Wales Outdoors V Facebook

Small Businesses Please Be In Touch!

During the great pandemic not pandemic the government closed down Wales Outdoors, or rather, the people stopped coming because of government nudging and propaganda. Wales Outdoors continued with occasional walks and excursions and but most were fully under the spell of the mandates, not law, and Hands Face Space, social distancing and lockdowns were there, it seems, to comply with.

During this time Facebook was proud to continually announce that they were doing everything they could to assist small businesses, to point them in the direction of grant funding and other government help to get them through the ‘crisis’. Wales Outdoors received not a penny. We were one of over three million UK small businesses that were unable to receive any help whatsoever. So whilst most were on furlough and living it large, we were eating into our savings and wondering what could be done.

That wondering had no answer as if the people would not come then there really was no business there. And Wales Outdoors is solely a mountain and coastal guided walking company, just about as safe as can be with regards to exploring the great outdoors, as clients are always with a qualified and experienced guide, and with regards to Covid. I repeatedly stated that there had been none, zero, nil cases of anyone anywhere in the world contracting Covid in an outdoor situation such as countryside walks. This is backed up by statements from the WHO and the UK Government.

Then, as fear of Johnson’s statement ‘There may come a time when we’ll have to have a discussion about what to do with the unvaccinated’ dissipated in the storm of the new thing, the war in Ukraine, and all restrictions and even memory of the Covid 19 crisis slipped away Wales Outdoors encountered another obstacle to business success.

Now, at this crucial time when small businesses were returning to do what they do best, and in dire need of financial support from the return of their clients to a normal pattern of business, Facebook changed their algorithms.

As if by design Facebook seems to have made it so that small businesses delivering events, instead of having their events shared widely and organically, were having their events shared not at all. We were invisible to all new clients and were invisible to many that liked our pages.

I complained. That was hard enough. Finding a contact portal on Facebook, you know something other than a bot response is near impossible. But after a failed court action as Facebook London apparently has nothing to do with Facebook and for a UK user to action a case against Facebook that user must do so in the Dublin courts, I did locate the ‘secret’ portal. I had several discussions with advisors and finally one admitted there was something very wrong and that he could see that Wales Outdoors, which used to have up to 25,000 impressions per event pre-pandemic, in 2019, was down to a measly few hundred.

This falling off the edge of a cliff was not due to content, it remained the same, but was due to Facebook's changes to their algorithms, which I believe were timed perfectly to finish off many small independent businesses in the UK. I cannot think otherwise due to the dramatic nature of the change.

Since receiving this acceptance and a promise to escalate the matter much time has passed. And so it is back to threatening court action and this time I am prepared, armed with my email conversations and statistics compiled from the Wales Outdoors Facebook event history. I contacted the team at Facebook that I am allowed to communicate with, not the team dealing with the complaint mind, no, I am not allowed to chat with them, and these gatekeepers responded with the most bizarre and rambling email I think I have ever received. It’s apologetic and implying someone would be in touch someday but no timeline was given and this was received well over a month ago. Tumbleweed. And given that this has been a discussion of over four months I believe there will be no response. How can there be? Facebook would likely have to admit that they have contrived a platform to attract small businesses’ traffic and data and then, for reasons known only to Facebook and unlikely to be shared, and without thought for the clients or businesses themselves, destroy those small businesses they had helped in the past… So, it looks like it’s court.

I’d very much like to be put in touch with any small businesses that have been affected by Facebook’s 2022 change to their algorithms and maybe we can work on the case together… Message me here or at https://walesoutdoors.co.uk

The Email From Facebook/Meta

Hello Andrew,

This is Lisa from Meta Support Pro following up on your case with ID 1820054135002321.

Before I proceed, I must apologize for the delay in responding and for any inconvenience or distraught it may have caused. We have been facing a high workload and as such it took us some time to get to your reply. Rest assured, however, our internal team that investigates the ongoing situation with your Page is separate from ours and their investigation is still ongoing as we speak and has not been affected by this delay.

As for the process of investigation currently ongoing with your Page, as I stated in my previous paragraph, it is separate from our own support procedures. Our function is to contact them and inform them of everything you inform us of, serving as a human bridge between our technical teams and the users of our platforms. We're not the team directly looking into your Page and as such we have limited range of action when it comes to it.

My colleagues have contacted the internal teams regarding your Page's situation on October 7th, in a previous case you had (ID 594416955767562). After you opened the case we're currently on (ID 1820054135002321), the team handling this case took over this matter from the previous team, continuing their conversation with the internal teams.

We fully understand the importance of this matter for you and your business, and I can assure you that my colleagues have done everything within our power to get this situation addressed. However, the time it takes for our internal teams to address these situations is not within our hands, we can only request updates and provide them with information that we have available, the actual investigation and intervention is handled completely on their end.

We are doing everything in our power to get this matter addressed as quickly as we can. We do not have a maximum timeframe to provide you with as we do not have enough information to give an accurate estimate. We're working on this matter and doing everything we can do. We're not allowed to fast-track or expedite this matter in any way, and as such, must merely wait for a reply from our dedicated teams.

I hope all this information has been able to provide you with some insight into our processes, and to why we have provided you with general answers so far - until our internal team is done investigating this matter, there's limited insight we have into your specific situation.

If you have any other questions, or would like any further clarification from us, feel free to request it. We're here to assist you and clarify any questions you may have, and are glad to do so. If you have no other questions for the time being, we'll await a reply from our dedicated teams and forward you any information we can when they do.

Thank you again for contacting Meta Support Pro. Apologies again for the delay in replying. Look forward to hearing from us again.

Best Regards,

Lisa