[buf]

This post reminds me of when the same thing happened to me about 5 weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28085706

It feels like there should just be a better process. Shut down payments to protect yourselves sure, but spare a real life person to email the customer and give them a chance to explain or at least understand why.

[GiorgioG]

It seems like companies can't seem to get their act together to offer some kind of rapid escalation/remediation service. Maybe it's time for legislation to force their hand. This could potentially cost a business a ton of money (and affect a non-trivial number of employees) in the process.

[mgkimsal]

Would 'paid' support help? Like pay, say... $150 up front, which is refunded (partial or all) depending on the outcome (error on their end, you get refunded?)

It runs the risk of turning 'support' in to a profit center, I support.

[aquark]

While not ideal, I think this is a great option.

Microsoft (used to?) offer this for developer support and I remember using it maybe 15 years ago where it was a couple of hundred bucks to open a ticket but you got quick access to a real expert and good escalation.

If the issue turned out to be their problem the ticket was refunded.

For something business critical like this it is a way of signaling to the company that there is clearly somethin wrong with the automated process: a real scammer won't pony up hundreds of $ to get a review they would fail.

[mgkimsal]

Exactly re: who won't pay. If I'm losing hundreds or thousands, I'll pay $150 just to get a real person's attention - most scammers won't. And yeah, it was MS I was initially thinking of, but haven't been in that world for a long time, so no idea if it's still an option.

[GiorgioG]

Not really. This should be an emergeny-use only type support. But don't penalize (by making them pay) for a screwup on your end.