Products · Broad category
Customer support channels
Raised as a usability problem by 30 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 29 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Websites don't do what users want, forcing support callsUnreviewed
20102026- Websites don't do what users want, so they end up calling support2026-04-14
- Bot keeps pushing callers to the website with no option to bypass it2025-05-04
- Websites hide the phone route, forcing customers to exhaust self-service before calling2018-06-08
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 30 complaints
- Support channels are broken, circular, and take many attempts to reach a human who can help2026-06-12
- Websites don't do what users want, so they end up calling support2026-04-14
- Users cannot easily find how to contact customer support2026-04-02
- Bug reports lead through dead-end emails, hidden chat, chatbot and a generic form with no way to report the bug2026-03-06
- Must talk to an AI bot on the phone to get things done2026-02-11
- Support knowledge bases lack useful answers, so people leave and search elsewhere2025-07-16
- Bot keeps pushing callers to the website with no option to bypass it2025-05-04
- Misclicking close silently signs the user up, with no way to delete the account2024-09-17
- Contact forms are often broken at submission, so queries never arrive2024-05-04
- Chat menus force predefined options, and users must hope one reaches an agent2024-03-31
- Hard to find a human; forced to talk to a chatbot when software fails2024-02-03
- Problems get stuck in tiered support, forcing customers to find side channels to get resolved2023-11-10
- Finding a company's support contact means searching their website, then waiting for email or keeping a chat tab open2023-10-24
- Companies hide how to privately contact them, making support hard to reach2023-10-24
- Email support replaced by partly automated chat; people must fight through automated systems2023-07-22
- Some websites offer no way to cancel an order online or by phone2023-06-01
- Must hunt through nested sub menus to find the cancel button2023-05-01
- Cannot reach anyone; support chat hidden and dark patterns block getting problems fixed2023-02-23
- Dropdown for reporting problems lacks an "other" option, blocking unlisted issues2022-08-31
- Support is buried under About menu and generic forms lack context, causing frustrating support exchanges2022-04-05
- List loads slowly and jumps because each item needs a separate call2022-01-25
- Put on hold over 45 minutes and couldn't get a direct response2021-11-10
- Agents wait 2-3 minutes for screens to load, extending calls2021-08-21
- Reps insist on card number and can't process a mailed check payment to close an account2020-05-23
- Staff can't find the account or reservation under the commenter's real name, so they must list alternate names2019-11-10
- Websites hide the phone route, forcing customers to exhaust self-service before calling2018-06-08
- Reps cannot contact couriers, so delivery problems repeat and can't be resolved2017-11-09
- Scripted support responses frustrate callers and can't address their actual problem2017-05-16
- Not intuitive that customers are studied rather than manipulated; feels like a two-step clunky process2012-11-21
- Agents must press four buttons across screens to transfer a call2010-07-09