Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Live chat
Raised as a usability problem by 12 people on Hacker News over 13 years (2013–2025), in 7 threads.
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
Chat windows pop up automatically after seconds, unaskedUnreviewed
20132026- Full-screen chat popup takes a minute to load2025-07-18
- Chat popup modal blocks reading of support and documentation pages until dismissed2022-12-08
- Chat windows pop up automatically after a few seconds, hassling visitors who did not ask for help2022-12-08
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 12 complaints
- Full-screen chat popup takes a minute to load2025-07-18
- Chat resists handing off to a human even after the user asks for one2022-12-30
- Live chat is the only support option, and only available during office hours2022-12-08
- Email gets curt unhelpful replies; phone waits are long and websites lack clear information2022-12-08
- Chat popup modal blocks reading of support and documentation pages until dismissed2022-12-08
- Live chat support starts with a queue and often ends in a ticket, so it isn't really live2022-12-08
- Chat windows pop up automatically after a few seconds, hassling visitors who did not ask for help2022-12-08
- Chat session ends after brief distraction, forcing user to repeat the whole process2022-12-08
- Support chat drops session if you take over 30 seconds to type2020-08-05
- Requires keeping browser window open; missed alerts force restarting the chat2020-02-18
- Chats can't transfer the user to another rep, so they stay stuck with one person2014-07-18
- Chat agents are slow, scripted, and unable to resolve problems clearly2013-03-22