As Social Media and Public Relations Director at The Badger Herald, I lead a dedicated team responsible for managing our publication’s image, engaging with our audiences and promoting our content across various social media platforms. This year, though, our team faced an unprecedented challenge — we were locked out of our Instagram account for nearly three months, thanks to Meta’s inadequate customer service.

In late 2022, Meta, the parent company to Facebook and Instagram, initiated a major cost-cutting effort to address rising expenses, which had increased by 19% year-over-year in the third quarter, reaching $22.1 billion, according to CNBC.

To rein in costs, Meta made the controversial decision to lay off over 11,000 employees, which accounts for around 13% of its staff. Just a few months later, in early 2023, the company slashed another 10,000 jobs, according to CNBC.

While Meta claims these layoffs were necessary to streamline operations and decrease spending, the reality is that over the past two years, Meta has gutted vast parts of its customer service teams, which are absolutely essential for keeping businesses and organizations like ours running smoothly.

But I hadn’t realized just how important these customer support teams were until the issue with our Instagram came up. It all started when I changed our account password at the beginning of the school year, as we do every year. Everything was fine at first and we continued posting our usual content. Just a week later, we were suddenly locked out and asked to verify our account identity with a video selfie in order to regain access. No warning, no email from Instagram explaining why.

When I tried to reach out to Instagram about this, we quickly discovered the lack of support. No customer service emails or contact numbers are publicly available, and to get personalized help, a user must be verified on the platform — which, frankly, I think is absurd.

After realizing I hit a dead end, I knew I had to find another way to reach some form of customer support. We figured we might be able to find some recourse through Meta’s Business Suite, a front-end management system where both Facebook and Instagram account users can manage their advertising and marketing activities. But this only led to more frustration.

When I reached out to Meta, they refused to help me, stating that because I wasn’t listed as an admin of the Meta Business Portfolio, or Business Manager, they couldn’t provide any resources to me.

While we did have access to the Business Suite, it turned out that none of our current staff had access to Meta’s Business Portfolio, the back-end administrative system where both Facebook and Instagram users can manage the permissions of their Business Account.

So, we began our journey to prove we were in fact the legitimate organization behind the Business Portfolio, which meant filing requests and submitting legal documents, all while navigating a long, drawn-out email chain with Meta that lasted just under a month and a half. The process was excruciating with emails taking over 24 hours to receive a response, each one often seeming bot-generated — riddled with vague and generic language.

Regardless, we persisted and finally gained access to the Business Portfolio. I then submitted a ticket to resolve the original Instagram issue but even after gaining proper administrative controls, communication with Meta was still a nightmare.

Every time Meta reached out, they asked for screenshots of our issue, which I provided. Yet, in every follow-up email, they kept confusing our Instagram problem with a Facebook issue, despite repeated clarifications.

Worse still, each new response came from a different person and it seemed like none of them were reading the previous email threads. Eventually Meta asked to schedule a call to resolve the issue, but after providing three different time slots, they never followed through and, without notifying or explaining, closed the support ticket.

At this point, I was burnt out, frustrated and losing hope. My team was left in limbo, unable to connect with our audience on one of our most crucial platforms. Then, by sheer luck, we got in touch with an alum, through an in-person Badger Herald event, who had previously worked for Instagram.

 After about a month of back-and-forth, and with no direct help from Meta, this alum was able to finally restore our access to the account. While she did communicate with a representative from Meta, it’s clear we wouldn’t have succeeded without her acting as a liaison.

But this experience wasn’t just a minor setback — it’s a glaring example of how Meta’s cost-cutting measures the past two years have led to a lack of customer support directly harming businesses and organizations like ours that depend on its platforms.

As a publication, our social media channels, especially Instagram, are not just platforms but lifelines. They’re where we connect with our audiences, provide important news coverage and offer real-time updates on crucial events. And especially in an election year, when every moment counts, being unable to communicate with our community felt like a betrayal.

Every day we couldn’t access our Instagram was a lost opportunity to inform, educate and serve our community. It’s hard to understand how a company as powerful as Meta can be so indifferent to the real-world consequences of their lack of support.

Regardless, gone are the days when small and medium-sized businesses could count on timely support from Meta’s customer service teams. Now companies are facing much longer wait times, less personalized help, and a general sense that their issues are simply not a priority.

For businesses that depend on Facebook and Instagram for advertising, marketing and user engagements, this has been a major setback. It’s not just an inconvenience, it’s a breakdown in trust.

Meta’s platforms are a core part of the digital ecosystem, with Facebook remaining the most used social media platform daily. While Meta’s layoffs might make sense on paper , by stripping away the customer support that businesses once relied on, Meta undermines the very users that help fuel its profits.

For nearly three months, we were left without any support or guidance, and yet Meta’s bottom line seems to be unaffected by the chaos its poor customer service is causing users like us.