9.29.2009

Long Time No Post: Facebook Doesn't Understand Customer Service

When you run a business like Facebook there are four basic areas you would staff (beyond all the backbone that keeps a business running):

  1. Coding and Design - making everything functional
  2. Sales and Money - ads and stuff
  3. Servers, Networks and Security - keeping the site up and connected
  4. Customer Complaints

One way to really fall down on your face is to staff #4 with people who don't understand customer service.

I made a complaint on Facebook. I made a complaint because after taking a quiz I was suggested I take another quiz. The quiz I took was undoubtedly silly and likely to be something along the lines of "What Muppet Are You?" or "Who Are These 80's Stars?".

The quiz I was recommended by Facebook was, "What Kind of Girl Would You Like to Fuck?".

The picture of said quiz was an upskirt shot of a girl with no underwear, her legs akimbo, and her head cropped out.

I complained to Facebook that I found THAT offensive (to the generic complaint email).

To which Facebook replied that I didn't complain in the right channel and thus my complaint was being ignored.

That irritated me -- I had gone through the entire help site and there was no channel for reporting offensive applications.

I replied to the same address with a complaint about the process.

Today, 91 days after my original complaint, I received a reply -- explaining to me that I must, in order to complain, find the offensive application (how?), TAKE the quiz in question, and on the final about screen, complain to its developer.

Seriously, Facebook, seriously?

This is the best you can do?

I know we inhabit a world of forced self-service where no one talks to humans for customer service, but it takes a special kind of lameness to have not one but two humans refer a customer to self-service and never take action on the root problem reported.

Wow, just... wow.

If I was the Facebook sales rep selling ads to Pepsi® and Ticketmaster® and Pepto-Bismal® I would be very concerned that these ads didn't pop up next to porn. I promise you the brand managers for the companies do care.

This one application is a drop, I am sure, in the bucket... but the staff's inability and/or lack of will to actually deal with these problems would mean a lot of full buckets.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I think it's pretty clear from the obama poll controversy last week that facebook needs to do some serious policing of their quiz and poll content. Good to see that they are being responsive to your complaint and are handling matters promtply. urgh....

Yet Another Girl said...

Well, if they had a better process maybe they wouldn't have heard about it first from the Secret Service!