Ask HN: How to get human support from Instagram?
Short story time: Last year, I created a company, and as a typical preparation, you reserve the handles on social media. I did it all, including Instagram, only to receive “account suspended” a few seconds after creating it. It did show an “appeal” button to appeal what seemed like an automated action. Pretty standard so far. I went through the appeal process; they needed a phone number, and later they needed a “selfie with X gesture” to confirm it was a human. A bit weird since I’m not creating a personal one but rather a business account. Still, I submitted it. A few minutes later, I got that my account is permanently banned!! Crazy as everything feels automated. I looked around for an email to contact but couldn’t find any. However, that company didn’t go anywhere, so I couldn’t care less.
A few months ago, I did the same thing with a new company name and the same process to reserve the social media handles. However, this time, I didn’t create it from the PC. I used my personal phone, logged into my personal account, and clicked to add a new account. It even used my personal email, all to eliminate any automated action to suspend the account. After creating it, everything seemed okay. Less than 3 hours later, I got the same message: my account is suspended!! I didn’t go into the appeal process yet because I’m almost certain it will end up as before. Part of me also thinks that this is a systematic way to hijack accounts with one-word handles as both were unique one words (no numbers or dots), and yet there is no other way to communicate with a human being there to resolve it. The same thing happened in Netlify; however, there was a clear “send us an email” button, and it was resolved in a few hours. Yet a company like Instagram still lacks basic customer support!