I Want To Complain

[misled196]

I really hope someone from Spotify sees this, and not just other users. First of all, I want to complain about being forced to post in a community. I find it ironic that I pay you for a service, yet when I have a problem I have to ask people who don't even work for you for a solution. No, I don't expect people to be available 24/7, after all, it's a music service, not a matter of life and death. But I do expect an easy way to contact you via email or webform if you're closed for the day or after hours. Second, I find it very ironic as well that you've been collecting money off of me for months but when I want to post a question here, finally you get around to verifying my email address. You've been sending me receipts, complaining when my card didn't have sufficient funds using my email address all this time, and now, you want to verify...

The reason I came here tonight is that songs keep disappearing from my like list and from my playlists. I know what the problem is, I just don't like the way you handle it. You purchase licenses to certain songs, albums, artists and labels for a specified period of time. Those licenses expire, and the song(s) in question are no longer available. Hence, you cannot legally allow them to remain on your service until those licenses are renewed. What I would suggest is you leave those songs on my lists and gray them out, or list them as unavailable. That way I know what songs are no longer available, and I can look for an alternate version which may still be available. That's the way Google and Amazon Music both handle the problem and that is my suggestion for you as well. Don't just remove music from my lists without letting me know. Tonight I'm going through my playlists wondering why songs have been removed but still in my liked list then it dawns on my what happened. Now, I have to go through all my playlists to see what songs are still there and what have been removed. It would be much easier to maintain my playlists if you would leave them in my list but gray them out as unavailable. And for heaven's sake, remember who keeps the lights on- your premium customers. So at least give us a way to contact you without having to come to the community. Thank you!

[OneByBoo · Accepted solution]

Hi there @misled196,

thanks for reaching out to the community !

I would like to start off by saying that Spotify offers both solutions on our Community and via contact with customer support.

Most of the articles on the Support page include instructions on how users can get in touch with Spotify's support team. 

Regarding your following sentence:

"What I would suggest is you leave those songs on my lists and gray them out, or list them as unavailable." - This is actually already implemented on the Spotify desktop app.

You can visit the Settings menu at the upper right corner of the app, scroll down to Display Options and enable Show unavailable songs in playlists.

This way you'll  be able to see tracks in your playlists as grayed out if they become unavailable in your country.

If you've been asked to verify your email address when posting to the Community this might be related to a security measure when verifying your Community account, not your Spotify account itself which is expected in such cases.

Hope this shed some light.

Let me know if there's something else i can assist you with 🙂

[misled196]

Thank you for your reply. I feel bad about complaining, especially to you, since you are a consumer like me. First of all, I DID try to contact Spotify. I went to the auto chat bot thing, which they require you to try first, and then when it didn't have the information I was looking for, it is supposed to direct you to a real person. As it was past midnight, I doubted there was a person on standby. However, instead of transferring me to some sort of web form submission, it kept me on a stuck loop of asking for my email address, waiting to verify, asking my email address, asking to verify, etc., over and over. I guess what really frustrates me is all these companies these days make it very hard to contact them if you have a problem. Asking you to visit websites, talk and chat with automated systems, "ask the community", is all a way, in my opinion, of neglecting their duty to provide service for the product they are selling. I get it; on a basic level, it is far easier just to ask someone else rather than try to find the answer yourself. So you have to encourage people to use self help. However, there needs to be a balance between encouraging people to use self help and a company representative who acts as if they're in the witness protection program. But, you did answer my question, so I'll have to give you credit for that. But, do you get paid? You should; because you are doing their job for them. As far as my remark about the email thing, I found that funny more than irritating. After all, I've been a customer for 6 months or more, and they use my email address regularly.

[misled196]

Thank you for your reply. First of all, I feel bad about complaining to you, since you are a consumer like me. I did try to contact Spotify; I used the chat bot thing they ask you to try first. When it didn't provide the answer I was looking for, it is supposed to transfer you to a real person. As it was past midnight, I didn't really expect anyone to be on duty. What the chat bot should have done was transfer me to some sort of web form submission. Instead, it kept me on this loop of asking for my email address to verify my account, waiting, asking for my email, etc. Finally I jumped off the merry go round and came here.  I guess I'm just tired of companies making it so hard to contact them if you have a problem. I understand that people don't really want to try to find an answer themselves, it is much easier to just ask someone else. You have to encourage people to try to use self help. But there needs to be a balance between encouraging people to use self help, and customer service employees who behave is if they're in the witness protection program. But I do have to give you credit, you did answer my question, for which I am grateful. As to the email thing, I found that funny; I've been with Spotify for over 6 months now, and they are just getting around to verifying my email address.

[OneByBoo]

Hi @misled196,

thanks for reading through my long reply !

I would like to say that Spotify's CS team are reachable anytime of day through this "About Us" page (a different one than the one i sent above) if you ever need them.

Spotify does offer alternatives for seeking help with this absolutely magnificant community and it's powerful users solving day to day issues in no time.

I'm always around, same as my fellow stars to provide initial guidance and help any day any time 🙂