The (Further) Shitification of Customer Service

by Sharon Kayne

It is, as my husband likes to say, the shitification of everything. In case you’ve not heard that term, it refers to how so many products and services are going to shit. Here’s a perfect example: there was a time when a box of Cracker Jacks contained a fair number of peanuts and an actual, three-dimensional prize. The last time I bought Cracker Jacks, the box contained maybe three peanuts and a paper “prize.” The only kind of paper that makes an acceptable “prize” is cash. The latest shitification I encountered was courtesy of Facebook. It was in the realm of customer service, which I know has been seeing extensive shitification for decades, but this went well beyond the usual shitification.

Last Sunday I was unable to log in to Facebook. This was a problem because Sunday is when I post my blog and most of my readers hear about it on Facebook. I kept trying to log in and I kept asking it to text me a code, but I would never get it. I was getting other texts, though, so I knew the problem wasn’t my phone. After I tried all the usual fixes (refreshing, rebooting, etc.), I was still unable to get my code. So I tried getting help on a Facebook chat. I communicated with a bot for a little while before the bot asked if I wanted to I speak to a real human. Yes! I said. A real human! That would be awesome!

So the bot opened a new window on my computer, which had a form I needed to fill out so this real human could call me. The form was branded for a company called JustAnswer, but I foolishly thought this was just the company that provided the form. I also had to pay five bucks in order to speak to this real human. It’s just five bucks, so I went with it. Not long afterwards, I got a call from Jatin, who was clearly from a call center in India. Jatin told me that he’d heard from lots of Facebook users who were having the same problem, so he suspected it required a fix on Meta’s end. That’s also what I had suspected, so I asked him—foolishly assuming he worked for Meta—if he could fix the problem on Meta’s end.

That’s when he dropped the bomb. He didn’t actually work for Meta. He worked for JustAnswer, which is the company that has taken up the outsourcing of customer service for Meta. So, no he couldn’t fix my problem. In fact, he recommended doing what I was already planning on doing—waiting a couple of hours and trying to log in to my account again.

Now, I can understand why Facebook wants to outsource their customer service. American companies in general really hate to provide any kind of customer service. Too many American companies see commerce as a one-way street—that street being the one where customers give them money in exchange for whatever they’re selling. Dealing with a customer problem or a complaint is not profitable, so they try to avoid it. What bothered me is that Facebook also expected me to pay for my customer service! What’s more, after my talk with Jatin, I was asked to fill out a survey regarding my experience. In the comment section I wrote a scathing take down of Meta and how shitty it was that they are not only outsourcing their customer service, but they are expecting their customers to foot the bill for it.

That wasn’t the end of my relationship with JustAnswer. I soon got emails and texts from them asking if I wanted to thank Jatin by providing him with a tip. I also got an email asking me to sign up for some other service JustAnswer provides. So, not only did I pay for my own, relatively worthless customer service, but now I’m having to put up with the company’s spam.

Yeah, yeah, I know Facebook is free for its users. Much in the same way that broadcast TV is free because it’s actually paid for by advertisers who are, essentially, leasing our eyeballs. But Facebook goes way beyond eyeball rental for advertisers. They also collect all sorts of personal data about us that they sell and use for god-knows-what. So, I think Facebook is making enough money off of its users that it can afford to provide actually useful (and free) customer support. My guess is that they’d rather shitify their service and save money. It is, after all, the American way.

I post to my blog every Sunday. Follow me on Facebook or Instagram, or sign up for my monthly newsletter (here) to be informed of my new posts. Also, please follow me on Amazon, Goodreads and BookBub.