Hey Everyone! I'll be commenting from the outside while I work with the Substack support team. The helpful AI said they would be in contact, but could not guarantee timelines. But I'll be here in the comment section while it's sorted out.
Julia, did you try this email? support@substack.zendesk.com If you tried that one, email me at familyscapegoatingabuse@gmail.com - I have another one you can try, this may help you get a live person and not a bot, but could still take a day or more before you hear back.
At least you have a tech guy to consult. I have only myself. The worst is getting a chat bot when we call UnitedHealthcare. Don't get me started!
I sincerely try to troubleshoot problems myself first but at Apple, for example, at least there is a free number I can call for instant customer assistance with a real person. That is why we stay with the Apple platform. I cannot be expected nor do I want to spend my time figuring out these technical issues.
I've been experiencing exactly this problem with substack. And have been angry with myself because I'm "old" and probably stupid compared to millenials and this couldn't possibly be a real problem with substack. Gah! Too old (and computer literate) to treat myself with this disdain for my abilities.
I finally got back on track yesterday after a week of back and forth. To do so, I had my social media person on line with me as I did. He was able to fix a few issues that first, I never would have seen coming, second, I have no idea how to fix, third, had I not fixed them I'd have made things far worse. While I'm grateful to Substack that I'm back up and running, it was a real mess, and I'm way behind on my publishing schedule, and it's getting harder and harder for the average non-tech-expert to navigate the system.
I could not agree more! I had a similar problem with Substack a few months ago when I attempted to change my email in my account, and accidentally typed it wrong. I had the exact same experience with the AI sending me the same message over and over. Finally I got an actual human responding, and it got sorted out--but I could not access my account for about two weeks. It was days between each response from the customer service rep--meaning they must have had a long line of people to help. The idea that robots can replace humans is absolutely ludicrous in my opinion. Yes, there are some kinds of things that AI can do faster than a human, like search the internet or calculate columns of figures. But for customer service, NO. I join you in wishing that companies and organizations invest in humans to do this work instead of thinking they're so cutting edge or saving so much money by automating it. It just doesn't work.
Well Betsy,it took a week but I am finally back on. It is incredibly annoying but it's where we are. People don't want to do the work and companies don't want to pay folks to do the work. I understand both sides, but that puts us where we are now.
Well, this posted AND allows me to comment!!! Yeah, I guess.
I've experienced similar problems with bots in Quick Books (which I no longer use as I gave up as the volunteer treasurer at my now former church). The bots have no understanding (we psychologists call it verbal comprehension). So you wait in a very long queue to speak with a human.
Meanwhile, the folks in the C-Suite continue to rake-in the big bucks while the rest of us sit and wait...ARGH.
I sympathize. Too many things in this world separate us from human interaction and connection. And then we wonder why loneliness is such a huge mental health issue! But I digress -- corporations should know that they could go a lot further if they actually cared enough about their patrons to supply them with live and in-person people, willing to help. Holding good thoughts that there will be some sort of human or divine intervention to get you back to commenting. May a real live human being from Substack come to your aid.
On a related note: iPhone users are forced to use the Substack mobile app if they want to access free or paid Chats. They are not able to use a browser. Substack's apparent goal of forcing all readers onto their app is causing all kinds of problems for my paid subscribers, especially those using iPhones. Removing our options to choose how we view Substack content is an incredibly stupid idea, for many, many reasons, including the fact that our navigation menus cannot be viewed or accessed, which is where a lot of paid subscriber benefits and features are located. I've let their support and product development team know of my concerns, but my sense is they only listen to their 'really big' (and big income) publishers - and these publishers do not always know what their readers are experiencing as they are too 'big' to personally connect with them.
Very interesting. I am on a MacBook, which I prefer over my iPhone because I have some disabilities & refuse to attempt to "write" without a keyboard. Didn't know that I missing stuff here, though it seems (from my perspective) to work ok via my browser.
FWIW, I've been working with computers since 1990 & have rarely found tech support of much value —particularly when I was building my own desktop computers, assembling video cards, etc.— you just have to figure that every thing in the manuals will send you down the wrong path.
Substack tech support was shir before they turned to AI. If humans won’t solve problems, then they can’t program AI to solve them. Even when I’ve interacted with a person, they don’t seem to care to solve the problem.
Hey Everyone! I'll be commenting from the outside while I work with the Substack support team. The helpful AI said they would be in contact, but could not guarantee timelines. But I'll be here in the comment section while it's sorted out.
Julia, did you try this email? support@substack.zendesk.com If you tried that one, email me at familyscapegoatingabuse@gmail.com - I have another one you can try, this may help you get a live person and not a bot, but could still take a day or more before you hear back.
Thanks Rebecca. We have a request in, if that fails we'll use this Appreciate you.
At least you have a tech guy to consult. I have only myself. The worst is getting a chat bot when we call UnitedHealthcare. Don't get me started!
I sincerely try to troubleshoot problems myself first but at Apple, for example, at least there is a free number I can call for instant customer assistance with a real person. That is why we stay with the Apple platform. I cannot be expected nor do I want to spend my time figuring out these technical issues.
Yes, Apple support has matured into a great resource; they let you know that they are there for you. Their stuff is expensive, or not?
Yes but my Apple iPhone last years longer than other brands, I bought it used seven years ago and it's still going strong. Same with our Home Pod.
I've been experiencing exactly this problem with substack. And have been angry with myself because I'm "old" and probably stupid compared to millenials and this couldn't possibly be a real problem with substack. Gah! Too old (and computer literate) to treat myself with this disdain for my abilities.
I finally got back on track yesterday after a week of back and forth. To do so, I had my social media person on line with me as I did. He was able to fix a few issues that first, I never would have seen coming, second, I have no idea how to fix, third, had I not fixed them I'd have made things far worse. While I'm grateful to Substack that I'm back up and running, it was a real mess, and I'm way behind on my publishing schedule, and it's getting harder and harder for the average non-tech-expert to navigate the system.
I could not agree more! I had a similar problem with Substack a few months ago when I attempted to change my email in my account, and accidentally typed it wrong. I had the exact same experience with the AI sending me the same message over and over. Finally I got an actual human responding, and it got sorted out--but I could not access my account for about two weeks. It was days between each response from the customer service rep--meaning they must have had a long line of people to help. The idea that robots can replace humans is absolutely ludicrous in my opinion. Yes, there are some kinds of things that AI can do faster than a human, like search the internet or calculate columns of figures. But for customer service, NO. I join you in wishing that companies and organizations invest in humans to do this work instead of thinking they're so cutting edge or saving so much money by automating it. It just doesn't work.
Well Betsy,it took a week but I am finally back on. It is incredibly annoying but it's where we are. People don't want to do the work and companies don't want to pay folks to do the work. I understand both sides, but that puts us where we are now.
"The idea that robots can replace humans is absolutely ludicrous'
Well, this posted AND allows me to comment!!! Yeah, I guess.
I've experienced similar problems with bots in Quick Books (which I no longer use as I gave up as the volunteer treasurer at my now former church). The bots have no understanding (we psychologists call it verbal comprehension). So you wait in a very long queue to speak with a human.
Meanwhile, the folks in the C-Suite continue to rake-in the big bucks while the rest of us sit and wait...ARGH.
I sympathize. Too many things in this world separate us from human interaction and connection. And then we wonder why loneliness is such a huge mental health issue! But I digress -- corporations should know that they could go a lot further if they actually cared enough about their patrons to supply them with live and in-person people, willing to help. Holding good thoughts that there will be some sort of human or divine intervention to get you back to commenting. May a real live human being from Substack come to your aid.
On a related note: iPhone users are forced to use the Substack mobile app if they want to access free or paid Chats. They are not able to use a browser. Substack's apparent goal of forcing all readers onto their app is causing all kinds of problems for my paid subscribers, especially those using iPhones. Removing our options to choose how we view Substack content is an incredibly stupid idea, for many, many reasons, including the fact that our navigation menus cannot be viewed or accessed, which is where a lot of paid subscriber benefits and features are located. I've let their support and product development team know of my concerns, but my sense is they only listen to their 'really big' (and big income) publishers - and these publishers do not always know what their readers are experiencing as they are too 'big' to personally connect with them.
Very interesting. I am on a MacBook, which I prefer over my iPhone because I have some disabilities & refuse to attempt to "write" without a keyboard. Didn't know that I missing stuff here, though it seems (from my perspective) to work ok via my browser.
FWIW, I've been working with computers since 1990 & have rarely found tech support of much value —particularly when I was building my own desktop computers, assembling video cards, etc.— you just have to figure that every thing in the manuals will send you down the wrong path.
Substack tech support was shir before they turned to AI. If humans won’t solve problems, then they can’t program AI to solve them. Even when I’ve interacted with a person, they don’t seem to care to solve the problem.
Agree!
Please please tell the Substack overlords that we want to control the timeline! I do NOT WANT TO READ OLD POSTS. Whoever needs to know this.
Agreed. We should be educating humans & not moving our issues to AI.