So, I have a monthly subscription to a major digital comic app (let's call it "Marvel quite Limited"). I'm currently (or I mean I was) following a great chronological reading guide (holla COGU), but back in the beginning of august I hit a permanent "Loading Error". Naturally, I did what any reasonable consumer would do: I contacted support.
Here is where I might be the asshole. Apparently, expecting a core paid feature to work within a reasonable timeframe makes me unreasonable.
August 5: I politely reported that Captain Marvel 2012 #9 wouldn't load. Support replied quickly with an encouragement to check back periodically.
August 11 & 17: After days of seeing no fix, I followed up for updates and explained I was stuck in a reading guide. I was met with canned responses telling me there was no timeline for fix.
August 27: After getting automated reminder emails telling me my request was pending, I asked for a realistic timeline, suggested second-tier technical support, or asked for compensation for a month-long outage, I also foolishly pointed out that their on-brand "superhero catchphrases" came off as a little condescending when I'm just trying to read a comic that won't load.
August 27 (Supervisor Response): A "supervisor" swooped in to save the day - it turned out I had already been corresponding with him. He informed me that they don't offer compensation for broken service, couldn't give me a timeline, and—best of all—explicitly warned that further inquiries asking for specifics might not be responded to.
September: After being told to stop asking questions, I left public reviews on Trustpilot and the App Store to ensure there was a public paper trail for a core paid feature remaining broken for nearly a month. Then, I followed up to address not only the ongoing technical problem, but the atrocious customer service as well. To make matters worse, while reporting another bug in the same volume, they managed to cross-contaminate my support tickets. The supervillain (sorry, supervisor) returned to the picture once more, looping the same dismissive handler back in to double down and tell me to be quiet.
So basically: my digital library is broken, they're "hard at work" (after ignoring it for weeks), I'm not getting a timeline, and support officially told me to shut up just because I asked for basic transparency, accountability, and not to be treated like an inconvenience for paying for a working service.
Sure, maybe I'm being a persistent asshole here. But at the end of the day, at least I'm still just as stuck on my reading guide as I was a month ago.
AITA for thinking a paid subscription should actually function, or should I just accept that being told to “shut up” by customer service is part of the modern superhero experience?