CBS News reported on stock investment app Robinhood:
Sources close to the matter told CBS News the company had terminated its customer phone line because the company couldn't keep up with the volume of calls.
The company's abysmal customer service resulted in the death of a college student.year old
The employees' descriptions echo concerns raised in a lawsuit filed Monday by the family of Alex Kearns, the 20-year-old college student who took his own life last June mistakenly believing he owed hundreds of thousands of dollars for stock market losses on his Robinhood account. In the hours before his death, he emailed Robinhood's customer service address three times to ask for clarification, receiving only automated responses before his death.
His family's lawsuit filed Monday accused Robinhood of wrongful death, negligent infliction of emotional distress and unfair business practices. Alex's parents told CBS News they believe their son would still be alive today if Robinhood had answered his pleas before he died.
Add Robinhood to the likes of the greed and leverage boys, aka private equity underwriters. They pretend technology will solve every problem, prioritize debt over equity and interest expense over employee raises/benefit improvements and . At every chance they pull slugs of cash from affiliates before a final profitgasm that leaves the company vulnerable to the slightest economic downturn.
PEU contempt for customers is disguised at "technology enabled" whatever, stock trading, healthcare, even end of life hospice care. I worked for a majority PEU owned hospice company. Their new technology was unreliable, inefficient and made providing good hospice care much more difficult. They wanted no feedback from staff or the people we cared for. Management made that crystal clear.
In too many cases AI customer service leaves the customer enraged or distressed as there is no human being with which to communicate. It's sad to think such greed exists to the detriment of human lives, especially those in their final days.
Update 3-20-21: Square's Cash App is as abusive as Robinhood.
Six Cash App customers said repeated efforts to talk directly with a human being at the company to help them get their money back were largely unsuccessful, exhausting, and stressful. Cash App acknowledges that it has no live phone support "generally available," but says it views fighting fraud as critically important and has invested in technology to flag potential scams.
Cash App acknowledges that a phone number on its site prompts a recording instructing account holders to contact a Cash team member through the app. Customers say those options often spur a communication loop where bots rather than humans handle their reports of fraud.
“It's almost like an abusive relationship where you're trying to get a hold of somebody and they’re completely ghosting you,” said Jensen, the 24-year-old who says her account was drained overnight.
It is an abusive relationship. Plain and simple.
