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The fuck off contact page

(www.nicchan.me)
484 points OuterVale | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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permo-w ◴[] No.46190522[source]
I'm not sure I've ever seen a contact page that wasn't like this. I always felt it was basically reasonable. if you can direct someone to an answer without having to waste money/time/compute on providing custom service, then that seems basically reasonable to me. yes it's annoying, but it's not a pattern I've ever felt was particularly dark. I'm perfectly happy with "speaking to a human" being the last port of call to fix a problem. as long as it is available somewhere
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latexr ◴[] No.46190619[source]
> I'm not sure I've ever seen a contact page that wasn't like this.

Click the “Contact” link at the bottom of this HN page. It’s a mailto link.

mailto:hn@ycombinator.com

Reeder has a simple contact form on the page.

https://reederapp.com/classic/

Overcast list an email and social media to contact.

https://overcast.fm/contact

Alfred points to the forum and lists email addresses to contact.

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/contact/

iA Writer lists emails.

https://ia.net/about-us

SnippetsLab list an email.

https://www.renfei.org/snippets-lab/manual/mac/share-your-fe...

iTerm2 list an email.

https://iterm2.com

Those are just a few off the top of my head. Indie developers tend to be more respectful of their customers.

> I'm perfectly happy with "speaking to a human" being the last port of call to fix a problem. as long as it is available somewhere

Yet, too often, it simply isn’t.

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1. n4r9 ◴[] No.46190633[source]
Deutsche Bahn has a good contact page: https://int.bahn.de/en/help/contact

Conversely, Virgin Media's is well into the "f** off" realm: https://www.virginmedia.com/support/help/contact-us

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2. devsda ◴[] No.46191652[source]
On Virgin Media's page, if you answer "no" to the "is it helpful" question, you apparently get the support forum and chat with us options.
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3. n4r9 ◴[] No.46194648[source]
Yeah, you do. It's still pretty unfriendly imo - you're forcing a user to express disapproval to get something useful, without telling them what useful thing they're going to get by clicking it.

It's par for the course with Virgin Media. I've been with them for years as the cheapest way to get genuinely fast broadband (though that seems to be changing) but the service is dire. Some of the patterns:

* When your package contract ends, you always get a much better renewal deal by ringing them up and threatening to leave. The deals you can get online are up to 50% more expensive. This tactic is straight out of the noughties and I can't believe it's still working for them.

* However, you often have to keep calling back until someone offers you a good deal. I'm guessing that there is some sort of incentive structure behind the scenes that basically makes it random whether each individual call will pay off.

* About 8 years ago they messed up my direct debit so badly for three consecutive months despite multiple lunchtimes wasted on hold to their support line, that I eventually sent a strong email to my best guess of the CEO's email. The next day I was contacted by a very capable technician who immediately sorted it out.

* Not so related to their support, but they've recently instituted a price-rise of £4 every year.