 2y ago
      To adequately staff a function, and the compliance of that function with people who can reliably sort out all the fraudsters you may need to spend more than $20. A higher price would also filter out a lot of fraudsters all by itself. I don't know what the price should be - I'm just saying - I think its a fair bit more than $15-$20.
    - wmf 2y ago
      You'd pay the notary and then you'd also pay Meta.
  - nradov 2y ago
    Anyone can make a fake notary stamp. Or become a notary themselves. This is super common in fraud cases. Notaries are basically a worthless anachronism and shouldn't be relied upon for anything important. And even if identity is validated, what does that mean? Like there are probably a thousand Meta accounts for "Robert Jones". If someone has a valid government issued ID in that name should he then be able to "recover" any account with the same (or similar) name?
    - qingcharles 2y ago
      Notaries are out of favor these days. In Illinois, for instance, there is almost nothing that requires a notary now. You can "certify" yourself by signing a document under penalty of perjury.
ceejayoz 2y ago
I wish I could put down a $10k "yes, I'm sure this is a tech issue, not user error" deposit that'd be refunded if a senior-level support person agrees and escalates to internal teams.
- krisoft 2y ago
  And what would you do when they automate the "senior-level support person agreeing" part with a script which just rejects all (or almost all) queries incoming and the corporation pockets the money? Much simpler to do, and doesn't cost them anything. In fact you just gave them 10k reasons to do that.
  - ceejayoz 2y ago
    People would rapidly stop using it. This is obviously not a tactic I'd employ trying to resolve an issue with some shady overseas cryptocurrency exchange. It's a "I promise I'm not some fuckwit wasting your time" deposit. (You could also have the next step be arbitration if I disagree with the determination.)
    - krisoft 2y ago
      > You could also have the next step be arbitration if I disagree with the determination. Great. Now imagine that it was actually and factually a nuisance support request. It was user error and not a technical issue. (Because some percentage of fwits have access to cash.) Do you as the company keep the money, or do you give it back? Knowing that the fwit with 10k easy money will likely sue you. If you give it back you haven't really filtered much with it. If you keep it you can very easily risk more in reputational damage [1] and defence costs. What I'm saying here is that what you are proposing is more of a liability than what it would be worth for the company. 1: Just imagine the headline: "Hear the story of this 87 year old cancer stricken grandma! Facebook banned her, took her last $10k and now they won't even respond to her messages."
dimatura 2y ago
I once had an passport-related emergency, but as a foreign resident in the US this was a matter for USCIS. Getting ahold of them via phone was pretty much impossible at the time- the lines were just permanently busy. I sent them an email enquiry, the only other option. I got a reply literally two years later, basically saying "Well, apologies for the delay, we hope you've figured out a solution by now" (thankfully, I had). I gladly would've paid more than $50 if it was an option.

floren 2y ago

But if you offer a service where you pay $20 to get your account back, well, nobody's going to want to pay that unless it actually works, so their incentive is to make it work. Which makes it start to feel more like a "pay $20 to get somebody's account, if you lie well" service

jeremyjh 2y ago
I think it may need to cost more than $100. They would need a notary to validate your identity or something like that.
- fragmede 2y ago
  It doesn't cost $100 to go to a notary and validate your identity.
  - jeremyjh 2y ago
    To adequately staff a function, and the compliance of that function with people who can reliably sort out all the fraudsters you may need to spend more than $20. A higher price would also filter out a lot of fraudsters all by itself. I don't know what the price should be - I'm just saying - I think its a fair bit more than $15-$20.
  - wmf 2y ago
    You'd pay the notary and then you'd also pay Meta.
- nradov 2y ago
  Anyone can make a fake notary stamp. Or become a notary themselves. This is super common in fraud cases. Notaries are basically a worthless anachronism and shouldn't be relied upon for anything important. And even if identity is validated, what does that mean? Like there are probably a thousand Meta accounts for "Robert Jones". If someone has a valid government issued ID in that name should he then be able to "recover" any account with the same (or similar) name?
  - qingcharles 2y ago
    Notaries are out of favor these days. In Illinois, for instance, there is almost nothing that requires a notary now. You can "certify" yourself by signing a document under penalty of perjury.

ceejayoz 2y ago

I wish I could put down a $10k "yes, I'm sure this is a tech issue, not user error" deposit that'd be refunded if a senior-level support person agrees and escalates to internal teams.

krisoft 2y ago
And what would you do when they automate the "senior-level support person agreeing" part with a script which just rejects all (or almost all) queries incoming and the corporation pockets the money? Much simpler to do, and doesn't cost them anything. In fact you just gave them 10k reasons to do that.
- ceejayoz 2y ago
  People would rapidly stop using it. This is obviously not a tactic I'd employ trying to resolve an issue with some shady overseas cryptocurrency exchange. It's a "I promise I'm not some fuckwit wasting your time" deposit. (You could also have the next step be arbitration if I disagree with the determination.)
  - krisoft 2y ago
    > You could also have the next step be arbitration if I disagree with the determination. Great. Now imagine that it was actually and factually a nuisance support request. It was user error and not a technical issue. (Because some percentage of fwits have access to cash.) Do you as the company keep the money, or do you give it back? Knowing that the fwit with 10k easy money will likely sue you. If you give it back you haven't really filtered much with it. If you keep it you can very easily risk more in reputational damage [1] and defence costs. What I'm saying here is that what you are proposing is more of a liability than what it would be worth for the company. 1: Just imagine the headline: "Hear the story of this 87 year old cancer stricken grandma! Facebook banned her, took her last $10k and now they won't even respond to her messages."

dimatura 2y ago

I once had an passport-related emergency, but as a foreign resident in the US this was a matter for USCIS. Getting ahold of them via phone was pretty much impossible at the time- the lines were just permanently busy. I sent them an email enquiry, the only other option. I got a reply literally two years later, basically saying "Well, apologies for the delay, we hope you've figured out a solution by now" (thankfully, I had). I gladly would've paid more than $50 if it was an option.