Family Tech: Free online services often mean there’s no problem-solver to talk to

Family Tech: Free online services often mean there’s no problem-solver to talk to - February 12, 2016

One of the reasons many online services are free is they are automated to the hilt.

Removing people from the process saves vast amounts of money. Microsoft charges for Office and has an army of support reps to help out on the phone. Google offers Google Docs for free, but it has no one for you to call if you cannot format your document.

What happens if you have to speak to a person?

A friend once contacted me and said her child had been bullied at school into behaving in an embarrassing way and the bully had posted the video to Youtube. To the casual viewer, it looked like kids being goofy. It was not apparent the kid in the video had been coerced into his actions. To the child’s parent and the child when asked, it was a humiliating recording.

Youtube has a report button, but who knew how long it would take for a person to review the flag? And you flag the video from a list of choices, such as violent, sexual content, repulsive, etc. There was no space for explaining the reality behind the video.

If you search Google, you will not find a phone number easily. There is no customer service department I could find.

Finally, I came across some legalese about Google services and buried deep in a 30-plus page document, I found a phone number for the legal department.

Read the rest at www.FamilyTechOnline.com

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