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If the only way I can interact with a business is through Facebook, that's a business telling me they don't want me as a customer and I'm more than happy to obl

If the only way I can interact with a business is through Facebook, that's a business telling me they don't want me as a customer and I'm more than happy to oblige them. I've very rarely encountered that, though. Most businesses at least have a phone number I can use to talk to them.

lostlogin 2y ago
A harder problem is group activities. I keep bees and ride a bike. The local groups that have support, experience, supplies and all the people are on Facebook (the beekeepers) and WhatsApp (the cyclists). I miss various announcements with the beekeepers but caved last month on WhatsApp with the cyclists, I joined WhatsApp. Being 50km from home with equipment issues, you need to be able to talk to the others and they are on WhatsApp. Cancelled rides or proposed new ones are all on WhatsApp.
- ttyprintk 2y ago
  I’m in that same social situation. The technological situation is that SMS and Facebook are pre-installed on their phones. In one case, Signal was acceptable. Specifically, Signal only rings when someone is among your contacts. The “do not disturb” feature on their smartphone was not blocking endless scam calls. In another, because Signal needs to be installed, the amount of time performing as IT eroded the social time.
voisin 2y ago
> If the only way I can interact with a business is through Facebook, that's a business telling me they don't want me as a customer and I'm more than happy to oblige them. I don’t think this is a reasonable position given what OP correctly said: Facebook makes having a web presence easy for 99.9999% of the population. Not everyone is as technologically literate as those on this forum. By having only a FB presence, they are not telling you they don’t want you as a customer - they just don’t know any better.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  > Not everyone is as technologically literate as those on this forum I don't understand how technological literacy factors into this at all. It takes very little of that to have a phone number.
  - voisin 2y ago
    I assume OP wasn’t suggesting that these companies don’t have phone numbers, but rather that they didn’t have web presences outside Facebook. Technologically literacy or high cost are the hurdles for web presences outside FB.
jasode 2y ago
>If the only way I can interact with a business is through Facebook, that's a business telling me they don't want me as a customer [...] I've very rarely encountered that, I encounter it often because I deal with small contractors for home services and repairs and Facebook is how they reach new customers. I used the word "businesses" but it is giving a false elevated impression that these local services are bigger than they actually are. The "business" is often just 1 guy. And the "business phone number" is just the guy's personal cell number. I hired a father-and-son business to replace some doors in the house and the only "website" they had was their Facebook page. Sure, the "Mr HandyMan" national franchise chains have "real websites" but hiring them also costs more. I'd rather hire the computer-illiterate father&son duo who knows how to replace my doors for a fair price rather than reject them just because don't know how to buy a domain name + website and relies on Facebook for customers to reach them. Similar situation with other "small businesses" like local yoga instructors, etc. They rely on Facebook pages instead of real websites.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  > I encounter it often because I deal with small contractors for home services and repairs and Facebook is how they reach new customers. I deal more with small businesses than large myself, but I've never been unable to find their phone number. However, as I said, if Facebook really is the only way to talk to these people, then these people clearly don't want my business anyway. Their loss, not mine.
  - jasode 2y ago
    > but I've never been unable to find their phone number. However, as I said, if Facebook really is the only way to talk to these people, Sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm not communicating with home repair contractors exclusively via Facebook Messaging. I'm talking about browsing potential contractors to hire and the only so-called "website" they happen to have is their Facebook page. It's not just the phone number. It's that their Facebook page also shows photos of their past work and/or has a bullet list of tasks they specialize in. For this purpose, there's no need for them to be computer savvy enough to install Apache or NGINX web server, or pay for website builders like Wix / Squarespace, or hiring a website designer, etc. It's the business owner using the skills they already know (aka they know how to use Facebook) to update their web presence. Somehow, my random observation that some owners that paid for a real custom website at one point in their life had it show an old phone number that was out-of-date and yet their Facebook page had the updated phone number -- derailed the discussion. It was just a datapoint on how small business people find Facebook useful enough to maintain accurate info but their "real website" was so complicated that they abandoned it to digital rot.

lostlogin 2y ago

A harder problem is group activities. I keep bees and ride a bike. The local groups that have support, experience, supplies and all the people are on Facebook (the beekeepers) and WhatsApp (the cyclists). I miss various announcements with the beekeepers but caved last month on WhatsApp with the cyclists, I joined WhatsApp. Being 50km from home with equipment issues, you need to be able to talk to the others and they are on WhatsApp. Cancelled rides or proposed new ones are all on WhatsApp.

ttyprintk 2y ago
I’m in that same social situation. The technological situation is that SMS and Facebook are pre-installed on their phones. In one case, Signal was acceptable. Specifically, Signal only rings when someone is among your contacts. The “do not disturb” feature on their smartphone was not blocking endless scam calls. In another, because Signal needs to be installed, the amount of time performing as IT eroded the social time.

voisin 2y ago

> If the only way I can interact with a business is through Facebook, that's a business telling me they don't want me as a customer and I'm more than happy to oblige them. I don’t think this is a reasonable position given what OP correctly said: Facebook makes having a web presence easy for 99.9999% of the population. Not everyone is as technologically literate as those on this forum. By having only a FB presence, they are not telling you they don’t want you as a customer - they just don’t know any better.

JohnFen 2y ago
> Not everyone is as technologically literate as those on this forum I don't understand how technological literacy factors into this at all. It takes very little of that to have a phone number.
- voisin 2y ago
  I assume OP wasn’t suggesting that these companies don’t have phone numbers, but rather that they didn’t have web presences outside Facebook. Technologically literacy or high cost are the hurdles for web presences outside FB.

jasode 2y ago

>If the only way I can interact with a business is through Facebook, that's a business telling me they don't want me as a customer [...] I've very rarely encountered that, I encounter it often because I deal with small contractors for home services and repairs and Facebook is how they reach new customers. I used the word "businesses" but it is giving a false elevated impression that these local services are bigger than they actually are. The "business" is often just 1 guy. And the "business phone number" is just the guy's personal cell number. I hired a father-and-son business to replace some doors in the house and the only "website" they had was their Facebook page. Sure, the "Mr HandyMan" national franchise chains have "real websites" but hiring them also costs more. I'd rather hire the computer-illiterate father&son duo who knows how to replace my doors for a fair price rather than reject them just because don't know how to buy a domain name + website and relies on Facebook for customers to reach them. Similar situation with other "small businesses" like local yoga instructors, etc. They rely on Facebook pages instead of real websites.

JohnFen 2y ago
> I encounter it often because I deal with small contractors for home services and repairs and Facebook is how they reach new customers. I deal more with small businesses than large myself, but I've never been unable to find their phone number. However, as I said, if Facebook really is the only way to talk to these people, then these people clearly don't want my business anyway. Their loss, not mine.
- jasode 2y ago
  > but I've never been unable to find their phone number. However, as I said, if Facebook really is the only way to talk to these people, Sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm not communicating with home repair contractors exclusively via Facebook Messaging. I'm talking about browsing potential contractors to hire and the only so-called "website" they happen to have is their Facebook page. It's not just the phone number. It's that their Facebook page also shows photos of their past work and/or has a bullet list of tasks they specialize in. For this purpose, there's no need for them to be computer savvy enough to install Apache or NGINX web server, or pay for website builders like Wix / Squarespace, or hiring a website designer, etc. It's the business owner using the skills they already know (aka they know how to use Facebook) to update their web presence. Somehow, my random observation that some owners that paid for a real custom website at one point in their life had it show an old phone number that was out-of-date and yet their Facebook page had the updated phone number -- derailed the discussion. It was just a datapoint on how small business people find Facebook useful enough to maintain accurate info but their "real website" was so complicated that they abandoned it to digital rot.