It’s been a miserable week as a Big Tech consumer for me.

Personally, I really hate the big tech model:

• Release mass market products
• Provide very limited support options
• Rarely talk with your customers but instead rely on some AI-generated trend analysis nonsense of comments you get in support forums
• Assume that users will support each other
• Where there are bugs, never acknowledge them, just push out updates

This is how Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple, etc. all work.

99% of the time, it works, but when it doesn’t…well, you get my week.

YouTube Music Disaster

I use YouTube Music.  Or used to use it.  Mainly this was because I use YouTube Premium as it allows downloads and I’m often hiking in areas without good cell.  No ads is a bonus.  And YouTube Music is free.

It’s an ugly app, though.  Your YouTube (video) and YouTube Music playlists get mixed together.  If it wasn’t “free” I wouldn’t use it.

And now I won’t because for the last three weeks there’s been a bug where I can only see the first 16 of my playlists.  I have a couple hundred playlists, all lovingly curated over the years.  And now I can’t use nearly all of them.

So I opened a…ha ha, almost said support ticket.  No, I opened a thread in the “support community”.  And there was some response, but they basically said “be sure to submit feedback”.  Great.  I did.  And the issue persists.  No way to actually talk to a human.  Someone said a “ton of people are facing this issue”.  For how long?  If a ton of people can’t listen to their music…isn’t that a Priority One Incident to use some ITSM speak.

I’m a paying customer, damnit.  I deserve to be able to raise a support request when it’s needed.

I eventually gave up.  Apple Music allows you to almost effortlessly import your YouTube Music playlists via SoundShift (and it was able to see all of them), so now I’m an Apple Music guy.  Switching from my daughter’s $10.99/month plan to a $16.99 family plan is a $6/month delta but…at least I can listen to my music.

Meta Rejects Mail, Can’t Send Gifts

For Valentine’s Day, I gave my wife a set of Walkabout Mini Golf courses.

We love the game and frequently play it together on Quest VR.  I made a nice little booklet, referred to different moments we’ve had together in life together with screenshots from the game…awww….

This last weekend, we finally had time to play.  I logged into my Meta app and gifted her each course.  She logged in and…they were nowhere to be found.  OK, maybe it takes a while.  An hour goes by.  Then two.  Then six.

The next day I contacted Meta.  Their support replied with the usual “additional information needed” so I replied and…

Um, what?

554 5.7.1 POL-P6 Message refused https://www.facebook.com/postmaster/response_codes?ip=2607:f8b0:4864:20::c34#POL-P6

Seriously?  My personal email is hosted on GMail.  I’ve never had anyone block it.

OK, so…fine, I don’t have DKIM keys setup for email.  I add them.  Haven’t needed this in literally 15 years of using Gmail.

Then Meta asks me what my email address is.  Because…they can’t look at the from line?!?  Fine, I tell them.  Then:

I appreciate you providing this account information and I was able to see there was indeed a system error when sending the gifts that meant they did not generate the coupon/ auto re-deem for the other user.

If you like I can refund these purchases for you now, and you can try purchasing them one at a time and confirming that they each are received.

So I’m not hallucinating.  Yes, please refund…my wife can buy on her side.  It’s all our money together, after all.

They respond by asking me for my email address again.  I give it.  Then:

After checking this, I have tried to refund the games as for you, but I’m afraid we can’t refund them, as per our policy Meta Quest/Rift Content Refund Policy.

Good grief!  I just replied back and said “something is wrong with your response” and reminded them of the facts.

They reply back, and once again…wait for it…ask what my email address is.  Every time they do this, it’s another 6-8 hours of email round trip of course.

Then:

I will require more time to look into this issue and the possible solutions available to you. Thank you for your extended patience and understanding. I will do my best to get back to you with more information or an update within the next 3-5 business days.

So painful.

For some reason, the gifts arrived today, so I closed out the case.  And by the way, the gifts don’t just appear in the recipient’s account.  Meta emails a code my wife will have to enter.  For each course.  How archaic!

Meanwhile, Here in Low-End Land

I had an issue setting reverse DNS with a community provider.  I opened a ticket.  An hour later, I got a “sorry about that!” and the issue was resolved.  In their panel.  I noticed the panel appearance changed slightly, so apparently they pushed out a code fix.  Based on my humble little request.

I swear…small shops live on reputation. Big ones live on inertia.

raindog308

Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

Beyond the command line, Raindog is a lover of German Shepherds, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.

His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.