Products · Pattern or everyday thing
customer support
Raised as a usability problem by 48 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 40 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Calls drop after holds, and cancelling keeps callers on holdUnreviewed
20102026- Spending minutes navigating menus to find a phone number, then getting lost in wrong menus2026-03-04
- Calls are deliberately dropped to push customers into a callback queue2025-06-29
- Calls get disconnected or transferred around endlessly after long holds2023-07-07
Support designed so users give up before reaching a humanUnreviewed
20102026- Companies make it impossible to reach a human when help is needed2026-07-12
- Support is designed so frustrating that users give up before reaching a human2026-01-23
- Support requires jumping through massive hoops, auto replies, and gets no help2023-03-15
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 46 complaints
- Companies make it impossible to reach a human when help is needed2026-07-12
- Repeated calls needed; agents couldn't understand or handle unusual questions outside scripts2026-05-06
- Spending minutes navigating menus to find a phone number, then getting lost in wrong menus2026-03-04
- Support is designed so frustrating that users give up before reaching a human2026-01-23
- Support staff are stuck on a script and cannot handle the actual problem2025-12-26
- Long holds, AI phone operators looping users to a broken portal2025-12-18
- Getting help from customer support when something goes wrong is almost impossible2025-07-23
- Having to repeat yourself after being transferred multiple times2025-07-09
- Calls are deliberately dropped to push customers into a callback queue2025-06-29
- Phone voice prompt mazes make it hard to reach a human agent2025-02-03
- Forced through bot and hold queues with dark-pattern barriers before reaching a human2024-09-24
- Online support traps users in FAQ loops and never reaches a solution2023-07-22
- Calls get disconnected or transferred around endlessly after long holds2023-07-07
- Bad experience calling call centers, designed so some callers give up2023-06-22
- Companies make it very hard to find any email address for support2023-03-18
- Chat replies take minutes, so the customer can't tell whether anyone is working on their issue2023-03-18
- Support requires jumping through massive hoops, auto replies, and gets no help2023-03-15
- Phone menus refuse landline callers and push them toward online self-service2023-01-28
- Long phone trees make customers give up before reaching a human2023-01-03
- Support is hard to reach, with long waits and maze-like menus2022-12-08
- Help links send users to unsearchable web pages that may not exist2022-11-28
- Support requires convoluted ticket systems or bots that funnel to unhelpful FAQs2022-11-06
- Must go through five automated prompts before reaching a human2022-10-22
- Support pages block access to a human until users wade through docs first2022-08-31
- No way to escalate past canned replies; support goes silent after cycles2022-08-31
- Support refused to help because the caller was not a customer2022-08-29
- Chat replies are delayed, then arrive as generic filler that doesn't answer the question2022-08-25
- Reps forget case details and repeat steps every call, so customers must re-explain everything2022-07-28
- Companies make users wait so long for a human that the option is effectively useless2022-03-25
- Can't reach a human; must bypass normal support channels to get help2022-03-24
- Cannot reach a human; speaking to a person requires endless steps2022-03-24
- Menu options must be navigated by keypad and often don't match the user's question2022-03-24
- Human option requires exact menu navigation; wrong step disconnects or returns to automated answers2022-03-24
- Repeats the same troubleshooting steps and waits on hold for the same incident2021-04-16
- Must contact 15-30 companies separately to update address after moving2020-12-29
- Forced to wait on hold for an hour with no callback option2020-10-02
- No text-based contact channel; only phone support, requiring availability during phone hours2019-07-30
- Bottom-tier staff can only click the same UI buttons, so escalation is needed2018-11-08
- Must sit through irrelevant automated suggestions before reaching a human2018-11-01
- Phone menus are hard to navigate, long holds, and agents often can't help2018-04-18
- Must re-verify identity after every transfer and calls drop, forcing restart2016-03-05
- Endlessly redirected between FAQ, forums, and email with canned replies2016-03-05
- No way for a non-user to remove an email tied to someone else's account2013-11-22
- Too many nested voice menus, dropped transfers, and forced ads before reaching a human2013-04-30
- Calls get dropped after holds, and cancelling keeps callers tied up on hold2011-03-04
- Tedious automated menus and long hold times, then reps can't deviate from script to help2010-07-28