Reddit pitched companies that it was a place to meet the customer where they’re at. Fidelity customer support sits in /r/fidelityinvestments, for example, and this is mentioned both on their website and in the mobile apps.

Companies like like Google love "Reddit Requests" and pushing support to social media because it lets them skirt fixing their non-existent yet legally mandated customer support, helps them catch and avoid PR threads (before problems go "viral"), they come off looking like benevolent angels for providing selective public attention to solve one person's issue while not having to address systemic problems, and, of course, free labor.

After the Pixel launch, Google had this poor guy acting like a customer experience manager for the sub, escalating requests to Pixel team staff, acting as a direct liaison between Support and Engineering, and talking to angry Redditors all day, totally unpaid.

When I point blank asked him whether and how this multi-trillion dollar company was compensating him for his very real labor, he had a "but they're my friends" moment before finally realizing they were taking advantage of him. They got a good year out of him, at least. I suggested he sue.

A decade on, Reddit are scumbags for not addressing this at the business level, and any company using Reddit Requests is cheating customers out of an official, functional Customer Support experience.