Complaining about something on social media is easier than contending with official customer support channels. That naturally leads to even more public complaints, of course, which is why many companies have dedicated customer support accounts on Facebook and Twitter. Intel announced yesterday that it's expanding its official customer support to another social platform: Reddit.
Don't worry, Intel won't be forcing some underpaid intern to spend the entire day responding to Reddit trolls. (We say "underpaid" because, frankly, it's hard to imagine any amount of money justifying the psychological damage inflicted by such an assignment.) The company said it would be limiting its feedback to the Intel subreddit in a monthly thread dedicated specifically to technical support inquiries submitted in a predetermined template.
"We've created this thread to be a hub for Technical Support problems for ALL your Intel products where you can directly report your issues to Intel," the company said. "Why post here? Intel actively monitors this thread to collect feedback and fix bugs regarding user problems. Posting here will help Intel learn about your issues and work on solutions. [...] **We may not respond to each issue or question immediately - but we are listening!**"
Intel made it clear that it's "testing and building out [its] support queues for Reddit" with this first "beta" thread. The company also poked fun at the way most people complain about technical issues by specifically telling Reddit users not to report problems with comments like "Fortnite keeps crashing. Your drivers suck! Smh Intel." (Which, as a Reddit user myself, seems like exactly the kind of thing Intel's likely to receive via threads like this one.)
This seems like another olive branch from Intel to PC enthusiasts. The company introduced an initiative called The Odyssey in February to connect with enthusiasts via a newsletter, community and series of live events. However, the Odyssey required people to sign up for something new, while this new thread on the Intel subreddit will allow the company to meet enthusiasts where they've already congregated.
