Locked Out --New Platforms/No Rules

The way we interact with the world has changed.  We communicate with friends and others through social networks such as Facebook.  We share news and opinions instantly through Twitter, videos of our latest activity on Snapchat and pictures on Instagram.  These apps help keep us connected to the world, our colleagues, friends, and family. Need a ride across town - we use Uber, need to buy some supplies, do a one-click on Amazon, how about a place to stay next month in NYC, just use Airbnb.  These services make our day-to-day existence much simpler and we take them for granted.

Increasingly, most of us are engaging with these privately owned platforms that are mostly unregulated.  They have through their platforms disrupted traditional industries. Most offer a superior business model and then couple that with lower costs.  These lower costs are often because these platforms avoid the regulatory burdens and the infrastructure of the legacy industries.

I am admittedly addicted to these delightful new platforms.  All my Christmas shopping is done on Amazon, my music is from Spotify and Pandora.  Need a ride no problem I’ll call a Lyft or an Uber. It’s easy, it’s efficient, it’s less expensive, and the experience is usually far superior to the legacy industries.

These platforms are the drivers of disruption and we love them; until we don’t.  When a platform messes up it is next to impossible to correct course. If my credit card is lost or compromised there is an infrastructure in place to help me cancel the old card and expediently get a replacement.  Yes, I’m inconvenienced but with a little effort, I can reengage, new plastic in hand, and ready to spend. My electricity goes off, there’s a place to call an infrastructure in place to get my service back on. Yes, I’m inconvenienced but there are processes and structures to address my issues.

The other day I experienced a platform failure.  I tried to engage with Airbnb, a company that I’ve used several times before with great results.  This time however Airbnb’s security software decided there was some question as to my identity. I was locked out, the platform was closed to me.  I tried contacting Airbnb first by email. I received a generated email saying they would look into my problem, but nothing happened. I contacted Airbnb through Facebook and was advised they couldn’t address my problem through Facebook, but could through Twitter.  I went to Twitter and through direct message shared my lockout problem and my key account information. I again received an auto-reply. There is no one to call, no storefront to visit, nowhere to go, no rules for the company, and no rights for me. I was locked out.  The platform either doesn’t have the infrastructure to help me or doesn’t care, but whatever the case I’m persona non grata.

This experience has made me question if I’m really ready to kill off the old industries and services that are open to me at any time.  A Marriott hotel doesn’t care whether it can recognize my device it will let me reserve a room by phone or even in person at their brick and mortar location.  The taxi driver doesn’t care if my IP address looks odd; I hail the taxi and away we go.

I still love platforms but now they scare me.  Airbnb still hasn’t even contacted me [two weeks] my hope to rent a lake house in June all but gone now and there is nothing I can do.  This is the new world, but if platforms decide to exclude you, there is no one to help. I’m not sure I want to go this route. Platforms can become private clubs, exclusive to their “members’ and if you are not a member, no access.  There is usually a reason for most things that have evolved over time. These days we care less despite our lip service about things such as fairness, equal access, and yes regulation. Are we so arrogant to believe we are smarter than all those before us when perhaps we are just self-centered narcissists?