The email read: “Melissa Grant doesn’t follow the rules.”
Sort of true, mostly, but in this instance not at all.
As a Gen-Xer, I’ve watched technology replace one format after another my entire life. Vinyl to cassettes to CDs to downloads to streaming. Betamax and VHS to DVDs to streaming. I don’t object to change.
It wouldn’t do me any good if I did, so in true Gen-Xer fashion, I have been somewhat meh on the whole thing.
But when the technology stops feeling like a tool humans use and starts removing the humans from things where the human part actually matters, I have an issue.
Somewhere along the way, in this latest and greatest thing, we started treating human beings as an unnecessary expense rather than an essential part of our experience.
My business and personal social media accounts were disabled in three minutes, but despite the precautions I took, no human was available to take responsibility. And I tried, that Tuesday…
For NINE hours.
At first, at 630 am, I was pretty confident I could get my accounts back. After all, just six months ago, when I tried to help another local business get their account back, I reached a human at Meta in minutes.
Not so fast, Melissa.
Getting past the Meta AI chat was impossible to a human was impossible.
No, REALLY, impossible.
I first tried to use Meta’s automated recovery procedures. They failed to restore my original profile. Then I tried to get help through my husband’s access to my business page, but it was restricted because he was asking for help with an account belonging to another person.
The AI chat repeatedly said it was connecting me to a human, but then it would start looping, repeating the same message over and over, and I couldn’t break out.
Around 400 pm, I came across a new service called Meta One that promised a low monthly rate of $49.99 for one human chat a month.
ONE.
Even though I thought I was doing enough by paying monthly for the little stupid blue checkmark.
Silly, silly Melissa.
Even my techie husband, who is decidedly more AI-enthusiastic than I am, was thoroughly fed up at this point. But still, I signed up for this service, opened a chat and waited for a human to join.
After that, I gave up and went back to my life after my hysterical, shower-free Tuesday. And honestly, I stopped giving a sh*t about whether I got the dang thing back. Sure, the pictures hurt, but it was kind of liberating.
However, by Friday, after signing up for the service and hearing nothing, I was mad. Mad that human beings were now a commodity to be withheld for cash, and that all my data disappeared in an instant with no oversight.
So I filed two complaints. One with the Washington State Attorney General and one with the Better Business Bureau. Some warned against that and writing my first article, saying I might make it worse.
How Orwellian.
Within an hour, everything was back. They admitted making a mistake.
Do I think it had anything to do with the complaints?
Probably not.
But even though I have the accounts back, I’m downloading all my information now; I’m keeping the Meta One subscription and leaving the complaints in place.
Six days later, no human has entered the chat.
